A lot of players were lost that year: Polish maters, Isaak Appel, Jakub Kolski, Leo Kremer, Ignatz von Popiel and Izaak Towbin died.
Polish/French master Joseph Cukierman committed suicide. Latvian master Fricis Apsenieks died of tuberculosis in Riga. Charles Jaffe died in New York. Former Estonian Champion Ilmar Raud died in Buenos.
Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky died during the siege of Leningrad by the Germans. Former Cuban Champion Juan Corzo y Principe died in Havana. Czech master Karel Treybal was executed in Prague when he was charged with illegal possession of a firearm. British chess functionary Frederick Hamilton-Russell died in England.
Viktor Korchnoi's father was killed in battle east of Leningrad. The strong mster Vsevolod Rauzer also died in Leningrad as did mathematician and master Boris Koyalovich.
Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941) died of a kidney uremic poisoning. Uremia is a buildup of toxins in the blood that occurs when the kidneys stop filtering toxins out through the urine. Uremia is often a sign of end-stage kidney disease. Treatments today include medication, dialysis and kidney transplants.
It was during March of 1941, that six anti-Semitic articles written by Alekhine were published in which he claimed that Jews played cowardly and for money whereas Aryans played aggressively and bravely.
In US chess news, in 1941, Louis Persinger (1887-1966), a pianist, professor of violin and strong amateur player won the first USCF Open postal championship. Mona Karff defeated Adele Rivero to win the US Women's Championship. Samuel Reshevsky defeated I.A. Horowitz to retain his US Championship.
In July, 1941, Reuben Fine successfully defended his championship title in the Annual Open Tournament of the United States Chess
Federation, held St. Louis, Missouri.
The tournament was again a one man show as Fine stood head and shoulders above the competitors as he barely exerted himself as hr costed to first. In the finals Fine quickly dispatched Adams and Steiner, his main rivals, then coasted home while yielding two draws, but they had effect on the final outcome.
The runner up, Herman Steiner, did well. He played his usual tricky, trappy chess and took some unnecessary chances against weaker opponents.
Weaver Adams, at the time advocating the Bishop’s Opening as the way to play and win, did better than might have been expected based one his recent performances. Adams played three games with the Bishop’s Opening and won all three! As black, he used his favorite Albin Counter Gambit with success against Marchand.
In the following game from the preliminaries, Fine administers a brutal defeat to the unknown lady player Dorothy Williams. The only information on her that I could locate was that she played in the 1960 US Open which was also held in St. Louis. There she scored 4-8 and tied for places 152-159 out of 176 players. Her USCF rating was 1800 (Class A). She was listed as being from Webster Groves, Missouri which is a suburb of St. Louis.
Reuben Fine–Dorothy Williams1–0D50US Open (Prelim) St. Louis1St. Louis, MO USA17.07.1941Massie,Jasmes
D07: Queen's Gambit: Chigorin Defense 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.c3 f6 4.g5 c6 Normally one expects to see 4...Ne7 or 4...Nbd7 here. Instead, black
transposes into an old favorite of mine, the chancy, unorthodox Chigorinf
Defense which is better than it reputation. 5.f3 h5 Clearly this is
pointless. Back has tried 5...h6 and 5...Be7 here, but the thematic move is 5..
.dxc4 5...dxc4 6.e4 Or the equally good 6.e3 b4 7.xc4 White is
slightly better. 6.e3 e7 7.d3 d7 Black has developed her pieces
solidly, but they have no scope and her K-side has been weakened by ...h5,
none of which bi=odes well, especially against one of the world's best players!
7...b4± is the best move available. Then after... 8.e2 c5 black
at least has some play, but that P on h5 and the weakened K-side are a concern.
8.xf6 White is clearly better. xf6 9.cxd5 b4 10.dxe6 xd3+ 11.xd3 xe6 12.0-0 To the eye of an amateur it looks like Fine's exchanges have
left black with two Bs vs. two Ns and a halfway decent position because it
looks like white has no way of whipping up a serious attack. However, that's
wrong! Black's K-side is seriously weakened and white's P-center will soon
mobilize with devastating consequences. Stockfish 16 thinks white is better by
1.5 Ps. Komodo is a bit more conservative putting white's advantage at just
over a P. In either case, it's more than enough for Fine (or any GM, for that
matter) to beat an amateur. Also, we can expect black (or any amateur, for
that matter) to make tactical mistakes. c6 This guards against Qb5 12...0-0 13.e4 g6 14.e5 g7 15.e3 e7 16.g5 c4 17.fe1 Danger is looming
on the horizon for black owing to the weakened K-side. 13.e4 The
expansion begins. h4 Kudos to black for trying to attack! Unfortunately,
there just isn't anything there owing to white's mobile P-center. 14.d5
The slaughter begins. xc3 14...cxd5 15.exd5 xc3 16.xc3 xd5 17.fd1 h5 18.xg7 with a clear advantage. 15.xc3 cxd5 16.xg7 f8 17.ad1 h3 As good as anything. 18.exd5 Black's K is in a hopeless situation. hxg2
There was nothing better. There's a mate in 19! 19.fe1 e7 20.dxe6 f6 20...fxe6 Holds out for a while. 21.g6+ f7 22.xe6 f8 23.e5 xe6 24.xe6 e7 25.g6+ mates in 4 g7 26.xe7 f8 27.d7 g7 28.g6+ h8 29.h6# 21.g6+ Black resigned. She never had a chances against Fine's precise
play. 1–0
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