Although the war was nearly over, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported 40 Brooklynites who had been casualties.
There was also a flu pandemic in 1918. In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918. It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was about 675,000 in the United States.
With the war ending on November 11th and Thanksgiving being on November 28th, even in the midst of the pandemic, the nation exuberantly celebrated the holiday.
Unfortunately, the deprivations caused by the war and the pandemic made Thanksgiving food more expensive than ever and the price of turkey and all the embellishments was sky-high.
During the war the Federal Food Administration had taken measures designed to conserve food for the war effort. Americans were asked to reduce their consumption of wheat, meat, sugar and fats in particular.
For this Thanksgiving, for reasons known only to bureaucrats at the FFA, they had ruled that any turkey offered for sale had to weigh at least eight pounds, meaning that it would cost $2.80 for the smallest bird people were allowed to buy; that was nearly a dollar more than a year before.
In Russia a Civil War was taking place and in Odessa, Ossip Bernstein was arrested and imprisoned by the Bolshevik secret police for the crime of being a legal advisor to bankers. Without benefit of a trial a firing squad lined up Bernstein and other prisoners to be shot.
A superior official arrived and looked at the list of prisoners and asked Bernstein if he was the famous master. Not satisfied with Bernstein's answer, the two played a game and when Bernstein quickly won he was released and soon escaped to France.
Everybody knows of German air raids against Britain during WWII and that Vera Menchik was killed in one of them. Not so many know that during WWI the Germans also conducted air raids and in July of 1918, a 76-year old J.H. Blackburne was injured in a London air raid and was rendered temporarily deaf. His wife was also injured.
In August, German master Eric Cohn (1884-1918), a field doctor for the Red Cross, was killed in France. Then on December 27, 1918, Carl Schlechter (1874-1918) died in Budapest at the age of 44. In poor health aggravated by the war, he was found in his room without money, heat or food.
In the year 1918, on October 23rd, Frank Marshall played his famous the Marshall Attack in the Ruy Lopez against Capablanca in the first round in the strong New York tournament. Capablanca won that game, but the Marshall Attack proved a viable defense.
The New York tournament was originally planned as an 8-player double round robin tournament, but Norman T. Whitaker began a game a day before Round 1, got sick and withdrew, leaving it as a 7-player field. 
Capablanca won, but a somewhat surprising second was the Yugoslav player Boriskav Kostic who despite going undefeated in the tournament wasn't able to come close to Capablanca.
By the way, you might be wondering who that last place finisher was. It was John H. Morrison (1889-1975, 85 years old) from Toronto, Canada. He was Canadian Champion in 1910, 1913, 1922, 1924, 1926 and 1931.
Let's take a gander at a long forgotten game from that event. David Janowsky (1868-1927) is pretty well known, but his opponent, Oscar Chajes (1873-1928) is virtually a forgotten master.
Normally one would pay tribute to player by presenting one of his wins, but in this case I had already played over and made notes to the game and it was only when I looked up Chajes' biography that I realized tomorrow is the anniversary of his passing. That's when I discovered that he was a much stronger player than I realized!
Chessmetrics estimates his highest ever rating to have been 2660 in 1920 which put him at number 10 in the world! The top 5 were Capablanca, Alekhine, Lasker, Marshall and Vidmar.
Prounounced HA-yes, he was Jewish and was born in Brody in the Austria-Hungary Empire in what is now the Ukraine. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna, near the home of his uncle, a Rabbi.
In 1904, Chajes immigrated to the United States from Hamburg, Germany and moved to Chicago before finally settling in New York City. He had been convalescing from an illness and on Monday, February 27, 1928, he was discovered unconscious in his apartment in Manhattan. He died the next day, Tuesday, February 28, 1928 at Bellevue Hospital in New York City without regaining consciousness.
[Event "New York"]
[Site "New York, NY USA"]
[Date "1918.10.30"]
[Round "?"]
[White "David Janowsky"]
[Black "Oscar Chajes"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A46"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 15.1"]
[PlyCount "53"]
[EventDate "1918.10.23"]
{London System} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d6 {This defense was a favorite with Chajes,
who has employed it with considerable success in a match that he won earlier
in the year against Janowsky.} 3. Bf4 {This is the London System which can be
used against virtually any black defense. It's a solid opening, but offers
little in the way of dynamic play.} Nbd7 4. h3 c6 5. Nbd2 (5. e3 Qc7 6. Be2 e5
7. Bh2 Be7 8. O-O {equals. Sergeev,V (2428)-Stocek, J (2592) CZE 2010}) (5. c3
g6 6. e3 Bg7 7. Be2 O-O 8. O-O {equals. Rakhmangulov,A (2350) -Bikuzhin,M
(2241) Kirov 2014}) 5... Qc7 6. e4 e5 7. Bh2 (7. dxe5 {is not bad, but it's
less effective because it releases the pressure in the center.} Nxe5 8. Bxe5
dxe5 9. Bc4 Be7 10. O-O {Black has fully equalized. Cirjan,D (2051)-Sorbun,C
(2083) Miercurea Ciuc 2002}) 7... exd4 8. Nxd4 g6 (8... Nc5 9. Qf3 Ne6 10. Nxe6
Bxe6 11. O-O-O Be7 12. Bc4 O-O (12... Bxc4 13. Nxc4 {would be too costly for
black} Rd8 14. e5 dxe5 15. Bxe5 Qc8 16. Nd6+ Bxd6 17. Bxd6 {White is winning.})
13. Bxe6 fxe6 14. Qb3 {Here, too, black's position is difficult.}) 9. Bd3 (9.
g4 {was a good alternative. For example...} Nb6 {Preventing Nc4} (9... Bg7 10.
Nc4 O-O 11. Bxd6) 10. Bg2 Bg7 11. c3 O-O 12. O-O {and white has an aggressive
position.}) 9... Ne5 10. Be2 Bg7 11. c3 O-O 12. O-O Re8 13. f4 Ned7 14. Bf3 Nc5
15. Qc2 Ne6 16. Rad1 d5 {Chajes has not been as successful with his defense as
he had been in previous encounters with Janowsky and now he is now faced with
a dangerous onset on the K-side, and his efforts to avert it break down
completely.} (16... Qb6 17. Nc4 Qc5 (17... Nxd4 18. Rxd4 Qd8 19. e5 {wins}) 18.
f5 {and black is still facing a dangerous attack.}) 17. e5 {The attack begins..
.are black's defensive resources going to be adequate?} Nxd4 18. cxd4 Bf5 19.
Qc3 Ne4 $16 20. Bxe4 Bxe4 21. Nxe4 dxe4 22. f5 Qb6 (22... gxf5 23. Rxf5 Qd7 24.
Rg5 Re6 {and black actually has what looks to be good defenive chances.}) 23.
e6 fxe6 {This move turns out to be a complete disaster.} (23... f6 {is tougher.
} 24. g4 Rad8 {and while white clearly stands better, there is no immediate
winning breakthrough.}) 24. f6 Bxf6 (24... Bh8 25. f7+ {is even worse.}) 25.
Rxf6 {Black can now resign.} e5 {After this white has a mate in 11...not that
it matter because there was nothing any better.} 26. Qc4+ Kh8 (26... Kg7 {
holds out a bit longer.} 27. Rf7+ Kh8 28. Rf8+ Kg7 29. Qf7+ Kh6 30. Bf4+ exf4
31. Qxf4+ g5 32. Rf6+ Kg7 33. Rf7+ Kg8 34. Qf6 Qxd4+ 35. Rxd4 e3 36. Qg7#) 27.
Rf8+ {[%mdl 512] A nifty finish. Black resigned.} (27. Rf8+ Rxf8 28. Bxe5+ Rf6
29. Bxf6#) 1-0
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