Sports were still being played in the US. College football bowl games were still being played. Texas A and M won the Orange Bowl, the University of Southern California won the Rose Bowl and Georgia Tech won the Sugar Bowl. The Green Bay Packers won the National Football League championship. In baseball the St. Louis Cardinals were the World Series champs.
Chess was still being played, too. On May 7, 1944, Arnold Denker won the US Championship, held in New York with a +13 -0 =3 tally. Reshevsky wasn't playing. Gisela K. Gresser won the US women's championship with a +8 -0 =0 score.
The US Open was held in Boston and Reshevsky showed up on a whim. In My Best Games of Chess (ghosted by Fred Reinfeld) Reshevsky stated that happened to be in Boston on a vacation and decided to play.
Results of the 18-player event are scarce, but Reshevsky scored +15 -1 =1 to finish first by three points ahead of Anthony Santasiere and E.S. Jackson who finished a clear third. Reshevsky lost to Walter Suesman (who tied for 6th) and drew with Santasiere.
Having looked at the 1943 US Amateur on the January 4th post, I decided to take a look at the 1944 event.
E. S. Jackson. Jr., of Short Hills, New Jersey regained his title by scoring 11-2 in this, the third Amateur tournament. The previous year's winner, Dr. A.A. Mengarini was a neuropsychiatrist serving in the US Army Medical Corps in Germany and was unavailable.
The tournament preliminaries for the 1944 Amateur began on Columbus Day (October 12) with 21 entrants in three sections. They played two games a day and by the 15th twelve had qualified to join Jackson and West Virginia state champion Dr. Siegfried Werthammer who had also been seeded into the finals which were held at the Marshall Chess Club and the USCF headquarters. They played two rounds a day between October 21st and November 2nd.
After 4 rounds, Gustaf Gustafson led with four points while Jackson was having a hard time; he had an adjourned game against Stephens and he had lost to Batten.
Gustaf Gustafson (1889-1976) came from Sweden to New York before World War I and established himself in Brooklyn as a cabinet maker. He was champion of the Swedish Chess Club in 1922 and champion of the Scandinavian Chess Club several times. In Brooklyn he was the 1935 champion of the Brooklyn Chess League, West Side champion (1937), Hawthorne Chess Club co-champion (1942), USCF Amateur Championship vice champion (1944), and champion of the Sunset Park Chess Club (1951).
After the 7th round Irving Stein, Secretary of the Bronx-Empire City Chess Club, had the lead with 6.5-0.5 when Jackson defeated Gustafson leaving them both tied at 6.0-1.0.
Then Jackson forged ahead after Stein lost to both McCready and Erdos. In the crucial final round, Stein, playing white, faced Jackson in a game that he (Stein) needed to win.
Stein's irregular opening (1.e3 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.exd4) allowed Jackson easy equality, but things soon got dramatic when Stein snatched a Pawn in a position where Jackson was offering a draw by perpetual check. Stein couldn't accept the perpetual and had to play for a win so he returned the material, but ended up losing to Jackson's superior endgame play.
Jackson's opponent in the following game was C. Fred Tears, Jr. (May 13, 1919 - May 27, 1998, 79 years old). In 1947, he won the Correspondence Chess League of America's Grand National Championship and in 1950, he won the Texas State Championship.
In his October 1998 Chess Life column "The Check is in the Mail" Alex Dunne wrote that Tears' son, C.F. "Rick" Tears III, said that in the 1950s his father was visited several times by "men in dark suits" because the notation in his correspondence games with the Russians resembled what the FBI thought was code.
These visits were no doubt prompted by the fact that in March 1944, chess was banned by trans-Atlantic mail in order to prevent enemy agents from using chess notation to get coded messages across the Atlantic. Censors searched letters for discussions of chess because enemies would often hide codes in chess symbols and moves. Read more...
The FBI visits were also the result of the Red Scare which was the promotion of a widespread fear of the rise of communism.
Most people familiar with the Red Scare are not aware that there was actually two of them in the US.
The first occurred immediately after World War I and was the result of a perceived threat from the American labor movement, anarchist revolution and political radicalism.
The second happened immediately after World War II and everyone was preoccupied with the perception that the US was being infiltrated by Commies from Russia. The best known scare was this latter one that was lead by a howling off his rocker Senator from Wisconsin named Joe McCarthy. Read more...
When Tears died he was competing in the World Correspondence Championship. He was scheduled to be awarded the postal IM at the ICCF Congress in September of 1998. He died of cancer.
E.S. Jackson Jr. - C. Fred Tears Jr.
Result: 1-0
Site: US Amateur, New York
Date: 1944
Ruy Lopez
[...] 1.e4 e5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.♗b5 a6 4.♗a4 ♗b4 This weird move is what was called the Alapin Defense Deferred and Modern Chess Openings of the day stated there was no known refutation. However, no known games with the move had been published! 5.O-O ♘ge7 6.c3 ♗a5 7.d4 exd4 8.cxd4 d5 This is the idea behind this variation: black momentarily surrenders the center only to re-invade it. 9.♘c3
9.exd5 was recommended by MCO. 9...♕xd5 10.♗b3 ♕h5 claiming that the position is now equal, but that does not seem to be the case as after 11.d5 ♘e5 Even though it looks dubious 11...Na7 is also plausible.
11...♘a7 12.♗d2 ♗xd2 13.♘bxd2 O-O 14.♖e1 ♘g6 followed by ...Nb5-d6. White is better in this line also.
12.♘xe5 ♕xe5 13.♘c3 O-O Prokes, L-Alapin, S/Prague 1908 white is better. 9.e5 O-O 10.h3 ♗f5 11.♘c3 b5 12.♗b3 ♗b6 13.♗g5 is eaual. Szalanczy,E (2237)-Babits,A (2120)/Heviz HUN 2012
9...b5 This poor move only forces white's B to move to a more active square. Simply 9...dxe4 was better after which in spite of black's odd defense the position is about equal. 10.♗b3 ♗xc3
10...dxe4 would also not work out to black's advantage. 11.♘xe4 ♗f5 12.♘g3 ♗g6 13.d5
11.bxc3 White already has a significant advantage, but black could have kept the damage to a minimum with 11...O-O 11...dxe4 After this black is pretty much lost!
11...O-O 12.exd5 ♘xd5 13.♖e1 ♗f5 is reasonable and white can only claim a slight advantage.
12.♘g5 ♘d5
12...O-O isn't much help as after... 13.♕h5 ♗f5 (13...h6 14.♘xf7 white is winning.) 14.♗xf7+ ♖xf7 15.♕xf7+ ♔h8 16.f3 e3 17.g4 ♗d3 18.♗xe3 ♗xf1 19.♕h5 ♕g8 20.♘f7+ and white is winning.
12...O-O the last chance for counterplay 13.♕h5 ♗f5 14.♗xf7+ ♖xf7 15.♕xf7+ ♔h8 16.♕xf5 ♘xf5 17.♘f7+ ♔g8 18.♘xd8 ♖xd8+−
13.♘xf7 Accepted or declined this sacrifice wins. 13...♔xf7 14.♕h5+ ♔e6 15.♖e1 ♘ce7 16.f3
16.♖xe4+ This, too, is very good. 16...♔d6 17.♗g5 ♗f5 18.♗xd5 ♘xd5 19.♗xd8 wins.
16.♗g5 is also a winner. 16...♕d6 17.♖xe4+ ♔d7 18.♗xe7 ♘xe7 19.♖ae1
16...♔d6 (16...e3 also loses 17.♖xe3+ ♔d6 18.♗a3+) 17.fxe4 ♘b6 18.♗a3+ ♔c6 19.♕c5+ ♔d7 Black loses quickly after this. Better was hiding on a2.
19...♔b7 20.♕xe7 ♕xe7 21.♗xe7 ♖e8 and white's position is much better,. While he may be only a P ahead his position is far better than black's.
20.d5 This ties black's N down on e7 and threatens to open the d-file placing the Q and K in mortal danger.
20.♖f1 This simple move sets up the knockout. 20...♗b7 21.♕e5 Threatening Be6+ with mate to follow. 21...♔c8 22.♗xe7 and wins.
20...♔e8 21.♕d4 ♘c4 22.♗xc4 bxc4 23.♕xg7 ♘g6 (23...♖g8 fails. 24.♕xh7 Threatening Bxe7 and Qxg8+) 24.♖f1 ♕d7 Allows mate in 2, but he was lost anyway.
24...♕g5 and black is still lost. .. 25.♖f6 ♕e3+ 26.♔h1 ♕xc3 27.♖e6+ ♗xe6 28.♕xc3 ♗d7 29.♕xc4 White's material advantage assures an easy win.
25.♕xh8+ Black resigned. Powered by Aquarium
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