The result is air pollution traveling into the United States producing hazy skies and triggering air quality alerts across parts of the country. In fact, the smoke has even traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and is hovering over western Europe.
About 9:00am this morning I was out running errands and the haze was so thick that some street lights had come on and most cars had their headlights automatically turn on. Oddly, you could not smell smoke though.
Going back to 1951, life expectancy for males was a scant 65.6 while women fared much better...71.4 years. On television “funny” people were Milton Berle and Lucille Ball. I never cared for either one of them. Even as kid I thought their “humor” was silly and not at all funny.
The novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger came out. For those unfamiliar with the book, it tells of a weekend in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield after he was expelled from prep school. Confused and disillusioned, he wandered around alone in New York City and questions adult morality, identity and meaning.
Conspiracy theorists claim Salinger didn’t write the book, the Central Intelligence Agency did as part of a plot to brainwash people. The reason for the theory is that celebrity killers Mark Chapman (murdered John Lennon), John Hinckley (shot President Ronald Reagan who survived), Robert Bardo (Rebecca Schaeffer, an actress and model who was murdered by a fan) and Lee Harvey Oswald (killed President John Kennedy) all supposedly had recently read or had the book with them while committing their murders.
In baseball Joe DiMaggio had a 56 game hitting streak. And, Eddie Gaedel at 3 feet, 7 inched tall became the shortest person in Major League history. His story is quite interesting and you can read it on Wikipedia HERE.
Like Eddie Gaedel, US Master Stephen Popel (August 15, 1909- December 27, 1987) is pretty much forgotten. He was born in what used be be known as Austria-Hungary but is now the Ukraine and died in Fargo, North Dakota.
He was many times the champion of Lvov, Paris and what was billed as the Ukrainian Championship of in North America.
Popel was the nephew of a player whose name was frequently seen in old chess books: Ignatz Popiel (1863-1941). Popel learned chess as a child and played in his first tournament at age 12. He eventually was regarded as one of the important masters of pre-World War II Europe.
In 1931, Popel earned a masters degree in French and Latin languages and literature from the University at Lvov. During WW2 he was the personal secretary to the Archbishop of the Ukranian Catholic Church.
In 1944 he somehow managed to avoid deportation to Siberia during the Soviet occupation and possibly a worse fate because the Russians shot a lot of people. He fled westward and wound up in Krakow, Poland.
After the war he escaped to France.
In 1956, Popel migrated to the US where three times he won the Michigan state championships: 1957, 1958, and 1959.
Around 1960 Popel became a professor of French language and literature at North Dakota State University in Fargo. He was champion of North Dakota 11 times between 1965 to 1980.
Chess metrics estimates his highest rating to have been 2532 in 1952 ranking him 123rd in the world.
His opponent in the following game played in Hastings 1951/52 was Harry Golombek (1911-1995). He was an IM and was awarded and an Emeritus GM title in 1985.
During World War II, Golombek worked at Bletchley Park, alongside other British masters, deciphering the German Enigma codes.
He was also a well known chess author.
In writing Golombek’s obituary British player William Hartston described Golombek;s pay this way: (He) was a true professional among amateurs. His style was correct rather than imaginative, strong in defence and he had a technique good enough to take merciless advantage of the positional errors of less chess-educated opponents.
A game that I liked (Fritz 17)
[Event "Hastings 1951/52"]
[Site ""]
[Date "1952.01.04"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Harry Golombek"]
[Black "Stephan A Popel"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A15"]
[Annotator "Stockfish/Komodo"]
[PlyCount "86"]
[EventDate "1951.12.27"]
{English Opening vs King's Indian} 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. g3 d6 5.
Bg2 O-O 6. O-O e5 7. d3 Nc6 8. Bd2 {Golombek's opening play as never very
exciting.} h6 9. a3 Be6 10. Qc1 (10. Ne1 d5 11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. Nxd5 Bxd5 13. Bc3
{Equals. Ireneusz,L-Tukmakov,V (2585) Geneve 1995}) (10. b4 Qd7 11. b5 {
Also playable is 11.Rc1} Nd4 12. Nxd4 exd4 13. Nd5 Nxd5 14. cxd5 Bh3 15. Bxh3
Qxh3 16. Rc1 {Equals. Greenfeld,A (2560)-Tseitlin,M (2545) Beersheba 1996})
10... Kh7 11. b4 Qd7 12. b5 Ne7 13. Re1 {This move is hard to explain. The R
sits here doing nothing for another 17 moves. 13.Rb1 makes more sense.} Nh5 14.
Rb1 {One gets the feeling that Golombek is just making moves whereas Popel
actually has plans on the K-side.} f5 15. h3 g5 16. Nd5 Ng6 (16... Nxd5 17.
cxd5 Bf7 18. e4 Nf6 (18... f4 19. g4 {Black is stymied on the K-side and now
it's white who has the better prospects.}) 19. Rb4 Rfc8 20. Qb2 {White is
slightly better.}) (16... Bxd5 17. cxd5 f4 18. g4 Nf6 19. Qc4 {Black's L-side
action has been slowed and white is ready to begin Q-side operations.}) 17. Nh2
{Much too passive.} (17. Bxg5 {needed to be played.} c6 (17... hxg5 18. Nxg5+
Kg8 19. Nxe6 Qxe6 20. Qg5 Nhf4 21. Nxf4 Nxf4 22. gxf4 {With a winning position.
}) 18. Nc3 e4 {White has the option of capturing on e4 or c6...eithe way the
chances would remain about equal.}) 17... c6 {With no immediate progress
possible on the K-side black drives the N back.} 18. Nc3 Nf6 19. Qc2 Rac8 20.
Qa4 f4 (20... e4 {was more precise.} 21. dxe4 f4 22. g4 Ne5 {with active play.}
) 21. g4 {With this move white has gummed up black's K-side operations and is
now hope to get the initiative to begin action on the Q-side.} Nh4 22. bxc6 {
White will regret not preserving his B by retreating it to h1.} (22. Bh1 Rf7 (
22... h5 23. Qxa7 {and white is better.}) 23. Qxa7 d5 24. bxc6 bxc6 25. Qxd7
Rxd7 26. cxd5 cxd5 27. a4 {favors white.}) 22... bxc6 23. Ne4 (23. Bh1 {
can now be met by} h5 {and suddenly black's attack i rolling again}) 23... Nxg2
24. Nxf6+ Bxf6 25. Kxg2 h5 26. f3 {With the K-side blocked white appears safe,
but Popel has a plan to open it up.} Kg7 27. Qa6 Rf7 {[%mdl 2048]} 28. Rb4 {
Perhaps it was white's intention to double Rs on the b-file then try to invade
the 7th rank, but he doesn't get the time.} d5 29. cxd5 (29. Reb1 e4 30. Rb7
Rc7 31. Rxc7 Qxc7 32. cxd5 exf3+ 33. exf3 Bxd5 {With a promising position.})
29... cxd5 30. Rc1 Rxc1 31. Bxc1 e4 32. dxe4 dxe4 {The position has been very
delicate for the last few moves and white has managed to keep things balanced,
but bot he makes a serious error.} 33. fxe4 {[%mdl 8192] The losing move.
Black's f-Pawn will soon decide the game!} (33. Rxe4 {and White has nothing to
worry.} Bd5 34. Rb4 Bxf3+ 35. exf3 Qd1 36. Qf1 Qc2+ 37. Kh1 Rc7 38. Bxf4 gxf4
39. gxh5 Qc1 40. Qxc1 Rxc1+ 41. Kg2 Rc2+ 42. Kg1 Rc1+ 43. Nf1 Be7 {draws})
33... hxg4 {Finally black is able to conduct his K-side attack to a favorable
conclusion.} 34. hxg4 Bxg4 35. Qd3 {Against Bh3+} f3+ {[%mdl 32]} 36. Kf2 (36.
Nxf3 Bxf3+ 37. Kxf3 Bd4+ 38. Kg3 Be5+ 39. Bf4 (39. Kg2 Qg4+ {mates in 2}) 39...
Bxf4+ {wins.}) 36... fxe2 {Black is clearly winning.} 37. Qxd7 Bd4+ 38. Kg2
Rxd7 39. Bd2 Be5 {Popel finishes the game with great precision.} 40. Be1 Bxh2
41. Kxh2 Rd1 42. Bc3+ Kg6 43. e5 Bf5 {White resigned.} (43... Bf5 44. Rb7 e1=Q
45. Bxe1 Rxe1 46. Rxa7 g4 47. a4 Kg5 48. a5 Kf4 49. Kg2 (49. a6 g3+ {mate in 2}
) 49... g3 50. Rf7 Re2+ 51. Kg1 Kg4 52. Rg7+ Kf3 {and wins}) 0-1
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