The other day I recently received some additional information from a gentleman who was Celia Neimark’s nephew; she was his father’s younger sister. She must have been a very modest lady because he stated that he never knew about her chess playing days. Or, about his grandfather’s chess playing. He added that his father played a little chess as well, so it’s clear that chess was part of what they did growing up in the household.
She had three other sisters, Bella, Sophie and Sadie. Her father was Louis Neimark and her mother’s name was Libby. Her father was one of Samuel Rzeschewski’s (Reshevsky) simultaneous opponents in Cleveland, Ohio on January 27, 1921.
She and her sisters grew up on a farm that was apparently a frequent gathering place and they were a very generous and charitable family.
Each of the siblings were descried “as sturdy a specimen … as you’d wish to see.” They all worked extremely hard on the farm (it was a sometimes very difficult and physical life for the family) and they were all quite bright.
Celia, known more familiarly by her family as Cele, married Lou Ginsberg and moved to Los Angeles in the early 50s where they had one son, Peter. As an adult Peter moved to Las Vegas and after the death of her husband Lew, Cele following her son to Vegas where she passed in 1998.
Her nephew added that Celia was “whip smart and said what was on her mind and very kind, as was the entire family.”
Her nephew also noted that Fannie Neimark, who was a first cousin to Celia, was a daughter to Louis’s brother Samuel Neimark.
Both Louis and Sam along with their spouses sailed to America around 1906 from Russia, landing in New York at Ellis Island and ultimately settled in the Youngstown/Coitsville, Ohio area where they raised their families, ran the farm and started in business.
The following casual game played in West Austintown, Ohio, a small unincorporated community near Youngstown. In the game the Ohio Champion gets defeated bt 7-year-old Celia Neimark. It was the only game of hers that I could locate.
Celia Neimark–Irving Spero1–0C43Casual game, West Austintown, OhioWest Austintown, OH USA1921Stockfish 16
C43: Petrov Defense 1.e4 e5 2.f3 f6 3.d4 This is the move preferred by
Steinitz. Black can now capture either Pawn. exd4 4.e5 d5 Rarely played.
This move does not yield nearly as good results as the standard 4...Ne4 5.xd4 c6 6.c4 b6 After this black's position is difficult. He offers a
trade of Qs probably hoping to ease his game. 6...e7 7.0-0 0-0 8.a3 b6 9.d3 d5 10.exd6 xd6 is nearly equal. Naesborg,J-Edvardsson,H Helsingor
2008 6...b4 is just a bad move. 7.0-0 h6 8.f4 and in Handke,F (2471)
-Vano Perez,J (2083) Andorra 2002 white went on to win. 6...c7 7.c3 e6 8.d1 d5 9.exd6 xd6 10.0-0 0-0 is roughly equal. Butneva,L (1925)
-Smirnova,S (2022) Vladimir 2007 7.xb6 This is not so good as white could
have gotten a good game with 7.Bxd5. 7.xd5 cxd5 8.c3 c5 8...xd4 9.xd4 b4 10.db5 0-0 10...d6 11.d2 e6 12.c7+ 11.d2 d4 12.d5 xd2+ 13.xd2 c6 14.d6 Black is in a miserable situation. 9.g4 xf2+ 10.e2 f8 11.xd5 c5 12.e4 b6 13.c4 b7 14.b4 xb4 15.xf2 White is winning. 7...xb6 8.b3 a5 This demonstration is a waste of time; black should be
concerned with development. I am sure black knew this, but was taking
liberties against his opponent. 9.g5 The position is deceptive as things
are very tricky, especially if black plays the best reply, 9...f6. d5 9...f6 10.e3 10.exf6 gxf6 11.f7 is deceptive because after a4 12.xh8 axb3 13.a3 bxc2 14.xc2 g7 it's black who is better. 10...d5 11.exd6 11.xb6 fxg5 actually favors black. 11...d5 12.xd5 cxd5 13.f3 xd6 14.c3 b4 10.a4 White clearly wants to keep her B on the diagonal e7 11.0-0 0-0 12.xd5 cxd5 13.c3 d4 14.d5 c6 15.e4 It may seem surprising, but
the moves of both players have been in Stockfish’s top two or three choices.
Very impressive especially for a seven year old girl/. b4 Black is hard
pressed to find a really decent move here. 16.c3 As recommended by
Stockfish. Impressive! dxc3 17.bxc3 e7 18.xe7+ xe7 19.a3 e8 20.d6
Inhibits Nf5. d8 So far white’s play has been impeccable! But, her next
move should have been 21.Bc5! 21.xb7? The temptation to win a P is too
much, but it allows black to get some breathing room and Bs of opposite color.
This move yields no more than equality. xb7 22.xe7 dc8 23.ab1 e4 24.bc1 d3 25.fd1 f5 26.d5 e6 27.c5 e8 28.d6 b3 29.a1 e6 30.c7 f6 31.xd7 fxe5 32.c7 e4 33.g3 c8 34.c7± a8 35.d8+ xd8 36.xd8 d6 37.xa5 xa4 38.b4 d3 39.h3 c6 Both
sides habe handled the ending reasonable well and a draw seems probable here.
One wonders about the circumstances that the remainder of the game was played
under. Was the state champion trying to wear the little girl out? 40.f1 b5 41.e1 e3 42.fxe3 xe3+ 43.f2 e2+ 44.f3 c2 45.a8+ f7 46.f8+ g6 47.c8 d7 48.c7 e6 49.c6 f7 50.c7+ f6 51.e7+ g6 52.g4 d5+ 53.f4 f2+ 54.g3 f3+ 55.h4 h6 This is a serious error. 55...h6+-
and Black is okay. 56.d6 f6 57.e7+ g6 58.c4 c3 59.a7 xc4 draw 56.c5 Missing her chance, but the winning line was difficult to see. 56.d7! c4 57.d6+ g6 58.f6 xf6 58...xc3 59.f8# 59.xf6 Black is
threatened with 60.g5#, so... g5+ 60.xg5+ g6 This is most likely a
theoretical win for white as Stockfish won five Shootouts. To be honest though,
the wins took in excess of 100 moves and so the win is probably beyond the
ability of most players. 61.e3 with a won ending. 56...e6
A gross oversight that should have lost. 56...d3 and Black has nothing to
worry. 57.c7 g2 58.g5+ g6 59.f8 f5 60.c5+ f4 61.c4+ White ,ust
take the draw. 57.c6 pinning the B which is now lost, so black resigned. 1–0
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