To begin with, on January 5th former President (from 1923 tp 1929) Calvin Coolidge suddenly died in his home from coronary thrombosis at 12:45 p.m., January 5; he was only 60 years old.
In January of 1933, Herman
Steiner formed the International Chess Club which was later called the
Hollywood Chess Group. In March E. Richard Schayer became the new
president of the Hollywood Chess Club...he was a screenwriter who wrote
over 100 films between 1916 and 1956. A few had chess scenes in the
scripts.
Also in
January, Isaac Kashdan published the first edition of Chess Review
magazine. Al Horowitz, who soon took over the magazine, was the
Associate Editor. The magazine also had a section on Contract Bridge
which was discontinued after only three issues.
Skipping ahead to the Chicago World's Fair, Sally Rand (1904-1979), a burlesque dancer most well-known for her performances of the bubble dance and the fan dance created a sensation when she performed the fan dance at the fair. Her performances got her arrested numerous times, including four times in one day and was, not surprisingly, the most popular draw at the entire fair and her drawing power was one of the reasons it quickly made a profit.
Her performances were not without controversy even in the libertine period preceding the Second World War and they left the moral crusaders outraged. But, when a Chicago judge ruled that the dance could not be deemed anything other than art, the critics were silenced.
In June the National Chess Federation organized a chess program for the Fair and World champion Alexander Alekhine played a blindfold simultaneous exhibition on 32 boards that lasted over 12 hours. He scored +19 -4 =9 which was a new world record for blindfold play. A masters tournament had been planned, but was called off due to lack of funds.
Reuben Fine won the Marshall Chess Club championship and Marjorie Luce (aka Mrs. William Seaman) won club's women's championship with an 11-0 score.
The strong, but little known master Robert Willman and Abraham Kupchik tied for first place in the Manhattan Chess Club championship. Kupchik defeated Willman in the playoff.
In Syracuse, Fred Reinfeld took the New York State championship with an undefeated 9.5 -1.5 score. Arnold Denker finished second with Reuben Fine and Anthony Santasiere finishing tied for 3rd .
In May a tournament was held to select players to join Frank Marshall and Isaac Kashdan on the US team for the Olympiad in England. Reuben Fine, Arthur Dake and Albert C. Simonson qualified by beating out Denker, Horowitz, Willman, Levenstein, Reinfeld, Bechkardt, Schwartz, and Hassialia.
At the Folkestone Olympiad (at the time called the International Team Tournament for the Hamilton-Russell Cup) the US team (Kashdan, Marshall, Fine, Dake, Simonson) took first place. The Women's World Championship was held in conjunction and Vera Menchik retained her title.
In August, Reuben Fine defeated Arthur Dake in a match in New York when he scored +4 -2 =3. In Detroit in late September and early October Reuben Fine won the Western Open. Samuel Reshevsky was 2nd and Arthur Dake 3rd.
Beginning in January the Metropolitan Chess League of New York started the season with 12 teams: West Side YMCA, Queens CC, Manhattan CC, Columbia University, Hungarian Workers, Scandinavians, Marshall CC, New York University, Empire City CC, International CC, City College of New York, and Caissa CC.
The poor Columbia team got shut out; they lost all 11 matches. The Marshall club (Reuben Fine, Frank Marshall, Arthur Dake, Erling Tholfsen, Fren Reinfeld, Anthony Santasiere, Franklin S. Howard, and Nat Grossman), on the other hand, won all 11 of their matches.
It was the third title in row for the Marshall Chess Club and each time they met and defeated the Manhattan Chess Club in the final round. The pairings:
In today's game Isaac Kashdan defeated Reuben Fine in Manhattan's only win.
I. Kashdan (Manhattan), R. Fine (Marshall)–Met League Match. New York1–0A001933Stockfish 14.1
QGD, Slav Defense 1.d4 f6 2.c4 c6 3.c3 d5 4.f3 dxc4 5.a4 This
prevents ...b5 5.e3 is playable, but rarely seen. b5 6.a4 b4 6...a6
is very bad on account of 7.axb5 cxb5 8.xb5 7.b1 a6 8.e2 e6 9.0-0
with equal chances. 5...f5 6.e3 ALso good are 6.Nh4 and 6.Ne5 e6
Nowadays this is universally played, but at the time 6...Na6 was sometimes
seen. 6...a6 7.xc4 b4 8.0-0 and Fine observed that in spite of
appearances, the N on b4 is not well placed because it's too far from the
K-side which will be the scene of action. 7.xc4 b4 8.0-0 0-0 9.b3
With this move white gets some pressure on the Q-side, but a better plan is 9.
Qe2 with the idea of playing e3-e4. e7 9...xc3 This is not a good idea
because white would then get the good square a3 for his B. 10.bxc3 b6 10...c5 is also possible, but in that case 11.e5 bd7 12.xd7 xd7 13.f3
followed by e4 which leaves white clearly better. 11.a3 10.d2 bd7 10...c5 was a good move. 11.d5 Better than Fine's suggestion of 11.dxc5 exd5 12.xd5 xd5 13.xd5 c6 This is an excellent move because capturing
the N leaves black with control of key central squares as compensation for the
doubled Ps. 11.fe1 Preparing the advance of the e-Pawn which he could
have played at once. 11.fd1 Although this move lead to equality in
Tolstikh,N (2312)-Baraeva,M (2179) Sochi 2017, strategically white is barking
up the wrong tree. a5 12.a2 d6 13.f1 c5 14.c3 11.e4 xc3 12.exf5 xd2 13.xd2 exf5 14.xb7 with equal chances. 11...h6 After this white
gets the advantage. 11...a5 This is the equalizer. 12.e4 g6 13.e5 d5 14.g5 e8 15.h4 7b6 Safarian,A (2058)-Hamilton,D (2264) Penrith 2003 11...b6 This is to white's advantage after 12.f1 a5 and now white
should have played 13.e4. Izsak,G (2330)-Mokcsay,R (2295) Gyor 1992 13.e4
g6 14.g5 11...g4 has also been tried. 12.e4 xe4 13.xb4 c5 Klaver,C (2098)
-Dole,A (2113) Cape Town 2011 and now white is slightly better after 14.Nd2 12.e4 h7 13.e5 With this move white gains a
significant edge. e8 14.a5 c7 15.e4 Fine did not like this move which
he claimed relieves black's game. Instead he preferred 15.Ra4 with an
excalmation mark. Stockfish disagrees and give the ! to 15.Ne4 15.a4 xc3
According to Stockfish, Fine's 15...c5 stinks. 16.bxc3 b5 17.axb6 axb6
with equality. 15...xd2 16.fxd2 ab8 17.e3 17.d6 Another fine move
Fine did not like, but Stockfish does. fd8 18.xb7 and white is better.
There is no way black can take advantage of the pinned N. 18.ac1 is
perhaps safer. e8 19.xb7 xe5 20.a6 xc4 21.xc4 xd4 White is better
here, too. 18...c5 19.dxc5 xd2 20.a6 favors white 17...c5 18.xc5 xc5 19.dxc5 xc5 20.a3 White has the better P-formation, but black has
active play and so Kashdan wants to exchange Qs, but in doing so he allows
black to gain a slight advantage. 20.f1 is an odd looking retreat, but it
gets the B out of the way of the Rs and in some lines makes c4 available to
the N. After d5 21.ee1 b5 22.axb6 xb6 23.c3 23.xa7 c4 attacking
the R and N 23...xc3 24.bxc3 fc8 25.xa7 xc3 with a likely draw. 20...d4 21.c3 fd8 22.f3 22.xd4 xd4 wins a piece. 22...xc3 23.xc3 e4 24.e2 c6 25.ac1 d5 The wrong piece lands on d5 25...d5 26.b3 f4 27.f1 d5 28.bc3 g6 and black has the initiative. 26.a6
Black must now prevent axb7 and so white has equalized. e8 27.axb7 White
willnow initiate an attack on the a-Pawn. xb7 28.a3 a5 29.h3 f8 30.b3 e7 31.ca1 c7 31...c5 was also quite good. 32.xa5 xa5 33.xa5 xf3 34.xf3 xb3 with a draw. 32.c4 d7 33.xa5 d5 Fine didn't think
doubling white's Ps with 33...Bxf3 would help and so he decided to keep the B
on the board. At the same time he admitted that white's extra P should now
start to make itself felt. Stockish disagrees. 33...xf3 34.gxf3 d5 35.a7 bb7 36.xb7 xb7 with an equal position. In five Shootouts all the
games were drawn as white was unable to advance his b-Pawn 34.a7 b5
This was black's last chance to keep the chances even. From this point on he
facess an uphill struggle against a player who excelled in the endgame. 34...xf3 35.gxf3 d5 36.xd7+ xd7 would pretty much assure the draw. 35.xd7+ xd7 36.a5 c7 37.xd5 xd5 38.a7+ c7 39.d2 b6 40.f1 b8 41.e2 b5 42.f4 g5 Fine was concerned that against passive defense
white would advance his b-Pawn which he felt should lead to a win. For that
reason he creates a diversion on the K-side. 43.g3 h5 This move
is a miscalculation thst results in a weakening of black's Ps and he ends up
having to allow a passed P which makes white's task easier. 43...gxf4
was the correct move. 44.gxf4 c6 with a probable draw. It looks like
white's K can go after the h-Pawn, but in the end it's a dead end. For example.
.. 45.f3 h5 46.g3 d5 47.c4 d3+ 48.h4 f3 49.a5+ b6 50.b7+ xa5 51.b4+ a6 52.xc7 xf4+ 53.xh5 b5 54.h4 xb4 55.g5 f5+ 56.h6 xe5 57.xf7 draw 44.f3 h4 This is the losing move. It may have been due to
time pressure. 44...gxf4 Black may still be lost after this, but at least
he has a fighting chance. 45.xf4 f6 46.exf6 f5+ 47.e4 xf6 48.f3
with good winning chances. 45.gxh4 gxf4 46.xf4 Compare this position to
the position after 45.Kf4 in the previous note. There white's Ps are on c3 and
h3 and black has a P on h5. b4+ 46...f6 as in the previous note no longer
works. 47.exf6 f5+ 48.g4 With a black P on h5 this move is not possible. xf6 49.h5 and white wins. 47.g3 b5 48.f3 xb3 49.h5 Black has to
lose a R for this P because there is no way the N can stop it. c6 50.h6 b8 51.g5 g8 52.h4 b6 53.xc7 xc7 54.xf7
Black resigned. 1–0
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