Ted Edison

     Headed by Anthony E. Santasiere, champion of the Marshall Chess Club, the College of the City of New York team succeeded in winning the 1922 (24th) annual Intercollegiate Chess League (formerly known as the Triangular College Chess League) Championship that was held at the Marshall Chess Club in New York City from December 26th through the 30th in 1922. It was the second time that the CCNY team had won the championship. The previous year's winner, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had to be content with 4th place. 

  

The team rosters were: 

City College- Anthony E. Santasiere, Erling Tholfsen, H. Grossman and M. Levine 

Pennsylvania- G.O. Petty, S. T. Kosovsky, J. F. Casciato, and H. E. Everding 

N.Y. University- H. Kabatsky, A. Adams, D. G Gladstone, W. Namenson and S. Alpern 

MIT- Weaver W. Adams, J. Brimberg, T. Shedlovsky, H. J. Stark and T. M. Edison 

Cornell- G. Neidich, W. J. Bryan, D. C. Haight, J. J. Singer, C. K. Thomas and L. Samuels      

 

     For MIT you will notice the name of T.M. Edison. According to an article in the American Chess Bulletin he joined the team in the third round and he was listed as "Thomas M. Edison", but that name is incorrect. He was actually Theodore Miller Edison (July 10, 1898 - November 24, 1992, 94 years old). 

     Edison only played two games. He started by administering a defeat to William Namenson of New York University, who up to then had a 2-0 score. On the following day Edison lost a hard game against Everding of the Pennsylvania team.

     Ted Edison was a businessman, inventor, and environmentalist. He was the fourth son and youngest child of inventor Thomas A. Edison. He was the third child of Edison with his second wife. He was his father's last surviving child and today there are no direct descendants of Thomas A. Edison carrying the family name.

     Ted Edison was born at Glenmont, the Edison home in Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey. He ended his education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from which he earned a physics degree in 1923 and remained there another year to pursue graduate studies. In 1925, he married Anna Maria (Ann) Osterhout, a graduate of Vassar College. 

     After graduation, he worked for his father's company, Thomas A. Edison, Inc., starting as a lab assistant. He later founded his own company, Calibron Industries, Inc. and built his own smaller laboratory in West Orange. He earned over 80 patents in his career. 

     In later years he became an ardent environmentalist and helped preserve Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in southwest Florida. He was also an opponent of the Vietnam War and advocate of Zero Population Growth. He lived in West Orange, New Jersey and died from Parkinson's disease on November 24, 1992.

     Here is is only known game, at least as far as I know. Nothing is known of his opponent, but according to one poster in chessgames.com he was the son of a lawyer who was involved in The Tungsten Light Bulb Scandal of 1908.  

     While I am not sure exactly what it means even after reading the Chessbase article on Weighted Error Value HERE, the auto-analysis assigned a WEV of 0.33 to white's play which apparently is pretty good. Black's value was 0.68 which appears to be not bad. In any case, Edison seems to have been a pretty decent player. 

[Event "Intercollegiate Chess League"] [Site "Marshall CC, New York"] [Date "1922.12.29"] [Round "?"] [White "H.E. Everding (Penn)"] [Black "Theodore M. Edison (MIT)"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D02"] [Annotator "Stockfiah 15.1"] [PlyCount "117"] [EventDate "1922.??.??"] [Source "American Chess B"] {Queen's Gambit Declined: Baltic Defense} 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Bf5 3. c4 {This is t unusual Baltic Defense. Because black has difficulties developing his B on c8 he takes this radical approach to the problem by bringing out the B immediately. It's never been popular, but Paul Keres and Alexei Shirov have used it on rare occasions. There is virtually no thgeory on it although back in 1993 Chess Digest published a small book on it.} Nf6 {The most popular line has black playing ...e6 and ...c6, but in practice the text has performed better.} 4. Nc3 (4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nbd2 Nb6 6. e4 Bg6 7. h4 h6 8. Bd3 N8d7 9. a4 a5 10. h5 Bh7 11. O-O {and white has a significant space advantage and is much better developed.}) 4... e6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. Qb3 {This immediate attempt at taking advantage of the unguarded b-Pawn doesn't accomplish anything so it should be delayed a bit.} (6. Bxf6 Bxf6 7. cxd5 exd5 8. Qb3 {Attacking two Ps.} Nc6 {Forcing white to tend to the defense of his d-Pawn.} 9. e3 {Mira,H (2148) -Schwaninger,U (2045) Oberpullendorf 2002. Black can't defend both Ps so he is advised to let the b-Pawn go and play 9...Ne7}) 6... b6 (6... dxc4 {is correct and then after} 7. Qxb7 Nbd7 8. Bxf6 Bxf6 9. e3 {The chances are equal.}) (6... dxc4 7. Qxc4 Nbd7 8. e3 h6 9. Bxf6 Bxf6 10. Be2 {is also equal.}) 7. Bxf6 { Well played.} Bxf6 8. cxd5 O-O (8... exd5 9. Qxd5 Qxd5 10. Nxd5 Bd8 11. e3 { White is clearly better.}) 9. e4 {[%mdl 32]} Bg4 10. e5 {Thanks to black's faulty 6th move whiote has a huge advantage.} Bxf3 {This leaves white with a confusing choice of captures. Which is best? 11.gxf3 or 11.exf6. Or...does he have another move?} 11. dxe6 {This yields the advantage to black!} (11. exf6 { is good for black after} Bxd5 12. Bc4 Bxc4 13. Qxc4 Qxf6 {Black is a sild P ahead.}) (11. exf6 Bxd5 12. Nxd5 exd5 13. fxg7 Re8+ 14. Be2 {is not very good for white either.}) (11. d6 {is tricky, but black is OK after} Bxe5 12. dxe5 Bc6 {Better that ...Bb7 because is prevents white from playing Nb5. In this position black can claim a slight advantage.}) (11. gxf3 {This is the correct move after which white can claim a significant advantage.} Bh4 12. Rd1 exd5 13. Nxd5 {White's advantage is nerly decisive.}) 11... Qxd4 {This results in some tricky play where both side have chances.} (11... Nc6 12. exf6 Nxd4 13. e7 Qd6 14. exf8=Q+ Rxf8 15. Qa4 Qe5+ 16. Kd2 Rd8 17. Re1 Qf4+ 18. Re3 Bc6 {is winning for black.} 19. Qd1 Qxf2+ 20. Kc1 Qxe3+) (11... Nc6 12. exf7+ Kh8 13. gxf3 Nxd4 14. Qd1 Bxe5 15. Qd3 Qf6 16. O-O-O Nxf3 {Black is much better.}) 12. exf7+ Kh8 {There was no reason to fear the pin after taking with the R.} (12... Rxf7 13. exf6 Qe5+ 14. Ne2 Bxe2 15. Bxe2 Nc6 16. f4 (16. fxg7 Nd4 {wins after} 17. Qd3 Re8) 16... Qa5+ 17. Qc3 Qxc3+ 18. bxc3 {In this unbalanced position the chances would be about equal.}) 13. exf6 Bh5 14. fxg7+ Kxg7 15. Ne2 Qd6 (15... Bxe2 {would be very bad. After} 16. Bxe2 Rxf7 17. O-O {White has what should prove to be a decisive advantage.}) 16. Qg3+ Kxf7 {Black would have had better defensive chances by exchanging Qs.} 17. Qxd6 cxd6 18. O-O-O Ke7 19. f3 Bg6 20. Nc3 Rc8 21. Bb5 a6 22. Rhe1+ Kf8 23. Bd3 b5 24. Bxg6 hxg6 25. Kb1 Rc6 26. Re6 d5 27. Rxc6 Nxc6 28. Rxd5 {[%mdl 4096] There is little doubt that it's only matter of time before black makes the decision to resign. As Hamlet said, "The rest is silence."} Re8 29. Rd6 Nb4 30. a3 Re1+ 31. Rd1 Rxd1+ 32. Nxd1 {KN-KN} Nd3 33. Ne3 Ne1 34. Ka2 a5 35. Kb3 Nd3 36. Kc3 Nc5 37. Kd4 Na4 38. Nd1 Ke7 39. b3 {[%cal Bb2b3,Bb3b4][%mdl 32]} Nb6 40. Kc5 {[%csl LRb5,LRb6]} Nd7+ 41. Kxb5 Kd6 42. Kxa5 Kc6 43. b4 g5 44. Ne3 Kb7 45. Nf5 Ka7 46. Nd6 Nb6 47. Ne4 Nc4+ 48. Ka4 Ne3 49. g4 Nc4 50. Nxg5 Nb6+ 51. Kb3 Nd7 52. h4 Kb7 53. h5 Ka7 54. h6 Ne5 55. h7 Ng6 56. Nf7 Ne7 57. h8=Q Nc6 58. Qg7 Nb8 59. Nd8+ {Facing mate in 2 Edison finally resigned.} 1-0