National Master Jude Acers, himself a colorful character, once described Henin as "an extraordinary practical player who wins, draws, and even loses in the most unbelievable fashion. His games are full of bombs, swindles and occasionally lucid planning."
Acers went on to describe Henin as "unpredictable, and a fighter who lives and dies at the board..."
During games he was silent, ponderous and expressionless, but if things got wild he became animated and could even be heard to "murmur a word or two." After the game it was his habit to quickly depart the premises.
According to Acers, when it came to Henin's swindles, Henin claimed that he, himself, was just as often a victim.
Henin was sometimes the recipient of a lot of luck.
There was the time in a tournament in Santa Monica in 1968 when Henin's opponent had a mate in two moves plus Henin's flag had been down for five minutes and his opponent didn't notice it.
Henin kept playing even though hos flag was down and his opponent, with 5 moves to make in 15 minutes got nervous about what he thought was approaching time pressure and offered a draw. They shook hands and Henin, as was his habit, quickly departed.
That story reminds me of the time I was playing in a very small tournament one Sunday afternoon in a church basement. My first round opponent was only rated a bit over 1200, so I had an easy win.
While looking at my fingernails and waiting for him to move, the TD stopped by, stared at the position, shrugged his shoulders, snickered and walked off. When I looked down I immediately saw that my opponent had a Q move that mated in one!
After thinking for a few minutes he played the Q move and mated me, but he didn't say anything and I quickly realized that he was unaware that I was in check, let alone mated, so I shot out a Q move offering to exchanges Qs. He didn't hesitate to exchange Qs and I went on to win. After the game I did like Henin and told him I couldn't look at the game because I was going down the street to grab some fast food.
In the 1954 US Open in New Orleans, Henin tied for places 8-13 with a score of 8-4. His opponent, Kurt Loening (1924-2000, 76 years old) tied for places 65-69 with a 5.5-6.5 score.
At one time (around 1949) Loening served as secretary of the Firestone Chess Club in Akron, Ohio. From 1952-56 he was the Editor of the Ohio Chess Bulletin. At the time this game was played Loening, who was living in Columbus, Ohio, was rated 1815. Henin was living in Chicago and was rated 2020.
[Event "US Open, New Orleans"]
[Site "New Orleans, LA USA"]
[Date "1954.08.05"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Kurt L. Loening"]
[Black "Charles Henin"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E27"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 15.1"]
[PlyCount "48"]
[EventDate "1954.08.02"]
{Nimzo-Indian} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3 Bxc3+ 5. bxc3 O-O 6. Qc2 c5
7. Nf3 Nc6 8. e3 d5 9. Bd3 Qc7 10. O-O dxc4 11. Bxc4 e5 12. h3 {Theory on this
line is enormous and besides the text white has tried 6 different moves.} e4
13. Nd2 (13. Ng5 {is also playable.} Na5 14. Ba2 Bf5 15. f3 {equals. Akdag,D
(2172)-Marusenko,P (2327) Helsingor 2008}) 13... Bf5 (13... Na5 14. Be2 cxd4
15. exd4 Bf5 {equals. Colon,A-Belkadi,R Varna 1962}) 14. a4 {At some point
over the next few moves black could very well have played ...Na5, but
thankfully he didn't ot the game would not have had the clever finish.} Rfe8
15. Qa2 Rad8 16. Ba3 b6 17. Rfc1 Qd7 {Henin is clearly planning something...
line a sacrifce on h3 which white could have prevented with 18.Bf1!} 18. Bb5 (
18. Bf1 {Intending to add the R to the attack.} Re6 (18... Bxh3 19. gxh3 {
is obviously not good for black.}) 19. a5 Nd5 20. axb6 axb6 21. dxc5 Rg6 22.
cxb6 Ne5 {and the best continuation is} 23. Bc5 Bxh3 24. Qa4 Bxg2 25. Qxd7 Bf3+
26. Kh2 Nxd7 27. Bd4 Rh6+ 28. Kg3 {forcing the draw.}) 18... Bxh3 {While this
hardly wins by force, it make life difficult for white because one wrong move
will prove fatal.} 19. Bxc6 {[%mdl 8192] It looks like 19...Qxc6 is forced.} (
19. gxh3 {should be rejected because after} Qxh3 20. Bf1 Qh4 21. Bg2 Re6 22.
dxc5 Ne5 {Here black has a very strong attack, but unlike in the note to 18.
Bf5 white cannot force a draw.} 23. c6 Rc8 24. a5 h5 25. axb6 axb6 26. Rcb1 Qg4
27. Rb4 h4 28. f3 Qg3 29. Nf1 Nxf3+ 30. Kh1 Nh5 31. Bxf3 (31. Nxg3 Nxg3#) 31...
Qxf3+ 32. Qg2 Qf5 33. Rab1 Rg6 {with a winning attack.}) (19. Nf1 {is his best
defense and it minimizes the damage.} Bg4 20. dxc5 h5 {Ignoring white's Q-side
play and going for the attack.} 21. cxb6 axb6 22. Qc4 Re6 {Defending the N and
preparing to add the R to the K-side attack. Black is better.}) 19... Qg4 {
Crushing...the N on c6 isn't needed.} (19... Qxc6 {is OK, but it's not nearly
as strong as the text. For example...} 20. gxh3 Rd5 21. Kf1 Qe6 22. Ke2 Qxh3
23. Rg1 {with a minimal advantage for black.}) 20. g3 Re6 21. Bb5 Nh5 {Adding
a N to the attack.} 22. Kh2 Rh6 {Adding a R to the attack.} 23. Rg1 (23. Kg1 {
This avoids the mate in 5, but it, too, is hopeless.} Nxg3 24. f3 exf3 25. Kf2
Bg2 26. e4 Rh2 27. Ke3 f2 28. Nf1 Qg5+ 29. Kxf2 Bxf1+ {and now it's mate in 5
again.} 30. Ke1 Rh1 31. Qxf7+ Kxf7 32. Be8+ Rxe8 33. Kf2 Nxe4+ 34. Kf3 Qg3#)
23... Nf4 {[%mdl 512]} 24. Rh1 (24. gxf4 Bg2#) (24. exf4 Bf1#) (24. Qxf7+ {
dealys the mate.} Kxf7 25. Bc4+ Kf8 26. Bxc5+ bxc5 27. Bf7 Bg2+ 28. Bh5 Rxh5#)
24... Bg2+ {White reigned; it's mate next move.} 0-1
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