Today let's talk about George Koltanowski (September 17, 1902 - February 5, 2000, 96 years old). Everybody has heard of him, but aside from his promoting chess, simultaneous and blindfold exhibitions, does anybody know anything about his chess prowess?
He was awarded the International Master title in 1950 when the title was first officially established by FIDE and he was awarded an honorary Grandmaster title in 1988. He was also an International Arbiter.
His tournament record was not especially distinguished and Chessmetrics has him listed on their retro-rating list from June of 1924 (2477 ranking him number 65 in the world) to June of 1954 (2503, number 153 in the world). His highest estimated rating was 2628 on the March 1936 list, placing him at number 19 in the world.
Based upon his results during the period 1932–37, Professor Arpad Elo gave Koltanowski a rating of 2450 in his book, The Rating of Chess Players, Past and Present.
Born into a Polish Jewish family in Antwerp in 1903, he learned chess by watching his father and brother play and began serious play at the age of 14 and when Edgar Colle died in 1932, Koltanowski became Belgium's top player.
He got his first big break in 1924 at the age of 21 when he visited an international tournament in Meran and was planning to play in one of the reserve sections. The organizers asked him to play in the Grandmaster section to replace a no show. Koltanowski accepted and finished near the bottom, but drew with Tarrasch. He won the Belgian Championship in 1923, 1927, 1930 and 1936.
Many of Koltanowski's relatives perished in the Holocaust, but he survived because he happened to be on a chess tour of South America and was in Guatemala when the war broke out. In 1940, the United States Consul in Cuba saw him giving an exhibition in Havana and decided to grant him a US visa.
Koltanowski settled in New York City where he met his wife in 1944. In 1947 they moved to California where he became the chess columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, a job he held until his death.
In 1963, he conducted a correspondence game which pitted himself and his readers against Paul Keres. He had hoped to play against World Champion Botvinnik, but was turned down. Keres was his second choice. Readers would vote on moves and send them to Koltanowski who would then select the move and award points and prizes to his readers for their selections.
After 41 moves Keres stopped playing and declared that he had won. Although Koltanowski felt his position was still playable, he accepted Keres' decision.
Letters:
Koltanowski had his own organization, the Chess Friends of Northern California, which resisted the USCF rating system and dominated Northern California Chess through the mid-1960s. He eventually gave in and won election as President of the USCF in 1974.
Koltanowski wrote many books, including one on the Colle System which he claimed would enable even lower rated players to get out of the opening with a playable game. It's interesting that he never played the opening himself against strong opponents.
His books were often poorly written and, like a lot of authors contained statements and anecdotes which were factually incorrect. But, like Larry Evans once said of his published gaffes, they made a good story.
Koltanowski died of congestive heart failure in San Francisco in 2000 at the age of 96.
The following game was played in the 1936 Belgian Championship that was held in Ghent. The game looks like it could have been played in one of his simultaneous exhibitions, but Koltanowski's double Bishop sacrifice was flawless.
His opponent was Marcel DeFosse which was the pseudonym of Denis Marion (1906 - 2000), a literary person who had a passion for chess. He co-authored with Frits van Seters a book titled Le Jeu d’Echecs. Manuel du Débutant (The Game of Chess: Guide for Beginners) published in 1945. He played for Belgium in the 1937 Olympiad.
Georges Koltanowski–Marcel Defosse1–0D05Belgian Championship, GhentGhent BEL1936Stockfish 14.1
Colle System 1.d4 f6 2.f3 d5 3.e3 e6 3...g6 It's my opinion that if
one suspects white is going to open with the Colle then the fianchetto is the
best idea because it eliminates all danger of facing a potentially wicked
K-side attack. 4.c4 Another advantage of the fianchetto is that white is
practically forced to abandon the Colle and play this. 4.d3 is rather
pointless now. g7 5.c3 0-0 is equal. 4...c6 5.c3 g7 etc. 3...f5 Sometimes called the Anti-Colle, this move has also been played. 4.c4 c6 5.c3 e6 6.h4 e4 7.f3 g6 8.b3 c7 9.d2 e7 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.b5+ c6 12.0-0 0-0 is equal. Karjakin,S (2754)-Giri,A (2776) Bucharest 2019 4.d3 c5 5.c3 The Colle System is not a fixed order of moves, but a system for
white where he sets up Ps on c3 and e3, a B ond d3, Ns on f3 and d2 and
usually a R on e1. After achieving this setup white usually plays e4. 5.b3
This sets up the Colle–Zukertort System which is characterized by developing
the B on b2 e7 6.0-0 0-0 7.b2 b6 8.dxc5 xc5 9.bd2 b7 10.e2 bd7 11.c4 with equal chances. Carlsen,M (2853)-Karjakin,S (2772) New York 2016 5...c6 6.bd2 d6 7.0-0 A typical Colle setup. GM John Nunn and others. regard
the Colle as innocuous, but it is slow and solid. It is, however, a good
opening for players looking for a simple opening. That said, it can turn
violent if black gets careless. 0-0 8.dxc5 xc5 9.e4 The classic Colle
break. c7 10.e2 d6 10...h6 11.c2 b6 12.a4 a6 13.g3 d7 14.g2 ad8 15.h3 e5 16.exd5 xd5 Black is slightly better. Mamedyarov,S (2660)
-Volokitin,A (2652) Mallorca 2004 11.e1 g4 12.h3 ge5 13.xe5 xe5 14.exd5 exd5 15.f3 Black should now eliminate the B with 15...Nxd3
xf3+ 15...e8 16.xe5 xe5 17.e3 c5 18.d2 xe3 19.xe3 d7 20.xe5 xe5 White has the better endgame, but in Root,D (2460)-Rachels,S (2485) Los
Angeles Open 1991, it was insufficient to win. 16.xf3 e6 17.e3 ad8 17...a6 18.d4 c5 19.e5 d6 20.xh7+
This only draws. White maintains a slight advantage after 20.Bxd6 and 20.Rad1
with pressure on black's isolated d-Pawn. xh7 21.h5+ g8 22.xg7 xg7 23.g5+ Draw. Weisker,M (1800)-Medunova,V (2209) Passau 2000 18.c2 b5 18...h2+ 19.h1 e5 covering the dark squares on the K-side was a safer plan. 19.d4 c5 White must now prevent ...Bxd4. 20.ad1 b4 Black is completely
oblivious to the danger or he would have played 20...Bxd4. He may have felt
complacent becaus ewhite does not have a N to assist in the K-side attack
which is usually the case. 21.e5 White wants a kill. d6
And his opponent obliges. 21...b6 is his best chance because then the
sacrifice does not work. 22.xh7+ xh7 23.h5+ g8 24.xg7 xg7 25.g5+ h7 and because of the B on c5 white cannot bring a R into play via d4 and so
must accept the draw by repeating moves. 22.xh7+ xh7
Declining the sacrifice is not an option. 22...h8 23.h5 fe8 24.f5+ g8 25.h7+ f8 26.xg7+ e7 27.xe6+ and wins. Taking the R allows a mate in
3... fxe6 28.e5+ f8 29.h8+ e7 30.g7# 23.h5+ g8 White has only
one winning continuation. 24.xg7 24.d4 xe5 25.xe5 fe8 26.h4 f8 and white does not have enough compensation for the piece. 24...xg7 25.g5+ h7 26.d4 Black can offer only token resistance. h2+ 27.h1 f4 28.xf4 xf4 29.xf4 g8 30.e5 Black
resigned. According to Fritz 17's auto-analysis Koltanowski's play was
"flawless." 30.e5 g6 31.h4+ h6 32.xd8 bxc3 33.bxc3 g7 34.g5+ g6 35.h5 h6 36.g5+ g6 37.e5+ f8 38.b8+ e7 39.c7+ d7 40.xd5 b6 41.xd7+ e6 42.d8 b1+ 43.h2 e5 44.d6 e4 45.g5 h1+ 46.xh1 f6 47.d4# 1–0
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