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Monday, August 12, 2019

Dare D. Barkuloo et al

     In 2017, a restored historic mansion in Minneapolis sold for $1 million. The identity of the buyer and seller were hidden behind limited-liability corporation names. The home at 2115 Pillsbury Avenue was built in 1931, has eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms and a four-car garage. It was also restored to include a new eat-in chef's kitchen. 
     The house was designed by the same architect who designed the Alfred Pillsbury home in Minneapolis. The Pillsbury Company was a Minneapolis, Minnesota based company that was one of the world's largest producers of grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought by General Mills in 2001. C.A. Pillsbury and Company was founded in 1872 by Charles Alfred Pillsbury and his uncle John S. Pillsbury. 

    The million dollar home on Pillsbury Avenue hadn’t been built in 1911, but it was the street 14-year old Dare D. Barkuloo (February 11, 1897 – July 1, 1965, 68 years old) lived on when he played in the Western Championship in 1911 at the age of fourteen.
     Not much is known of Barkuloo except that he was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and moved to Minneapolis at the age of ten. He learned to play chess around the age of twelve, but wasn’t too interested in it until about a year and a half later when Capablanca visited the Minneapolis Chess Club in 1910. 
     In 1910, Barkuloo, described as a youthful prodigy, placed second in the city championship which had been won 14 times in a row by E.P. Elliott (1873 - 1955). Elliott was Western Chess Association champion in 1908 and 1912.
     The 1911 Western Championship was won by a young lawyer from Winnipeg, Canada named Charles Blake who won all of his games except for one which he lost to Elliott. Blake had been a strong contender for the title on several occasions, but this year was in exceptional form and played steady, strong chess. 
     Blake (June 12, 1880 - May 18, 1961, 80 years old) was born in London and emigrated to Winnipeg in 1903 before serving as a Major during World War One. He moved to Ontario by 1925 and later to White Rock, British Columbia. Blake was twice runner-up in the Canadian championship (1909 and 1913). 
     The former Danish player Einar Michelsen of Chicago finished a strong second. Michelsen won all of his games except two: he lost to Blake, but still could have tied him for first had it not been for a loss to H.F. Lee. See Einar Michelsen PART 1  PART 2
     Former champ Elliott was deprived of a second place tie when he lost to Wilfred Bland who finished well back. The fourth place finish of Harry Kline from Denver, Colorado was impressive because it was only his first tournament. 
     Harry Kline (June 10, 1888 – August 17, 1943) was born in Lithuania, Latvia, Russia or Lebanon, depending on the source. He arrived in the Boston, Massachusetts area around 1905. He attended, but didn’t finish, high school in Boston where he was one of the better players. After dropping out he moved around a lot. 
     The year 1911 found him in Denver, Colorado, but by 1913 he was a farmer in Dorchester, Massachusetts, but later the same year, at the age of 26, he was was in Queens. New York where he finished high school and passed the entrance examinations for the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in Philadelphia where he graduated with a BA degree in 1917. 
     By 1919 he graduated from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis as a veterinarian. He worked in St. Paul and Minneapolis and sometime around 1927 he moved his family to Queens, New York where he established his own veterinary practice. 
     After a stay in New Jersey (1933-1938) they moved back to New York (1938-1942). In 1942 he was appointed as professor of anatomy at the Middlesex University School of Veterinary Science in Boston. He died in Waltham, Massachusetts and was buried in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. 
     Kline had a lot of success in club play and major open tournaments. At the American National in 1913 he only scored +3 -7 =3, but won the speed tournament ahead of Frank Marshall. His last tournaments were the preliminaries of the 1936 (Philadelphia) and 1938 (Boston) US Open, but in both cases he failed to reach the finals. 
     The story of Murray Goldsmith (June 15, 1886 – January 22, 1912, 25 years old) was a sad one. He lived in Cincinnati, Ohio and was a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, class 1908. One of Ohio’s top players, Goldsmith was also a correspondence player and a problem composer and solver of considerable ability. 

   Here is a link to a letter from Goldsmith to the chess editor of the Pittsburgh Gazette Times, December 4, 1910, in which he laid claim to the Ohio Championship.  LINK
      For years he suffered from rheumatism, a disease marked by inflammation and pain in the joints, muscles, or fibrous tissue. At the age of 25 he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.     
     People were impressed with the play of Dare Barkuloo, mostly because he was so young, at least by the standards of that day. The 14-year old Barkuloo was in the 8th grade and lived with his mother and stepfather (his father had died), both of whom played chess. He had studied all the chess books in the public library which was reported to have quite a few. Barkuloo was noted for playing fast, too fast some thought, and he never showed signs of nervousness or fear. 
     Whatever happened to Dare Barkuloo? Good question. The 1951 Chess Life rating list (the only old one I have) doesn’t show a Barkuloo and chessgames.com shows only two tournaments that he played in: the Western in 1911 and 1915. Two other games played in 1921 are given, both against Reshevsky: draw in a simul and a loss in an exhibition game. 
     An ad appearing in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 20, 1921, states that Reshevsky was to play an exhibition game against Barkuloo, the State Champion. The game was to be played with Reshevsky sitting on a pony (!) and school boys in costume as living chessmen on a 24 foot square board. Reshevsky won a R and P ending. 
     Barkuloo won the Minnesota State Championship in 1914, 1917, 1918, 1921 and 1924. His five wins puts him in 7th place for the most Minnesota championship titles. Curt Brasket with 16 titles is the all time leader. 
Harry F. Lee
      Harry F. Lee (January 24, 1855 - May 29, 1917) was a prominent Chicago player and served as editor of the chess cloumn of the Chicago Tribune from 1912 to 1917 and was TD and secretary of the Western Chess Association.

Final standings:
1) C. Blake 12.0-1.0 
2) E. Michelsen 11.0-2.0 
3) E.P. Elliott 10.0-3.0 
4) H. Kline 8.5-4.5 
5) M. Goldsmith 8.0-5.0 
6) J.L. Clark 7.5-5.5 
7-8) A. Blieden and E. Schrader 7.0-6.0 
9-10) H.F. Lee and W. Widmeyer 5.5-7.5 
11-12) D. Barkuloo and W. Bland 4.0-9.0 1
3) C.S. Cooper 1.0-12.0 
14) J.F. Seymour 0.0-13.0 
Note: Seymour lost “about” four games and withdrew. Thus, Cooper’s only point was a forfeit win against Seymour. 

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Friday, August 9, 2019

Rosenberg Spy Ring and a Chess Master

Morton Sobell, spy
     Morton Sobell (April 11, 1917 – December 26, 2018), yes, he was 101 years old, was an American engineer who is known for having been convicted of spying for the Soviet Union when it was an ally of the United States during late World War II. 
     Sobell was born in New York City to Jewish immigrant parents who arrived in the US in 1906 from a small village in what is today the Ukraine. He graduated from the City College of New York with a degree in engineering. 
     In 1939 he began working in Washington, D.C. for the Navy Bureau of Ordnance and in 1943 took a job with General Electric which had major defense contracts. According to an NKGB agent, Sobell, a top specialist in his field, was recruited as a spy in the summer of 1944. When approached Sobell readily agreed to spy for the Russians. 
     In June 1944, Max Elitcher, a prosecution witness in the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg trial in 1951 and a close friend of both Sobell and Rosenberg, claimed he was phoned by Julius Rosenberg who requested a meeting in which Rosenberg tried to recruit Elitcher. 
     Rosenberg said that many people were aiding the Soviet Union by providing classified information about military equipment and that Morton Sobell was one of them. 
     After David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg's brother, was arrested on charges of espionage, Sobell and his family fled to Mexico in June of 1950 where they lived under assumed names. On August 16, 1950, Sobell and his family were abducted by armed men, taken to the United States border and turned over to the FBI who arrested him for conspiring with Julius Rosenberg to commit espionage. 
     Sobell was tried and found guilty and sentenced to 30 years while both the Rosenbergs were executed. Sobell was initially sent to Alcatraz, but was transferred to Lewisburg Penitentiary when Alcatraz closed in 1963. Sobell was released in 1969 after serving 17 years and 9 months. 
     After his release he became an advocate of progressive causes and conducted public speaking tours regaling audiences with his account of being falsely prosecuted and convicted by the federal government. He also made trips to Vietnam during the war, to East Germany before the fall of the Soviet Union and to Cuba. In 1974, he published a memoir, On Doing Time, in which he maintained that he was innocent. 
     Sobell's purported innocence became a cause among progressive intellectuals who organized a Committee to Secure Justice for Morton Sobell. In 1978 the Corporation for Public Broadcasting produced a television special that maintained Sobell was innocent of the government charges. The Monthly Review, an independent Socialist magazine, maintained that the government had presented "absolutely no proof" of Sobell's guilt, but had tried him merely "to give the impression that an extensive spy ring had been in operation." 
     At the age of 91 Sobell, for the first time, told The New York Times that he had given military secrets to the Soviets during World War II. He claimed he had passed only material about defensive radar and artillery devices. The reporter said that military experts contended that one device Sobell mentioned in the interview was later used against US military aircraft during bothe the Korean and Vietnam wars. Sobell also said that his co-defendant Julius Rosenberg had been involved in spying, but his wife was not. A committed communist, in 2018 he told the Wall Street Journal, "I bet on the wrong horse." 
Phillips in 1904
     Sobell’s defense attorney was Harold M. Phillips (December 15,1874 - January 7, 1967, age 92), a lawyer and President of the United States Chess Federation from 1950-54. Phillips also served as President of the Manhattan Chess Club in the 1930s, President of the Marshall Chess Club, President of the Intercollegiate Chess League and was a New York State Champion and Manhattan Chess Club Champion (1903). He was the organizer and director of the great 1924 New York tournament. In 1930, he played for the US in the Olympiad at Hamburg (drawing one and losing one). He played in chess tournaments for over 70 years. In his earlier years, he was known as “Der Kleine Morphy.” 
     Phillips was born in Kalvaria, south western Lithuania and came to the United States at the age of 13. After receiving his first degree from the College of the City of New York in 1896, he went on to study law at Columbia University and started to practice in New York City in 1899. In 1907, Phillips became attorney for the New York Taxpayers' Association, and subsequently became legal adviser to other well known organizations. 
Phillips later in life

     Phillip's career as a chess-master started with his winning the New York Sun chess tournament in 1895. Thereafter he participated in various local, national and international tournaments. Phillips was co-author of the Book of the Warsaw Tournament (1935). For a time he served as chairman of Scripta Methematica, a journal devoted to mathematics and science, and was also a director of Yeshiva College. 
     In 1942, he won the following game, played in the Metropolitan League match. Phillips played for the Manhattan CC and his opponent for the Bronx-Empire City team. 

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Thursday, August 8, 2019

National Tournament of 1911

     The Cafe Boulevard located at 156 Second Avenue in New York City was the venue for a “National Tournament” that was sponsored by the American Chess Bulletin. The 13-player event was held from January 22 to February 3 in 1911. See the Google street view for a the location today. It was interesting that recently a 3 bedroom, one bath apartment in the building rented for $4,450 a month. 

     A few of the players had international experience: Marshall, Hodges, Johner, Baird while at the time Capablanca had made his mark by winning a match against Marshall. And, it was for the convenience of Capa and Marshall that the dates were selected because both of them sailed for San Sebastian on February 4th, the day after the tournament ended. Capa won San Sebastian a half point ahead of Rubinstein and Vidmar. Marshall finished 4th. 
     In this tournament Marshall, the current US champion, finished ahead of Cuba’s phenomenon thanks to his steady play as he was undefeated. Capa arrived in New York from Cuba in the early morning hours the same day that the first round was played and so by unanimous consent was given a bye for that round.
     In the 4th round Capa lost to Roy T. Black in the 4th round when he played an unsound gambit and at the end of six rounds Capa’s score stood at a surprising 3.5-2.5. Six successive wins remedied the situation. Altogether it was felt Capa didn’t quite come up to expectations, btu that the tournament was good preparation for San Sebastion. 
     Oscar Chajes of Chicago got off to an impressive start with five straight wins before losin g to Johner in round six. Chajes had the bye in the last round and could only watch as Capa nosed him out of second place. His result in the tournament placed Chajes as one of the best players in the country. Charles Jaffe had been long regarded as one of the best players in New York and proved to be dangerous from the start when he drew nwith Capa in round 3 and was undefeated until the 7th round when he was defeated by Marshall. 
     From the start Paul Johner was expected to be a prize winner, but could do no better that share fifth place with George Walcott (born May 4, 1870 - December 29, 1940) of Boston was the founder of the American Chess Monthly in 1892. Walcott got off to a bad start by losing his first three games, but gradually improved. Albert Hodges of Staten Island was a disappointment, but it was his first tournament in a long time and he was out of practice.  Edward Winter has some interesting material on Alfred Kreymbourg HERE.

1) Marshall X = = 1 = 1 1 1 1 1 = 1 1 10.0 
2) Capablanca = X = = 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 9.5 
3) Chajes = = X 1 0 1 1 1 = 1 1 1 = 9.0 
4) Jaffe 0 = 0 X 1 1 1 1 1 = 1 1 1 9.0 
5) Johner = 0 1 0 X 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 6.5 
6) Walcott 0 0 0 0 1 X 1 1 0 = 1 1 1 6.5 
7) Black 0 1 0 0 0 0 X 1 0 0 1 1 1 5.0 
8) Smith 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 1 1 1 1 1 5.0 
9) Hodges 0 0 = 0 1 1 1 0 X = = 0 0 4.5 
10) Tennenwurzel 0 0 0 = 1 = 1 0 = X 0 = = 4.5 
11) Kreymbourg = 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 1 X 0 1 3.0 
12) Baird 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 = 1 X = 3.0 
13) Morris 0 0 = 0 0 0 0 0 1 = 0 = X 2.5

     In the following game Paul F. Johner defeats Roy. T. Black. Paul Johner (September 10, 1887 – October 25, 1938) was the older brother of Hans Johner. Paul was born in Zürich and was a noted musician. He was Nordic Champion in 1916 and won or tied for the Swiss Championship six times: 1907 (joint), 1908 (joint), 1925, 1928 (joint), 1930 and 1932 (joint). His greatest success was Berlin in 1924, when he won a four-way round robin ahead of Akiba Rubinstein, Richard Teichmann, and Jacques Mieses. He won the Manhattan Chess Club championship in 1907. He passed away in Berlin, Germany in 1938. 

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Monday, August 5, 2019

Columbian Chess Congress

     You probably wouldn’t have wanted to be living in New York City back in 1893. That was the year of a hurricane known as the Midnight Storm. It was a powerful and destructive hurricane that struck the New York City area in August 1893. First identified as a tropical storm on August 15, over the central Atlantic Ocean, the hurricane ultimately peaked with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph. It struck western Long Island on August 24 with sustained winds down to 85 miles per hour, moved inland and quickly deteriorated, degenerating the next day. 
     The storm inflicted severe damage with storm surges as high as 30 feet. Legend has it that Hog Island was largely washed away. Roofs and chimneys were ripped off buildings and windows were broken. In Central Park more than a hundred trees were torn up by the roots, and thousands of dead birds fell to the ground after being washed out of, or drowned in, their nests. Thirty-four sailors were killed when vessels were blown ashore and men swept overboard. The tugboat Panther, towing two coal barges, was wrecked; 17 crew members perished and three lived. High winds brought down telegraph wires and left the city almost entirely cut off from communication with outside locations. At Coney Island, the storm completely destroyed many buildings, walkways, piers, and beach resorts. 

      There was also the Panic of 1893, a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy and produced political upheaval that impacted the election of 1896 and the presidency of William McKinley. The Panic can be traced back to Argentina. The 1890 wheat crop failure and a coup in Buenos Aires had lead fearful European investors to start a run on gold in the U.S. Treasury. Come February 20, 1893, twelve days before the inauguration of President Grover Cleveland, concern for the state of the economy deepened and people rushed to withdraw their money from banks, and caused bank runs. The credit crunch rippled through the economy. A financial panic in London combined with a drop in continental European trade caused foreign investors to sell American stocks to obtain American funds backed by gold. 
     The result was panic and dropping stock prices. And on June 27th there was a great stock crash on the New York stock exchange. Five hundred banks closed, fifteen thousand businesses failed and numerous farms went bankrupt.. Unemployment was 25 percent in Pennsylvania, 35 percent in New York, and 43 percent in Michigan. Soup kitchens were opened and facing starvation, people chopped wood, broke rocks, and did sewing in exchange for food. In some cases, women resorted to prostitution to feed their families. 



     Then there was the collapse of the proposed Columbian Chess Congress, also known as the 7th American Chess Congress. In 1893, New York City was to be the site for a tournament to coincide with the Columbian Exposition of 1893, a world’s fair held in Chicago, hence the name Columbian Chess Congress. The tournament never took place because the committee wasn’t able to raise enough money. Eventually there was a 7th Congress, but it wasn’t until 1904 and it was held in St. Louis; Frank Marshall won it. 
     The collapse of the Columbian was an embarrassment. Adolf Albin, Francis J. Lee, Nicolai Jasnogrodsky, Jean Taubenhaus, Arnold Schottlander and G.H.D. Gossip had all been in New York since August or mid-September of 1893. They were visiting the Manhattan and Brooklyn chess clubs giving exhibitions, lectures, etc. and were terribly disappointed, shocked even, by the cancellation of the Columbian Congress. So were a number of leading masters from Europe who had considered making the Atlantic crossing to play in the event. 
     After the Columbian collapsed a project was initiated at the Manhattan Chess Club to arrange a tournament with prizes in proportion to whatever the amount of money that could be raised. They named it the Impromptu International Tournament. The tournament was held during September-October 1893 at both the Manhattan and Brooklyn Chess Clubs. 
     The committee solicited subscriptions and were able to confidently count on $800 for prizes, while there were promises that could bring the total up to more than $900. In 1893. $800 was equivalent in purchasing power to about $22,768 today. 
     The hours of play were 2 to 6 and 7 to 9 P.M. with a time limit of twenty moves an hour. There was also a $10 entry fee which was no small amount...the equivalent of about $284 today. The prize fund was a percentage of the money raised: 40 for first, 25 for second, 16 for third, 11 fourth, and 8 for fifth. The entry fees were divided among the non-prize winners in proportion to the number of games won. 
     Albert B. Hodges wrote to the committee stating that he desired to enter if different hours of play could be arranged to suit him. Special starting times had been made for two of the players (Eugene Delmar and J.S. Ryan) and Hodges was offered the same schedule, but he chose not to enter and so E. N. Olly of the Brooklyn Chess Club was substituted for Hodges. 
     W.H.K. Pollack was disappointed that the tournament was not a double round event. His reason was that he was a “slow starter” that he was required to “lose four of five games before finding his gate.” Nevertheless, he expressed confidence that he would play some good games and take a high place. 
     Emanuel Lasker ran away with the tournament scoring a perfect 13-0 and earned $300 ($5,600.00 today). Interesting was Pollack’s performance compared to his pre-tournament prediction. Pollock used almost all of his time in every game, scored +4 -7 =2 and according to magazine reports, “played good chess only at the very finish” and avoided a “barely catastrophic performance.” 



Final standings: 
1) Lasker 13.0 – 0.0 
2) Albin 8.5-4.5 
3-5) Delmar, Lee and Showalter 8.0-5.0 
6) Hanham 7.5-5.5 
7) Pillsbury 7.0-6.0 
8) Taubenbhaus 6.0-7.0 
9-11) Pollock, Ryan and Schmidt 5.0-8.0 
12) Jasnogrodsky 4.0-9.0 
13) Olly 3.5-9.5 
14) Gossip 2.5-10.5 

     Not a lot is known about the two players in the following game. John S. Ryan was born in Ireland somewhere around 1849 and died about 1914. A member of the Manhattan Chess Club, he was a player of some status in the club. 
     Edward Olly (March 26, 1856 – February 27, 1933) was born in Kars, Turkey. He lived Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey which is near Hackensack and was a state champion. He was a member of the Brooklyn Chess Club. 
     The game features a typical smothered that you see in all the books, but never get to actually play. 


     Still, it does happen and even strong masters can fall victim. A recent example is Klaus Bischoff against Karsten Mueller in the 2004 German Championship.

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Friday, August 2, 2019

Feeling Good About A Win

     Forty-four years is a long time and I don’t remember the hotel’s name where the Eastern Open was played in Washington, D.C. in 1975, but my records show I scored +2 -2 =1. I do remember two things about the hotel. One was the grill where breakfast was served. It was run by a rough looking guy who, when you sat down at the counter, ignored you. What you had to do was direct a shout at him saying what you wanted and in a few minutes he set your order down in front of you. Weird. 
     I had planned to leave the hotel for home on Monday morning, but because my last round game finished early I decided to avoid a lot of traffic and leave Sunday evening. After checking out of the hotel I gave the claim check for my car to the doorman who informed me that the garage was closed and I couldn’t get my car until Monday morning. I explained that nowhere and at no time was I informed of this and there was no notice posted about any of that. Plus, I needed my car! After some haggling he called the parking lot owner who came down and retrieved my car. Until the owner got there I sat on my suitcase out on the sidewalk. 
     Once I got my car I was on my merry way...or so I thought. Getting out of Washington proved harder than I expected. I saw the sign for the route I wanted, but kept missing my turn because of the confusing array of one way streets. 
     After a few frustrating attempts to get to the on ramp of the route I wanted, the best solution was to simply take a street running north out of town thinking that sooner or later I’d hit an Interstate. The only problem was I eventually ended up in a residential neighborhood with a frustratingly slow 25 mph speed limit. 
     It was getting dark when I hit a river and the only way across was on a ferry, but the ferry was closed until Monday morning. From that point I started traveling west and eventually found a road which took me north to I-495. By that time it was late at night, but at least from there it was clear sailing.
     This tournament was one of the few to which I have all my games scores and looking over the games they were all pretty exciting even if not especially well played. Apparently at that time I thought I was a mini-Tal because sacrifices abounded. I like to call them sacrifices, but in reality they were blunders that cost a piece, but at least the blunders were deliberate! 
     In the following game from the last round I needed a win to beak even, but there was a note after my 31st move that I offered a draw. I distinctly remember my opponent snorting and sneering, “Are you kidding me?” It wasn’t long after that he blundered and lost and that made me feel really good. 

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Thursday, August 1, 2019

Weinstein’s Wall Of Pawns

     Back in the old days (1960s and 70s) two of my favorite young players were James Tarjan and Raymond Weinstein. Both had an attacking style that made their games a lot of fun to play over. 
     In 1984, while in his early 30s, Tarjan gave up chess to become a librarian. After retirement in 2014, he successfully returned to play in open events. Everybody knows what happened to Weinstein.
     The claim has been made that the 1961-62 US Championship was a weak one, but it was fairly evenly balanced. Evans and Benko were the only two GMs though Robert Byrne, who didn’t have the title at the time, was certainly well qualified. 
     Before the tournament Sidney Bernstein commented, "It's the kind of field where most anyone could beat most anyone else. Maybe." And that's pretty much what happened. Abe Turner was quoted in the New York Times as saying, "This fellow Evans ... will finish very high if he has a bad tournament. If he has a good tournament, he will run through the field...” 
     Fischer was preparing for the interzonal in Stockholm. So was Arthur Bisguier who took William Lombardy’s place. Lombardy had qualified, but was unavailable because he was preparing for the priesthood. Reshevsky had declined his invitation for unspecified reasons...some thought he was retiring after his match with Fischer earlier in the year. Another GM, Nicolas Rossolimo, was inactive. 
     The favorites were Larry Evans, Robert Byrne and Pal Benko. Edmar Mednis was not yet a GM; he didn’t get the title until 1980. Mednis was a trained as a chemical engineer and like most players was involved in earning a living which curtailed his chess activity. 
     Dr. Eliot Hearst hadn't played since 1954 because of school work. George Kramer, Herbert Seidman, James Sherwin and Sidney Bernstein were there based on ratings acquired in open tournaments and club events. Donald Byrne hadn’t played much because of his teaching duties and declining health. Raymond Weinstein was a promising junior who looked to have a bright future ahead of him. 
     Abe Turner was not very well known to the chess public, but he had had some good results in the past and was a true coffeehouse player. Less than a year after this tournament ended, Turner (1924-1962) was found stabbed to death and stuffed in a safe in the basement where Al Horowitz’ Chess Review office was located. 
See Edward Winter's article for  details
     Turner had been employed by Horowitz for only six months and his murderer was a fellow employee named Theodore Smith. Later that night Smith was arrested by the police and lead them to a hunting knife buried in Central Park. According to an article that appeared in Chess Review, when asked why he killed Turner, Smith said it was because Secret Service agents had told him to. Edward Winter’s site has a newspaper clipping from the Daily News in which Smith’s name was given as Ross Smith. 
     In The Art of Bisguier, Arthur Bisguier wrote that Turner was murdered because Smith had become enraged when Turner made a homosexual pass at him as the two rode an elevator down to the basement. Bisguier was also employed by Chess Review at the time and stated he knew, and liked, both men. He also mentioned that Smith had always been very polite to Mrs. Bisguier whenever she showed up at the Chess Review office.
     Evans was pushing the ripe old age of 30 and said he was playing "for the spirit of competition...And sometimes because I run short of cash." Here’s a little known fact about Evans...he was a master blackjack player who excelled at counting cards. 
     In 1968, before card counting became all the rage, Evans had moved to Reno, Nevada specifically for the purpose of playing blackjack and make a few extra dollars at the Reno casinos. It only worked for a while. Once a player achieves fame as a card counter they get banned from the casinos in Reno, Las Vegas and everywhere else. See Seven Reasons To Never Count Cards 
     Evans was tough to beat. He liked to grab Pawns and hang on for dear life. He also had a pet theory, "No matter how had your position, if it's not totally lost, you will arrive at a point during the game where you will he presented with an opportunity to win or draw if you take advantage of it. I never give up in an inferior position; most players do.” 

Final standings. 
The total prize fund was $3000 with $1000 for first. That may not sound like a lot, but in 1962 first prize amounted to over $8,000, a princely sum in those days! Average family income in 1962 varied by regions, ranging from $4,600 in the South to $6,700 in the West; with the Northeast and North Central Regions averaging $6,600 and $6,300, respectively. Directors were Hans Kmoch and Frank Brady. 

1) Larry Evans 7.5 
2) Robert Byrne 7.0 
3-6) Pal Benko, Edmar Mednis, Herbert Seidman and James Sherwin 6.5 
7) Eliot Hearst 5.5 
8) Donald Byrne 5.0 
9) Raymond Weinstein 4.5 
10) Abe Turner 4.0 
11) George Kramer 3.5 
12) Sidney Bernstein 3.0 

     One of the more interesting game from that tournament was Bernstein’s loss to Weinstein. On move 10, going all out for a K-side, Bernstein played the risky 10.h4, never got castled and reached a place where he barely had a move. He tried giving up his Q for a couple of pieces, but was overwhelmed by Weinstein’s wall of Pawns. 

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Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Zandvoort 1936

Paul Keres
     In the summer of 1936, sandwiched between the tournaments at Moscow and Nottingham, an international tournament was organized in Zandvoort, The Netherlands from July 18th to August 1st. 
     Although World Champion Max Euwe was playing, the star turned out to be the 21 year old Reuben Fine who won the tournament undefeated. This win would be the first of many successes for Fine. 
     Fine was younger than his main rival Reshevsky and was considered by some to be even more promising. He had already chalked up a some good results: 2nd at Lodz 1935 behind Tartakower, a plus score on board one at the 1935 Warsaw Olympiad and first ahead of Flohr at Hastings 1935-36. 
     Tartakower had this to say about Fine: “Lately it has become clear that the best tournament players have been Reshevsky and Fine, both avoiding refined opening theory and exhibiting the triumph of common sense over flashes of ‘creativity’. The main subject of discussion in Zandvoort was determining the style of Fine, whose wins are somehow unnoticeable, while he saved his other games with numerous daring salto mortales. The experts were finally able to conclude that Fine's style is based on the lack of one.” 
     At the age of 19, Keres got a chance to prove himself in Zandvoort where he filled in for Botvinnik who had turned down his invitation. Three losses (Euwe, Fine and Maroczy) relegated him to third place. 
     The tournament was held at the Grand Hotel in the seaside resort town of Zandvoort and was the first important international tournament in Holland since 1928 when the amateur world championship was held in The Hague. 
     Euwe was rushed to the tournament by car after his last exam and was hoping to use this tournament to get in shape for the upcoming Nottingham tournament which was to start a few weeks later. Euwe wanted to play like a true world champion at Nottingham and so Zandvoort was important for him. 
     At the same time, Euwe didn’t want his supporters to gets their hopes up and told them. “I am a better match player than a tournament player. I am not pessimistic but not optimistic either. I believe it’s better to warn people whose expectations of me are too high.” 
     The tournament was opened by the mayor of Zandvoort and the press began asking questions about how Euwe had managed to defeat Alekhine and Bogoljubow stated that it was because of Euwe’s youth and greater tactical (!) talent. That was an odd statement because when it came to tactics, with a few exceptions, Euwe never surpassed Alekhine. 
     Fine assumed the lead early on and was never really challenged and was the only player to go through the schedule undefeated, though he had a close call in his game with Euwe. 
     When they met in round 5 Fine got into a horrible position, but Euwe slipped up and only drew. That left Fine a half point ahead which he increased to a full point in round 6 when Euwe made an horrific blunder against Bogoljubow and lost. After that Fine sailed to an undefeated first a full point ahead of Euwe. 
     Asked to explain his blunders against Fine and Bogoljubow, Euwe said, “Tiredness, nothing else.” He went on to state that people expected too much of him. Exams had just finished and he had no chance to prepare and he had no chance to recover from his “extraordinarily tiring time at school.” He also believed that though the tournament helped get back into his stride, it would have been wiser for him not to participate at Zandvoort, but that would have been too much of a disappointment to the organizers. 
     Some have considered that Max Euwe won the world championship by accident and that he was the weakest of all the world champions, but that is unfair. While Euwe may not have dominated his contemporaries, they didn't demonstrate any clear superiority over him, either. He had excellent results prior to defeating Alekhine in 1935 and when he lost the title in 1937 the match was actually quite close until very near the end. 
     The tournament featured some exciting and instructive games and many are worth looking at. One game, Keres vs. Euwe, featured a struggle around the advanced white P on e5 and Euwe’s attack on Keres’ King is well known and was included by Fine in his book The World’s Great Chess Games. Hans Kmoch also used it as an example of levers in Pawn Power In Chess. 
 
     Kere’s opponent in this game was Lodewijk Prins (January 27, 1913 – November 11, 1999). Prins was awarded the IM title in 1950, International Arbiter in 1960 and was awarded the Emeritus GM title in 1982. He was Dutch champion in 1965. Prins was an arbiter and an endgames judge and in his later years he had a problems column, organizing yearly composing competitions. He also was a well respected writer and coauthored several chess books with Euwe. 

 
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Monday, July 29, 2019

Charles Vezin of Philadelphia

     A while back I downloaded Google’s digital copy of a Chess In Philadelphia by Reichhelm and Shipley, a brief history of, as the title suggests, chess in Philadelphia illustrated by charts, tables games and problems. It covers the period from 1802 to 1898. 
    The earliest highlights were the first chess book, Chess Made Easy by James Humphreys, was published in 1802 by a Philadelphia bookseller and the arrival of Charles Vezin in 1813.  
     Charles Vezin (1781-April 8, 1853) was born in Osnabruck, Germany. In 1802 at the age of 21 he moved to Bordeaux, France where he served as a clerk for ten years. Fugal living enabled him to save up 1,500 francs and set sail for America in 1812, the first year of the War of 1812, a conflict fought between the United States and the United Kingdom from June 1812 to February 1815. It was fought over British violations of U.S. maritime rights.  
     Johnny Horton (April 30, 1925 – November 5, 1960) was an American country music, honky tonk and rockabilly singer and musician during the 1950s and early 1960s.  He was best known for his international hits beginning with the 1959 single "The Battle of New Orleans", which was awarded the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country and Western Recording. The song was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and in 2001 ranked No. 333 of the Recording Industry Association of America's "Songs of the Century". His first No. 1 country song was in 1959, "When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)". 
     With apologies to British readers, here's Horton's song about the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812:

     

     Vezin was sailing on a U.S. vessel that was captured by the British and as a result he spent 3 weeks in an English dungeon. He was then exchanged and finally landed in Baltimore flat broke. 
     He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hoping to make a new startand gradually accumulated enough money to enable him to begin a business which he operated until his death importing German, Belgian and French goods. 
     In Philadelphia there were many players of his equal. When Maelzel's Automaton arrived in town in 1827, Vezin practiced by playing against its operator, Wilhelm Schlumberger, with the result that his game improved a great deal. 
     William Schlumberger (1800 – April 1838) was a European master known to have taught Saint-Amant to play chess and to have served as one of the operators of The Turk, a chess-playing machine which was purported to be an automaton. Schlumberger acted as the Turk's director in Europe and in the United States until his death from yellow fever in 1838. 
     The book of the first American chess congress described Schlumberger as a rapid Chess-player, but not particularly strong in the endgame. It also adds some details about his opening repertoire: When the Automaton adhered to its claim of the first move, the game was made a gambit; when the adversary had the move, Schlumberger invariably resorted to Mouret's favorite defence of King's Pawn one—a Boeotian defence, thoroughly understood at the Cafe de la Regence—so often played afterwards by La Bourdonnais, so thoroughly detested by McDonnell In playing end-games, Schlumberger did not come off quite so well: he was sometimes beaten, although very seldom. 
     Very few and rare games of Schlumberger games survived. 
     Vezin possessed great native talent and was equally proficient in all phases of the game. Conservative and cautious, he could when the occasion required play brilliant tactical chess. He died in his home in Philadelphia on April 8, 1853.
     His opponent in the following game, which feature the Classic Bishop Sacrifice, was James Thompson (September 23, 1804 in London - December 2, 1870 in New York) was a master known for forming the New York Chess Club in 1839. He participated in the First American Chess Congress at New York 1857, and lost a match to Paul Morphy (0-3) in the first round. He also lost several other matches to Morphy. He drew a match with Charles D. Mead in 1857, and played several times in New York Chess Club tournaments, losing to Frederic Perrin in 1854, 1857, and 1859, and James A. Leonard in 1860/61. 

     Chessmetrics does not have an estimated rating for Vezin, but Thomson’s is estimated to be in the mid-2500s around 1860. 
     Italian player Gioachino Greco, discovered the Bishop sacrifice on h7 about 400 years ago and so it’s surprising that a player of Thompson’s apparent strength didn’t recognize it as a possibility when he played the horrible 12...Nh8. 
     The Classic Bishop Sacrifice is thoroughly discussed by Jeremy Silman at Chess.com in a three part series: PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 

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