It was charged that the exhibition was held without proper authorization and earlier in the day authorities had obtained a warrant from a judge in the Children's Court. Under a charge of improper guardianship, Sammy was taken into custody by Chief Officer Phillip Lowenthal and Superintendent Hylan of the Bronx Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and was hauled off to to the Brown Children's Society Home in Manhattan.
Their purpose, they said, was to prevent further exploitation of the boy for the financial gain of his father, mother and manager. He was taken into custody with considerable difficulty because of the indignant demonstration of the crowd when the officers appeared.
Sammy was the center attraction for an entertainment program for the benefit of the National Hebrew Orphan Home. He entered the hall shortly after 9:00pm and received a tremendous ovation. His parents and relatives sat in the rear as Sammy strode confidently across the stage displaying more than 20 of his medals which were strung on his chest. One of them had been awarded to him the previous week after he had defeated David Janowsky in a tournament.
After being introduced as "the wonder of the 20th century" he sang three songs, during which he showed signs of being sleepy...he yawned in the middle of the second verse of the first song after which there were calls for encores which resulted in two more songs. After the songs his manager told the crowd, "Bear in
mind that Schmulke is a young boy and not doing this for money. I think he has done enough. Let's get to the chess game." Sammy then proceeded to defeat five opponents in less than half an hour after which he was given another ovation.
Two weeks prior a close friend of the family had attempted to get a permit to hold the affair, but it had been denied on the grounds that minors may not give exhibitions on Sunday. Sammy's parents were informed of the denial, but they decided to go ahead with the exhibition anyway.
As soon as the boy was placed into a cab to be hauled away his parents left the hall and followed the officers to the children's home where the boy spent the night. Because he was taking his being taken into custody so seriously, the authorities granted him the privilege of having one of his relatives, a man named Adolph Wexler, stay with him.
He spent Sunday night and all day Monday in custody during which time he had refused to take off his clothes and had been restless. He was also hungry because he had refused to take a bite of any food offered to him because it was not kosher.
After an eventful day Monday where he appeared in Children's Court and released on bail, the boy was pestered by reporters wanting an interview until finally that evening at the Hotel Broadway Central his parents put him to bed at 9 o'clock at night.
Clearly Sammy was aware of the legal problem he was facing because later after being released from custody, dressed in his nightgown and seated at the foot of his bed in his hotel room, he discussed it with all seriousness with a reporter. He was confident yet at the same time a little anxious over the outcome.
His command of English was excellent (it had been for over a year) and he well understood the meaning of the word "exploited." He asked, "How could I be exploited when all I did was for the benefit of the orphans?"
He then added, "Chess is play for me and singing can't hurt me. It was late, I know, but it wasn't my fault. They should have put me on earlier. But, my lawyers will know what to do. They have brains and they can talk." Sweeping his hand toward his parents, he asked the reporter "What will they do to them? They cannot understand. They do not know." During the interview Sammy had been fondling a folding leather travel set and he told the reporter, "I'll play you a game and I'll beat you." The reporter declined and advised him that it was getting late and so he would be going.
At his court hearing the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children reminded the judge of a case that had taken place 35 years previously when a young man named Joseph Hoffman had given 50 violin concerts in less than three months and then had broken down. In that case, the Society had brought action similar to the one they were taking against Sammy and the result had been that Hoffman had recovered, traveled to Europe to study and had gone on to be "one of the world's leading violinists."
In the end, Sammy was allowed to go home with his parents, but only on condition that for the next week he could give no public exhibitions.
In the following game Reshevsky scores a win in a simul he gave at Nugents in St Louis on August 26, 1921. Nugents or B. Nugent and Brother Dry Goods Company was a department store in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was the first downtown department store in the United States to open a suburban branch.
The dry goods store was founded in 1869 by Byron Nugent (d. 1908) in Mount Vernon, Illinois. He moved to St. Louis and started a small store there in February 1873, and eventually moved to larger quarters. By 1914, the store was celebrating "41 years (of) underselling" by utilizing a low-price, mass-merchandise strategy.
The company was bought by National Department Stores in 1923 and was liquidated in 1933. At their peak the stores had employed around 1,500 employees. The store went bankrupt during the Great Depression (1929 to 1939).
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| Reshevsky in 1922 |
His visit was part of a tour that included the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In the December 22, 1921 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle it was reported that there had been rumors of "a rich man in Chicago" who had taken a fancy to Sammy and wished to help him out in the future. There was also a rumor that some influential people in St. Louis were interested in him and his education. However, it was reported that for the time being the family intended to remain at the Broadway Central Hotel in Manhattan.
The mystery man in Chicago was Julius Rosenwald, wealthy co-owner of Sears, Roebuck and Company in Chicago who soon afterward became Reshevsky's benefactor and he guaranteed Reshevsky's future on the condition that he would complete his education.
It was also reported that among the several gifts of chess sets he had received, the one he valued most was one of only two sets, one of which had presented to him and the other to President Warren G. Harding. Another set, a carved ivory set set from China, was also worth a lot of money and Reshevsky confided that money could not buy either set from him.
Reshevsky was not invincible in simuls though as can be seen in the following game he played against Edward B. A dams, president of the Capital City Chess Club in Washington D.C. It was played in April, 1922 following his visit to the city where he met President Warren G. Harding. He also defeated three Congressmen simultaneously before heading over to the Washington Central Y. M. C. A. where he scored 16 wins, 3 draws and one loss in a simul.
His one loss was to Edward B. Adams, president of the Capital City Chess Club, who had also defeated Lasker, Capablanca and Marshall in simuls. Sammy played an inferior line against Adams' Center Counter Gambit as it was called in those days and the game was adjudicated a win for black by Albert V. Fox, former Brooklyn C. C. champion.
Sammy Rzeschewski - Edward B. Adams
Result: 0-1
Site: Simul, Washington D.C.
Date: 1921
Scandinavian Defense
[...] 1.e4 d5 The Scandinavian Defense was known as the Center Counter Gambit when this game was played. The general goal is to prevent white from controlling the center with Ps while allowing black to build a strong P-structure. It's use died out until the the 1960s, when David Bronstein, Nona Gaprindashvili and Bent Larsen played it occasionally. 2.exd5 The usual continuation. Black has two major continuations: 2...Qxd5 and 2... Nf6 (the Modern Scandinavian). 2...♘f6 3.c4 c6 4.dxc6 ♘xc6 5.♘f3 e5 6.d3 ♗c5 7.♘c3 White had two better continuations.
7.♗e2 O-O 8.O-O h6 9.a3 a5 10.♘c3 ♗f5 11.♗e3 White is only slightly better. Costa,J (2350)-Koppens,P (2200) /Berlin 1988
7.♗e3 ♕b6 8.♗xc5 ♕xc5 9.♘c3 ♗g4 10.♗e2 equals. Voith,W (1877)-Wiedermann,J/Marianske Lazne 2009
7...♘g4 This attack on f2 is difficult to meet and white really has no completely good defense. 8.♘e4 ♗f5 Black misses his chance to gain the advantage.
8...♗b4+ 9.♗d2 f5 10.♘eg5 ♗c5 11.d4 ♘xd4 12.b4 ♘xf3+ 13.gxf3 ♘xf2 and wins. Lichkun,D (1953) -Vorobiov,N (2119)/Khanty Mansiysk 2007
9.♘xc5 After this white enjoys the advantage. 9...♕a5+ 10.♕d2 ♕xc5 11.h3 ♘f6 12.♕e3 The attack on the e-Pawn is logical, but a better way to do it would have been by 12.Qc3 which has the advantage of preventing black's next move. 12...♕b4+ 13.♗d2 ♕xb2 Now black has equalized. 14.♖d1 O-O 15.♗e2 ♕xa2 This is a tad too risky. 16...Re8 was better. 16.♘xe5 After this his K is caught in the center so it would have been safer to castle. 16...♘xe5 17.♕xe5 ♗xd3 White's Q and K on the e-file are a bad combination! 18.♕e3 ♗xe2 19.♕xe2 ♖ac8 (19...♖fe8 20.♗e3 and white is still in the game.) 20.♖c1
20.♗e3 was slightly better. 20...♕a5+ 21.♕d2 ♕xd2+ 22.♔xd2 ♖xc4 23.♗xa7 with a difficult ending,but one in which white would be fighting to escape with a draw.
20...♘e4 Powerful! 21.♗e3 ♕a5+ 22.♔f1 ♖fd8 23.g3 ♘d2+
23...♘d6 24.c5 ♘f5 25.♕f3 ♘xe3+ 26.♕xe3−+26...♖d5 was even better.
24.♔g2 ♘xc4 25.♗xa7 Adjudicated as a win for black. The decision is correct because in Shootouts white scored +0 -4 =1. But the win will take some time.
25.♗xa7 h6 26.♖hd1 ♖xd1 27.♕xd1 ♕xa7 28.♖xc4 ♖xc4 29.♕d8+ ♔h7 30.♕d3+ g6 31.♕xc4 b6 32.♕c6 ♕a5 33.♕d7 ♕a8+ 34.♔g1 ♕a1+ 35.♔g2 ♔g7 36.♕b5 ♕a5 37.♕b2+ ♔g8 38.♔f3 ♕c5 39.♔e2 b5 40.♔d3 ♕c4+ 41.♔e3 b4 42.h4 h5 43.♔d2 ♕e4 44.♕b3 ♕d4+ 45.♔e2 ♕e4+ 46.♔d1 ♕d4+ 47.♔e2 ♕e5+ 48.♔d3 ♕b5+ 49.♕c4 ♕f5+ 50.♔e2 ♕b1 51.f3 ♕b2+ 52.♔e3 ♕a3+ 53.♔d2 ♕xf3 54.♕xb4 ♕f2+ 55.♔d3 ♕xg3+ 56.♔c2 ♕g4 57.♕b8+ ♔g7 58.♕e5+ ♔h7 59.♕c7 ♕e2+ 60.♔b3 ♕e3+ 61.♔a4 ♔g7 62.♕h2 g5 63.♕b2+ ♔g8 64.♕b8+ ♔h7 65.hxg5 ♕xg5 and wins.
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