Thrown Out Of the Chicago Chess Club

     A few years back, 1964 I think it was, I was attending a military service school at Great Lakes, Illinois. When on liberty one Saturday I visited the Chicago Chess Club located at 64 East Van Buren Street in downtown Chicago. 

     The building used to be known as Steinway Hall, an 11-story office building with a ground-floor theater (later it became a cinema). In the early 1900s the building held the offices of a group of famous Chicago architects that included a young Frank Lloyd Wright. Steinway Hall was torn down in 1970 and replaced with a modern 600 foot tall building. 

     The Saturday I popped into the chess club there was a tournament taking place and as I began walking around looking at some of the games in progress a seedy looking character, either the club manager or the tournament director I presumed, walked up and tried to shake me down for a "spectator fee." 

     At first I thought he was joking, but he wasn't and when I told him I was not going to pay a fee I was told I had to go, which I did. I have purchased tickets to US Championships and international tournaments, but a weekend Swiss? That's absurd! 

     Chicago is one of the country's largest cities, so it's no surprise that it has always had a fair share of strong players and the Chicago Chess Club wasn't the only one in the city. There was Chess Unlimited on North Harlem and the Gompers Park Chess Club on West Forster. Nearby Oak Park and Calumet City also had clubs. 

     In the early 1900s, as an inkling of the strength of the Chicago Chess and Checker Club, they had defeated Brooklyn and Boston in telegraph matches and in 1904 the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota were overwhelmed and, later, the Franklin Chess Club of Philadelphia lost a match to the club. 

 

     The following game is from the match against the Twin Cities. I could find no information on the Chicago player Carl Medinus (August 4, 1873 - December 6, 1941, 68 years old). His opponent was not the well known Horace R. Bigelow (1898-1980), a prominent member of the Manhattan Chess Club and one of organizers of the New York 1924 tournament. He was Horace Erastus Bigelow (1867-1942) and he was H.R.'s father.

[Event "Telegraph Match"] [Site "?"] [Date "1904.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Carl Medinus (Chicago)"] [Black "H.E. Bigelow (Twin Cities)"] [Result "1-0"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15.1"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "1904.??.??"] [SourceVersionDate "2023.02.17"] {Vienna Gambit} 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 {White offers a P to gain control over the center.} d5 {This move, striking back at the center, is the best way to meet white's last move.} (3... exf4 {White usually plays 4.Bc4 or much less often 4.Nf3, but the engines like} 4. e5 Ng8 5. Nf3 d6 6. d4 {and white is better.}) 4. fxe5 Nxe4 5. Nf3 {The other option is 5.Qf3} Nc6 {The usual move is the rock solid 5...Be7} 6. d4 (6. Bb5 {is more exact.} Bg4 7. d3 Nxc3 8. bxc3 a6 9. Bxc6+ bxc6 10. O-O {with a completely equal position.}) 6... Bb4 7. Bd2 {This is bit slow. 7.Qd3 would have been a bit better.} Bf5 {Stopping a square short. White would have been more uncomfortable facing 7... Bg4 which would have pretty much forced him to play the passive 8.Be2 owing to the pin on his N.} (7... Nxd2 8. Qxd2 O-O 9. Bd3 Bg4 10. O-O Kh8 11. h3 Bh5 12. a3 Ba5 13. b4 Bb6 14. Ne2 Bxf3 15. Rxf3 Nxd4 16. Kh1 Nxf3 17. gxf3 Qh4 18. Nf4 g5 { 0-1 (18) Ramirez Carrizo,V (2144)-Rohl Montes,J (2411) ICC INT 2009}) (7... Bxc3 {There is no reason to play this unforced move and the doubled Ps are no disadvantage for white.} 8. bxc3 O-O 9. Bd3 Bg4 10. O-O f6 11. exf6 Qxf6 12. Qc1 {equals. De Tarso,S-Segal,A (2309) Sao Paulo 2001}) 8. Be2 {[%mdl 32]} Nxd2 9. Qxd2 Be4 10. O-O {Castling Q-side was a good option.} O-O 11. Rad1 b6 (11... f6 {Counterattacking white's center was more appropriate. After} 12. exf6 Rxf6 13. a3 Bxc3 14. bxc3 Qd6 {black has completely equalized.}) 12. a3 Be7 13. Bb5 Bxf3 14. Bxc6 (14. gxf3 {is met by} Nxd4 {with good play.}) (14. Rxf3 Nxd4 15. Rg3 {Black is also well off after 15...Kh8, but not...} Nxb5 16. Qh6 g6 17. Rh3 Bh4 18. Nxd5 {and white is winning.}) 14... Bxd1 15. Qxd1 (15. Bxa8 {is much worse.} Qxa8 16. Nxd1 f6 {equals}) 15... Rb8 16. Nxd5 {Clearly white has the upper hand and the way Medinus conducts the rest of the game is instructive.} f6 17. Qg4 f5 (17... fxe5 {Practically speaking this was a better decision. In Shootouts white scored 5-0, but in one of the games the ending reached a B+N vs a lone K; an easy with for the engine, but not for a human.} 18. Qe6+ Kh8 19. Qxe7 Qxe7 20. Nxe7 Rxf1+ 21. Kxf1 Rf8+ 22. Ke2 exd4 23. Kd3 {The ending favors black.}) 18. Rxf5 Rxf5 19. Qxf5 Bg5 {Black's problem is that white's pieces dominate the board.} 20. c3 a5 21. g3 Kh8 22. h4 Bc1 23. e6 Qd6 24. e7 Qxg3+ (24... Qxc6 {gets him mated.} 25. Qf8+ Rxf8 26. exf8=R#) 25. Kf1 Qd6 26. e8=Q+ Rxe8 27. Bxe8 Bxb2 28. Bh5 (28. Qc8 Qf8+ 29. Ke2 Bxa3 30. Nxc7 {would also win}) 28... Bxa3 29. Qc8+ {The ending is hopeless, so black resigned. For the most part precise play by the winner.} 1-0