I doubt anybody has ever heard of Arturo Quiroga, but according to an article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle back in 1922, when a team of masters from the Manhattan Chess Club contested the first Pan-American cable match against a team from the Argentine Chess Club in Buenos Aires on April 23rd, Quiroga was on fifth board.
The Manhattan Chess Club's home was in the Hotel Sherman Square where a cable operator sat near the players and a teller would relay the moves which were then sent to the main office from where they were cabled to far away (8,600 miles) Buenos Aires.
The match was terminated at two o'clock in the morning after fourteen and a half hours play and the time didn't include a break of an hour and a half for supper! Club officials in New York finally stepped in and proposed that the match be called to a halt even though only two games of the six board match had been completed. Those two games had been drawn. The four remaining game were all adjourned in complicated positions and they were to be sent to Capablanca who was the official adjudicator, but at the time he was in Paris. However, it was generally agreed that the New York team would be victorious by a final score of 4-2.
The first game on the match to actually reached a conclusion happened when Albert Marder agreed to a draw against Rolando Illa, ex-champion of Buenoes Aires after 26 moves.
The game between Oscar Chajes, former Manhattan club champion against Julio Lynch, was agreed drawn in 38 moves.
Roy T. Black, former New York state champion who had traveled all the way from Syracuse, New York for the match, opened with the Ruy Lopez and succeeded in breaking up his opponent's K-side Pawns and at move 28 won one of them which gave him a decisive advantage.
Rosenthal, another former state champion, was playing Arnoldo Ellerman, a famous problem composer and one of the best players in Buenos Aires. For a long time they maneuvered cautiously behind their own lines and the outcome looked drawish. But, Rosenthal had two Bs against two Ns and thought that adjudication should result in his being awarded the point. At midnight Ellerman cabled that he had to stop play and Rosenthal agreed. The game was adjudicated as a draw.
Harold Phillips, president of the Intercollegiate Chess League, met Belgrano Rawson's Caro-Kann with aggressive play and by advancing his h-Pawn had managed to break up Rawson's K-side. Their game was one of the two that continued all the way to two o'clock I n the morning. Phillips had not yet managed to score the point, but it was believed he was very close to doing so; the game was adjudicated as a win for Phillips.
After play had stopped Robert Raubitschek, chairman of the Manhattan's tournament committee that was in charge of the match, made an effort to come to an understanding with the captain of the Buenos Aires team to reach an agreement on the results of the unfinished games without sending them to Capablanca, but the Buenos Aires team was unwilling to accept the conclusions of the Manhattan team. It was expected that Capablanca's reply would take 4-5 weeks, but the Manhattan team was confident that they would win 4-2.
Eventually a post card was received from Capablanca and he had awarded wins to Black and Phillips for Manhattan and Quiroga for Buenos Aires. Capa singled out Phillips' game for his interesting and well-played game. As for Capablnca’s awarding the win to Quiroga, that decision might be questionable, but perhaps he did deserve the win. After all, he did play well for most of the game!
[Event "Match Manhattan CC vs, Buenis Aires CC"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1922.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Arturo Quiroga"]
[Black "Alfred Schroeder"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A48"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"]
[PlyCount "71"]
{A48: QP Opening} 1. d4 d6 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 g6 4. b3 Bg7 5. Bb2 Nbd7 6. Nbd2
O-O 7. c4 Re8 8. Qc2 e5 {Both sides have played very flexible moves that could
result in a wide variey of formations.} 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Nxe5 dxe5 11. Be2 c6 {
Although this move is not really bad (it gives black's Q some mobility) it has
the disadvantage of creating a weakness on d6 which cause black some problems
later on. He might have been better off playing ...Qe7 and...Bd7} 12. O-O {
Castling Q-side was suggested by Schroeder as being more aggressive. Stockfish
does not like the idea though because white's Pawn setup on the Q-side leaved
his K exposed.} Bf5 {This is not really bad, but black played it along with
his next move under a misapprehension. Better would have been 13... Be6.} 13.
e4 Bh6 {Retreating to e6 was better.} 14. Rad1 (14. exf5 {is met by} Qxd2 {
with complete equality.}) 14... Bd7 {Black has wasted time as he now realized
his intended 14...Bxd2 loses a piece.} (14... Bxd2 15. exf5 {leaves the B on
d2 pinned and lost.}) 15. c5 {Zeroing in on the weak spot in black's position,
the d6 square.} b5 16. Nf3 Qc7 17. Rd6 {Not only does white have a dominating
position, but black is going to lose his e-Pawn.} Bf8 {This loses a piece, but
even the better 17...Re6 was not that much better!} (17... Re6 18. Bxe5 Rxd6
19. cxd6 Qd8 20. Bb2 {White's position is overwhelming.}) 18. Rxf6 Kg7 19. Rf5
{White still has a considerable advantage after this, but he missed a
brilliancy.} (19. Nxe5 {[%mdl 512]} Rxe5 (19... Kxf6 20. Ng4+ Kg5 21. Bf6+ Kh5
22. Ne5+ Bg4 23. Bxg4+ Kh6 24. Qd2+ g5 25. Qxg5#) 20. f4 Rae8 21. Bxe5 Rxe5 22.
fxe5 Be6 23. Rxe6 fxe6 {with a hige material advantage.}) 19... f6 {Missing
his best defense.} (19... gxf5 {is a better defense.} 20. exf5 f6 21. g4 {
Black is up the exchangem bit his K is dangerously exposed. Play might run} Kh8
22. Nd2 Rad8 23. Ne4 Bg7 24. Rd1 Bc8 25. Nd6 Rf8 26. h4 {with a promising
attack.}) 20. Rxf6 {This excellent move forces the exposure of black's K.} Kxf6
21. Nxe5 Ke7 22. Rd1 Red8 23. Qc1 (23. Qc3 $142 {Threatening mate with Nxg6+!
was even stronger.} Ke8 24. Nxg6 hxg6 25. Qf6 Bf5 26. exf5 Rxd1+ 27. Bxd1 Qd7
28. Bf3 Rc8 29. fxg6 Qe7 30. Bxc6+ Rxc6 31. Qxc6+ Qd7 32. Qxd7+ Kxd7 33. g7)
23... Be6 24. Qg5+ {White still has the advantage after this, but he missed a
really strong move in 24.Rd6!! Not surprising since it requires seeing even
more brilliant followup moves.} (24. Rd6 Rxd6 25. cxd6+ Kxd6 26. Bxb5 Qb6 (
26... cxb5 27. Ba3+) 27. Bc4 Rd8 28. Bxe6 Kxe6 29. Nxc6 Rd7 30. Qc4+ Rd5 31.
Qxd5#) 24... Ke8 25. Bd4 Bg7 26. f4 Bxe5 27. Qxe5 Qxe5 28. Bxe5 Rxd1+ 29. Bxd1
{[%mdl 4096]} a5 30. a3 $1 a4 31. b4 Bb3 32. Be2 Kf7 33. Kf2 Rd8 34. Bd6 $1 Re8
35. Ke3 Be6 36. Kd4 {Unlike the engines, I have not nitpicked over the last
several moves by both sides. Bith players missed slightly better moves on a
number of occasions. However, this final move of the game is not the best
becaue almost all of white's advantage disappears. Capablanca adjudicated the
game as a win for white, but that conclusion is debatable. Stickfish evaluates
the final position as about one Pawn in white’s favor. In Shootouts using
Stockfish white scored +1 -0 =4. That saidm White deserved the win...he played
much better!} (36. g4 {is the winning move. Blacj is reduced to markinh time
while white penetrates with his K. A sample line...} Bd7 37. Kd4 Rh8 38. Bf3
Rc8 39. h4 h6 40. f5 h5 41. g5 Re8 42. Be5 Rc8 43. Bf6 Rc7 44. Ke5 Bc8 45. Kd6
Rd7+ 46. Kxc6 Rd3 47. fxg6+ Kxg6 48. Be2 Rxa3 49. Bxb5 Ra2 50. Kd6 a3 51. Be8+
Kh7 52. g6+ Kh6 53. g7) 1-0
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