It wasn’t all bad news though. 1950 was the start of the rapid changes with families moving into the suburbs, kids watching Howdy Doody on 12 inch black and white TV sets and spending Saturday afternoons watching cartoons at the movie theaters.
The median family income was $3,300 a year ($37,763.03 in today’s dollars); the median income across the country in 2022 was $44,225. Milkmen and bread men delivered to your doorstep...milk was 83 cents a gallon and bread was 12 cents a loaf.
It was a busy year in chess. Lost that year were the patron Maurice Wertheim (1886-1950) who sponsored many U.S. championships and Soviet master and the 1929 USSR Champion Boris Velinsky (1888-1950).
In tournaments Laszlo Szabo of Hungary won at Hastings 1949/50, scoring 8-1. Larry Evans, age 17, finished 4th. Liudmila Rudenko (won the Women's World Championship, held in Moscow.
David Bronstein and Isaac Boleslavsky won the first candidates tournament, held in Budapest. Samuel Reshevsky was invited, but the State Department would mot allow him to go. Bronstein won the Candidates playoff, 7.5-6.5, against Boleslavsky.
The Yugoslav team (Gligoric, Pirc, Trifunovic, Rabar, Vidmar junior, Puc) won the Dubrovnik Olympiad. The USA finished 4th.
Hans Johner won the Swiss championship for the 12th time. Miguel Najdorf won the Amsterdam international ahead of Samuel Reshevsky. And, Paul Keres won the USSR Championship.
In 1950, the first USCF rating list appeared. Reuben Fine was #1 at 2817 and Reshevsky was #2 at 2770. Herman Steiner was the U.S. Champion (since 1948), James B. Cross won the U.S. Junior championship and Arthur Bisguier won the U.S. Open.
In England the annual Agnes Stevenson Memorial, an open that was played in the 1950s and 1960s with Southsea being the venue from 1949 to 1952. Mrs. Stevenson was a British Ladies Champion who met an untimely end in 1935 when she accidentally walked into an airplane propeller.
The 1950 tournament was Arthur Bisguier's first international success in Europe and Jonathan Penrose created a sensation by defeating both Tartakower and Bogoljubow. His loss to Bisguier in the eighth round knocked him out of first into a tie for third place.
In the following game 16-year old Jonathan Penrose (1933-2021) surprised everyone by defeating his famous opponent Dr. Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956).
Jonathan Penrose–Savielly Tartakower1–0B28Southsea19.04.1950Stockfish 15.1
Sicilian Defense 1.e4 c5 2.f3 a6 This was a favorite system of
Tartakower's, but it came to be known as the O'Kelly Variation after the
Belgian GM. 3.d4 The maisn (and probably best) line is 3.c3 cxd4 4.xd4 e5 At the time this move was seen frequently, but requires great skill in the
handling of the minor pieces. More solid is 4...e6 5.f3 5.f5 d5 6.g3 d4 and black has fully equalized. 5...f6 6.c4 e7 7.0-0 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.g5 9.e2 c7 10.g5 e6 11.b3 bd7 12.fd1 h6 is equal. Ingvason,J
(2142)-Schou-Moldt,T (2228) Reykjavik ISL 2014 9...bd7 Played so that if
white plays Bxf6 black can recapture with the N and keep white tied to
stopting black from playing ...d5 10.e1 h6 11.h4 11.xf6 xf6 12.d5 g4 13.xf6+ xf6 14.d3 e7 15.d2 h8 16.f1 g5 Draw agreed. Stein,
L-Taimanov,M Moscow 1961 agreed to a draw in a few more moves. 11...b5 12.b3 b7 12...xe4 loses... 13.xe7 xe7 14.xe4 and the d-Pawn also
goes. 12...g5 is a better defense. 13.g3 c5 White is forced to tend
to his e-Pawn. 14.d2 xb3 15.axb3 e6 with equal chances. 13.d2
Penrose reasoned that at f3 the N is not very effective so he begins a long
journey to reposition it on f5. The result is that Tartakower ends up
weakening his K-side. 13.xf6 is the move dictated by routine tinking. xf6 14.d5 xd5 15.xd5 b6 16.xb7 xb7 17.c3 In spite of his backward
P and "bad" B black has a fully equal position. 13...g5 Equally good was
the advance of the other N-Pawn, 13...b5 14.g3 c5 15.f3 c8 16.f1 b4 17.d5 xb3 18.xf6+ 18.axb3 xd5 19.exd5 c5 20.d2 c7 21.xb4 xd5 22.d2 e6 with an active position. 18...xf6 19.axb3 c7 Here Tartakower
starts drifting towards an inferior position. 19...d5 is much more active. 20.exd5 xd5 21.xe5 b7 equas 20.e3 fd8 21.f2 Thinking about Nd5-b6
e7 Preventing the N maneuver. 22.e2 Much worse is 22.f5 f8
and the N is accomplishing nothing on f5 22.c4 d5 23.b6 dxe4 24.c1 exf3 25.xc8 xc8 26.d1 e4 and black has a decisive advantage. 22...b8 This enables the the B to go to c8 from where it can be used on the K-side
and prevent the entry of white's N on the white squares. 22...d5 This
counterattack in the center is, as is often the case, the best way to go. 23.exd5 c5 24.d2 xe3 25.xe3 d6 with equal chances. 23.d2 Now, of
course t,here is no advantage to playing ...d5, but it's still black's best
chance! f8 Black has extremely few moves 23...d5 24.xd5 xd5 25.exd5 a5 White has the better position. 24.f5 h5 Further loosening the
position of his K. 24...c8 gives uo the P, but after 25.xh6 b5 26.f5 26.g4 xg4 27.fxg4 c6 28.d5 f6 Wite is better, but black is putting up
a stout defense. 26...xf5 27.exf5 c8 28.g4 d5 There's no more K-side
attacking chances for white and black has some counterplay. 25.e2
Certainly not bad. Penrose is wearing down his famous opponent with positional
chess, not tactics. c8 26.f4 xf5 27.xh5 f6 Guarding against Qh8+ 28.exf5 gxf4 29.h4 the cold blooded 29.Rxa6 was technically better,
but no matter...black is in trouble. b6+ 29...xh4 is not much better. 30.h8+ e7 31.xh4+ 30.h1 d5 31.e1 threatening Qh6+. d6
This meets with a brilliant refutation. 31...g7 makes white's
task more difficult. 32.de2 xh4 33.xh4 e4 34.g4+ f8 35.xf4 d6
White is clearly better. 32.xd5 b6 32...xd5 33.xf6 e8 34.xe5+ wins the Q 33.dxe5 xe5 34.xe5 The threat is Qh8# f6 35.e6 f3 A dying gasp! 36.h8+ 36.xb6 d1+ 37.e1 xe1# 36...f7 37.xf6+ g8 38.g6+ f8 39.e7# A great win by Penrose over his illustrious
opponent. 1–0
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