An official Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March that the Maine was blown up by a mine, but the court did not directly place the blame on Spain. Nevertheless, many in Congress and most of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible and called for a declaration of war.
As a result, on April 21st President William McKinley formally requested Congress to declare war on Spain. The Spanish-American War lasted until December 10, 1898.
It wasn't until 1976 that a team of American naval investigators concluded that the Maine explosion was likely caused by a fire that ignited its ammunition stocks, not by a Spanish mine or act of sabotage.
May 30, 1898, was Decoration Day or, as it is called today, Memorial Day, and the war was still in progress and on that day, while the parades and memorials to those who died in wars was going on, a telegraph match was held between the Boston Chess Club and the Chicago Chess and Checker Club. The final score favored Chicago, but neither club had its best players in the lineup.
The following was one of the more interesting games from the match. Elmer Southard (July 28, 1876 - February 8, 1920) was born in Boston, he lived there for nearly his entire life.
A promising player who distinguished himself while in college, he was a strong amateur who enjoyed the game throughout his life.
After briefly studying in Germany, he returned to the United States as a pathologist at Danvers State Hospital (also known as the Danvers Lunatic Asylum). It was a psychiatric hospital located in Danvers, Massachusetts.
Later, Southard headed the Boston Psychopathic Hospital when it opened in 1912, pioneering the study of brain pathology with particular interests in shell shock and schizophrenia. Southard published several books, including Shell Shock and Other Neuropsychiatric Problems.
He was president of the American Medico-Psychological Association and the Boston Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, and held advisory positions with the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service and the Eugenics Record Office.
It was Southard introduced, among others, Karl Menninger to psychiatry, and Menninger later helped establish the foundation which bears his family name.
At the age of 43, Southard died of pneumonia in 1920 during a trip to New York City to deliver lectures to two medical societies.
His opponent was Carl Medinus (August 4, 1873 - December 6, 1941, 68 years old).
When Frank Marshall visited the Chicago Chess and Checker Club in December 1899 and January 1900 to play a match against Sidney Johnston (whom he only narrowly defeated +7 -6 =2), he was then challenged to a five-game match byMedinus but Marshall declined, pleading lack of time.
Marshall returned to Chicago later in the month and played Medinus a match in which the winner was the first to win four games. Marshall won by a score of +4 -2 =0.
Elmer Southard (Boston)–Carl Medinus (Chicago)1–0C11Team Match1898Stockfish 15
French Defense 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.c3 f6 4.e5 fd7 5.ce2 Originally
introduced by Steinitz at Vienna in 1875, this move was eventually discarded
in favor of 5.f4 c5 6.c3 c6 7.f4 cxd4 Generally, black prefers 7...Qb6 7...b6 8.f3 f6 9.a3 e7 10.h4 0-0 White has tried both 11.Rh3 and 11.b4
with equal chances in both cases. 8.xd4 8.cxd4 b4+ 9.d2 b6 10.f3 0-0 11.xb4 xb4+ 12.d2 is equal. Tarrasch,S-Noa,J Hamburg 1885 8...xd4 9.cxd4 e7 10.d3 b8 11.g4 b4+ This move, squandering time, serves
little purpose because white's K is not badly placed on f3. The correct move
was 11...g6 with full equality. 12.f2 0-0 Black castles into a very
dangerous attack. 12...g6 was still the correct move. 12...g6 13.a3 e7 14.e3 b6 15.e2 d7 15...xb2 16.hb1 wins the Q 16.hc1 0-0 with a
slight advantage for white. 13.f3 Hoping black will let him play 14.Bxh7+ f5 13...c6 14.xh7+ xh7 15.g5+ g8 16.h4 e8 17.e3 17.h7+ f8
should also end up as a victory for white. 17...b6 18.h5 d8 19.a3
There is no immediate mate, but after this black has no reasonable move. e7
This takes away the Ks escape square. 19...xa3 20.h7+ f8 21.bxa3 b2+ 22.f3 c6 23.hc1 d7 24.h5 e7 25.xf7+ d8 26.ab1 xa3 27.xb7 e7 28.xc6 xc6 29.xe6+ c8 30.c7+ b8 31.xe7 xe7 32.xe7 d7 33.xd7
mate next move. 20.h7+ f8 21.h8# 14.h3 The threat is Ng5 e7 15.g4 g6 15...b6 puts up a tougher defense. 16.g1 d7 17.d2 c6 18.c3 g6 16.g1 h8 After this black cannot hold the game.
He had to play either 16...Qb6 or 16...Nc6 to have any chance of defending his
position. 17.d2 Good enough. Better, but more difficult to calculate and
therefore not as clear would have been 17.gxf5 exf5 18.Rxg6 e8 18.g3 g8 19.ag1 d7 19...c6 was only marginally better. 20.gxf5 exf5 21.h4 xh4 22.xh4 f7 23.h6 d7 24.h4 with a very strong attack. 20.gxf5 exf5 21.e6 xe6 22.e5 f6 23.xg6 23.xg6+ was also good. xg6 24.xg6 xd4+ 25.f1 xg1 26.xg1 White wants to mate with Bc3+. d4 27.h4 d7 28.f2 and 29.Qxd4+ leaves white with a won position. 23...xe5 24.xg8+ xg8 25.fxe5 a4 Practically resigning, but there was no defense. 25...e6 26.h6 f7 27.h4 Threatening Qd8+ 27.g7+ isn't bad either. xg7 28.xg7 xg7 27...d7 28.g7 e8 29.g5 f8 29...b6 30.xh7+ xh7 31.g7# 30.e7 mates in 7 at most. xe7 31.xe7 g8 32.xe6 g6 33.e8+ g8 34.xd7 b6 35.xf5 g6 36.xg6 mate next move. 26.h4 White has a mate in 7. d7 27.h6 27.xf5 was a bit quicker. c6 28.h6 g6 29.xg6 hxg6 30.xd7 g5 31.xg5 f8+ 32.xf8 h7 33.g7# 27...f7 It's still mate in 8.
27...Be6 would have held out 2 moves longer. 28.g7+ Both 28.e6 and 26.Bxf5
mate a move sooner, but it does not really matter, does it? g8 29.xf5 g6 30.xg6 After this white is still winning but there is no linger a forced
mate. 30.f6 f8 31.e6 e8 32.h6 e7 33.xe7 e8 34.xg6 hxg6 35.xg6+ xg6 36.xg6+ h8 37.f6# 30...hxg6 31.h8+ f7 32.e6+ This had to be
played because any other move and the win has evaporated. 32.xa8 and
white cannot escape the coming Q checks so black draws. xd4+ 33.g2 g4+ 34.h1 f3+ 35.g2 d1+ 32.h7 xd4+ Here, too, there is no escaping the Q
checks. 33.g2 e4+ 34.g3 d3+ 32...xe6 White must still avoid falling
into the grabbing the R trap. 33.e1+ 33.xa8 c2+ 34.e3 e4+ 35.d2 f4+ 36.c3 e3+ 36...f3+ 37.b4 White has escaped. 37.b4 d2+ 37...xg1 would be fatal after 38.e8+ f5 38...d6 39.e5+ xe5 40.dxe5+ c7 41.e7+ c8 42.c5+ with a won ending. 39.xd7+ f4 40.d6+ e4 41.e5+ 38.a3 e3+ 39.b3 xg1 Now this is safe. After 40.e8+ d6 41.e5+ xe5 42.dxe5+ c7 and in this line white does not have Qc5+ forcing the exchange
of Qs and so the Q+P ending is likely drawn. 33...f7 34.h7 Threatening
mate with Bh8+. f8 35.xf8+ xf8 36.e7+ g8 37.e6+ h7 38.f7+ h8 39.f6+ Black resigned. 39.f6+ g8 40.xg6+ h8 41.f6+ g8 42.g1+ h7 43.h4# 1–0
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