Stefano Rosselli del Turco et al

     I had begun this post on Rosselli del Turco. His featured game against Znosko-Borovsky was played in a small international tournament in Nice in 1935 and in the course of looking for information on the tournament I came across the interesting story of the winner, Brian P. Rielly.
     Reilly (December 12, 1901 - December 29, 1991) did his bio for the Irish Chess Union and you can read it HERE. 
     The Rosselli Del Turco family are an historic noble family from Florence, Italy. Their origins date back to 1727 and since then the family gained notable wealth and acquired significant properties. It has included some prominent painters starting in the 15th century and in the 19th century the title of Marquis was conferred on the family by the Pope. 
     Marquis Stefano Rosselli del Turco (July 27, 1877 – August 18, 1947) was an Italian player, chess writer and publisher. He won the Italian championship five times and represented Italy in the Olympiads seven times. Confining his play mostly to Italian tournaments, he participated in only a handful of international events. He was awarded the IM title posthumously in 1950. 
     Born in Florence, Rosselli del Turco received the title of National Master from the Italian Chess Federation in 1900 and was one of the strongest players of Italy between 1900 and 1930. He was one of the founders of the magazine Italia Schaccistica and wrote for the magazine between 1911 and 1943. 

Nice 1931
1) Brian P. Reilly 6.0 
2-3) Stefano Rosselli del Turco and Abraham Baratz 5.5 
4) Daniel Noteboom 5.0 
5-8) Sir George Thomas, Jacques Mieses, Eugene Znosko-Borovsky and Jakob Seitz 
9) Arpad Vajda 3.5 
10) Marcel Duchamp 1.5 

     Artist Marcel Duchamp was an avid player and a few years ago Christie’s auctioned a pipe that he presented to George Koltanowski. Christie’s has a nice article on Duchamp and chess you will not want to miss. 
     Duchamp’s chess, as far as I know, has never been taken seriously, but I did locate THIS book that examines his “activities as a chess player affected his art.”  The book also has a selection of 15 of his games selected by Jennifer Shahade. 
     Chessmetrics puts his highest rating at 2413 on its January, 1930 list. And, on the January, 1931 list Duchamp was in the world’s top 100 players with a 2412 rating. Chessgames.com has 82 of his games dating between 1922 and 1961.
 

Play Online Chess

[Event "Nice"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1931.3.13"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Stefano Rosselli del Turco"]
[Black "Eugene Znosko-Borovsky"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Classical Dutch} 1. d4 f5 {Tarrasch rejected the Dutch as unsound in his 1931
work The Game of Chess, arguing that white should play the Staunton Gambit, 2.
e4.} 2. g3 {The modern way.} 2... Nf6 3. Bg2 e6 {The Leningrad Dutch (3...g6)
is an interesting and dynamic defense with possibilities for both sides. Some
Dutch players go so far as to say it's better than the K-Indian because black
has already made the important move f7-f5 without losing vital tempi with ...
Nf6-Ne8-f5-Nf6.} 4. Nf3 Be7 5. c4 O-O 6. O-O d6 7. Nc3 Nc6 {This seemingly
natural developing move does not work out well for black. He would do much
better with 8...Qe8} 8. d5 exd5 9. cxd5 Nb8 {This redeployment of the N is
very time consuming so he probably should have played 9...Ne5.} 10. Nd4 Na6
11. a3 Nc5 {Unfortunately the Ns occupation of this square is not going to
last long.} 12. Qc2 {Black can't secure the Ns position with ...a5 because
white can still drive it back with Rb1 and b2-b4.} 12... Nh5 13. Bf3 Bf6 14.
e3 {The N can't be taken because after 14...Bxd4 15.exd4 both Ns are under
attack.} 14... g6 15. b4 Na6 {This N has moved five time just to end up on
this useless square... that can't be good.} 16. Nce2 Ng7 {And this N has moved
three times to end up on this miserable square...that can't be good either!}
17. Bb2 Bd7 18. Rac1 Rc8 19. Qb3 Qe7 20. b5 Nb8 21. Rc2 Be8 22. Rfc1 Bf7 {With
23.Ne6 white could have established an overwhelming position as after
23...Bxe6 (He can't allow the N to remain on e6) 24.Bxf6! and 25.dxe6 black
simply cannot meet all of white's threats.} 23. Qa4 {Now if 23...a6 24.Qb4 and
the threat of b6 is too strong, so Znosko-Borovsky decides to let the P go
and, hopefully, find something fo the N to do.} 23... Nd7 24. Qxa7 Ra8 25.
Qxb7 Nc5 {Welcome back, but don't plan on staying long!} 26. Qc6 Rfc8 27.
Rxc5 {Alert play that brings about a quick end. } 27... dxc5 28. Nxf5 Nxf5
29. Bxf6 {Znosko-Borovsky resigned here as his position is completely
helpless. Material: White has a B+3Ps vs R. However, at first glance the
winning procedure may not be obvious, so I am appending the results of s
Shootout using Stockfish at 21 plies.} 29... Qd6 30. Bb2 Qxc6 31. bxc6 Nd6
32. Rxc5 g5 33. Be5 h5 34. Bxd6 cxd6 35. Rc3 Bg6 36. e4 Kf8 37. Bg2 Re8 38.
Nd4 Bxe4 39. Nb5 Bg6 40. Nxd6 {It soon becomes apparent that white's Ps are
too difficult to deal with.} 40... Re1+ 41. Bf1 Ke7 42. Nc4 Bf5 43. d6+ Ke6
44. f3 Ra6 45. d7 Ke7 46. Nd2 Bxd7 47. cxd7 Rd6 48. Kf2 Ra1 49. Re3+ Kxd7 50.
Ne4 Rg6 51. Bb5+ Kd8 52. a4 Re6 53. Rd3+ Kc7 54. Rd7+ Kb6 55. Rd5 Ra2+ 56.
Ke3 Rxh2 57. Rxg5 Re7 58. Kd4 Rf7 59. Nd6 Rc7 60. Rg6 Rh7 61. Nf5+ Kc7 62. f4
Rf2 63. Ke5 { and wins...} 1-0