On November 23, 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt carved the turkey at the Thanksgiving Dinner on his estate in Warm Springs, Georgia and wished all Americans a happy Thanksgiving. All Americans weren't happy though.
Many were not observing Thanksgiving on that day...they were waiting to celebrate the holiday the following Thursday because in many states November 30th was the official Thanksgiving Day.
In those days, legally, Thanksgiving was not a fixed holiday; it was up to the President to announce what date it would fall on. By tradition, since 1863, it was always the last Thursday in November because that's when President Lincoln declared it a national holiday.
Statistics showed that most people began their Christmas shopping after Thanksgiving and since 1939 had five Thursdays, merchants feared they would lose money because there were only 24 shopping days until Christmas...so they asked Roosevelt to make Thanksgiving a week earlier. Thus, Thanksgiving in 1939 would be held, the President proclaimed, on the 23rd and not the 30th.
Changing the date proved to be a contentious move. Thousands of letters poured into the White House opposing the change. Some retailers were pleased to get the extra week of Christmas shopping which would increase profits, but smaller businesses grumbled that they would lose business to larger stores. How is not clear.
Calendar makers were enraged because they had already printed calendars for 1940. Most schools had already scheduled vacations and annual Thanksgiving Day football games and the change disrupted everything.
And, many were angry because they claimed Roosevelt was trying to alter not only a long-standing tradition, but, also, American values just to help businesses make more money. Some states defied Roosevelt and declared November 30th as Thanksgiving anyway.
It wasn't until Congress to passed a law on December 26, 1941, declaring Thanksgiving to be on the fourth Thursday of November every year that the mess was straightened out.
In the rest of the world more important issues were at stake because they were at war. In the chess world, the Olympiad in Buenos Aires had been disrupted by the outbreak of the war which happened just after the completion of the preliminaries.
The English team returned home immediately and Stuart Milner-Barry, Harry Golombek and C.H.O'D. Alexander went to work at the top-secret code-breaking station at Bletchley Park.
Remarkably, the final went ahead, but the French, Polish and Palestinian teams refused to play against Germany. Organizers decided that unplayed matches would be scored as 2-2 draws. Germany won ahead of Poland and Estonia.
Many European players remained in Argentina after the Olympiad and eventually settled in South America, rather than return to war torn Europe.
After the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Austrian players were incorporated into the Greater German Chess Federation. After the annexation the only two players of equal stature were the aging Efim Bogoljubow who was almost almost fifty years old and twenty-five year old Erich Eliskases.
On the Chessmetrics January 1939 rating list Eliskases is ranked 9th and Bogoljubow 11th.
They played a 20-game match between the 4th of January and the 12th of February 1939 that took place in eleven towns and cities in Germany.
It was a clash of styles. Bogoljubow, while a player of strong positional skills, was primarily known as a strong tactician. Eliskases was a predominantly positional player and technically proficient in the ending.
Halfway through the match Eliskases had lost only the first game and had a huge 3 game lead. But, in the second half Bogoljubow fought back and won two games, but also lost two.
How to pronounce Erich Eliskases
How ow to pronounce Efim Bogoljubov
[Event "Match Game 3, Germany"]
[Site ""]
[Date "1939.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Erich Eliskases"]
[Black "Efim Bogoljubow"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A70"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 15"]
[PlyCount "109"]
[EventDate "1939.01.04"]
{Modern Benoni} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 {In the previous game, as white,
Bogoljubow had played the solid but antiquated Giuoco Pianissimo and Eliskases
played energetically and drew the R&P ending. In this game Bogoljubow defends
with a Hyper-modern defense. Frank Marshall invented the Modern Benoni in 1927,
but his experiments with the opening went largely ignored. Then in the 1950s
players in the Soviet Union, especially Mikhail Tal, began using it. It
suffered a theoretical crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, but it made a recovery
when Vladimir Kramnik used it in the 2004 World Championship.} 4. d5 exd5 5.
cxd5 d6 6. Nc3 a6 7. a4 g6 8. e4 Bg7 9. Bd3 O-O 10. O-O {This is the basic
P-structure of the Modern Benoni. White has a central P-majority, black a
Q-side P-majority. Black aims to counterattack rather than equalize and
frequently must resort to tactical play and material sacrifices in order not
to be forced into passivity. White's central majority gives him a space
advantage on the K-side. However, to make things more complicated, black can
place a R on the e-file which restrains white's play. White can play a4 and
Nf3-d2-c4 to hinder black's Q-side play. As GM Lev Psakhis once wrote, the
Modern Benoni is definitely not an opening for cowards.} Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12.
Qxf3 Nbd7 13. Qe2 Ne5 (13... Qc7 14. f4 Rfe8 15. Qf3 c4 16. Bc2 Qc5+ 17. Kh1 b5
18. Be3 Qb4 {White is better. Pfleger,H (2545)-Filipowicz,A (2405) Tel Aviv
1964}) 14. Bc2 (14. f4 {is interesting.} Nxd3 15. Qxd3 Nd7 16. e5 dxe5 17. f5
Nf6 {Black should have tried a P-sac here with ...c5 and ...Rc8 followed by ...
Nc5 with equal chances.} 18. Bg5 h6 {This loses quickly. Again, ...c4 was
better.} 19. Bxf6 Qxf6 20. fxg6 {Inviting, but this loses all his advantage
and allows black back in the game. Winning was 20.Ne4} Qxg6 21. Ne4 {Now this
is wrong; he should have exchanged Qs.} f5 {Even better was 21...c4} 22. Nxc5
e4 23. Qc4 {A good looking move, but it's also a losing move! 23.Qe3 was
correct.} Qd6 24. Qb4 {Losing outright. The N belongs on e6 when the chances
would be equal.} (24. Nxb7 Qb6+ 25. Nc5 Rac8 26. b4 Bxa1 {Black is better.})
24... a5 25. Qb5 Bd4+ {White resigned. Rausch,S (2346)-Granabetter,J Vienna
2003. This game illustrates some of the complications involved in the Modern
Benoni!}) 14... Nh5 15. g4 Nf6 16. f4 Ned7 17. Be3 Re8 {To hinder the advance
e5.} 18. Qg2 b5 {This is a sound move but results in no more than equality.
Bogoljubow misses the correct followup though.} 19. axb5 axb5 20. Rxa8 Qxa8 21.
g5 {[%mdl 2048] White is more active.} (21. Nxb5 {favors black after} Nxd5 22.
Bc1 (22. exd5 Rxe3 {is very much worse for white.}) 22... Qb8 23. e5 Nxf4 24.
Rxf4 Bxe5 {in this unbalanced position the chances are about even.}) 21... Nh5
22. Nxb5 {This is playable now that the possibility of ...Nxd5 has been
eliminated.} Qb8 {Inhibits Nc7.} 23. Bd3 {b3 is the strong threat.} f5 {
This is questionable. 23...Nb6 threatening Nxd5 as well as c4 wins back the P.}
24. gxf6 Ndxf6 25. Nc3 (25. Nxd6 {was playable, but not better.} Qxd6 26. e5
Qb8 27. d6 (27. exf6 {loses to} Rxe3 28. Rf3 (28. fxg7 Rg3) 28... Rxf3 29. Qxf3
Bxf6 {wins}) 27... Nd7 28. Qc6 Nf8 29. Bc4+ Kh8 30. Rd1 {It's doubtful that
black can save the game.}) 25... Qb3 {Better was 25...Bh6} 26. Bc1 (26. e5 {
is not so clear.} dxe5 27. Bb5 Rb8 28. Ba4 Qxb2 29. Qxb2 Rxb2 30. fxe5 Nxd5 31.
Nxd5 Bxe5) 26... Nd7 27. Qc2 Qb4 {This is bad.} (27... Bd4+ 28. Kg2 Rb8 29.
Qxb3 Rxb3 {is about equal.}) 28. Nb5 {This is a real gut punch.} Ng3 29. Bd2
Bd4+ {Black's position is not good, but this is probably the worst mover
available.} (29... Qxb2 30. Qxb2 Bxb2 31. Re1 {and black's d-Pawn goes and
with it the game.}) 30. Kg2 {Even better was 30.Rf2} (30. Rf2 {Black's Q is
trapped.} Bxf2+ 31. Kg2 {with an easy win.}) 30... Nxf1 31. Kxf1 Qxb2 32. Qxb2
Bxb2 33. Nxd6 Ra8 34. Nc4 {Inhibits Nb6.} Bc1 35. Bxc1 Ra1 36. e5 Rxc1+ {
[%mdl 4096]} 37. Ke2 {The ending is won for white but he needs to exhibit good
technique.} Rh1 38. e6 Nf6 39. d6 Rh2+ 40. Ke1 Rxh3 41. Ne5 Rh1+ 42. Kd2 {
Threatens to win with d7.} Ra1 43. d7 Ra8 44. Nc6 Kg7 45. d8=Q Rxd8 46. Nxd8 {
Stockfish says white is clearly winning, but great care is still required! But,
I was curious. A Shootout using an old engine (Fritz 5.32) was stopped because
while it evaluated the position as won for white, it was running was too
slowly and was making little progress in just the first game, so I stopped it!
The ending is actually not so easy!} h5 47. e7 h4 48. Bb5 h3 49. e8=Q Nxe8 50.
Bxe8 Kf6 51. Nb7 h2 52. Bc6 c4 53. Nd6 g5 54. fxg5+ Kxg5 55. Nxc4 {Confident
in his opponent's ability to mate with a N and B, Bogoljubow resigned. How
would white mate? Watch.} (55. Nxc4 h1=Q 56. Bxh1 {The Nalimov Endgame
Tablebases show black loses in 27 moves no matter what he plays.} Kf5 57. Bd5
Kg5 58. Ke3 Kf5 59. Kd4 Kg5 60. Ke5 Kg6 61. Nd6 Kg7 62. Be4 Kg8 63. Kf6 Kf8 64.
Bd3 Kg8 65. Nf7 Kf8 66. Bh7 Ke8 67. Ne5 Kd8 68. Ke6 Kc7 69. Nd7 Kb7 70. Bd3 Kc6
71. Be2 Kc7 72. Bb5 Kd8 73. Nb6 Kc7 74. Na4 Kd8 75. Kd6 Kc8 76. Nc5 Kd8 77. Ba4
Kc8 78. Bd7+ Kb8 79. Kc6 Ka7 80. Kc7 Ka8 81. Kb6 Kb8 82. Na6+ Ka8 83. Bc6#) 1-0
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