Take a Break...Enjoy the Harmonica Duel

Al Bisno

    The year 1951 was the first year Nielsen television ratings came out and the most watched series was Texaco Star Theater, comedy and variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. Milton Berle, a silly, not so funny comedian and Lady: Lucille Ball of whom the same could be said were the two most popular personalities on television. 

    People were going to the movies to see The African Queen, Scrooge (A Christmas Carol), The Day The Earth Stood Still, Kon Tiki, A Streetcar Named Desire and Show Boat. 

    The there was a conspiracy theory going around that J.D. Salinger did not write Catcher in the Rye, a coming of age novel narrated by the disillusioned 16-year-old boy who, after being expelled from prep school, explores New York City and grappling with the "phoniness" of the adult world and his own feelings of alienation and loss. It was controversial because of its profanity and sexual content. 

    If Salinger wasn’t the author, who was? According to the theory it was a CIA brainwashing program using neurolinguistic passages. The fact that Salinger, who was rafted into the Army in 1942, served as a counterintelligence agent probably feuled the theory/ Neurolinguistics is a field of study that explores the connection between the brain and language, examining how the brain processes and represents language. Neuro-linguistic programming is a pseudo-science claiming to improve communication and achieve desired outcomes. There are also theories that assassination codes are buried deep in Salinger’s book. 

     Alexander (Al) Bisno was bon in Chicago on January15, 1897 and died at the age of 90 in Los Angeles on July 13,1987. A real estate investor, in the chess world he was a patron and benefactor who also played a significant role in other areas of the game such as serving as President of the Manhattan Chess Club (1951) and the non-playing captain of the US team for the USA-USSR team match (1954). He was a negotiator in the 1952 match between Reshevsky and Kashdan. He also served as an official of both the USCF and the American Chess Foundation. Curious fact: Bisno's son was named Paul Morphy Bisno. 

    Almost none of his games are available, but I ran across the below miniature in which he defeated a National Master. The game was superficially annotated by Al Horowitz in the January 1952 issue of Chess Review so it was probably played in 1951, perhaps at the Manhattan Chess Club. Horowitz had the annoying habit of not giving the date or the event in which games were played. 

 

ChessBase

Harold M. Phillips–Al Bisno0–1C41New York1951Stockfish 17

[%evp 11,34,48,52,48,63,51,62,12,20,9,-11,-1,16,14,21,-152,-135,-140,-211, -237,-210,-316,-379,-476,-12800] C41: Philidor Defense 1.e4 e5 2.f3 d6 Considered a second rate defense today, this defense is still playable except at the GM level. 3.d4 This is about the only move you will ever see played here because black is compelled to exchage ...exd4 which gives white a dominating center position. d7 The beginning of the defensive setup known as the Hanham Variation, the idea of which is that black wantsto make the P on e4 a strongpoint. One disadvantahe is that the N interferes with the B's development, but that's not really important because there is no way for white to take advantage of ot. Dpending on how the game goes, black will find a good fquare for the N later. 4.c4 Aiming at the weak f7 and hoping at some point to take advantage of it. c6 Only 4 moves in and the position requires precise play on black's part! Aside from avoiding the disaster given in the note, 4...c3 opens a diagonal for the Q. 4...gf6 What could be more natural looking than this? 5.dxe5 xe5 5...dxe5 6.g5 and black is lost. 6.xe5 dxe5 7.xf7+ e7 8.xd8+ xd8 9.f3 with the advantage. 5.c3 This move, the idea of which is to maintain a strong P center in the event of . ..exd4, is not witout merit, but white usually plays 5.O-O and if ...exd4 white can retake with his Q leaving him with a dominating center. e7 This gets slapped with a couple of question marks. The idea of the move is to avoid any danger from Ng5, but it allows something even worse. 6.0-0 White miises his opportunity and he doesn't get a second chance! 6.b3 Adding pressure to f7. Black doesn't have a really good way to defend it. d5 7.exd5 b5 8.d3 cxd5 9.xb5 gf6 This looks reasonable, but after 10.dxe5 g4 11.h3 Black's best try is xf2 12.xf2 b8 13.xd5 and whiye should win. 6...gf6 7.e1 c7 Black usually castles here, but he did not, as Horowitz claimed, fail to capitalize on white's last move with 7...Nxe4 7...xe4 8.xe4 d5 9.xe5 A surprise move that Horowitz missed. xe5 9...dxe4 10.xf7 is obviously good for white. 10.xd5 cxd5 11.xe5 White is a P to the good plus black has an isolated d-Pawn. Blackls two Bs are not enough compensation. In Shootouts white scored +4 -0 =1 8.bd2 0-0 9.f1 The idea is to reposition the N to the K-side, but the problem is that now ...Nxe4 is a good move. Guarding the e-Pawn with 9.Be3 was better. xe4 10.dxe5 10.xe4 is also layable, but it does not have the same force as in the similar situation nebtioned in the note to move 7. d5 11.xe5 dxe4 12.xf7 Black could offer the draw with 12..Nb6 13.Nh6+ Kh8 14.Nf7+ or 12...Nf6 13.Ng5+ etc. xf7 would be losing after 13.h5 Taking the strongly favors black. f6 14.xf7+ h8 15.f4 xf4 16.xe7 f5 17.e3 White has good expectations of eventually winning which he did in 5 Shootouts. 10...d5 11.d3 f5 A good move solidifying control over e4. Horowitz comments that white's K is insufficiently guarded, but that comment was apparently based on the game's outcome. Engines )Stockfish, Dragone by Komodo, Berserk and Lc0 all assess the position as sompletely equal. 12.exf6 Necessary. Otherwise white's e-Pawn falls. dxf6 Black has somewhat better development, more active poeces and the f-file on which to operate, but white's position has no exploitable weaknesses, so the position is equal. 13.g5 But, not after this! This aggressive looking move is a losing mistake. 13.xe4 xe4 14.g3 White wants to eliminate the aggressive, and dangerous Ns. f5 14...xf2 is completely wrong now. AFter 15.xf2 g4 16.d4 xf3 17.gxf3 f6 18.g4 Black has lost material and there has no attack to show for it. 15.xe4 xe4 16.g5 Now this is OK. f5 17.e6 xe6 18.xe6 with a completely equal position. 13...xf2 Alertly playec. Black now has a decisive advantage. 14.xf2 There is nothimg any better. 14.c2 xd3 15.xd3 d6 16.h3 h6 17.f3 f7 Threatening ...Bxh3; white is lost. 14...g4+ Best/ 14...c5+ isn't quite so good. 15.e2 e5+ wins a piece. 15.g1 c5+ 16.e3 xe3+ 17.xe3 Has white survived? No. It's black to play and win. xf1+! White resigned 17...xf1+ 18.xf1 18.xf1 xh2# 18...xe3+ wins the Q 0–1

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Attacking Fun with Wilhelm Orbach

    Assuming you are the attacker or spectator, an attack on the castled King is always enjoyable and that’s what this game offers. It was played in the 1929 Deutscher Schachbund (DSB) Kongress that was held in Duisberg, a city in western Germany, at the junction of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers. It's known for its large harbor. 

    The winner was the German Master Wilhelm Orbach (1894-1944). You won’t find much information on him, but Chessmetrics estimates hus best rating to have been 2548 back on 1921, placing him at #41 in the world. By comparison, a couple of better known players with similar ratings were Fritz Saemisch and Sir George Thomas. He was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp. 

    His opponent was Walther Holzhausen (1876-1935) who was known as a problem composer who published a couple of books on problems, as well as a player. 

    The chart giving the Accuracy and Blunder Categories as determined by Fritz 19’s Tactical Analysis gives some interesting insight as to how the game went. Clearly, it was not especially well played, but white’s final attack is entertaining. Unfortunately I have not been able to discover what determines how a move is categorized. Anybody have any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ChessBase

Wilhelm Orbach–Walther von Holzhausen1–0D15DSB Kongress, Duisberg1929James Massie

D15: Slav Defense 1.d4 d5 2.f3 f6 3.c4 c6 4.c3 dxc4 5.e4 b5 6.c2 e6 7.e3 This B is normally developed to f4 or g5, but the text is hardly bad. Another popular move is 7.a4 to challenge black on the Q-side. b4 8.e2 Black almost always waits until white plays a2 before making this exchange. xc3+ 9.bxc3 bd7 10.f4 Moving the B again is a waste of toime. Simply 10. O-O was better. b7 11.0-0 c5 This gives black excellent play. 12.e5 This move is suspect; white needs tp keep things flexible in the center. 12.b2 Attacking the b-Pawn. Black emerges with a slight advantage after xe4 13.xc4 bxc4 14.xb7 xc3 15.fe1 0-0 Note that neother R can threaten the N. 16.d6 c8 17.b2 d5 18.xf8 c3 19.b5 a6 20.c4 xf8 Black has plenty of play for the exchange. 12...d5 13.g3 0-0 14.h4 f6 This creates an almost imperceptible weakness in the K's position. The active 14... Qb6 was in order. 15.ab1 This is another small inaccuracy. 15.exf6 7xf6 15...gxf6 16.fb1 c6 17.a4 and white has equalized. 16.g3 Prevents . ..Nf4 c8 17.a4 b4 18.xc4 bxc3 19.fd1 e7 with the more active position, but white's position remains quite solid. 15...c6 He could take advantage of white's omission last move with 15.g4 because white is in no position to take advantage of the weakness that ...g4 creates. 15...g5 16.g3 f5 leaves whiyr at a loss for a really good continuation. 16.dxc5 xc5 17.exf6 gxf6 18.d4 e8 The threat is ...Bg6. 19.d2 e4 A piece with a promising future, but things will go wrong. 20.h6 This move is not as aggressive as it looks, but practically speaking it's better than the defensive 20.Qe1 because it baits a trap which black falls for. 20.e1 exc3 20...dxc3 21.xe6 equalizes 21.xe6 equals 20...exc3 This is the wrong N because it allows white's next move. 21.g4 White has a promising counterattack. c7 This is a game losing blunder! 21...xb1 allows a mate in 22.xe6+ f7 23.f5 h8 24.xf7 xf7 25.g7# 21...g6 is correct as it avoids the mate. 22.be1 b6 23.xe6+ h8 24.e2 xe2+ 25.xe2 In Shootouts from this position white scored +1 -0 =4 22.xe6 e7 23.xc7 Much stronger than taking the R. 23.xf8 xf8 24.f4 24.xf8+ xf8 with equal chances. 25.bc1 24...xb1 25.xc7 Even here though white should win. 23...g6 23...xc7 24.e6+ f7 25.xf6 xe6 26.g5+ f7 27.g7+ e8 28.xc7 xf6 29.c6+ and wins 24.xa8 xb1 25.c7 xc7 26.e6+ f7 26...f7 just delays the mate. 27.xf6 xe6 28.g5+ f7 29.g7+ e8 30.xc7 d7 31.e1+ f7 32.xd7+ xf6 33.e6+ g5 34.g7+ f4 35.g3+ f5 36.e5# 27.xf6 Black resigned. It's mate in 2 1–0

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