Off duty and in civilian clothes, he saw the victim standing near a parked car and acting suspiciously. When McPhelan approached the man he ran down the street and ignored orders to stop. That's when the policeman drew his revolver and fired five shots, one of which went through the victim's back and out his chest. The victim managed to reach the door of his apartment before he collapsed and died. According to the Police Surgeon, the officer was unfit for duty. Except for a couple of details, the story sounds strangely modern.
The winner of the 1945 U. S. Amateur Championship which was held in October and November at the Marshall and Manhattan Chess Clubs was a virtually unknown and apparently true amateur player named Paul R. Ellis from the The Bronx, New York.
The event was described as one of the most exciting races of recent years and Ellis' performance prompted Chess Review to make the bold statement that he might be a candidate for the next U.S. Championship. That's because he had breezed through the Preliminaries and his 10-1 score in the finals was equally convincing.
Ellis learned to play chess at the age of 12 from neighborhood kids and in 1932 he captained the his high school team to the New York
Commerce Interscholastic championship, but didn't play any serious chess during his City College days.
However, between 1933 and 1936 he played for the Empire City Chess Club team in the Metropolitan Chess League matches. During those years he excelled, defeating players of the caliber of, among others, Arnold Denker and Abraham Kupchik.
After a layoff of almost ten years during which time he played no tournament chess, he picked up a stray copy of Chess Review magazine, saw the tournament advertised and decided to enter even though he was without any preparation and was unfamiliar with the most recent opening analysis.
Style-wise his play was positional, he was tenacious in difficult positions and he played the ending well. Apparently Ellis soon disappeared from the chess scene.
In the following critical game Ellis defeated Edward S. Jackson Jr., the defending champion. In this tournament 16-year old Arthur
Bisguier made a very favorable impression and one of his wins was selected by Reuben Fine for Chess Review's Game of the Month.
In this game which featured a four Rook ending, Jackson needed a win in order to retain the title and the win was there, but he missed it.
Once upon a time I studied two books on endings: Basic Chess Endings by Reuben Fine and The Endings in Modern Theory and Practice by Peter Griffiths.
I still have the latter book and it's filled with notes penciled in the margin. If you can find a copy and are interested in really studying the endgame, it's still a valuable book.
In it Griffiths did not devote a lot of space to four Rook endings, saying that in many cases they are more complicated cases of single Rook ending.
Although there is not a lot of material available on endings with four Rook they do appear frequently and they are different.
The "rule" is that four Rook endings are drawn with two exceptions. One, a mating attack is possible and two, you can exchange a pair of Rooks leaving you with a won R+P ending.
E.S. Jackson, Jr.–Paul R. Ellis1–0B72U.S. Amateur, New York1945Stockfish 156
Sicilian Dragon 1.e4 c5 2.f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 g6 6.e2 g7 7.e3 0-0 8.b3 c6 9.f4 e6 10.g4 Jackson was a very aggressive
player so this line suits him very well. a5 This is not good. Much better
was Botvinnik's 10...d5 10...d5 11.f5 c8 12.exd5 b4 13.d6 xd6 14.c5 f4 15.f1 xh2 16.xb4 xg4 17.xg4 g3+ 18.f2 g1+ 19.f1 g3+ 20.f2 g1+ Draw agreed. Alekhine,A-Botvinnik,M Nottingham 1936 11.g5 d7 12.d2 c4 In Motwani,P (2425) -Mestel,A (2515) Swansea 1987, black played 12...Rc8 13.xc4 xc4 14.0-0-0 xb3 14...c8 is also reasonable. 15.b1 xb3 16.axb3 xc3 17.bxc3 c5 Equal. Fiori,H (2081)-Rodriguez,J (2406) Buenos Aires
2014 15.axb3 a5 This threatens ...Qa1+ but has the additional advantage
of preventing the advance of white's e-Pawn. 16.b1 fc8 Considering the
N's coming activity the best course of action was to eliminate it with 18...
Bxc3 16...xc3 17.bxc3 c5 18.xc5 dxc5 19.h4 with approximate equality.
17.d4 Black is in a difficult position here. If he allows the exchange
of Bs white has a strong attack. The move he played has the disadvantage of
leaving him weak on the d-file. e5 17...xd4 18.xd4 c6 19.b4 b6 20.d3 e6 21.b5 c7 22.xd6 18.fxe5 xe5 19.hf1 c6 20.d5 xd2 21.xd2 e8 22.f6+ What could be more reasonable than this? Still, he should have
grabbed the a-Pawn which would have left him with a significant advantage. xf6 23.xf6 b6 Black has pretty much managed to equalize here. 24.h3 24.c3 According to an old note by Kmoch this virtually leaves black without a
move. but that's an overstatement. While his position is difficult, black can
keep himself in the game with 24...Nd7 d7 25.fxd6 xd6 26.xd6 c5 27.d4 xe4 28.d7 xg5 29.xa7 b5 Now comes white's only move to hold any chances
of winning. 30.c4 b4 31.a4 f3 32.b6 White's advantage is minimal and
Shootouts indicate that a draw would be a reasonable outcome. 24...d7
There is not much going on in this position and the maneuvering that follows
is not difficult to understand. 25.f4 f8 26.g4 e6 27.f6 c5 28.d4 d7 29.f4 e6 30.b4 h6 31.h4 xf6 32.gxf6 32.xf6
was more accurate. hxg5 33.xe6 fxe6 34.hxg5 This position should be drawn.
32...h7 33.c3 g5 34.hxg5 hxg5 35.f5 g6 36.dd5 Correct was 36.Kc2 36.c2 e5 36...xe4 is safely met by 37.xg5+ xg5 38.xe4 xf6 39.e1 and white can hold the draw by marching his K over to the K-side. 37.xd6 xd6 38.xe5 xf6 Black has the better chances. 36...xe4 Missing
the win. 36...e5 leaves white with no good options. 37.c2 37.fxe5 dxe5 38.xe5 xf6 wins. 37...xf5 38.xf5 c8 39.d3 e8 40.e3 e6 41.f3 xf6 wins 37.xg5+ xf6 38.g8 e6 39.h5 c7 40.c2 This should
have lost a P, but even if black had captured on b4 it probably would not have
been sufficient to win the game, e5 Missing the win of a P with 40...Rxb4.
Even then, even though he two Ps up, has an outside passed P and white's K is
far away the two active white Rs would make the win unlikely. Keep in mind the
curious pin on the c-Pawn...it will play a part later! 41.h4 d5 42.d3 f5 43.g3 d6 44.e3 f2 45.b3 b2 46.h6+ d7 47.h7 d6 48.f3 xb3
All this R maneuvering has resulted in a position where black has a clear
advantage, but because of the double Rs it's only a draw...if white finds the
one move here that does not lose. 49.fxf7 49.c2 xb4
wins the b-Pan and this time it's enough to give black the win. 49.hxf7 bxc3+ 50.d2 xf3 51.xf3 c4 Black has a won ending. 49.h6+ This is
the only mover that holds the draw. e5 50.h5+ d6 51.h6+ draws by
repetition because retreating to the 7th rank does not help black's cause
either... e7 52.xf7+ xf7 53.h7+ e6 54.xc7 a3 55.h7 and black can
make no headway. 49...bxc3+ After this black is two Ps up plus he can
eliminate a pair of Rs leaving him with a won R+P ending. 50.e2 xf7 51.xf7 b3 52.f4 e5 53.h4 d4 White resigned. 53...d4 54.b5 d5 54...xb5 55.h5+ 55.h7 xb5 56.xa7 This ending can be a bit
tricky, but for white, playing on would ultimately prove futile. 1–0
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