The building used to be known as Steinway Hall, an 11-story office building with a ground-floor theater (later it became a cinema). In the early 1900s the building held the offices of a group of famous Chicago architects that included a young Frank Lloyd Wright. Steinway Hall was torn down in 1970 and replaced with a modern 600 foot tall building.
The Saturday I popped into the chess club there was a tournament taking place and as I began walking around looking at some of the games in progress a seedy looking character, either the club manager or the tournament director I presumed, walked up and tried to shake me down for a "spectator fee."
At first I thought he was joking, but he wasn't and when I told him I was not going to pay a fee I was told I had to go, which I did. I have purchased tickets to US Championships and international tournaments, but a weekend Swiss? That's absurd!
Chicago is one of the country's largest cities, so it's no surprise that it has always had a fair share of strong players and the Chicago Chess Club wasn't the only one in the city. There was Chess Unlimited on North Harlem and the Gompers Park Chess Club on West Forster. Nearby Oak Park and Calumet City also had clubs.
In the early 1900s, as an inkling of the strength of the Chicago Chess and Checker Club, they had defeated Brooklyn and Boston in telegraph matches and in 1904 the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota were overwhelmed and, later, the Franklin
Chess Club of Philadelphia lost a match to the club.
The following game is from the match against the Twin Cities.
I could find no information on the Chicago player Carl Medinus (August 4, 1873 - December 6, 1941, 68 years old). His opponent was not the well known Horace R. Bigelow (1898-1980), a prominent member of the Manhattan Chess Club and one of organizers of the New York 1924 tournament. He was Horace Erastus Bigelow (1867-1942) and he was H.R.'s father.
A game that I liked (Fritz 17)
Carl Medinus (Chicago)–H.E. Bigelow (Twin Cities)1–0Telegraph Match1904Stockfish 15.1
Vienna Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.c3 f6 3.f4 White offers a P to gain control
over the center. d5 This move, striking back at the center, is the best way
to meet white's last move. 3...exf4 White usually plays 4.Bc4 or much less
often 4.Nf3, but the engines like 4.e5 g8 5.f3 d6 6.d4 and white is
better. 4.fxe5 xe4 5.f3 The other option is 5.Qf3 c6 The usual move
is the rock solid 5...Be7 6.d4 6.b5 is more exact. g4 7.d3 xc3 8.bxc3 a6 9.xc6+ bxc6 10.0-0 with a completely equal position. 6...b4 7.d2 This is bit slow. 7.Qd3 would have been a bit better. f5 Stopping a
square short. White would have been more uncomfortable facing 7... Bg4 which
would have pretty much forced him to play the passive 8.Be2 owing to the pin
on his N. 7...xd2 8.xd2 0-0 9.d3 g4 10.0-0 h8 11.h3 h5 12.a3 a5 13.b4 b6 14.e2 xf3 15.xf3 xd4 16.h1 xf3 17.gxf3 h4 18.f4 g5
0-1 (18) Ramirez Carrizo,V (2144)-Rohl Montes,J (2411) ICC INT 2009 7...xc3 There is no reason to play this unforced move and the doubled Ps are no
disadvantage for white. 8.bxc3 0-0 9.d3 g4 10.0-0 f6 11.exf6 xf6 12.c1 equals. De Tarso,S-Segal,A (2309) Sao Paulo 2001 8.e2 xd2 9.xd2 e4 10.0-0 Castling Q-side was a good option. 0-0 11.ad1 b6 11...f6 Counterattacking white's center was more appropriate. After 12.exf6 xf6 13.a3 xc3 14.bxc3 d6 black has completely equalized. 12.a3 e7 13.b5 xf3 14.xc6 14.gxf3 is met by xd4 with good play. 14.xf3 xd4 15.g3 Black is also well off after 15...Kh8, but not... xb5 16.h6 g6 17.h3 h4 18.xd5 and white is winning. 14...xd1 15.xd1 15.xa8 is much
worse. xa8 16.xd1 f6 equals 15...b8 16.xd5 Clearly white has the
upper hand and the way Medinus conducts the rest of the game is instructive. f6 17.g4 f5 17...fxe5 Practically speaking this was a better decision. In
Shootouts white scored 5-0, but in one of the games the ending reached a B+N
vs a lone K; an easy with for the engine, but not for a human. 18.e6+ h8 19.xe7 xe7 20.xe7 xf1+ 21.xf1 f8+ 22.e2 exd4 23.d3 The ending
favors black. 18.xf5 xf5 19.xf5 g5 Black's problem is that white's
pieces dominate the board. 20.c3 a5 21.g3 h8 22.h4 c1 23.e6 d6 24.e7 xg3+ 24...xc6 gets him mated. 25.f8+ xf8 26.exf8# 25.f1 d6 26.e8+ xe8 27.xe8 xb2 28.h5 28.c8 f8+ 29.e2 xa3 30.xc7 would
also win 28...xa3 29.c8+ The ending is hopeless, so black resigned. For
the most part precise play by the winner. 1–0
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