Before the exhibition began, the Martian visitor waited behind the curtains on stage as the club president, Alrick H. Man introduced club vice-president G.A. Pfeiffer who was well known for his collection of unique chess sets. Following a few happy remarks by Pfeiffer. a charter member of the club, artist Edward B. Edwards, was introduced.
In a rather lengthy speech Edwards introduced Zu-ux as the chess champion of Mars who had just arrived by “lightray plane” for the occasion. Blah, blah, blah.
The Martian’s name was Zu-ux and he was described as having red whiskers and an overdeveloped head that housed a superlative brain. Dressed in colorful silks, he wore a high silver turban and his charm won the hearts of many of the women present. Only the upper part of his body was visible as he rested upon a settee and was carried from board to board “by two powerful Negroes dress in Oriental garb who stopped at each board long enough to permit the stranger visitor to scan the position and make a move.” His chess move came at the speed of thought and then his thin arm would shoot out and make a move then dart back to rest in his lap.
There was a lot of speculation as to who the visitor was and some even believed it might be a mere man posing as a Martian, but nobody could figure out who it might be.
Zu-ux faced ten humans, one of whom was a woman, and won eight, but lost two through his haste to to depart. The two winners were J.V. Lombardo and K. Theurer. The losers were: C.L. Pfeiffer. Gilbert Colgate, Alfred C. Klahre, F.N. Monzert, W.F. Baker, Jr., W.R. Smith, S.G. Pfefferkorn and Mrs. W.I. Seaman, who had recently won the championship of the New York Women;s Chess Club for the fifth year in a row.
Sidebar: According to Sarah's Chess Journal. Marjorie Luce was born in Boston either in 1881 or in 1889 and on October 20, 1905, she married William Iucho Seaman (1871-1928). She died in her home on Staten Island, N.Y. on November 19, 1950 after a brief illness. She was both a chess and bridge player who, besides winning the first championship of the Women's Chess Club of New York was a member of the Correspondence Chess League, the Marshall Chess Club and the Staten Island Chess Club.
At the close of the evening’s entertainment when refreshments were being served, the young champion of the City College of New York, a fellow named Reuben Fine, who had initially been present, but then disappeared, suddenly reappeared. His reappearance lead to the discovery that it was he who had been masquerading as the visitor from Mars.
It was also mentioned in the article that a young member of the Marshall Chess Club who was proficient in problem solving also harbored the ambition of becoming proficient at OTB chess. This lead him to issue a challenge of a five game match to the 1928 New York State Champion, Anthony Santasiere.
His name was Albert C. Simonson (December 26, 1914 - November 16, 1965). Although Simonson lost the match, losing three and winning one, he did go on to become quite proficient at OTB play.
Anthony Santasiere - Albert Simonson
Result: 1-0
Site: New York City
Date: 1932
Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation
[...] 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.♘c3 ♘f6 4.♗g5 ♘bd7 5.e3 c6 6.cxd5 At the time this game was played the Exchange Variation was very popular, and deadly! In Ludek Pachman's classic work on the middlegame he devoted a whole chapter to the Exchange Variation as have other authors. The most popular was the minority attack where white plays Rb1, followed by b2-b4-b5, then bxc6 in order to create a weak Pawn at c6. It was a Reshevsky favorite, but nowadays black can easily equalize and white has several other plans at his disposal. 6...exd5 7.♗d3 ♗d6 8.♘f3 ♕e7 Black almost always plays ...Nf8-g6 here, but Simonson never bothered much with opening theory. 9.♕c2 h6 10.♗h4 a6
25...♕d7 26.♘xg5 Of course. For a small material cost Santasiere strips the K naked. 26...hxg5 27.♖xg5 f6 Now comes a couple of incredible oversights by both players which causes one to wonder if time pressure was at fault though it seems a bit early for that. Here white has an immediate win with 28.Rh5. 28.♖g6 Instead he makes a game losing blunder as after 28...Qxh7 white is lost. I double checked the game score as given in the the Daily Eagle and sure enough, it really was 28.R-Kt6 R-B2 28...♖f7 29.♗g8 Obviously there was a quicker win with 29.Rg8 mate, but the Daily Eagle did, in fact, give white's move as 29.B-Kt8. Amazing!! 29...♖g7 30.♗e6 One suspects that it wasn't time pressure at all that caused white to miss the mate. I'm guessing he was fixating on winning the Q with this move. 30...♕xe6
10...g5 11.♗g3 ♘f8 12.O-O-O ♗g4 13.♔b1 O-O-O Nestorovic,D (2401)-Savic,D (2229)/Belgrade 2006 is about equal.
11.O-O g5 12.♗g3 Simonson's opening play has gotten him into something of a predicament. His Q is precariously placed in front of the K, his K-side has been compromised and castling Q-side is not feasible at the moment. Also, white has a good possibility in advancing his e-Pawn. 12...c5 Exchanging Bs then castling was better. This opens up the position and exposes his K. 13.e4 ♗xg3 14.hxg3 dxe4 Much better was keeping the position closed with 14...c4 15.♘xe4 ♘xe4 16.♗xe4 O-O 17.♖fe1 ♕d6 18.♖ad1 cxd4 19.♖xd4 It seems black has managed to avoid any damage, but he is still not fully developed, his K-side is weak and white's pieces control the center and are very active. It's instructive to see how Santasiere puts it all together to secure the win. 19...♕c5 This results in the Q being hounded while white improves the position of his pieces even further. The better 19...Qf6 would not have made much difference though. 20.♖c4 ♕a5 21.♗f5 ♘b6 22.♖c5 ♕a4 23.♗h7 ♔h8 24.b3 ♕g4 Here Santasiere misses the chance to win the Q, but his position is so good that it hardly matters! 25.♖ce5
25.♘e5 was even better. 25...♕e6 (25...♕d4 26.♘xf7 mates in 6)
25...♕h5 26.♘g6 ♔g7 (26...fxg6 27.♕b2 mates in 3) 27.♘xf8
26.♘g6
30...♕e7 is no salvation. 31.♖h6 ♖h7 32.♕g6 ♗xe6 33.♖xe6 ♕g7 34.♖xh7 ♕xh7 35.♕xf6 ♕g7 36.♕h4 ♔g8 37.♕h5 ♔f8 38.♕f5 ♕f7 39.♖f6
31.♖xe6 ♗xe6 32.♖xf6 ♖c8 Under other circumstance black may have enough material for his Q, but here white's gob of K-side Ps makes all the difference. 33.♕d2 ♖c6 34.♕h6 ♖h7 35.♕f8 ♗g8 36.♖xc6 bxc6 37.♕f6 ♖g7 38.♕xc6 ♘d5 39.♕xa6 ♖c7 40.♕h6 ♗h7 41.g4 ♖g7 42.g5 ♘e7 43.f4 ♘d5 44.f5 ♖c7 45.g6 ♖e7 46.gxh7 Simonson resigned.
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