Buddy Simonson

     Albert Simonson (December 26, 1914 – November 16, 1965) was one of the strongest American players of the 1930s and was part of the American team which won the gold medals at the 1933 Chess Olympics. 

     “Buddy” Simonson was born into a wealthy family. His father Leo was a successful wig maker to the Manhattan rich, the theater and movie businesses. His mother, Irene, was from the family that owned the Illinois Watch Case Company in Elgin, Illinois. 

     Simonson showed tremendous skill soon after learning the game. At New York 1933, he scored 7-3 to tie for places with Arthur Dake behind Reuben Fine. This earned him selection to the United States Olympic team at age 18. In the Olympiad at Folkestone 1933 he played first reserve board and scored 3-3, as the Americans won the team gold medal. Simonson's teammates were Reube Fine, Isaac Kashdan, Artheu Dake and Frank Marshall. 

     In the 1935 U.S. Open at Milwaukee, Wisconsin he scored 5.5-3.5 to tie for 4th-6th places. In the first modern US Championship in 1936 Simonson placed second with 11-5 behind Samuel Reshevsky. He scored 11-5 in the 1938 U.S. Championship to finish third behind Reshevsky and Fine. 

     In the U.S. Championship of 1940 he tied for 4th-5th places with 10-6 behind Reshevsky, Fine, and Kashdan. In the 1951 U.S. Championship hefinished tied for 11th-12th, with only 3.5-7.5. 

     Simonson was ranked 6th in the country on the first official rating list issued in 1950. Simonson served with the Army during World War II, attaining the rank of Sergeant. Simonson was very skilled at card and board games, but had a serious gambling problem. 

     He was married three times, and fathered three children. Simonson was a colorful character in U.S. chess history, but little is really known about him. 

     Arnold Denker sheds a little light on the real Simonson in his chapter on the man he called A Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze in the delightful The Bobby Fischer I Knew. Denker wrote that Simonson burst onto the New York chess scene like a meteor and then disappeared almost as quickly. But, during his short stay, he won many honors as a player, as a problemist and as a member of the U.S. team at the Folkestone Olympiad. 

     According to Denker, the high point of Simonson’s career occurred in 1936, where only a final round defeat prevented him from winning the first modern US Championship. After that setback, his interest in chess seemed to wane. He did well enough in the 1938 and 1940 championships, but his comeback attempt in the 1951 fixture ended catastrophically, when he shared 10th – 12th places. Denker went on to fill in some of the details and ends the chapter on Simonson describing himself sitting at Simonson’s funeral in the All Souls Unitarian church in New York City thinking, “What a waste.” 

     Physically, Denker described Simonson as a young man as bring tall and shy, always with the slicked-back hair style men wore in the 1930s, well-cut clothes accompanied by an umbrella draped over his arm. 

     According to Denker, if Simonson had chosen a career in chess, there was no telling how far he could have gone. Unfortunately, like many young men who were handed a fortune and never compelled to work, he had no appreciation of it and piddled it all away. Simonson had a restless nature that caused him to jump from one thing to another without ever really accomplishing anything. He became bored with chess and took up pinochle, bridge, gin, poker and backgammon, always willing to gamble on the outcome and always with the very best player he could locate; he nearly always lost. 

     $429,000. In 1933, at age 19, that is the equivalent of how much Simonson collected for his first annuity that had been left to him by Grandpa Elgin. Actually it was $25,000, but $25,000 went a lot further in those days. 

     He was to receive many of these annuities but always, after paying off gambling debts, there was little left. Denker described how on occasions loan sharks had threatened to break his legs and how Simonson often sold off ‘futurities’ on his annuities for as little a $0.25 on the dollar. 

     Simonson also had a habit of pulling practical jokes on people and that sometimes made him enemies. 

     By the late 1930s he needed money and founded a direct mailing business that turned out to be quite successful. This prompted him to get married, but more gambling debts soon caused his wife to leave him. 

     After WW2 broke out Simonson was drafted and, as Sergeant Simonson, ended up in England. After the war he married an English woman, but that marriage did not last long and when it ended he returned to the U.S. where he married a third time, also short-lived. 

     Always a chain smoker, his health declined as his emphysema worsened and while on a trip to San Juan in mid-November, 1955, shortly after his 51st birthday, he passed away. 

     Held at the Hotel Empire in New York in August of 1951 and directed by Hans Kmoch, no players were seeded directly into the championship finals, but competed in four, six-player preliminary sections. Mengarini, Horowitz, and Shainswit qualified out of Group A, while in Group B, Bernstein and Reshevsky qualified and Santasiere advanced over Shipman by way of a coin toss tie breaker. Evans, Seidman, and Simonson qualified out of Group C, and Pinkus, Pavey, and Hanauer qualified out of Group D.

 

 

     This would be the only U.S. championship prior to the emergence of Bobby Fischer in which Reshevsky would play but not place first.

[Event "US Champ Finals, New York"] [Site "New York, NY USA"] [Date "1951.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Albert Simonson"] [Black "Albert Pinkus"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D46"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "47"] [EventDate "1951.??.??"] {D46: Semi-Slav} 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. e4 {Aggressive play. The main line is 7.Qc2} dxe4 8. Nxe4 Nxe4 9. Bxe4 Nf6 { This quite natural move has had poor results in practice. Black does much better with the freeing 9...e5!} (9... e5 10. O-O exd4 11. Qxd4 Qf6 {with full equality.}) 10. Bc2 Bb4+ 11. Ke2 {Of course, the natural move is 11.Bd2, but Simonson's strange looking 11.Ke2 is Stockfish's choice!} O-O 12. Bg5 Be7 ( 12... h6 {is more precise.} 13. Bf4 (13. Bh4 e5) 13... Bd6) 13. Qd3 {White is already operating with threats.} g6 14. h4 (14. Rhe1 b5 15. Kf1 bxc4 16. Qxc4 Rb8 17. Bb3 Nd5 18. Bxe7 Qxe7 19. Kg1 {White us better and in Korobov,A (2571) -Novita,A (2306) Dubai 2004 he went on to win in a handful of more moves.}) 14... b5 {Black has no time for routine moves. He needs to deal with the pending K-side attack without delay.} (14... Ng4 15. Qc3 e5 {and his position is satisfactory.} (15... Bxg5 {is too dangerous because after} 16. hxg5 e5 17. dxe5 Qe7 18. Rad1 {white has the btter game.})) 15. b3 bxc4 16. bxc4 Ba6 { Once again black should play ...Ng4} 17. Ne5 {Too routine.} (17. h5 {gives white a powerful attack. The P cannot be taken because of mate on h7} Nxh5 ( 17... gxh5 18. Bxf6 Bxf6 19. Qxh7#) 18. Rxh5 gxh5 19. Qxh7#) 17... Rc8 { This was his last chance. 17...Nh5 holding up white's advance was his best try. } 18. h5 {[%mdl 2080] Keeping Black busy.} Nd7 19. Nxd7 (19. hxg6 {turns out to be not quite so good as it looks. After} Nxe5 20. gxh7+ Kh8 21. Bxe7 Nxd3 22. Bxd8 Nf4+ 23. Kf3 Rfxd8 24. Kxf4 Rxd4+ {Black has survived and the chances are now equal/}) 19... Qxd7 20. hxg6 Bxg5 {In spite of the way things look black has excellent defensive possibilities. However, one wrong step is likely to prove fatal.} (20... hxg6 21. Qh3 Bxc4+ 22. Bd3 Bxd3+ 23. Kd1 Bc2+ 24. Kxc2 {mates next move.}) (20... fxg6 21. Rxh7 {and white has a winning attack because black cannot take the R.} Kxh7 22. Qxg6+ Kh8 23. Rh1#) 21. Rxh7 (21. g7 Kxg7 22. Rxh7+ Kf6 {And, because black controls the dark squares the K gets away.}) 21... Rfd8 {[%mdl 8192] This is the fatal slip!} (21... e5 {This surprising move is the only way to keep the balance, but it looks far too dangerous to play because of...} 22. gxf7+ Rxf7 23. Qg6+ Rg7 24. Qxg5 Bxc4+ 25. Ke1 {Otherwise he gets mated after...} (25. Kd1 Qxd4+ 26. Kc1 Qxa1+ 27. Kd2 Rxg5 {etc.}) 25... exd4 26. Kd2 Rxg5 27. Rxd7 Rxg2 28. Rxd4 Rxf2+ {with a likely draw.}) 22. gxf7+ Kf8 23. Qg6 Bxc4+ 24. Ke1 {Black resigned} (24. Ke1 { It's mate in 5...} Bd2+ 25. Kd1 Be2+ 26. Kxe2 Ke7 27. f8=Q+ Kxf8 28. Qf6+ Qf7 29. Qxf7#) 1-0