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Thursday, March 9, 2023

William de Visser

     New York master and organizer William de Visser was born on November 5, 1855 and passed away on Long Island at the age of 68 on December 4, 1923. He was a charter member of the Manhattan Chess Club and in 1899, he won the New York State Championship. 
     Charles A. Gilberg (1835-1898) was the author of two chess books. American Chess-Nuts, a collection of problems, was published in 1868. The other book was Crumbs from the Chess-board, also a book of problems, that was published in1890. 
     He had the second largest chess library in America consisting of over 1,500 books.  After Gilberg, who lived in Brooklyn, died his daughter Eugenie inherited her father's chess library upon the death of her mother. Eugenie was married to de Visser. 
     de Visser's opponent in the following game was Walter Penn Shipley (1860-1942, 81 years old), a well-known organizer and chess patron. He was friendly with many famous players, including Steinitz, Lasker, Pillsbury and Capablanca. 
     He served as the referee of 1909 Capablanca - Marshall match and was an organizer of the famous 1904 Cambridge Springs and 1924 New York tournaments. He formed and was the first president of the US Chess Association, a forerunner of the present US Chess Federation. 
     Shipley was also a very strong amateur player, having faced and held his own with strong masters such as Steinitz, Lasker, Bird, Gunsberg and the leading US players of the day including Pillsbury and Marshall. 
     On May 30, 1900, the Franklin Mercantile Chess Club (Philadelphia) met the Manhattan Chess Club in a telegraph match. 

     Founded in 1885, the Franklin Mercantile Chess club was one oldest chess clubs in the country. From the appearance in 1786 of Benjamin Franklin's famous essay "The Morals of Chess," Philadelphia has long been a prominent center of chess activity. International and American chess greats like Stientz, Zukertort, Lasker, Pillsbury, and even Paul Morphy were frequent visitors. I believe that the club has been closed for some time.
     The Manhattan Chess Club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen men, eventually increasing to hundreds, with women allowed as members from 1938. The club closed in 2002. Famous members of the club included Denker, Horowitz, Lombardy, Reshevsky and Fischer. It was in the Manhattan, on March 7. 1942, that Capablanca suffered a stroke while watching a casual game; he died the next day. 
     In the following game de Visser played the Wing Gambit against Shipley's Sicilian and wild complications developed. de Visser finished off the game with a long mating combination that included a sham Q-sac. 

A game that I liked (Fritz 17)

William de VisserWalter P. Shipley1–0B20Manhattan-Franklin MatchNew York, NY30.05.1900Stockfish 15.1
Sicilian Wing Gambit 1.e4 c5 2.b4 A very early attempt to disrupt black’s standard play, the Wing Gambit deflects black's P in an attempt to secure control of d4. White can postpone the gambit playing 2.Nf3 followed by 3.b4, but this deferred line is considered to be best when black plays 2...e6. Most GMs consider the Wing Gambit too reckless. cxb4 3.a3 This most frequently seen although 3.d4 is occasionally played. e5 3...bxa3 is theoretically OK, but in practice it has shown itself to be very risky for black. 4.f3 c6 5.axb4 5.b5 is probably best. f6 6.0-0 xe4 7.e1 d6 8.xe5 with equal chances. Riha,V (2145)-Lalic,B (2418) Prague 2019 5...xb4 6.c4 f6 7.e2 White has no especially efficient way of defending the e-Pawn. 7.c3 e7 8.d4 8.b3 0-0 9.g5 e8 10.0-0 Black stands well. Gorovykh,E (2447)-Yemelin,V (2571) St Petersburg 2010 8...0-0 9.d5 a5 10.xa5 xa5 11.d6 d8 12.0-0 Nanu,C (2325)-Bernat,R (2140) Szeged 1998. Black is winning, but in the game he soon made a catastrophic gaffe and lost! 7...0-0 Threatens to win with ...d5. 8.0-0 d5 9.exd5 xd5 10.xe5 d4 10...f4 is the best followup. 11.e4 h4 Threatening . ..Nh3+ because white's Q is undefended. 12.d3 h3+ Anyway! 13.gxh3 xe4 14.dxe4 xe5 Black is clearly better. 11.d3 f4 Will the harrassment ever stop?! 12.e4 fe2+ This check results in major complications as a highly unbalanced material situation that Shipley has completely misjudged. 12...e6 would have kept a meager advantage. 13.xe6 fxe6 14.c3 b3 15.a2 d6 16.d4 xc1 17.xc1 13.xe2 f5 14.e3 xc2 15.f4 xa1 15...e6 might work better. 16.a4 d4 17.xd4 xd4 18.g4 a5 but here, too, white would have a decisive advantage. 16.xf5 What a mess! Counting material we find that white has a B+N+P vs R+2Ps, an approximately even match up, but in reality white is winning in this situation because he has a very dangerous attack against black's K. 16.xb4 is imprecise and loses the advantage after... c2 17.f4 d4 18.c4 and black has equal play. 16...c7 17.b2 The looming attack on black's K cannot realistically be met. b3 18.d3 g6 This loses in brilliant fashion, but there was no way of saving the game. 18...fe8 19.xh7+ f8 20.e1 f6 21.h8+ e7 22.xg7+ d6 23.xf6+ c5 24.f5 b6 25.c3 xc3 26.xc3 a6 27.b1 a7 28.xb3 ac8 29.h4 and it's over. 19.g4 Logical looking and de Visser is not to be criticized for missing the mate in 12! 19.f6 c3 20.xc3 xc3 21.xc3 xd2 22.g4 h5 23.h6+ h7 24.xf7 g8 25.g5+ h6 26.e6 e4 27.xe4 h7 28.e5 h6 29.g5+ h7 30.xh5# 19...c3 19...gxf5 20.h6# 20.f6 A brilliant solution. 20.xc3 is met by the surprising xc3 21.h6+ 21.dxc3 gxf5 22.xf5 White is better, but the position is a difficult one. 21...h8 22.d5 g7 23.f5 23.g4 d4 and black is back in the game. 23...gxf5 24.xb3 ab8 25.xf5 Stockfish says white is clearly better. Is he really? The answer is yes...in Shootouts white scored 5-0. 20...xf6 21.xf6+ g7 22.e8+ g8 22...h6 23.g7+ h5 24.e2+ 23.xc7 ad8 23...ac8 24.d5 Still wins the exchange. 24.e4 xd2 25.xd2 xd2 26.c3 e2 27.d5 f5 27...xe4 28.f6+ h8 29.xe4+ g8 30.f6+ h8 31.d7+ 28.d3 a2 29.c4 a4 Losing instantly, but there was no way of saving the game. 30.e7# de Visser's conduct of the attack was nearly flawless. 1–0

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