Just stating a fact can be misleading. Recipients of Time’s “award” are chosen by analyzing how much coverage they had in the media over a given year.
Time’s criteria for the selection is “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill.” Winners are people with the biggest impact on the news and that is not always an honor.
In fact, Time’s1939 issue described Hitler as "the greatest threatening force that the democratic, freedom-loving world faces today."
It said Hitler's actions "left civilized men and women aghast" and called Hitler "the man most responsible for this world tragedy is a moody, brooding, unprepossessing, 49-year old Austrian-born ascetic with a Charlie Chaplin mustache."
I remember my parents laughingly telling me about Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds that was broadcast live over the CBS radio network at 8 pm (Eastern time) on October 30, 1938 and how it caused panic in the eastern United States.
Some listeners tuning in late believed that a Martian invasion was actually taking place. The size of the panic hasd been disputed though simply because the program had relatively few listeners.
Still, like on today’s social media accounts, thousands of listeners shared the false reports with others. A few newspapers even jumped on it and reported people fleeing their homes proved the existence of a mass panic...it sold papers. Some preferred to call CBS, newspapers or the police with questions about the reality of the reports.
Future Tonight Show host Jack Paar was working as an announcer for WGAR radio station in Cleveland, Ohio and when panicked listeners started calling the station, he attempted to calm them down by saying, "The world is not coming to an end. Trust me. When have I ever lied to you?" Not surprisingly, some accused Parr of lying and covering up the truth.
Let’s move on to the chess stuff. As far as I know there has only been one book printed containing the best games of Alexander Tolush (1910-1969) and it was published in Russia back in 1983.
That’s too bad because in the middle of the 20th century he was one of the best of the Soviet players. Although he was an outstanding imaginative attacking player his play was never quite sound enough to reach the very highest honors
He worked as a chess journalist and was a noted trainer whose pupils included Keres and Spassky. For whatever reason Tolush was rarely allowed to play abroad.
His opponent in the following game from the 1938 Trade Unions Championship that was played Leningrad was Soviet Master Alexander S. Budo (1909-1982) from Russia. From Leningrad, he held high posts in management of the city’s buildings.
I like the game because for a few moves it looks like Budo is launching a promising attack against Tolush’s King which has castled Q-side. But, appearances can’t always be trusted. Tolush beat off the attack and was left with a lot of extra plastic so Budo resigned.
Alexander V Tolush–Alexander S Budo1–0E30Trade Unions Champ, Leningrad1938Stockfish 15.1
Nimzo-Indian: Leningrad Variation 1.d4 f6 2.c4 e6 3.c3 b4 4.g5
This is known as the Leningrad Variation because its theory was developed
extensively by players from there and in more modern times especially by Boris
Spassky. e7 This move has disappeared from practice. Today black plays
either 4...h6 or the immediate 4...c5. 5.c2 0-0 6.e3 xc3+ There was no
reason to play this until provoked by white playing a3. Simply 6...h6 was
adequate. 7.xc3 d6 8.d3 e5 9.e2 c6 10.0-0-0 This sharp move,
eschewing 10,d5, is typical of Tolush. 10.d5 b8 11.e4 h6 12.d2 a5 13.g3 bd7 14.0-0 c5 This closed position would not be to Tolush's liking. 10...e8 11.b3 h6 12.h4 a5 13.c3 13.a4 stopping the
advance of the a-Pawn favors black. g5 14.g3 g4 15.he1 15.xb7
is a trap white must avoid. b4 is winning for black. 15...a6 16.h3 b6 17.a3 xe2 18.xe2 e4 19.b1 b4 and black is better. 13...a4 13...exd4 would be a really bad mistake. 14.d5 14.exd4 xd4 favors black. 14...d8 15.xf6+ gxf6 16.b1 followed by Qd3 and white's position is much
better. 14.a3 g5 14...exd4 is still bad. 15.d5 d8 16.xf6+ gxf6 17.c2 e5 18.exd4 g6 19.g3 15.g3 exd4 How this is safe to play because
the 3rd rank is blocked to white's Q. 16.exd4 16.d5 xd5 17.cxd5 e5
and now it's black who is better. 16...xd4 Black has won a P, but at the
cost of weakening his K-side, so white has compensation. 17.f4 e3+ From
here the Q will get attacked costing black time he cannot afford. 17...f5
was a better alternative, 18.he1 d7 19.xe8+ xe8 20.fxg5 hxg5 21.xa4 xa4 22.xa4 xd3 23.xd3 e2+ 24.d2 xg3 25.hxg3 e4+ Black has active
piece play. 18.d2 e6 Better was the developing move 18. ..Bf5 19.e1 c5 20.b4 20.xc5 only results in equality after xc5 21.xe8+ xe8 22.c2 e6 20...axb3 A miscalculation. Black does not get nearly enough
compensation for the R. Even so, practically speaking the move does give him
some dangerous play because white must defend carefully. 20...c6 21.de2 d7 22.fxg5 clearly favors white, but it's the best line black has. 21.xa8 d7 22.xb7 a3+ 23.b1 c5 24.xe8+ xe8 25.f3 This move was
likely overlooked by Budo. It guards e4 25.xc7 This is probably what he
expected...it's an obvious capture. xd3 Drawing the R away from the defense
of a2. 26.xd3 bxa2+ 27.a1 c1+ 28.xa2 c2+ 29.a3 xd3 Here things
get interesting. White needs to defend the N, but how? 30.e1 A must play. 30.b3 loses to e4 31.e1 e3 attacking the B. 30...gxf4 31.e7 d4 32.b3 c6 Black's advantage is minimal. 25...g4 26.e2 bxa2+ The final
mistake. 26...b4 was worth a try because white would still have his work
cut out for him to score the point. 27.a3 xc3 27...xa3 28.h4 b2 29.a2 cd7 30.xb2 is winning for white. 28.e1 b2 29.d1 xa3 30.xb2 xb2+ 31.xb2 Using Stockfish white scored 5-0, but the wins took 80 to over 100
moves! 27.xa2 b3+ 28.a1 a3 29.c2 c6 30.f2 fe4 31.xc5 Black
resigned. 31.xc5 xc5 32.xg4+ f8 33.f5 Hoping to play f6 e3 34.e2 g5 35.d4 g7 36.xg7+ xg7 37.b4 a8 38.d5 xd5 39.cxd5 Black is
hoplessly lost. 1–0
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