National Master Jude Acers, himself a colorful character, once described Henin as "an extraordinary practical player who wins, draws, and even loses in the most unbelievable fashion. His games are full of bombs, swindles and occasionally lucid planning."
Acers went on to describe Henin as "unpredictable, and a fighter who lives and dies at the board..."
During games he was silent, ponderous and expressionless, but if things got wild he became animated and could even be heard to "murmur a word or two." After the game it was his habit to quickly depart the premises.
According to Acers, when it came to Henin's swindles, Henin claimed that he, himself, was just as often a victim.
Henin was sometimes the recipient of a lot of luck.
There was the time in a tournament in Santa Monica in 1968 when Henin's opponent had a mate in two moves plus Henin's flag had been down for five minutes and his opponent didn't notice it.
Henin kept playing even though hos flag was down and his opponent, with 5 moves to make in 15 minutes got nervous about what he thought was approaching time pressure and offered a draw. They shook hands and Henin, as was his habit, quickly departed.
That story reminds me of the time I was playing in a very small tournament one Sunday afternoon in a church basement. My first round opponent was only rated a bit over 1200, so I had an easy win.
While looking at my fingernails and waiting for him to move, the TD stopped by, stared at the position, shrugged his shoulders, snickered and walked off. When I looked down I immediately saw that my opponent had a Q move that mated in one!
After thinking for a few minutes he played the Q move and mated me, but he didn't say anything and I quickly realized that he was unaware that I was in check, let alone mated, so I shot out a Q move offering to exchanges Qs. He didn't hesitate to exchange Qs and I went on to win. After the game I did like Henin and told him I couldn't look at the game because I was going down the street to grab some fast food.
In the 1954 US Open in New Orleans, Henin tied for places 8-13 with a score of 8-4. His opponent, Kurt Loening (1924-2000, 76 years old) tied for places 65-69 with a 5.5-6.5 score.
At one time (around 1949) Loening served as secretary of the Firestone Chess Club in Akron, Ohio. From 1952-56 he was the Editor of the Ohio Chess Bulletin. At the time this game was played Loening, who was living in Columbus, Ohio, was rated 1815. Henin was living in Chicago and was rated 2020.
Kurt L. Loening–Charles Henin0–1E27US Open, New OrleansNew Orleans, LA USA05.08.1954Stockfish 15.1
Nimzo-Indian 1.d4 f6 2.c4 e6 3.c3 b4 4.a3 xc3+ 5.bxc3 0-0 6.c2 c5 7.f3 c6 8.e3 d5 9.d3 c7 10.0-0 dxc4 11.xc4 e5 12.h3 Theory on this
line is enormous and besides the text white has tried 6 different moves. e4 13.d2 13.g5 is also playable. a5 14.a2 f5 15.f3 equals. Akdag,D
(2172)-Marusenko,P (2327) Helsingor 2008 13...f5 13...a5 14.e2 cxd4 15.exd4 f5 equals. Colon,A-Belkadi,R Varna 1962 14.a4 At some point
over the next few moves black could very well have played ...Na5, but
thankfully he didn't ot the game would not have had the clever finish. fe8 15.a2 ad8 16.a3 b6 17.fc1 d7 Henin is clearly planning something...
line a sacrifce on h3 which white could have prevented with 18.Bf1! 18.b5 18.f1 Intending to add the R to the attack. e6 18...xh3 19.gxh3
is obviously not good for black. 19.a5 d5 20.axb6 axb6 21.dxc5 g6 22.cxb6 e5 and the best continuation is 23.c5 xh3 24.a4 xg2 25.xd7 f3+ 26.h2 xd7 27.d4 h6+ 28.g3 forcing the draw. 18...xh3 While this
hardly wins by force, it make life difficult for white because one wrong move
will prove fatal. 19.xc6 It looks like 19...Qxc6 is forced. 19.gxh3 should be rejected because after xh3 20.f1 h4 21.g2 e6 22.dxc5 e5 Here black has a very strong attack, but unlike in the note to 18.
Bf5 white cannot force a draw. 23.c6 c8 24.a5 h5 25.axb6 axb6 26.cb1 g4 27.b4 h4 28.f3 g3 29.f1 xf3+ 30.h1 h5 31.xf3 31.xg3 xg3# 31...xf3+ 32.g2 f5 33.ab1 g6 with a winning attack. 19.f1 is his best
defense and it minimizes the damage. g4 20.dxc5 h5 Ignoring white's Q-side
play and going for the attack. 21.cxb6 axb6 22.c4 e6 Defending the N and
preparing to add the R to the K-side attack. Black is better. 19...g4
Crushing...the N on c6 isn't needed. 19...xc6 is OK, but it's not nearly
as strong as the text. For example... 20.gxh3 d5 21.f1 e6 22.e2 xh3 23.g1 with a minimal advantage for black. 20.g3 e6 21.b5 h5 Adding
a N to the attack. 22.h2 h6 Adding a R to the attack. 23.g1 23.g1
This avoids the mate in 5, but it, too, is hopeless. xg3 24.f3 exf3 25.f2 g2 26.e4 h2 27.e3 f2 28.f1 g5+ 29.xf2 xf1+ and now it's mate in 5
again. 30.e1 h1 31.xf7+ xf7 32.e8+ xe8 33.f2 xe4+ 34.f3 g3# 23...f4 24.h1 24.gxf4 g2# 24.exf4 f1# 24.xf7+
dealys the mate. xf7 25.c4+ f8 26.xc5+ bxc5 27.f7 g2+ 28.h5 xh5# 24...g2+ White reigned; it's mate next move. 0–1
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