An Impressive Win By Santasiere

     In the last post it was described how President Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving from the last week in November to the 4th week in November. In this post we're still in 1939. 

     That was the year that the New York Times predicted television would fail because the average American family would not have enough time to sit around watching it. Today, on average, 79% of people over the age of 15 spend about 3 hours a day watching television. For those over 65 years old, the average is about an hour more. In 1939, a lot of the over 65 crowd would not have been available to watch television because life expectancy for men was 62.1 years and 65.4 years for women. 

     In 1939 General Motors introduced the first mass-produced, fully automatic transmission as an option for the 1940 model year Oldsmobile. And, Ernest Vincent wrote the book Gadsby which has over 50,000 words in it without containing the letter e, the most common letter in English. The plot revolves around a dying fictional which is revitalized as a result of the efforts of John Gadsby and a youth organizer. 

     In other happenings, Batman made his first appearance in Detective Comics, Amelia Earhart was officially declared dead after her 1937 disappearance. The first Thin Mint cookies were sold by the Girl Scouts and the first Little League Baseball game was played in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Also in baseball, the Hall of Fame was dedicated in Cooperstown, New York. 

     One of the popular songs of the day was God Bless America sung by Kate Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986). She was known as The First Lady of Radio and besides the song God Bless America, When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain. She became known as The Songbird of the South because of her tremendous popularity during World War II. 

     I remember Kate Smith from my youth when she appeared on TV shows like The Ed Sullivan Show where she sand her iconic songs. I thought they were awful. 

     For over a year following her death, her remains were stored in a vault at St. Agnes Cemetery in Lake Placid, New York where she regularly attended Sunday Mass and could be heard singing the hymns, while church officials and Smith's executors engaged in a dispute over her request to be buried in a mausoleum on the cemetery's grounds. Her private burial service wasn't held until November 14, 1987. If you can tolerate it, you can listen to her sing HERE.

     The following game was played in the 40th ACF Congress in New York City which ran July 18-29, 1939. This tournament was an important one...at the closing dinner an announcement was made concerning the merger between the American Chess Federation and National Chess Federation. The new organization would be known as the United States Chess Federation.

 

Finals section

     This tournament had a new rule, too. Players had to make 40 moves with two hours and special time clocks were used. 

     Anthony Santasiere's victory in the following game is impressive. His opponent, Boris Blumin (1908-1998), was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, later settled in Canada and in the late 30s was Canadian Champion in two successive years. Later in life, he moved to New Jersey where he won the Hamilton Chess Club Championship at the age of 78. 

[Event "US Open, New York"] [Site "New York, NY USA"] [Date "1939.07.18"] [Round "?"] [White "Anthony Santasiere"] [Black "Boris Blumin"] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "1939.??.??"] {Colle System} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 b6 4. Bd3 Bb7 5. Nbd2 d6 6. b3 { The Colle-Zukertort System where white aims for a K-side attack; it can be very dangerous.} Nbd7 7. Bb2 Be7 (7... g6 {I think this is the safest way to meet the Colle because it blunts the force of white's B on d3.} 8. c4 Bg7 9. Qc2 O-O 10. O-O Re8 11. Ng5 Ng4 12. Ndf3 f5 {with equality. Adly,A (2480) -Dgebuadze,A (2535) Arnhem 2006}) 8. O-O O-O 9. c4 (9. Qe2 c5 10. Rad1 d5 11. Ne5 Qc7 12. f4 {equals. Krueger,P-Moritz,B Frankfurt 1923}) 9... d5 10. Qe2 $14 h6 11. e4 dxe4 12. Nxe4 Nxe4 13. Bxe4 Bxe4 14. Qxe4 Nf6 15. Qe2 {What a boring position. What could go wrong?} Nd7 {A bit passive. A more active move was 15.. .c5} 16. Rad1 {[%mdl 32]} Re8 17. Rd3 {Very instructive. Santasiere will use this R as an important part of his K-side attack.} c6 {this passive approach is going to cause black problems. 17...Bd6 was better.} 18. Ne5 Qc7 19. Rg3 Nxe5 20. dxe5 {Don't worry about the P on e5 blocking white's B; it will get into play very soon.} Rad8 (20... g6 21. Qe4 Kh8 (21... Rad8 22. Rxg6+ fxg6 23. Qxg6+ Kh8 24. Qxh6+ Kg8 25. Qxe6+ {wins for white.}) 22. h4 {White has good attacking chances, but with careful play black may be able to ward it off.} ( 22. Rxg6 {is no good here because after} fxg6 23. Qxg6 Bf8 {white's attack is stymied and it's black who is winning.})) 21. Bc1 {As mentioned previously, the B gets into play.} Kh7 22. Qh5 Bf8 23. Bxh6 {[%mdl 512] This vigorous move is by far the best. Even though there is no forced win, black is walking a very fine line.} g6 (23... gxh6 {gets him mated.} 24. Qg4 h5 25. Qg8+ Kh6 26. Qh8#) 24. Qg5 {[%mdl 128]} Qe7 {[%mdl 8192] This meets a clever refutation.} ( 24... Bxh6 {was his best chance. Then after} 25. Rh3 Kg8 26. Rxh6 (26. Qxh6 Qxe5 {leaves white with nothing.}) 26... Qe7 27. Qg4 Kg7 28. Rh3 Rh8 {And all white can brag about is having an extra P. Foir white, the win, if there is one, is a long way off.}) 25. Rh3 Kg8 26. Qf4 Qc5 27. Bg5 Rd4 {This allows a mate in 5, but there was no way to save the game.} (27... f5 28. exf6 Qf5 29. Qc7 Be7 30. fxe7 {is hopeless for black.}) 28. Bf6 {[%mdl 512]} Bg7 {What's the quickess finish?} 29. Qh6 {[%mdl 512] Nice! Black cannot avoid mate.} (29. Qh6 Bxh6 30. Rxh6 Rh4 31. Rxh4 Qxf2+ 32. Rxf2 {mate next move.}) 1-0