William Granger, a member of the Ohio State University chess team, was the center of a commotion on the OSU campus last week which prevented the chess team from engaging in a match with a Cincinnati club.
The Cincinnati group, the name of which OSU officials refused to divulge, refused to participate in the match because Granger is a Negro.
The Cincinnati club is a private organization and was previously scheduled to play host to the OSU chess team. Another team slated to participate in the meet was the University of Kentucky team.
Cancellation of the match by the Cincinnati club was announced by Prof. Walter Meiden, member of the OSU department of romance languages faculty and advisor to the OSU club.
According to Prof. Meiden, the University of Kentucky had raised no objections to the match. Prof. Meiden also indicated that the OSU-Kentucky teams may play at a later date.
Some things haven’t changed much because later the March 25th edition had the following headline:
The paper stated, “Because the city of Columbus entrusted a service revolver to the hands of a rookie patrolman with a sadistic sense of humor, Alfred Wilson...was near death in St. Francis Hospital early this week.”
Wilson was in serious condition as a result of being shot through the lower stomach by Patrolman Earl M. Hummell who was off duty at the time. The shooting happened early Sunday morning in the Auto Maintenance garage where Wilson was a janitor and night watchman.
The standing joke was that Wilson always exhibited a deadly fear of firearms and Hummell admitted that it had been his habit to point his service revolver at Wilson who would immediately “take off.”
That morning when Hummell reached the garage Wilson was sitting on a stool at a counter eating lunch with some other workers. Hummell told his supervisor that he took all the rounds out of his revolver except one which he left in the chamber furthest from the firing chamber, but when he pulled the trigger the gun went off and hit Wilson. Hummell then laid Wilson down on the floor and called for help.
Other workers didn’t realize Wilson had been shot because Hummell admitted that in the past he had fired blanks at Wilson and the man’s co-workers had a lot of fun watching Wilson “take off.”
After the incident efforts were being made to force Hummell to resign, but he was refusing to do so. Hummell’s supervisor stated that Hummell realized the folly of his actions and was prepared to take the consequences.
The paper stated that should Wilson die, Hummell could face murder charges, adding that it reminded them of “southern gentlemen who have their sport...by shooting at the feet of a Negro to make him dance...” No further information concerning this incident could be located, so perhaps Mr. Wilson recovered and Hummell finished out his career as a Columbus policeman?!
The 1949 Ohio state championship was won by Walter Mann (February 17, 1927 - May 1, 2005). He passed away in Mountainview, California after a brief illness.
When he won the 1949 Ohio Championship held in Columbus with a convincing 5-1 score, Mann was a student at Ohio State. Dr. E. E. Stearns was the defending champion.
Mann graduated from Ohio State University and American University, Washington, DC He was employed for many years by the US Naval Department and the Illinois Institute of Technology before settling in California, where he was self-employed in the computer information business. He also worked many years as a consultant with NASA. Besides being an avid chessplayer, he also was a competitive bridge player.
Mrs. Catherine Jones regained the women’s title by scoring a perfect 6-0. Myron Frecdic and a player identified only as Beery tied for first in the junior championship. Note that William Granger played in the tournament and tied for 7th place.
George Miller - Walter Mann
Result: 0-1
Site: Ohio Championship, Columbus, Ohio
Date: 1949
Ruy Lopez
[...] 1.e4 e5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.♗b5 a6 4.♗a4 ♘f6 5.O-O ♗e7 6.d3 With this move white often gets a relatively safe and solid position and at the same time avoids certain theoretical lines of overwhelming complexity. The threat is 7.Bxc6 winning the e5-pawn and so black is left with a choice of either 6...d6 or 6...b5. 6...b5 7.♗b3 Here black has a choice of 7...Bb7, 7... d6 or 7...O-O 7...d5 This premature move is risky. 8.exd5 ♘xd5 9.♖e1 ♕d6 Black faces even more difficulties after this.
9...O-O was much better. Now if 10.♘xe5 ♘xe5 11.♖xe5 ♘f6 12.♗g5 Whits is better, but his advantage is not nearly as great as it is after 9...Qd6.
10.♘bd2 f5 As auto-analysis in Fritz would put it, black is merrily strolling down the path to destruction. He still should have castled. 11.a4 This excellent move, attacking the b-Pawn, causes black trouble. 11...♖b8 (11...b4 12.♘c4 ♕c5 13.♘fxe5 is winning for white.) 12.♘f1 This is too slow.
12.axb5 axb5 13.c4 Black is in trouble and his K remains exposed. Therefore, black felt his best chance was to play for complications. 13...♘f4 14.cxb5 ♘xd3 15.♖e3 ♘cb4
12...♗e6 13.axb5 axb5 White is still better, but his next move is a mistake that allows black to equalize. 14.♕e2
14.♖a6 ♘db4 15.♘xe5 A nice shot to which black has no good reply. 15...♗xb3 (15...♘xa6 16.♘xc6 ♕xc6 17.♖xe6 followed by Rxa6 winning) 16.♘xc6 ♘xc6 17.cxb3 ♖b6 18.♖a8 ♖b8 19.♖xb8 ♘xb8 20.♕h5 g6 21.♕h6 leaves white with the much better position.
14...♗f6 White should now play his N to g3 then h5 and capture on f6. 15.♘g5 ♘d4 16.♕h5 g6 17.♕h6 ♘xb3 18.cxb3 ♘b4 As a result of his faulty 14th move white has lost the initiative and it's black who has the promising attack. 19.♘xh7 White never recovers from this self-inflicted pin...two question marks for this move.
19.♗f4 Is a manly defense that at least keeps him in the game. 19...♘c2 20.♗xe5 ♗xe5 21.d4 ♘xd4 22.♖ad1 with complications that require careful play by both sides.
19...♔f7 20.♖e3 ♖bg8 From here white is just trying to survive as long as possible. (20...♗g7 is even better. 21.♘g5 ♔f6 and the Q is lost.) 21.♖f3 ♘c2 22.♖a7 ♘d4 23.♖e3 ♗g7 24.♘g5 ♔f6 25.♘h7 ♖xh7!26.♕xh7 ♖h8 27.♕xh8 ♗xh8 28.♗d2 f4 29.♖e1 f3 30.♘e3 fxg2 31.♖a3 ♘f3 32.♔xg2 ♘xe1 Miller resigned. Powered by Aquarium
Shortly before the commencement of the 1954 US Open in New Orleans, LA, he Louisiana State Legislature in the final days of its session passed several very restrictive segregation laws, which made it thereupon illegal in Louisiana for the U.S. Open Championship Tournament to accept entry from negro players. Chess Life, August 20, 1954
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