Second place fell to John W. Collins, a former United States
Correspondence Champion, who, after an indifferent start, came back strong in later rounds.
The third prize winner was Carl Pilnick. Bernard Hill, former
titleholder of the New York Academy of Chess and Checkers, was a strong threat from the beginning and actually lead for most of the way, but spoiled his chances when he dropped his last two games to Joseph Richman and Dr. Ariel Mengarini, a former national amateur champion.
Anthony Santasiere, former United States Open champion and frequent champion of the Marshall, finished in a disappointing fifth place. Eliot Hearst was the New York State champion and captain of the Columbia University team which had taken intercollegiate top honors.
The club’s new Junior Champion was Karl Burger of Columbia University who score of 6-2 to edge Philip Schwartz by half a point.
Anthony Santasiere (1904-1977) was an original thinker, but he was often dogmatic and exaggerated the value of novelties and sometimes insisted that it took bizarre opening moves in order to play “Romantic” chess.
In 1941, Al Horowitz ans Samuel Reshevsky played a match for the US Championship which Reshevsky won with a +3 -0 =13 score. I remember reading a magazine article by Santasiere on the match in which he castigated both players for playing 13 draws and playing the Queen’s Gambit with nary a King’s Gambit, Evans’ Gambit or any other real gambit.
But, that’s what Santasiere did; he was always chastising the great players for what he deemed to be cowardice in the openings. Ruy Lopez' and Queen's Gambits were almost always blasted. In his writings he advocated romantic openings and gambits, but he, himself, played stuff like the English and Reti.
Thus, in the mid-1960s Larry Evans was moved to write of Santasiere, "His games are characterized by plodding,
timidity and opening repetition. He enters even 'romantic debuts' such as the Vienna and King's Gambit with reams of prepared
analysis, strives constantly to keep the draw in hand and prevent complications from getting away from him over the board. Where are the glorious games which qualify Santasiere as the darling spokesman of romanticism?"
In the following game we see Santasiere play, not a gambit, but a solid English opening, but he did play it with precision.
Anthony Sanatsiere–John W. Collins1–0A28Marshall CC Chp, New York1950Stockfish 16
A28: English Opening: Four Knights Variation 1.c4 Back in the days when I
started playing in tournaments this was always my first move. I thought it was
safe and solid and not a lot of opening knowledge was required. e5 2.c3 f6 3.f3 c6 4.d4 exd4 5.xd4 b4 6.g3 0-0 7.g2 e8 8.0-0! xc3 9.bxc3 e7 10.f4 10.a4 e4 11.c2 d6 12.xc6 bxc6 13.e3 Black’s position
is preferable. Bareev,E (2670)-Kotsur,P (2500) Luzern 1997 10...xd4
Straightening out white's Ps looks like a poor decision, but there was not
really a lot of choice. 10...e5 would have given white something about
which to think, but in the end black still ends up undoubling white's Ps. 11.f5 e6 12.e3 d6 13.d5 xd5 14.cxd5 g6 11.cxd4 d6 12.e1 c6 12...e4 would not have prevented the eventual advance of white's e-Pawn, but it was
black's most promising continuation. 13.f3 g5 the threat is ...Nh3+ 14.e4 14.c1 h3+ 15.f1 c6 16.e4 h5 with equal chances. 14...h3+ 15.f1 xf4 16.gxf4 h4 is good for black. 13.e4 White has achieved a
meaningful superiority in space, but so far the game can only be described as .
.. boring. g4 14.f3 d7 15.d2 ad8 16.f2 Intending d5 attacking the
a-Pawn. c8 17.d5 c5 17...a6 18.e3 d7 19.ab1 cxd5 20.cxd5 b5
is not especially favorable for black. 18.e5 dxe5 19.xe5 Equally good
was 19.Bxe5 f8 Black has been beaten back into a very passive position.
Passive does not equate to lost however! 20.ae1 xe5 21.xe5 d7 21...b5 Getting some counterplay was much better. 22.c7 e8 22...d7 23.d6
is very good for white. 23.d1 bxc4 24.d6 d7 25.f4 c3 26.c6 Things
look quite grim for black, but oddly the position is evaluated as equal. In
Shootouts from this position white scored +0 -1 =4 22.c7 e8 23.h3 xe1+ 24.xe1 b6 The N would have been better placed on the other
side...so the better move was 24...Ng6 keeping white's advantage at a minimum. 25.xc8 25.xb6 xh3 26.xa7 d7 27.e3 b5 28.xc5 b8 29.cxb5 xb5 30.g2 b2+ 31.f2 b5 Owing to Bs of opposite color black has drawing chances.
It's true...five Shootouts were drawn. 25...xc8 26.e5 26.d2 to
support the advance of the d-Pawn was better. e8 27.d6 d7 28.d5 b6
and white has his work cut out to sore the point. Shootouts confirmed that
white is winning as he won all five games. 29.g4 f8 30.h4 e8 31.f2 e6 32.c6+ d7 33.e4+ e6 34.c6+ d7 35.e4+ f8 36.d5 h6 37.h5 e8 38.e5+ f8 39.a4 xa4 40.f5 a2+ 41.g3 xd6 42.xd6+ g8 43.c8+ h7 44.f5+ g8 45.e4 a1 46.e8+ h7 47.e4+ h8 48.e8+ h7 49.e2 g1+ 50.f4 g8 51.e5 c1+ 52.e4 a3 53.d5 a4 54.d6 e8 55.e4 e6+ 56.c7 b5 57.a8+ h7 58.e4+ g8 59.d6 xc4 60.xc4 bxc4 61.e5 a5 62.c3 a4 63.c6 f6 64.xc5 a3 65.xc4 a2 66.b3 f8 67.xa2 f7 68.b3 e6 69.c4 d6 70.d4 e7 71.e4 White has a won ending. 26...b5 This
is a gross blunder that loses at once. 26...e7 Here's how white won in a
Shootout at 15 plies. 27.d6 c6 28.xc5 c8 29.d5 h5 30.a5 b8 31.c3 e8 32.f2 a4 33.e5 f6 34.e6+ h7 35.f5+ g8 36.c8+ h7 37.d2 h4 38.f5+ h8 39.c8+ h7 40.xb7 d7 41.e4+ g8 42.d5+ f8 43.a8+ f7 44.d5+ g6 45.gxh4 e5 46.h5+ h7 47.c5 b5 48.c3 d7 49.e4+ h8 50.c6 c5+ 51.g2 xd6 52.cxd7 xd7 53.g6 e7 54.h6 and wins. 27.d6
Forcing black to sacrifice his N for the P. Black resigned. A typical plodding
Santasiere games which Fritz 17 awardwd a weighted error value of 0.20
(precise). 1–0
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