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| Senior Master Sidney Bernstein |
If you wanted to play, let's say, in the New Jersey Amateur (rated under 2200) that was held in April at the Midway Diner in Hammonton, New Jersey, the entry fee was $5,00. Accommodations were available at the Lake Front Motel (today it's the Red Carpet Inn) for $3.00 a night, $2.00 for double occupancy. The prizes..."many trophies."
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| Midway Diner |
Most chess books were under $5.00 and Chess Review was selling folding cloth boards for $1.75 to $4.00. An imported German chess clock could be had for $22.00 (plus $2.20 Federal excise tax) and a wooden set with a 3-1/2 inch King cost $35.00; a wood storage box was included.
On October 31, 1959, Mikhail Tal won the Candidates Tournament at Bled, Yugoslavia. More importantly, 1959 was the year I started playing postal chess in Class C (Average) with Chess Review.
The year 1959 began with 15-year-old Bobby Fischer winning the U.S. Championship with an undefeated +6 -0 =5 and pocketing a $1,000, a little over ten times that amount in today's dollars.
Not surprisingly, Fischer was complaining to the tournament organizers before the tournament even started. He said there were "irregularities in procedures" that could unfairly deprive him of the title.
His complaint was that the choosing lots to determine who played whom and when was done in private without the players being present.
He said the practice was just unfair and threatened to forfeit his games if the pairings were not redrawn in public.
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| a querulous Bobby Fischer |
The tournament officials were adamant. One of the directors was Hans Kmoch, who had double-forfeited Eliot Hearst and Edmar Mednis in the 1956 Rosenwald tournament because neither of them had kept an accurate scoresheet.
It was agreed that Fischer's protest had some merit, but the officials were not going to redo the pairings because they had already been published and doing so would only serve to antagonize the other participants.
They also wisely prepared to deal with Fischer's threat by placing a 22-year-old pre-med student named Anthony Saidy on standby. In the end, Fischer played.
According to Edmar Mednis the level of play in the championship, when compared to previous championships, was quite high...as evidenced by the fact that Samuel Reshevsky could only manage third place.
Sidney Bernstein agreed, adding that the emphasis was positional play, but that also contributed to a "certain lack of color and excitement." He added that the level of play was higher and that with the rising of the level of play the number of blunders was reduced.
Arnold Denker considered the level of play "fairly high,'" but he thought it was a shame that the playing conditions were becoming worse. James Sherwin agreed, calling the playing conditions and prizes "quite unfortunate."
In the following game Sidney Bernstein did his part to deal with the lack of color and excitement. He opened with the Orangutan and the play was rather boring until Seidman counterattacked and things got real tactical and Bernstein finished off his opponent with a surprising Queen sacrifice.
A game that I liked (Komodo 14)
Sidney Bernstein–Herbert Seidman1–0A001959-60 US Champ, New YorkNew York, NY USA29.12.1959Stockfish 15
Orangutan 1.b4 Bernstein played 1.b4 four times in this event, scoring 2.
5-1.5. He claimed that this win over Seidman was worth more than one point!
A00: f6 2.b2 e6 3.b5 a6 4.a4 axb5 5.axb5 xa1 6.xa1 d5 6...c5 7.e3 7.bxc6 bxc6 8.e3 d5 9.f3 bd7 10.e2 d6 11.c4 0-0 12.0-0 a6 13.cxd5 Draw agreed. Waht could be more boring than that?! Lorenc,T (2102)-Skliba,M
(2233) Vsetin CZE 2015 7...d5 8.f3 bd7 9.c4 b6 10.e2 b7 11.0-0
with equality. Tkachiev,V (2575)-Karpov,A (2765) Alma Ata KAZ 1995 7.f3 e7N 7...bd7 8.e3 d6 9.c4 c6 10.bxc6 bxc6 The draw outcome was hardly
surprising in Haralambof,V-Haygarth,M Tel Aviv 1964 8.e3 The position is
equal. bd7 9.e2 0-0 10.0-0 e8 11.c4 f6 12.c3 dxc4 13.xc4 d6 14.e2 b6 15.a2 b7 16.xf6 xf6 17.b4 e5 18.d4 g5 19.g3 h6 20.c2 h3 21.bc6 A good square for the N which is going to play a
surprising part in the game in the future. So far the game has not been
particularly exciting, but that is about to change. h8 Getting his K out of
reach of the N on c6, but 21...Ra8 was better. 22.a1 22.f3 to keep the N
off g4 was more accurate. xc6 23.xc6 23.bxc6 c8 24.f4 leaves black
badly tied up. e8 25.a4 f6 Black wants to play ...e5 26.a7 e5 27.fxe5 fxe5 28.xc7 exd4 29.xd6 Threatening mate with Rf8+ e6 30.xe6 xe6 31.exd4 White wins. 23...f5 is equal. 22...g4 Counterattack. 23.f3
A reasonable possibility was 23.Bxg4 eliminating the N. h5 After this white
gets a significant advantage because the Q will be exposed to attack by the B. 23...e5 Threatening to drive off the N keeps the chances even and results
in an entertaining display of tactical fireworks. 24.d3 xb5 25.d4 e4 26.f1 h5 27.h4 g5 28.h3 xe3 29.fxe3 gxh4 30.g4 g5 31.xb5 xb5 32.e5 f6 33.xc7 fxe5 34.e7 e8 35.xb7 exd4 36.a7 g6 37.a8 xa8 38.xa8+ g7 39.b7+ f7 40.xe4 dxe3 41.xe3 f6 with a likely draw. 24.a4
This R along with the N on c6 have a bright future. 24.h4 was a good
alternative. g5 25.a4 gxh4 26.xg4 24...xh2 This dangerous
looking move loses thanks to a fine tactical display by Bernstein. 24...h3 25.d1 e8 26.a7 f6 27.d4 e5 and white can claim no more than a minimal
advantage. 25.fe5 The game is over after this amazing move. 25.xh2
No doubt this is what Seidman was expecting. xe2 26.d4 e1+ 27.f1 e5 28.c6 e2 29.xe5 xb5 with what is likely a winning endgame advantage. 25...xe2 The reply to this move must have been shocking. 25...g5 26.xh2
White is a piece up. 26.xh7+ An abrupt end...it's mate in
three. 26.xh2 loses to xf2+ 27.h3 f5 28.g4 f6 29.d7 f7 26.xh7+ xh7 27.h4+ h5 28.xh5+ g8 29.e7# 1–0
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