Forgotten Tournament, Mostly Forgotten Players

     First it was the Roaring Twenties so called because of the supposedly new and less-inhibited lifestyle that many people embraced in this period. Among other things women were drinking, smoking and dressing in a provocative manner. 

     Then in October 1929, the U.S. stock market crashed and sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. As a result everything came crashing down which resulted in the Great Depression, a severe worldwide economic depression that was the longest, deepest and most widespread depression of the 20th century. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investing dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and employment as failing companies laid off workers. The United States did not fully recover until about 1939! 

     In chess the year 1930 started off with the end of the Hastings Christmas Congress. The Premier Section was won by Capablanca and the Premier Reserves section was won by George Koltanowski and T.H. Tylor. 

     From January 16 to February 4, the great international tournament was held in San Remo, Italy. The winner was Alexander Alekhine, who scored an incredible +13 -0 =2. And, this was no weak tournament; the top finishers were followed by Nimzovich, Rubinstein, Bogoljubow and Yates. 

     On May 2, 1930, Isidor Gunsberg (1854-1930) died in London. He was German champion in 1885. In 1890, he lost a world championship match to Steinitz by a score of +4 -6 =9. 

     In July the chess Olympiad was held in Hamburg and the gold medal was won by the Poland team (Rubinstein, Tartakower, Przepiorka, and Frydman). The silver medal went to Hungary and the bronze to Germany. There were only 18 teams and the U.S. team (Isaac Kashdan, Frank Marshall, Harold Phillips, Herman Steiner and James Anderson) finished sixth. 

     Players on the U.S. team are well known except for Phillips and Anderson. Harold M. Phillips (1874-1967) played in tournaments for 0ver 70 years and he was also an organizer. A lawyer by profession, in 1903, he won Manhattan Chess Club Championship. In the first half of the 20th century he was one of the leading organizers of American chess life. 

     He was the organizer and director of the great New York Tournament (1924), President of the Manhattan Chess Club in the 1930s, President of the Marshall Chess Club, President of the Intercollegiate Chess League. At third board in the 1930 Olympiad he scored +0 -1 =1. 

     Mystery man James A. Anderson (1906-1991) was a three-time St. Louis Chess Champion who defeated Alekhine in a simultaneous exhibition in 1929. He finished second in the 1929 Western Chess Association Championship ahead of Herman Steiner, Norman Whitaker and Samuel Factor. 

     As a reserve in the 1930 Olympiad he scored _3 -7 =7. Anderson finished fourth at the 1931 Western Chess Association Championship in Tulsa and won the St. Louis championship in 1932 with 8.5-0.5 before disappearing from the chess world at the age of 26. He died in Antioch, California. 

     Also, during the Olympiad the second Women's World Championship was contested and Vera Menchik defended her title in a five player double round tournament. The other players were Paula Wolf-Kalmar, Wally Henschel, Katarina Beskow and Agnes Stevenson. 

     On August 17, 1930, Leo Forgacs (aka Leo Fleishmann), the 1907 Hungarian champion, died in Berettyoujfalu, Hungary at the age of 48. 

     In September of 1930 a long forgotten international tournament was held in Frankfurt that was attended by notable participants Nimzovich, Mieses, Saemisch and Kashdan. 

     Nimzovich was fresh off his win at Karlsbad the previous year and took clear first here continuing his campaign to challenge Alekhine to a match for the World Championship. Second place went to Isaac Kashdan, the recent Manhattan Chess Club champion, who went undefeated a full two points ahead of the third place finishers. 

     Kashdan (1905-1985) was twice U.S. Open champion (1938, 1947) and played five times in chess Olympiads, winning a total of nine medals and his Olympiad record is the all-time best among American players. At one time he as considered a possible world champion candidate. 

     He was never able to win the U.S. Championship because during his prime years Frank Marshall steadfastly refuse to accept a challenge for Kashdan. After Marshall died Rebuen Fine and Samuel Reshevsky had surpassed his as the best U.S. players. 

     As good as Kashdan was there was never a book of his best games published, probably because although he was a powerful tactician, his real strength was in the endgame and he rarely played flash, eye-catching games. Arnold Denker pointed out that a slight touch of rigidity occasionally crept into Kashdan's play and he sometimes resorted to artificial maneuvers to obtain the two Bishops. 

 

 

     The following short, sharp game against Natha Mannheimer (1885-1951) is an exception to Kashdan's usual games. Mannheimer was was born in Birkenau, Germany. In 1884, he became a religious education teacher. He moved to Heidelberg in 1893 and studied mathematics and natural sciences at Heidelberg University, receiving his PhD 1898. He worked as a mathematics teacher from 1897 to 1900 and then moved to Frankfurt where he won the city championship in 1908 and 1920. As a result of the Krystalnacht in November of 1938, in late 1939 or early 1940, Mannheimer emigrated to Rio de Janeiro and lived there for the rest of his life.

[Event "Frankfurt"] [Site "Frankfurt"] [Date "1930.09.08"] [Round "?"] [White "Nathan Mannheimer"] [Black "Isaac Kashdan"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E10"] [Annotator "Stockfish 14.1"] [PlyCount "46"] [EventDate "1930.??.??"] {Queen's Gambit Declined} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Bf4 {This seldom played move poses black a surprising number of problems and in recent years has been tried by players such as Ding Liren and Magnus Carlsen. Nevertheless, with careful play black should be able to equalize.} dxc4 {Seldom played, but not bad. Besides the text black has a couple of other reasonable tries to equalize.} (4... Be7 {This routine move is also a reasonable try, but it makes no attempt to gain any advantage.} 5. e3 O-O 6. Nc3 b6 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Nxd5 exd5 9. Be2 c5 10. dxc5 bxc5 11. O-O Nc6 12. Rc1 Be6 {with an equal position. Lindstedt,J (2345)-Raaste,E (2370)/ Tampere 1991}) (4... b6 {The Q-side fianchetto also works well for black against 4.Bf4} 5. e3 Bd6 6. Bxd6 Qxd6 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Bd3 Ba6 9. cxd5 exd5 10. O-O Bxd3 11. Qxd3 c6 {A draw was agreed in a few more moves. Grela,K (2305)-Cukrowski,F (2416)/Krakow 2018}) 5. e3 Bb4+ 6. Nfd2 {Right square, wrong N.} b5 {Already white is in a difficult position plus he is a P down.} 7. a4 c6 8. axb5 {White is barking up the wrong tree. He sees a chance to win a P, but in the process loses the game.} (8. b3 {trying to break up the Q-side P mass runs into} c3 {and black wins.}) (8. Be2 { is his best chance.} Nd5 9. Bg3 O-O 10. O-O Nd7 11. Qc2 {and black is better, but at least white's position is not yet so bad that he has to resign!}) 8... cxb5 {White's position is probably lost} 9. Bxb8 {White's position completely falls apart after this move.} (9. Qf3 {is his only hope, but after} Nd5 10. b3 Ba6 11. Be2 {Black has the happy choice of either 11...O-O or 11...c3} c3 { This results in a lot of fireworks so castling was safer.} (11... O-O 12. bxc4 bxc4 13. O-O c3 14. Bxa6 Nxa6 15. Rxa6 cxd2 {Black s better without having had to wade through a lot of tactical complications.}) 12. O-O (12. Nf1 Qa5 13. Rxa5 c2+ 14. Nbd2 c1=Q+ 15. Bd1 Bxa5 {and wins.}) 12... O-O {Taking the N was also good.} 13. Bxb8 Bb7 14. Be5 cxd2 15. Bxb5 f6 16. Bg3 Nxe3 17. Qxe3 Qd5 18. f3 Qxb5 19. Nxd2 e5 {black is better.}) 9... Rxb8 10. Rxa7 Ba5 (10... e5 { also packs a wallop.} 11. dxe5 Ne4 12. Be2 Nxd2 13. Nxd2 O-O {with a winning position.}) 11. Qf3 Qb6 {This gives white a chance to stay in the game.} (11... O-O {was safe and solid.} 12. Qc6 Bd7 13. Qd6 Ra8 14. Qa6 Bc6 15. Rxa8 Qxa8 16. Qxa8 Rxa8 {Black's position is such that in Kashdan's hands the win would be a matter of technique.}) 12. Ra8 {A blunder in a bad position.} (12. Rxa5 { would at least have given him a fighting chance.} Qxa5 13. Qg3 {attacking the R and the g-Pawn.} Nd7 14. Qxg7 Rf8 15. Qxh7 {with at least some counterplay. In fact. in Shootouts white managed to draw 3 games while losing two, so 12. Rxa5 was clearly worth trying.}) 12... Rxa8 13. Qxa8 O-O {White's Q is in danger and he now loses time getting it to safety.} 14. Qf3 Bb7 15. Qf4 (15. Qd1 {Hoping to defend the Q-side is not much help.} e5 16. Be2 exd4 17. exd4 Bxg2 {is just awful for white.}) 15... Ne4 16. f3 Nxd2 17. Nxd2 Re8 {To support ...e5} 18. Qh4 {Well, he had to move a piece and this is as good as any.} e5 19. Qf2 exd4 20. e4 f5 21. Kd1 Bxd2 22. Kxd2 fxe4 23. fxe4 Qa5+ { White resigned.} (23... Qa5+ 24. Ke2 d3+ 25. Kf3 Rf8+ 26. Kg3 Qc7+ 27. e5 Qxe5+ 28. Kh4 Rxf2 29. Be2 dxe2 30. b3 Qf6+ 31. Kg3 Rxg2+ 32. Kh3 Qh6#) 0-1