A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of Princeton University and as the governor of New Jersey before winning the 1912 presidential election.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) was a politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921.
As president, Wilson changed the nation's economic policies and starting in 1917 he led the United States during World War I. He was the leading architect of the League of Nations and his progressive stance on foreign policy came to be known as Wilsonianism.
In the presidential election of 1916 he was re-elected when he defeated Charles Evan Hughes.
What is generally not known, or at least almost never mentioned, is Wilson's racism. See the Vox article HERE.
The other day I came across a game printed in Chess Life, January 5, 1953, that was, it said, played in 1898 by Wilson against Salomon Langleben in Buffalo, New York. At the time, Wilson was a Princeton University professor and Langleben was the champion of Buffalo. The article gave no information as to the circumstances under which the game was played nor why Wilson was in Buffalo.
Salomon Langleben (1862 - February 8, 1939) was a Polish master who for many years lived in the United States. At the end of the 1800s he returned to Poland and in the mid-1900s had modest success in a number tournaments.
The problem is, the game was not played by Woodrow Wilson, the future president. It was played by W.S. Wilson of the Manhattan Chess Club and Langleben was a member of the Buffalo Chess Club.
There was a lot of chess activity in Buffalo in 1893 and 1894, but the event was not specified. The game was originally published in the February 13, 1893 edition of the Buffalo Express. You can view the clipping HERE.
The game was not especially well played. Just as a matter of curiosity, in ChessBase's "Centipawn Loss" analysis using the more human-like Komodo 14 engine white's play scored 0.88 which puts it in the 1200-1800 Elo range. Black's play scored 0.39 putting it in the 1800-2200 Elo range.
W. S. Wilson–Salomon A. Langleben0–1D06Buffalo, New York02.1893Stockfish 15
Queen's Gambit Declined, Baltic Defense 1.f3 d5 2.d4 f5 The Baltic
Defense is an unusual variation that takes a radical approach to the problem
black typically has in developing his light squared B. 3.e3 f6 4.c4 e6 5.c3 5.b3 This attempt at taking advantage of the weakness of the b-Pawn
does not lead to any advantage. c6 A more passive approach is to defend the
P with 5...Qc8 6.a3 6.xb7 This is a serious error because there is no
good answer to b4 6...a6 7.d2 b8 8.c3 e7 9.e2 dxc4 and black has
equalized. 5...c6 Apparently black intends at some point to play ...e5.
While not bad, this move does not seem terribly effective. Probably he should
have tried 5...c6 6.a3 a6 7.b4 dxc4 Normally black would delay this
exchange until after white has moved his B, but here it's part of the planned .
..e5 8.xc4 b5 This is positionally wrong as he is left with a
backward P on an.open file. 8...d6 is correct as it supports the advance
of the e-Pawn. 9.b2 0-0 The immediate advance of the e-Pawn was also
playable. 10.b5 As will be seen, this prevents ...e5, but 10.O-O e5 results
in no more than equality. a5 11.e2 axb5 12.xb5 e7 As a result of
white's 10th move black can no longer play ...e5. Eingorn,V (2587)-Miladinovic,
I (2604) Lille FRA 2005 was eventually drawn. 9.e2 d6 Still playing for .
..e5, but white now seizes the initiative. 10.h4 g6 11.f3 d7 12.e4
The puerile threat of e5 is ineffective because black now gets in the aimed
for thrust of his e-Pawn. 12.xg6 hxg6 13.c2 maintains a positional
Advantage. 12...e5 13.d5 d4 14.xg6 xf3+ 15.xf3 fxg6 16.b2 0-0 17.0-0 A simple tactical mistake that alows black to secure the advantage. He
had to remove the Q from the range of the R by playing it to either e2 or d3. xd5 18.g3 f4 19.ad1 19.ac1 Intending to pile up on the
c-Pawn is worse. a5 20.c2 axb4 21.axb4 c6 22.f3 xb4 23.fc1 c4 24.d5 xd5 25.xc4 xf3 26.gxf3 bxc4 27.exd5 d6 28.xc4 a5 black is
winning. 19...e7 20.d2 c6 Prevents Nd5. 21.fd1 ad8 22.f3 22.e2 was better. xe2+ 23.xe2 and white still has hopes of
defending his position. 22...c7 23.f2 23.xd8 xd8 24.xd8+ xd8 25.e1 b6+ 26.h1 d3 cannot be met 23...g5 24.h1 xd2-+ 25.xd2 b8
The purpose of this move is clear after his next move, but just as good was 25.
..Rd8 26.d7 b6 27.d2 e3 28.c2 Black has established a
position where there's not much white can do except wait. Black should not
continue his attack by advancing his h-Pawn. Instead, he makes a mistake that
allows white not only to defend himself, but actually gain the advantage. h3 29.d1 b6 30.xc6 Grabbing this P is quite natural, but wrong! 30.g3
Secures the advantage. f8 31.xc6 and it's white who is better because
black cannot play xf3 32.d5+ f8 33.a8+ d8 34.xd8+ and white is
winning. e7 34...f7 35.d5+ e7 36.d6+ mate next move 35.e8+ f7 36.f8+ e7 37.d8+ e6 38.e8+ f7 39.d7+ mte next move 30...f4 31.c2 h6 White has equal chances here but his best defensive is to sit tight
with 32.Qd2. 32.c1 Pinning the N looks logical, but it
actually loses the game. h4 Threatening mate 33.d2 Threatening ...Rxc1
because of the mate threat on f1 c8 And now ...Rxc1! would win. 34.e3 xe3 While this doesn't lose the advantage, 34...Bd4 was crushing. 34...d4 35.b2 35.g3 h5 36.gxf4 xf3+ 37.g1 xc1+ 38.xc1 xe3+ 35...xb2 36.xg7+ xg7 37.d7+ f6 38.d6+ f7 39.d7+ e7 Black has
avoided the perpetual check and comes out material ahead. 35.xe3 c2
While occupation of the 2nd rank is leaves white in a real bind,
it's not fatal to him. 36.d2 b2 37.g3 37.g1 e2 38.d1 f2-+ 39.e1 xe1+ 40.xe1 b1 37.e1 This allows white to put up a
hardy defense. f6 38.c1 xg2 39.c8+ h7 40.d8 g5 41.f8 e2 42.g3 e6 43.h8+ g6 44.xe6+ xe6 45.xe5 and if he's lucky, white may be able
to draw. 37...b1+ 38.c1 h3 Threatening mate 39.xg7+ 39.d8+ h7 40.gxf4 40.g1 xc1 41.xc1 g2# 40...f1+ 41.g1 xf3+ 42.g2 xc1+ 43.d1 xd1# 39...xg7 40.a7+ f6 41.b6+ e6 42.g1 b3 43.d1 d4 44.f4 xg3 45.fxe5+ xe5 White resigned...it's mate in 6 45...xe5 46.f4+ xf4 47.c1+ e3 48.c7+ f3 49.g3+ xg3 50.hxg3 xg3
mate next move. 0–1
No comments:
Post a Comment