Eric Cobb's Brilliancy Prize

     Memphis, Tennessee was the site of the 21st Western Championship held from September 20-26, 1920. 
     The U.S. Open Championship has been held in the United States annually since 1900. The tournament was originally the championship of the Western Chess Association and was called the Western Open. In 1934 the Western Chess Association became the American Chess Federation and the tournament became the American Chess Federation congress. In 1939, that organization merged into the United States Chess Federation (USCF) and the tournament became the U.S. Open. 
     In early years the tournament was usually small and most years was a round robin. In some years it had to be divided into preliminary and final sections. It grew larger starting in 1934, necessitating use of different formats. In 1946 the Swiss System was used for preliminary rounds and beginning in 1947 it became a single section Swiss. 
     The early Western Opens were a Who's Who of American players of the day, many of whom are long forgotten: Louis Uedemann, Nicholas MacLeod, Stasch Mlotkowski, Edward F. Schrader, George H. Wolbrecht, Einar Michelsen, Edward P. Elliot, Charles Blacke, Bradford B. Jefferson, Samuel Factor, Leon Stolzenberg, Albert Margolis and Herman H. Hahlbohm. 
     A few were well known: Max Judd, Oscar Chajes, Jackson Showalter, Edward Lasker, Bora Kostic, Norman Whitaker, Carlos Torre, Abraham Kupchik, Samuel Reshevsky and Reuben Fine. 
     There wasn't much going on in Memphis in 1920. The city did host the Commission on Interracial Cooperation Women's Interracial Conference, but that's about it. The population was 162,351, today it's over 650,000 and it's known as home to musicians like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Muddy Waters, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Robert Johnson, W. C. Handy, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Isaac Hayes, Booker T. Jones, Eric Gales, Al Green, Alex Chilton, Justin Timberlake and the late Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis. 
     One interesting thing about Memphis didn't come about until long after the tournament...their strange traffic laws. By 1929 the city was experiencing an alarming increase in automobile accidents and the motor car had become the greatest menace to human life and had made the streets of the city places of real danger. That's what the city's traffic code book said. In fact, on the front cover there was an ad for an ambulance service whose slogan was “World's Finest Ambulance Service.” 
     By 1929 you couldn’t hitch a horse to a hydrant or to any ornamental or shade tree or lamp post and it was forbidden to drive or ride any animal with a bell attached to it. The only exception was made for a sleigh or sled. 
     No motor vehicle could be operated at a speed greater than 25 miles per hour and if you were going around a corner you had to slow to 10 miles per hour. Trucks could not be driven at a greater speed than 20 miles per hour.
     Roller skates were not permitted on city streets and you couldn't hitch a ride on a moving streetcar or other moving vehicle for the purpose of being propelled along if you were riding a bicycle. 
     If you had a vehicle that was used primarily for advertising purposes you couldn't stop in a congested district, but had to keep moving at a speed of at least 3 miles per hour. One “traffic” law even stated you could not use dirigible searchlights or spotlights on public streets. 
     Back to the tournament...defending champion Edward Lasker took his fourth title, but he was challenged by hometown hero and two-time champion Bradford B. Jefferson. Lasker defeated Jefferson in the first round, but three draws allowed Jefferson a chance to catch up before his last-round loss to John T. Beckner. Jackson W. Showalter had been expected to play, but telegraphed his regrets at the last moment. 
     The tournament was held in the Chess Room of the Memphis Chamber of Commerce. Play was from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, then after lunch from 3;00 pm to 7:00 pm. The time limit was 15 moves per hour. 

1) Edward Lasker (+4 -0 =3) 5.5 
2) Bradford B Jefferson (+4 -2 =1) 4.5 
3) John T. Beckner (+4 -2 =1) 4.5 
4) Robert Scrivener (+3 -2 =2) 4.0 
5) Eric M. Cobb (+4 -3 =0) 4.0 
6) Louis R. Eisenberg (+3 -3 =1) 3.5 
7) Marvin C. Palmer (+2 -5 =1) 1.5 
8) John H. Norris (+0 -6 =1) 0.5 
Norris' only draw was against Lasker 

     The first brilliancy prize was awarded to Henry Bird in 1876. Brilliancy prizes were simply a consolation prize and the games often proved to be unsound and filled with mistakes, but that doesn't matter. 
     When writing about the famous Evergreen Game between Anderssen and Dufresne, Kasparov wrote, "To create a chess masterpiece, you really do need the generous participation of your opponent!" I'm not sure, but I think that means sacrifices are not sound if one's opponent makes no glaring mistakes. Of course, if both the opponent and the player make no mistakes, glaring or otherwise, at all, the game should theoretically end in a draw. Chess relies upon mistakes, however minuscule, in order to remain a game that people actually want to play.” 
     The following game earned Eric Cobb of Austin. Texas the brilliancy prize; like many brilliancy prize games it's not perfect, but it is a lot of fun to play over!

Knight Sac vs Queen Sac

    Jackson W. Showalter, known as "the Kentucky Lion" after his birthplace and his hairstyle, loved life, family, chess, and cigars and was so well respected by his fellow chess players that even the acerbic William Steinitz was once said that Showalter was one of only six men from whom he would accept a cigar. Showalter passed away at the age or 76 on his birthday, February 5. 1935.
     The Franco-Polish David Janowski (May 25, 1868 – January 15, 1927) began his professional chess career in 1894. He won tournaments in Monte Carlo 1901, Hanover 1902 and tied for first at Vienna 1902 and Barmen 1905. In 1915 he left Europe for the United States and spent the next nine years there before returning to Paris. A sharp tactician who was known for his love of the Bishop pair, Capablanca said, "when in form [he] is one of the most feared opponents who can exist". Capablanca also noted that Janowski's greatest weakness as a player was the endgame. A gambler, he would often lose all of his chess winnings at the roulette wheel. 
     They played four matches, three while Janowski was visiting New York in 1898-1899 and a on in 1916 when the war left Janowski stuck in the United States. 

New York 1899

      On September 13, 1899 Henry Bliss went down in history when he became the first known traffic fatality when he stepped off a streetcar at Central Park and West 74th Street and was run over by an almost silent electric taxi.
     The taxi driver, Arthur Smith, was arrested and tried for manslaughter, but was acquitted.  Smith's passenger was Dr. David Edson, son of a former city mayor.  Today there is a plaque in Smith's memory.

74th and Central Park today

     The first match was played at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York from November 18, 1898 through January 12, 1899. The stakes were $750 a side. The match was to be played to seven wins for either player, draws not counting. However, if there were a tie at six games each, then they were to play till one achieved ten wins. The match was postponed after the ninth game on December 10th, with Janowski leading by 4-2, when Showalter returned home to Georgetown, Kentucky, after receiving news of the death of his brother, Judge John W. Showalter of Chicago. After resumption on January 6, 1899 only four more games were required, Janowski winning the final three in a row. Janowski scored a decisive +& -2 =2 victory. 

The Showalters: John and Jackson

     The second match was originally meant to be a series of five games played at the Manhattan Chess Club from March 15-20, 1899, but the players agreed to add a sixth game when the score was tied 2-2. The stakes were $125 per side, with a $60 purse put up by the club and split between the two players. Showalter lost the first two games then scored four wins in a row to take the match 4-2. 
     A little over week, starting on March 29 and lasting until April 7, 1899 they began the third match hosted by the Brooklyn Chess Club. The stakes were $250 a side, with the Club tossing in an extra $100 to be divided equally between the players. Showalter scored a solid win, +4 -2 =1. 
     The fourth match was played December 8-29, 1916 at the Elks' Club in Lexington, Kentucky, with games 6-10 in Showalter's home town of Georgetown. The stakes were $750 a side, with Janowski's travel and living expenses being paid. 
     By that time both players were past their peak, but while Janowski had stayed active while the older Showalter had been semi-retired for some time, but had recently staged a successful return to tournament play. In match play in 1916 he demolished Norman T. Whitaker by a score of 6-1. He also tried to arrange matches in Kentucky with Abraham Kupchik and Boris Kostic. 
     The Russian-born Kupchik isn't well known, but he was a very solid player with an extremely boring style.  Arnold Denker described Kuochik, an accountant by profession, as a frightened little rabbit who was barely five feet tall and weighing no more than 115 pounds, adding that he was “so lacking in physical substance that he seemed in perpetual danger of becoming the man who was no longer there. 

Kupchik in the 1930s

     He won the Manhattan Chess Club Championship ten times outright and tied for wirst once. In 1915, he tied for third place with Oscar Chajes, behind Capablanca and Marshall in New York. In 1916, he tied for second with Janowski and Kostic behind Capablanca and he tied for first with Marshall at Lake Hopatcong 1923. In match play, Kupchik lost a to Bogoljubow (+1 −3 =2), drew a match with Carlos Torre Repetto (+1 −1 =4) in New York. He played for the US team in the Olympiad at Warsaw 1935, scoring an impressive +6 -0 =8 on third board. 
     Borislav Kostic (1887 – 1963) was a Hungarian-born Serbian player. In 1910 he moved to Germany and began touring mainly in the Americas, playing matches against local champions and exhibiting his legendary skills as a player of simultaneous blindfold chess.  
     At New York in 1916, he played twenty opponents without sight of a board and won nineteen games and drew one, while engaging in conversation with opponents and spectators. 
     Kostic played matches against Frank Marshall, Jackson Showalter, and Paul Leonhardt, winning them all. Then at Havana in 1919 he lost 5-0 to Capablanca who was just coming into his own. Kostic also played in several tournaments while in the United States; In New York 1918 he finished second behind Capablanca. 
     In their first three matches, Janowski and Showalter were fairly evenly matched with Janowski scoring +11 -10 =5. In the last match Janowski dominated and the overall total was a Janowski victory with a +18 -12 =6 score.
     One of the most exciting games was game 6 of their 1898 match: Janowski sacrificed a N and then two moves later Showalter counter sacrificed his Queen. This amazing game is filled with fascinating tactics, many of which were missed by both players as well as annotator James Mason! 

Kotov's Masterpiece

via GIPHY
     Everybody is (or should be) familiar with the great Zurich 1953 tournament and has (or should have) the tournament book either by Bronstein or Najdorf. Zurich was a Candidates Tournament for the 1954 World Chess Championship which led to the match between Smyslov and Botvinnik. Also, most players have probably seen the famous Αverbakh vs. Kotov game which is presented below because it has appeared in numerous books. Even if you have seen it before, it never gets old. 
     Writing in the tournament book Bronstein said of this game, "This most beautiful game of the Zurich tournament aroused an enthusiastic response throughout the chess world.” Needless to say, the spectators in the tournament hall were very excited because how often do you see a Queen sacrifice in this modern era? 
     In his book Grandmaster At Work, Kotov wrote, “Combinations, the final aim of which is the announcement of mate to the enemy King, are perhaps met most often in chess practice. The theme of such combinations is simple – in the final position mate is unavoidable...The means of such combinations are diverse and inνolνe clearing the way for the attacking pieces to the enemy camp. Often this is by sacrifices...and it is possible to give up a great deal to achieve it.” Kotov described what he called extracting combinations as being those “where the attacking side draws the opponent's King out of its sanctuary and driνes it all oνer the board to meet its downfall.” The following game is such an example, and a great one it is! 

The Game That Shocked Bobby Fischer

     Some things that happened in 1975 were shocking at the time, but if they happened today we wouldn't bat an eye. One example: a renegade clerk in Colorado married a male couple. That, one of the first such marriages in the country, was shocking. When they tried to get their “marriage” recognized by the federal government so one, an Australian, could remain in the country, a district director at the Justice Department's Immigration and Naturalization Service replied by letter stating, "You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots." At the time that wasn't shocking, today it would be. 
     It was also in 70s that television entertainment became topical and often intentionally polarizing as it explored issues that were dividing the country. On the popular, and risque, program Maude, she got an abortion. Guest host Richard Pryor on Saturday Night Live reacted to the "N-word" in a sketch with Chevy Chase. All in the Family starred Carroll O'Connor as the bigoted Archie Bunker who was constantly at odds with his liberal son-in-law. 
    Other programs such as Good Times and The Jeffersons confronted viewers with the type of controversies, and language, that had been considered taboo in a prime-time.
     In the chess world Bobby Fischer was so shocked by an event at Lone Pine 1975 that he called his friend Pal Benko trying to find out what happened. 
 

   In the strong Louis D. Statham Tournament in Lone Pine, California, Alla Kushnir, the first woman to play at Lone Pine, defeated Grandmaster Larry Evans in the very first round. Shocking!! If that wasn't enough, she also defeated GM Istvan Bilek in round 7 and went on to tie for places 18-28 with an even score of 5-5.
     The 1975 Lone Pine tournament was significant because the eligibility requirements were increased again in order to limit the size which had been growing. Entrants needed an IM or GM title or a rating of 2350 or higher (2250 for juniors) to qualify. The field had forty-four players, including 22 GMs, plus the tournament was increased to ten rounds in order to allow it to be FIDE rated which made titles and norms possible for the first time. 
     Alla Kushnir (August 11, 1941 – August 2, 2013) was a Soviet-born Israeli player who was awarded the WIM title in 1962 and the WGM in 1976.  By the way, she is not to be confused with the famous Ukrainian belly dancer! 

Kushnir at Lone Pine 1975

     Kushnir played three title matches against Nona Gaprindashvili for the Women's World Championship (1965, 1969 and 1972), but lost them all. She was the second ranking woman chess player in the world but in order to expedite her move to Israel in 1974 from the Soviet Union, she had to agree not to enter the current cycle for Woman’s World Championship. 
     At Lone Pine she was the only woman and came over from Israel with her other ex-Russian compatriots, Vladimir Liberzon and Leonid Shamkovich. She died in 2013 in Tel Aviv, nine days before her 72nd birthday from undisclosed causes. 

1) Liberzon 7.5 
2) Evans 7.0 
3-8) Browne, Gheorghiu, Weinstein, Quinteros, Panno and Gligoric 6.5 
9-13) Benko, Sigurjonsson, Shamkovich, Torre, Biyiasas 6.0 
14-17) Tarjan, Denker, Suttles and Forintos 5.5 
18-28) Robatsch, Yanofsky, Commons, Kushnir, Martz, Pilnik, Csom, Damjanovic, Reshevsky, Bilek and Tisdall 5.0 
29-33) Schmid, Ghizdavu, Rossetto, Barnes and Berry 4.5 
34-35) Ervin and Silman 4.0 
36-40) Dake, Day, Karklins, Levy and Vranesic 3.5 
41-43) Parr, Waterman and Grefe 3.0 
44) Rohde 2.5 

     A 400-plus pdf booklet containing games from all the Lone Pine events can be downloaded from Dropbox.  You can copy and paste the games into an engine to play over them. Download

Rev. Arthur B. Skipworth, the Mordant Cleric

     Skipworth (June 10, 1830 – November 27, 1898, 68 years old) served as the Rector of Tetford, a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. 
     His father was farmer Philip Skipworth, Lord of the Manor of Laceby, Lincolnshire, but he was not born to his father’s first wife. His father married Mary Marris in 1819, and soon afterwards their child was born and Mrs. Skipworth died in childbirth, but her son lived. Philip Skipworth married his second wife in 1822 and had fourteen more children, though very few survived to adulthood. 
     Arthur Bolland Skipworth was born in 1830. His only surviving sibling at the time was half-brother Henry Green Skipworth, born to Philip Skipworth's first wife. Arthur was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School and then was admitted to St. John’s College Cambridge in 1851, matriculating in Michaelmas 1851. 
     While at university, Skipworth played at the Cambridge Chess Club, where he played two games in December 1851 against Lowenthal, who was visiting Cambridge as part of a tour. Skipworth received Knight odds and won one and lost one. He  got his BA in 1856 and moved away from his mother and siblings.
     Skipworth was ordained as a deacon in 1857, then became a priest in 1858. Clergymen often moved quite often, but Skipworth managed to spend the greater part of his career in his native Lincolnshire. In all, he held four positions: 1857-60, curate at Croxby, 1860-72, vicar of Bilsdale, 1872-75, inspector of schools for the diocese of Lincoln and 1875-98, Rector of Tetford. He was married in July of 1859. 
     His chess activities were numerous. He was secretary of the British Counties’ Chess Association. In September 1865, he won the first of several British Counties’ Chess Association tournaments. The Counties Chess Association was for ordinary local players as opposed to the short-lived British Chess Association which was mostly concerned with happenings in London. When he died in 1898, the British Counties’ Chess Association ceased to exist. 
     For the next 25 years he played many tournaments and had some success in local events. In 1880, he took 1st place in a correspondence tournament which had begun in 1878. 
     In 1883, he finished in last place at the 1883 London International (won by Zukertort), scoring only three points out of 26. In 1885, he lost a match to Henry Bird (+2-5=0). 
     In 1886, he participated in the Nottingham International tournament. The ten-player event was won by Amos Burn (+7 -0 =2) ahead of Schallopp, Gunsberg, Zukertort, Bird, Taubenhaus, Pollock, Hanham,Thorold and Rynd. There were 11 players at the start, but Skipworth withdrew after he lost the first two games. Skipworth had the habit of falling ill early in a tournament, especially when things were not going his way. 
     Besides being a chess organizer and playing in tournaments, Skipworth was involved in producing chess magazines. He was one of those involved in the Chess Players’ Quarterly Chronicle and from 1872 to 1875 he was involved in the Chess Players’ Chronicle. 
     Writing in Eminent Victorian Chess Players, Tim Harding made some interesting observations about Skipworth. Harding points out that he contributed nothing to chess theory and added that while he competed in a lot of tournaments he was noted less for winning them than for withdrawing when he’d lost hope of finishing in a respectable position. Harding suggested that Skipworth's job as a clergyman in various parishes in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire was more of a chore than a vocation and his true love was chess. As for his Counties Chess Association, which was hostile towards professional players, he protected it jealously and was opposed any organizations he regarded as likely to interfere with it, especially the British Chess Association. 
     According to Harding, Skipworth was prone to venting his wrath against his opposition in his chess columns. Harding also suggests that Skipworth had a romantic relationship with a married woman named Louise Rogers, who along with her husband was sharing the house in which Skipworth died. Skipworth left everything to her in his will. 
     One reviewer of Harding's book was of the opinion that his principal motivation was vengeance on his wife from whom he had been separated for a long time and added that his will reeked of revenge; not only did he leave his wife out of his will, but also his sons. 
     Looking at his games it seems that when he was at his best he played some very fine games and he possessed an aggressive style. In the following game he makes quick work of Charles Rankin. 
     Rankin (1797 – 1886 or 1888) was born in Ireland and moved to Upper Canada in his early years and in 1820 he was appointed deputy provincial surveyor and worked in the Southwestern Ontario area. 

     He died in Owen Sound, Ontario, a small city in the northern area of Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The area around the upper Great Lakes has been home to the Ojibwe people since prehistory. 
     In 1815, William Fitzwilliam Owen surveyed the area and named the inlet after his older brother Admiral Edward Owen. A settlement called "Sydenham" was established by Rankin in 1840 or 1841 in an area that had been inhabited by First Nations people. By 1846, the population was 150 and a sawmill and gristmill were operating. 

     Over the years, Owen Sound was a major port best known for its taverns and brothel. The community acquired names as the Chicago of the North, Corkscrew City and Little Liverpool because of its rowdy reputation. Supporting this reputation was a tavern named "Bucket of Blood", located on the corner of an intersection known as "Damnation Corners", because of taverns on all four corners; this location was also only a block away from an intersection with four churches called "Salvation Corners". 
     Sydenham was renamed Owen Sound in 1851. In his later years Rankin lived in Owen Sound until his death and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery. Ontario Plaques indicate Rankin's death as 1886, but cemetery records indicate his death as October 12, 1888. 
     Chessmetrics assigns Skipworth a rating of 2522 in 1891 when he was 61 years old which put him at number 38 in the world and at the same level as W.H.K. Pollack, David Baird, J.M. Hanham and Hermann von Gottschall. On the 1883 rating list Ranken was rated 2509 and ranked 30th in the world. 

An Endgame Lesson by Flohr

     I did a post a few years back on how Nottingham 1936 by Alekhine is one of my favorite chess books and many instructive games were played there. One such game was Flohr – Vidmar. 
     During the mid-1930’s Flohr was one of the world's strongest players and a leading contender for the World Championship and in 1937 FIDE nominated him as the official candidate to play Alekhine for the World Championship, but with World War II looming, Flohr couldn't raise the money. In 1938 he played in the AVRO tournament where he finished last and that put an end to his world championship hopes. Flohr went from being a brilliant and dangerous attacking player to a pacifist that was content to take a quick draw. 
     Writing in The Bobby Fischer I Knew, Arnold Denker devoted a chapter to how he was approached by a pharmacist named Koback in 1946 who showed him news clippings, maps, etc. to “prove” his story that Koback's family had collected millions in gold and jewels by smuggling the rich out of Russia and claimed the Russians were willing to make a deal for hard cash. Denker could keep half if he acted as a go-between during his trip to Groningen that year. Flohr was to be Denker's contact. 
     From the Groningen tournament Denker went to Moscow for the USA vs. Russia match where he discussed the matter with Flohr and made arrangements for Flohr to contact him when the money was ready. Eventually a telegram arrived from Flohr claiming there was no gold and jewels, so Denker duly informed Koback and that was the end of it. 
     Years later Denker discovered Flohr was divorced and living with a much younger woman. The two were living pretty high on the hog and traveling back and forth between Moscow and Prague. Suspicious of how they could afford such a life style, in the early 1980s Denker went to Moscow to visit Flohr and was met at the airport by a younger women who claimed she was Flohr's second wife. 
     On the way to meet Flohr she informed Denker that he had suffered a stroke and when Denker saw him, Flohr was nearly unrecognizable. The woman claimed to be Koback's daughter. Her story was that after Denker delivered the bad news to Old Man Koback that there wasn't any gold and jewels, he had sent her to Moscow where she met Flohr and the ended up getting married. 
     She explained to Denker that they had gotten the money to live so well from Flohr's father, who had been one of the richest men in Czechoslovakia. After returning home Denker learned that Flohr had seemingly made a remarkable recovery and had moved to Prague. Then when Flohr died in 1983, Denker read in a Russsian chess magazine that Flohr had been an orphan and the only home he had ever had as a child was in an orphanage. Denker's point seemed to have been that Flohr had cheated him out of millions by recovering Koback's gold and jewels then lying about it. Do you believe Denker's story?! 

    Dr. Milan Vidmar (June 22, 1885 – October 9, 1962) was a Slovene electrical engineer (ee was a specialist in power transformers and transmission of electricity), GM, theorist, arbiter, philosopher and writer who was among the top dozen chess players in the world from 1910 to 1930. As an arbiter, he was chief referee for the 1948 World Chess Championship in The Hague/Moscow. 
     I first saw the following ending in Peter Griffiths' The Ending in Modern Theory and Practice and it has appeared in endgame books by both Dvoretsky and Levenfish and Smyslov as an example of weak Ps and weak squares and related piece activity. 
     In the following game Flohr demonstrates how the more active R wins against an inferior P-structure. Vidmar's R becomes rather than being active. Observation by the authors include: 

Dvoretsky - The Rook's activity is the main principle for evaluation and practical play in R and P endgames. It can take various forms: attacking the enemy's Ps, supporting its own passed Ps, cutting the opponent's K off or attacking the K. Also, in some cases the R must be used for defense. 

Griffiths – He discusses how weak square are also closely related to weak Ps inasmuch as the squares in front of an isolated or backward P is usually at least as vulnerable as the P itself. And, the square in front of the P becomes an excellent maneuvering point.