9025. Chess
history as she is written
From page 153 of Check Mate and Word Games by
Carlos Tortoza (Denver, 2006):
‘In 1993, Garry Kasparov, then champion created
Professional Chess Association (PCA) worldwide for the
FIDE, and Nigel Shorts for the organization and
marketing of the series of games for the worldwide
heading.
Kasparov and Short had accused to the FIDE with the
professionalism lack and favoritism. Moreover, the two
had refused to yield 25% of the prizes for the FIDE.
The FIDE removed the heading of Worldwide Champion of
Chess of Kasparov and denied the Shorts the right to
defy Kasparov.’
Two years later:
‘The PCA finished for leaving to exist due to
sponsorship, when the Intel left to subvention the
association ...’
9026.
Carlsbad, 1929
From Dominique Thimognier (Fondettes, France):
Lidové noviny, 11
August 1929, page 17 (Larger version)
Pestrý týden, 17
August 1929, page 8 (Larger version)
9027.
Isaacs v Buerger
Black to move.
This was the position after White’s 38th move in the
game between L.J. Isaacs and V. Buerger in the Chicago v
London cable match, 6 November 1926 (1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3
Bd3 g6 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 O-O O-O 6 h3 Nc6 7 c3 Nd7 8 Nbd2 e5 9
d5 Ne7 10 g4 Nc5 11 Bc2 f5 12 Nh2 f4 13 f3 Kf7 14 Rf2
Bf6 15 Nb3 Nd7 16 Bd2 h5 17 Rg2 Rh8 18 g5 Bg7 19 h4 Nb6
20 Be1 Nc4 21 Qc1 Bh3 22 Re2 Nc8 23 Bf2 Bf8 24 Bd3 N4b6
25 Na5 Rb8 26 a4 Be7 27 Kh1 Bxg5 28 hxg5 Qxg5 29 Qg1 Qf6
30 Qe1 g5 31 c4 Ne7 32 b4 Ng6 33 c5 Nc8 34 cxd6 cxd6 35
Rc2 g4 36 Rc7+ Nce7 37 Nxb7 g3 38 Bxa7).
One of several magazines which published the game,
noting that it was to be adjudicated by Alekhine, was
the American Chess Bulletin (December 1926,
pages 157-158). Page 158 mentioned that a suggestion by
Capablanca was 38...Rxb7 39 Rxb7 Rc8. Buerger annotated
the game on pages 72-73 of The “British Chess
Magazine” Chess Annual 1926 by M.E. Goldstein
(Leeds, 1927), without commenting on the final position.
As reported on, for instance, page 161 of the March
1927 Chess Amateur, Alekhine adjudicated the
game as a win for Black, but is it known whether he
supplied any analysis or commentary?
9028. The back
rank
A small oddity in the descriptive notation is the
omission by old US publications of the digit 1, e.g.
R-Q, and not R-Q1. A surprisingly recent book which
adopts that practice is The Pleasures of Learning
Chess by Fairfield W. Hoban (New York, 1974).
9029. A
statement by Alekhine? (C.N.s 3896 & 3898)
Two more second-hand versions:
‘It was said that you had to beat Alekhine three
times in one game to defeat him – once in the opening,
once in the midgame, and once in the ending.’
Source: page 237 of Combinations The Heart of
Chess by I. Chernev (New York, 1960).
‘... Alekhine’s boast that to lose he had to be
beaten three times – once in the opening, once in the
middle game, once in the ending.’
Source: page 209 of New Ideas in Chess by L.
Evans (Las Vegas, 2011).
9030. Who?
(C.N. 8956)
From page 58 of CHESS, January 1941:
The event in question was the women’s championship of
New South Wales, as documented on page 123 of The
Records of Australian Chess. Tournament and Match
Tables, volume two, by John van Manen (Modbury
Heights, 1987):
Much information about Lerida Karmalsky (later Lerida
Mills) can be found at the National Library of
Australia’s Trove
website. The cutting below is from page 3 of the 27
December 1946 issue of News (Adelaide):
An obituary
of Bernard Mills in the Sydney Morning Herald,
21 May 2011 notes that Lerida Mills died in 1969.
9031.
Announcements (C.N. 9011)
As regards announcing an attack on the rook, we note a
caricature of Capablanca in the Argentinian publication
La Vida Moderna, 28 June 1911 which was
reproduced on page 64 of Los años locos del ajedrez
argentino by Juan Sebastián Morgado (Buenos Aires,
2013). The author has kindly provided the ‘chess
consultation’ cutting:
From page 63 of the book:
‘El semanario La Vida Moderna,
aprovechando la presencia de Capablanca en el país,
publica una caricatura muy graciosa, haciendo un
chiste sobre este tema. Pueden verse a Capablanca
(sentado, jugando), Gil y Lisandro de la Torre,
entablándose este diálogo:
Interventor Gil: Señor Capablanca ¿Verdad que
sólo se anuncia el jaque al rey?
Capablanca: Solamente al rey.
Interventor Gil: Pues este señor dice que debo
anunciar el jaque a la Torre.’
Mr Morgado has sent us this translation:
‘Taking advantage of Capablanca’s presence in the
country, the weekly publication La Vida Moderna
had a very amusing cartoon, making a joke about this
topic. It showed Capablanca (seated and playing), Gil
and Lisandro de la Torre having this dialogue:
Interventor Gil: Señor Capablanca, is it
true that check is announced only to the king?
Capablanca: Yes, only to the king.
Interventor Gil: But this gentleman says
that I have to announce check to the rook.’
Our correspondent also explains the context:
‘There is a pun based on the fact that “this
gentleman” was Lisandro de la Torre and that torre
is the Spanish word for rook or tower. The political
situation in the Santa Fe province was complicated;
the elected governor had been removed by the central
government, and Anacleto Gil had been appointed to
replace him. Lisandro de la Torre was a very popular
representative whose political career was in the
ascendancy.’
9032. A
party trick (C.N. 9022)
White gives mate without making any
move.
This is one of two compositions by Arthur John Curnock
(‘one of the foremost Metropolitan amateurs’) on page
538 of the December 1902 BCM. The solution was
published on page 141 of the March 1903 issue:
‘It is obvious Black has just played an illegal move.
White compels him to retrace his move in order to
comply with the rules of the game. It will be seen
that as White is in check, Black’s rook must have last
moved, and also as Black is in double check the king
also must have moved, therefore Black must have
illegally castled. Replace the pieces and it is found
that Black is mated without White having to make a
move.’
9033. Fischer
and Castro
There are a few photographs of Bobby Fischer with Fidel Castro (Havana,
1966), but the shot below (of which a better copy is
sought) is slightly different from a well-known one:
Source: El ajedrez en Cuba by José Luis
Barreras Meriño (Havana, 2002), in the concluding
photographic supplement.
9034.
Brian Eley
The entry for Brian Eley in Jeremy Gaige’s Chess
Personalia (Jefferson, 1987) had only ‘c1946’ with
regard to his birth. The unpublished 1994 edition stated
that he was born on 6 July 1946 in Don Valley, England,
and the entry amended his name from ‘Brian Ratcliffe
Eley’ to ‘Brian Eley’. The source added by Gaige in the
1994 edition was ‘personal interview’.
9035.
Ormond v Ginsburg
From page 139 of CHESS, June 1942:
1 d4 e6 2 Nf3 f5 3 g3 Nf6 4 Bg2 d5 5 O-O Be7 6 c4 c6 7
Nc3 Nbd7 8 Qc2 Ne4 9 Bf4 g5 10 Be5 Rg8 11 cxd5 Nxe5 12
Nxe5 cxd5 13 Nb5 Bd6 14 Rac1 Rg7 15 Bxe4 fxe4
16 Qxc8 Resigns.
White was Jean-Louis Ormond, and the game was played in
Vevey. From page 51 of the April 1942 Schweizerische
Schachzeitung:
A photograph from opposite page 104 of the March 1929
issue of L’Echiquier:
Jean-Louis Ormond
9036. An
old poem
The poem given on page 164 of the American Chess
Bulletin, November 1933 (see Chess in the Courts) can
be traced back to page 34 of The Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
(London, 1852), in a paper by Nathaniel Bland ‘On
the
Persian Game of Chess’, read on 19 June 1847:
An oddity is the attribution on page 209 of the American
Chess
Bulletin, December 1921:
9037. World
championship photographs
Four photographs received from Olimpiu G. Urcan
(Singapore):
Illustrated London
News, 20 May 1961, page 851
Illustrated London
News, 30 March 1963, page 456
Illustrated London
News, 1 June 1963, page 859
Illustrated London
News, 8 June 1963, page 882.
9038.
Copyright on chess games
Concerning copyright on
chess games Mr Urcan has forwarded B.H. Wood’s
column in the Illustrated London News, 14 July
1951, page 74:
9039.
Over-potted biography
Page 92 of Chess Made Easy by Muriel Goaman
(Toronto, 1973) has one brief paragraph on Morphy:
‘Another child prodigy was Paul Morphy (1837-1884),
who was a Master of chess at the age of 13.
After three years he gave up international chess.’
9040. A
Game of Chance
A Game of Chance by Jon Osborne (London, 2012)
has many references to Richard Forster’s book
on
Amos Burn. See pages 26-27, 46, 66, 159, 224 and
227.
9041. Mannerism
From page 144 of The World Chess Championship 1963
by R.G. Wade (London, 1963):
‘Botvinnik has the mannerism, when he reaches at last
a satisfactory position, of straightening his tie.’
A number of Botvinnik’s opponents have remarked upon
this mannerism, including Leonard Barden in his Evening
Standard column of 7 July 2014, which gave a
position from their game in Hastings on 31 December
1961. (He annotated the complete game on pages 85-87 of
the March 1962 BCM.)
By playing 33 Qb4 White missed an
opportunity.
From the Evening Standard column:
‘The world champion reacted to my queen move with a
thin smile, then adjusted his tie. This was a
demoralising gesture for me, for everybody knew that
Botvinnik’s tie routine was invariably a signal that
the great man was satisfied with his position or had
just escaped from danger.’
Further to C.N.s 8979 and 9022, Mr Barden informs us
that he has now agreed terms with the Evening
Standard for his on-line column to continue.
9042. Luces
y Sombras del Ajedrez Argentino
A particularly interesting recent book is Luces
y
Sombras del Ajedrez Argentino by Juan
Sebastián Morgado (Buenos Aires, 2014). Highlights
include the sections on Che Guevara (pages 13-44),
Marcel Duchamp (pages 95-109), Movsa Feigins (pages
212-227) and Adolf Seitz (pages 239-267). The chapter on
pages 284-293 offers ‘la versión definitiva’ of
a controversy which arose regarding Capablanca v Grau,
Buenos Aires, 1939.
9043. Benko
composition
Mate in three
This composition has been widely published, e.g. on
page 246 of Miniature Chess Problems From Many
Countries by Colin Russ (London, 1981).
Russ gave it with a correct citation, ‘P. Benko, Chess
Life, 1968’. From page 304 of the August 1968 Chess
Life, on the second page of an article by Benko
entitled ‘Echo and Repetition’:
The solution on page 293:
Benko also published the problem on other occasions,
e.g. on page 233 of the April 1977 Chess Life &
Review.
In an article dated 22 August 2005 on pages 38-39 of
his dire book This Crazy World of Chess (New
York, 2007) Larry Evans put the black king on e5 (a
change which, curiously, does not affect the key move)
and wrote:
‘Bobby Fischer once bet he could solve it in a half
hour and lost. ... Bobby then bet Benko he could find
a second solution (called a cook) if he could study it
overnight. He lost again. There is one and only one
key move.’
No source or other information was given, the word
‘once’ being deemed sufficient. The same diagram and
text appeared on pages 41-42 of the ‘new edition’ (Las
Vegas, 2009).
On pages 581-582 of Pal Benko My Life, Games and
Compositions by P. Benko and J. Silman (Los
Angeles, 2003) Benko wrote that it was ...
‘... the last problem I composed as a teenager. It
was published many times because its original setup
appealed to problem-solvers and tournament players
alike.
During the Lugano Olympiad, which Bobby Fischer
attended as a spectator, I made a bet with him that he
couldn’t solve it in 30 minutes. As time ran out, he
became irritated and demanded to see the answer. When
I showed it to him, he insisted that other solutions
had to exist. Naturally, this led to another bet.
After more time passed, he was forced to settle both
wagers. The teenage Pal Benko never would have guessed
how much mileage he was going to get out of that
little problem.’
In a ChessBase
article dated 5 September 2011, in which Benko
stated that he composed the problem when aged 15, the
Fischer story at the Lugano Olympiad was related again.
It should, though, be noted that the Lugano Olympiad
took place in October-November 1968 and that, as shown
above, Benko had already published the problem in the
August 1968 Chess Life.
A sidelight is that page 582 of Benko’s book added:
‘M. Grigoriev imitated this problem by placing
Black’s king on b4. He published it in 64 in
1982, claiming a mate in two by 1 Qd5. Unfortunately,
he overlooked the cook 1 Qd4+.’
An inscription by Benko on page 47 of our copy of Kandidatenturnier
für
Schachweltmeisterschaft by S. Gligorić and V.
Ragozin (Belgrade, 1960):
9044. A familiar
old position (C.N.s 8977 & 8993)
Readers’ games are not usually shown in C.N., but an
exception is made for a contribution from Dan Scoones
(Coquitlam, BC, Canada). On 1 January 2015, not long
after C.N.s 8977 and 8993 appeared, he had the following
position as White against Hans Lassnig in a casual game
(full score not recorded) at the West Vancouver Chess
Club:
White to move
The continuation was 1 Rxa6 Bxa1 2 Ra7+ Rc7
3 Qc6 Resigns. (‘Although resistance was still
possible after 3...Rxa7 4 Qxc8 Bc3, the shock proved
too much for my opponent, and he immediately
resigned.’)
9045.
...b5 in the King’s Gambit Accepted
From page 41 of Шахматный калейдоскоп by A. Karpov and
Y. Gik (Moscow, 1981):
Page 26 of the English edition, Chess Kaleidoscope
(Oxford, 1981), named Black as ‘Brain’:
The game between Morphy and Thomas Jefferson Bryan is
in most Morphy collections, e.g. on page 280 of Paul
Morphy. Skizze aus der Schachwelt by Max Lange
(Leipzig, 1881).
Bryan’s name is most commonly seen nowadays in
connection with the ‘Bryan Counter-Gambit’: ...b5 after
either 1 e4 e5 2 f4 exf4 3 Bc4 or 1 e4 e5 2 f4 exf4 3
Bc4 Qh4+ 4 Kf1. For example, various editions of the
nineteenth-century work Synopsis of the Chess
Openings by William Cook stated that the defence
was devised by Bryan and subsequently analysed and
recommended by Kieseritzky. The involvement of
Kieseritzky in the opening is well documented (quite
apart from the Immortal Game), but what about Bryan? And
how to explain the fact that, also in the late
nineteenth century, editions of Chess by R.F.
Green, as well as Green’s ‘Index to the Openings’
appended to reprints of Staunton’s Handbook,
called 1 e4 e5 2 f4 exf4 3 Bc4 b5 ‘Brien’s Counter
Gambit’.
Such references to Robert Barnett Brien are surprising,
as is a comment by C.E. Ranken on page 119 of the March
1901 BCM, after 1 f4 e5 2 e4 exf4 3 Bc4 b5 in a
game between H. Brewer and W. Atkinson:
‘This ingenious counter attack is the invention of Mr
S. Calthrop, of Trinity College, Cambridge, and now of
New York, who played it frequently in the forties with
the late Mr Brien, of Oxford.’
Have these historical discrepancies already been
investigated, and perhaps even resolved, by opening
theoreticians?
9046. Carlsen v
Anand match book
Above are pages 128-129 of Magnus Carlsen –
Viswanathan Anand 2014 Re-Match for the World Chess
Championship by Raymond Keene (Bronx, 2014).
The book has well over 100 similar diagrams.
9047. The Burn
Manoeuvre
In his column on page 60 of the Neue Zürcher
Zeitung, 27 December 2014 Richard Forster offered
the term ‘Burn Manoeuvre’ to describe ...Kh8 and ...Qg8,
as seen in Steinitz v Burn, Hastings, 1895. He also drew
attention to a neglected game in which Black used the
manoeuvre in surprising fashion to defend against a
dangerous attack on the h-file. At Hastings on 5 January
1950 the position below occurred in the seventh-round
game between Olaf Barda and Imre König:
Black to move
26...Qd8 27 Kg2 Kh8 28 Rh1 Qg8
29 g6 fxg6 30 Nf4 Nf8 31 Nxg6+ Nxg6 32 Qxg6 Rb1 33 Qh5
Rxc1 34 Bxc1 Nb1 Drawn. (There are databases which give
Black’s final move as the faulty 34...Rb1.)
The game was briefly described, but not given, in the
round-by-round reports published in 1950 by the BCM
and CHESS. Has it been annotated anywhere?
9048.
Record length
Page 146 of Chess Novelties by H.E. Bird
(London, 1895) referred to ‘the 149-move deciding game,
Bird and Potter, City of London great handicap, 1879,
the longest game on record’.
From page 133 of the Chess Player’s Chronicle,
1 June 1879:
The Potter v Bird game, which did indeed last 143, and
not 149, moves, is of considerable interest:
1 f4 f5 2 b3 Nf6 3 Bb2 e6 4 Nf3 Be7 5 e3 O-O 6 Be2 c5 7
O-O Nc6 8 Ne5 Qc7 9 Nxc6 Qxc6 10 Bf3 Qc7 11 c4 a6 12 Nc3
Ra7 13 g3 b6 14 d4 cxd4 15 exd4 Bb7 16 a3 Bxf3 17 Qxf3
Ng4 18 h3 Nh6 19 Rad1 Bf6 20 Rf2 Nf7 21 d5 Raa8 22 Kh1
Nd6 23 Re2 Rae8 24 Rde1 Qb7 25 Kg2 Bxc3 26 Qxc3 Rf7 27
Kh2 Ne4 28 Qd4 exd5 29 cxd5 Qc7 30 b4 Qd6 31 Qd3 h5 32
h4 Rfe7 33 Be5 Qg6 34 d6 Re6 35 Qf3 b5 36 Kg2 Kh7 37 Rd1
Rc8 38 Rd3 Rc4 39 Rb2 Rxe5 40 fxe5 Nxg3 41 Qxg3 Rg4 42
Rf2 Qe6 43 Re3 g6 44 Kh2 Rxg3 45 Kxg3 Kg7 46 Rg2 Qc4 47
Kf3 Qd5+ 48 Kf2 f4 49 Re1 Kf7 50 Rg5 Qd3 51 Rgg1 Ke6 52
Rg5 Kf7 53 Rgg1 Ke8 54 e6 Qd4+ 55 Kf3 Qd5+ 56 Kxf4 dxe6
57 Rd1 Qf5+ 58 Ke3 Qe5+ 59 Kf3 Kd7 60 Rgf1 g5 61 hxg5
Qxg5 62 Rg1 Qf6+ 63 Kg3 e5 64 Rgf1 Qe6 65 Kf3 Qc4 66 Rg1
Qf4+ 67 Ke2 Qe4+ 68 Kf2 Qh7 69 Ke3 h4 70 Rgf1 h3 71 Kf3
Qh4 72 Ke3 h2 73 Rf7+ Ke8 74 Rff1 Kd7 75 Rf7+ Ke6 76
Rff1 Qh6+ 77 Ke2 Qh5+ 78 Ke3 Qg5+ 79 Ke2 Qh5+ 80 Ke3 Kd7
81 Kf2 Qh3 82 Ke2 Qb3 83 Kf2 Qxa3 84 Kg2 Qxb4 85 Kxh2
Qc4 86 Kg3 b4 87 Rh1 Qf4+ 88 Kg2 Qf7 89 Rhf1 Qg6+ 90 Kf3
b3 91 Ke3 a5 92 Rg1 Qh6+ 93 Kd3 Kc6 94 d7 Kxd7 95 Kc3+
Kc6 96 Kxb3 Qf4 97 Rc1+ Kb5 98 Rb1 a4+ 99 Ka3+ Ka5 100
Rgc1 Qf8+ 101 Ka2 Qf7+ 102 Ka3 Qe7+ 103 Ka2 e4 104 Kb2
Qb4+ 105 Ka2 Qd2+ 106 Ka1 Qd4+ 107 Ka2 Qd5+ 108 Ka3 Qd6+
109 Kb2 e3 110 Kc3 Qd2+ 111 Kc4 e2 112 Rb5+ Ka6 113 Rbb1
Qf4+ 114 Kd3 Qe5 115 Kc4 Qe4+ 116 Kc3 Qe3+ 117 Kc4 a3
118 Kb4 a2 119 Ra1 Qd2+ 120 Kb3 Kb5 121 Rh1 Qb4+ 122 Kc2
Qc4+ 123 Kd2 Ka4 124 Rac1 Qb5 125 Rh4+ Ka5 126 Rhh1 Qb2+
127 Kd3 Kb4 128 Rh4+ Kb3 129 Rhh1 Qe5 130 Rhe1 Qb5+ 131
Kd2 Ka4 132 Rh1 Qb2+ 133 Kd3 Kb3 134 Rhg1 Qe5 135 Rh1
Qb5+ 136 Kd2 Ka4 137 Rh4+ Ka5 138 Rhh1 Qe5 139 Rhe1 Qe4
140 Kc3 Ka4 141 Rh1 Qe3+ 142 Kc2 Qd4 143 Rhe1 Kb4 144
White resigns.
The game was annotated in depth by Steinitz in his Field
column of 31 May 1879, his closing comment being, ‘the
final combination is very ingenious’.
For subsequent lengthy games, see a ‘Chess
Records’ webpage by Tim Krabbé.
9049. Efim
Bogoljubow
Jan Kalendovský (Brno, Czech Republic) submits a
photograph from page 3 of Das interessante Blatt,
20 July 1933:
9050.
...b5 in the King’s Gambit Accepted (C.N. 9045)
From John Townsend (Wokingham, England):
‘Samuel Robert Calthrop and Robert Barnett Brien
played each other at chess in the 1840s at St Paul’s
School, London. Brien’s admission on 8 October 1834,
aged seven, is recorded on page 289 of Admission
Registers of St Paul’s School, from 1748 to 1876
(published in 1884) In 1844-45 he was Captain.
Chapter four of The
Boyhood
of Rev. Samuel Robert Calthrop, compiled by
his daughter, Edith Calthrop Bump, (New York, 1939)
notes that he too was at St Paul’s and contains the
following paragraph:
“It was at school that I began to play chess
with my friend Brian [sic]. We studied
openings and by so doing we played ourselves into
first class form without knowing it. I became so
interested that I used to go to some of the places
where some of England’s best players used to
congregate. It must have seemed strange to see a
boy of 16 playing with some of the best in
England.”
On 7 June 1845 Brien matriculated at Balliol
College, Oxford. Calthrop went to Trinity College,
Cambridge, and C.E. Ranken was at Oxford (Wadham
College) at the same time as Brien.’
9051. Brilliance
‘Would’ can be strange, and C.N. 8632 (see Chess and the English
Language) mentioned its unnecessary inclusion in
historical narratives (‘Alekhine died in 1946, and two
years later Botvinnik would become world champion’,
instead of simply ‘became world champion’). Another
quirk, favoured by presenters of history programmes on
television, is recourse to ‘would have’ to disguise
speculation or mind-reading: ‘It is in this room that he
would have decided to ...’ Then there is all the
prolixity in quizzes. ‘Would you be ready?’ is answered
not by ‘Yes’ but by ‘I would indeed’, and later we may
hear, ‘I wouldn’t have a clue’ or the frightful excuse
for ignorance of something uncontemporary: ‘that would
be before my time’. Asked in a chess quiz to identify
the player who was nicknamed ‘the Black Death’, a
contestant could well use four words instead of one:
‘that would be Blackburne’. A more challenging question
is: which chess writer used the pseudonym ‘Eze’? That
would be Telling.
As shown in C.N. 8677, on page 44 of Brilliance in
Chess (London, 1977) Gerald Abrahams stated that a
Tartakower v Colle game was ‘played at Eze in 1930’,
whereas ‘Eze’ was merely the pseudonym of Oscar Leonidas
Telling, who brought out a book on the Nice, 1930
tournament.
The Eze/Nice confusion, which has yet to be explained,
recurred on page 84 of Abrahams’ book, where he
explicitly wrote:
‘In a tournament at Eze, in the South of France, in
1930, the best player was Tartakower ...’
He then gave two further positions from the event,
Colle v O’Hanlon and O’Hanlon v Znosko-Borovsky. The
diagrams were respectively labelled ‘Eze 1930’ and
‘Played Eze’. Abrahams wrote that the two games received
brilliancy prizes, from a newspaper which, as he had
already done on page 44, he called L’Eclairceur de
Nice. L’Eclaireur de Nice is/would be
correct.
After a few general comments about brilliancy (‘Let us
not call every sacrifice brilliant’) Abrahams gave a
footnote:
‘There must be something in the air of the South of
France because in 1974, at Nice, they awarded the
first brilliancy to an English Master (certainly a
fine player) who made a sacrifice on K6 for which the
board was screaming – and they rejected harder pieces
of play.’
Even today, when technology increasingly encourages
people, including the uninformed and illiterate, to
share their opinions about tout ce qui bouge, it
may still seem rather inelegant to dispute
brilliancy-prize decisions. The case referred to in
Abrahams’ footnote was Michael Stean’s victory over
Walter Browne, a game which Harry Golombek published on
page 235 of A History of Chess (London, 1976):
‘One of the prettiest games of the [Nice] Olympiad
was the following, for which the winner was awarded
the Turover Brilliancy prize of $1,000.’
Golombek was one of the three judges, the others being
Reuben Fine and Lothar Schmid, as reported on page 667
of the October 1974 Chess Life & Review.
The magazine published the game with Stean’s
annotations and also stated:
‘Our own chess philanthropist, I.S. Turover, who has
been giving out 100 dollar bills as brilliancy prizes
for many years, has decided that a brilliant game’s
cash value is high indeed. “I.S.” believes in chess
beauty and is willing to pay, in addition to many
smaller cash prizes during the year, $1,000 to the
“most brilliant game played in the premier tournament
of the year”.
This year it was decided to select the winning game
from those played in the Final A group at the Nice
Olympics. In addition to the money, the winner
receives a small trophy which is a replica of a larger
trophy to be kept in the United States and on which
will be engraved the name of the winner each year.’
The heading of the article was ‘I.S. Turover $1,000
World Brilliancy Prize’, and although many copycat
webpages describe the prize as ‘annual’ and Stean as
‘the first winner’, we are not aware that it was ever
awarded again.
On pages 281 and 282 of the May 1975 Chess Life
& Review L. Kavalek reported that Turover had
given a prize for the most brilliant game won at the
Wijk aan Zee tournament at the beginning of the year
(again Walter Browne was the loser, the victor being
Vlastimil Hort), but no ‘World Brilliancy Prize’ seems
to have been awarded to any game after Stean v Browne.
Would that it had. Turover died in 1978, aged 86.
Isador Samuel Turover,
front cover, Chess Life, November 1968
A brilliancy prize oddity was related on page 6 of Chess
Games
and Chess Problems by W.B. Suesman (Providence,
1980):
The Suesman v Turover game was given in C.N. 2177 (see
pages 241-242 of Kings, Commoners and Knaves),
but we now note that it was played in 1944, and not
1945. I.A. Horowitz annotated it on pages 4-5 of the
August-September 1944 Chess Review, and the
brilliancy prize was discussed on page 15 of the Brooklyn
Daily
Eagle, 31 August 1944.
C.N. 2177 also mentioned another player who lost a
game which received a brilliancy prize donated by
himself, and it is an appropriate name with which to end
this little stroll: Wood.
9052. A
neglected draw
This spectacular game from pages 248-249 of volume two
of Lehrbuch der Schachtaktik by Alexander
Koblenz (East Berlin, 1972) is not easily found
elsewhere:
From page 323:
1 c4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nf3 e6 4 Nc3 dxc4 5 a4 Bb4 6 e3 b5 7
Bd2 a5 8 axb5 Bxc3 9 Bxc3 cxb5 10 b3 Bb7 11 bxc4 b4 12
Bb2 Nf6 13 Bd3 O-O 14 Qc2 Nbd7 15 O-O Qc7 16 Ne5 Nxe5 17
dxe5 Nd7 18 Bxh7+ Kh8 19 Be4 Bxe4 20 Qxe4 a4 21 Qh4+ Kg8
22 f4 a3 23 Bd4 b3 24 Rf3 b2
25 Rh3 f6 26 Rf1 f5 27 Qh7+ Kf7 28 Qh5+ Ke7 29 Qg5+
Ke8 30 Qxg7 Rb8 31 Rh7 Kd8 32 Bxb2 axb2 33 Rd1 Kc8 34
Rxd7 b1(Q)+ 35 Kf2 Rb2+ 36 Kg3 Rxg2+ 37 Kxg2 Qc6+ 38 Kf2
Drawn.
Was Black Randviir, and can other details be
confirmed?
9053. Olga
Menchik
From page 5 of the January 1927 American Chess
Bulletin:
The reference to the girl’s age indicates that she was
not Vera Menchik, and this is shown by a report on page
7 of the Times, 13 September 1926:
Olga Menchik appeared in photographs in C.N.s 5964 and
8774. Two more:
BCM, March 1927,
page 113
BCM, February
1928, opposite page 57
After her marriage, briefly reported on page 219 of CHESS,
14 February 1939, she was referred to as ‘Mrs O.
Menchik-Rubery’ (BCM, June 1939, page 242), ‘Mrs
Rubery’ (BCM, April 1942, page 80) and ‘Mrs
Rubery (Olga Menchik)’ (BCM, June 1943, page
128).
9054. Punctuation
We are preparing a feature article on punctuation in
chess which will include and supplement the material
indexed in the Factfinder.
Any other curiosities in the way annotators have
punctuated games will be appreciated.
A general matter is mentioned here in passing,
concerning the use of punctuation in prose.
It may be wondered why so many people nowadays put
question marks after indirect questions? And
maybe/perhaps stranger still, question marks after
maybe/perhaps? And after other ordinary statements which
are not questions? We assume that there is some
explanation?
9055. A
neglected draw (C.N. 9052)
The game given in C.N. 9052 has yet to be traced in a
contemporary source, but large modern databases state
that it was played between Andrei Peterson and Jurii
Randviir in a match between Latvia and Estonia in Riga
in 1960, as mentioned to us by Thomas Binder (Berlin),
Bent Kølvig (Rødovre, Denmark) and Lonnie Kwartler
(Chester, NY, USA).
9056. Szabó v Dake
Page 165 of CHESS, 14 January 1939:
For his article ‘The Most Exciting Game I Ever Played’
on pages 213-215 of CHESS, 14 February 1939,
László Szabó chose his win as White against Pirc at
Hastings, 1938-39 but commented in his introduction:
‘At Warsaw in 1935 I had a most wonderful game
against Dake, of USA, which Dr Alekhine stated to be,
for him, the most exciting game of the whole
International Team Tournament. It was so exciting,
actually, that I think it would be bad for everybody’s
nerves to publish it again.’
Full notes to both encounters are in Szabó’s book My
Best Games of Chess (Oxford, 1986), and concerning
his draw with Dake he wrote on page 12:
‘My greatest chess experience at the Warsaw Olympiad
was my meeting with the world champion, Alekhine.
Well, I did not meet him across the board, since he
was on first board for the French team, and I played
fourth position in the Hungarian team. The world
champion played against Lajos Steiner, who played on
the first board. Alekhine’s behaviour during play
aroused my interest. Why did he stand up after most of
his moves, go behind his opponent’s back and
contemplate the board from there with arms crossed? I
have seen this pose of Alekhine’s many times since in
pictures, and I used to wonder whether he stood behind
his opponent for psychological effect, or to control
events on the board from another angle.
... according to many contestants – Alekhine among
them – I played the wildest game of the Olympiad
against the American Dake.’
In CHESS and in his book Szabó stated that his
game against Pirc ended 63 b7 Resigns, whereas page 8 of
Hastings 1938/39 International Chess Congress
edited by Dale A. Brandreth (Yorklyn, 1978) had 63 b7
Qg5+ 64 Kf3 Qf5+ 65 Ke3 Qg5+ 66 Kd4 1-0.
9057. Simple
Chess
Simple Chess by Michael Stean (London, 1978) has
received much praise, justifiably. It used the
descriptive notation, and an accurate algebraic edition
would be welcome. In 2002 Dover Publications, Inc., New
York brought out a new version ‘edited and translated
into algebraic notation by Fred Wilson’, but it added
countless misprints, including ‘Fisher’ (page 42) and
‘Spasky’ (page 63).
9058.
Attacking and defending
‘It does not happen too often that one side attacks
and defends simultaneously. Usually, one side attacks
and the other defends.’
Source: page 51 of How Chess Games are Won by
Samuel Reshevsky (New York and London, 1962). The remark
was the first paragraph of Reshevsky’s introduction to
his game against Wade, Buenos Aires, 1960.
Below from one of our copies of the book is an
inscription by Reshevsky which is very similar to the
one shown in C.N. 8431:
9059. My
60 Memorable Games
In C.N. 6926 (see Fischer’s
Fury) a correspondent pointed out a mistake about
Pilnik in the introduction to game four in My 60
Memorable Games. Nobody involved in the book ever
seemed concerned that the game introductions have many
errors, as in game 56:
At St Petersburg, 1914 Lasker’s victory over Alekhine
in the Exchange Variation of the Ruy López was with the
black pieces.
9060. A
neglected draw (C.N.s 9052 & 9055)
Dan Scoones (Coquitlam, BC, Canada) writes:
‘The game was published on page 239 of the 8/1960
issue of Shakhmaty v SSSR, with Randviir’s
annotations.
The note after 36 Kg3 reads:
“Black has not allowed the win to slip away just
yet, although he has not found the simplest path to
victory. However, both during and after the
game I considered it necessary to force a draw here.
My doubts were later dispelled by Paul Keres, who
showed that by playing 36...Qe1+ 37 Kh3 Qxe3+ 38 g3
Rxh2+ 39 Kxh2 Qe2+ 40 Kh3 Qg4+ Black could have
won.”
The final note states:
“It is curious that the two black queens cannot
stop the white king from moving back and forth
between g1 and f2.”
The 1960 team match between Latvia and Estonia was
played in Riga on 30 boards and over two rounds, on
24-26 June 1960. Latvia won 36½-23½. According to RusBase,
Peterson and Randviir were on board ten, and the
crosstable indicates that both of their games were
drawn. However, this is contradicted by the moves of
their other game (in which Randviir was White), as
given in the small database accompanying the
crosstable. The moves were 1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3
Nbd7 4 f4 c5 5 e5 cxd4 6 Qxd4 Ng4 7 exd6 exd6 8 Nf3
Ngf6 9 Be2 Be7 10 g4 d5 11 g5 Bc5 12 Qa4 b5 13 Bxb5
Ng4 14 h3 Qe7+ 15 Kf1 Nf2 16 b4 O-O 17 bxc5 Nxh1 18
Kg2 Nxc5 19 Qd4 Ne6 20 Nxd5 Qd8 21 Qe4 Nc5 22 Qe5
Bb7 23 Ne7+ Kh8 24 Be3 Nd7 25 Bxd7 Qxd7 26 Rxh1 f6
27 gxf6 gxf6 28 Qc5 Rae8 29 Nf5 Bxf3+ 30 Kxf3 Qb7+
31 Kf2 Qxh1 32 Qxa7 Rg8 33 Ke2 Rg2+ 34 Kd3 Qf1+ 35
Kc3 Rc8+ 36 Bc5 Qb5 37 Kd4 Rd2+ 38 Ke4 Qc4+ 39 Bd4
Re8+ 40 Kf3 Qd5+ 41 Kg4 Rg2+ 42 Ng3 Qg8+ 43 White
resigns.’
Regarding the game in the Koblenz book, Leonard Skinner
(Cowbridge, Wales) notes that it was published (A.
Pētersons – J. Randvirs) on pages 19-20 of the 9/1960
issue of the Latvian magazine Šahs:
9061. Magazine
advertisement
On the subject of Chess
in Advertisements Ian Rogers (Carlton, NSW,
Australia) sends the following (page 26 of Woman’s
Day, 18 May 1959):
On the left is the former (and future) Australian chess
champion John Purdy. The page has been provided courtesy
of his widow, Felicity.
9062. The
match of the century that never was
An addition to Chess as
Front-Page News is shown below, from our archives:
the Journal de Genève of 2 September 1997.
The report, by Mikhaïl Wadimovich Ramseier, affirmed
that a FIDE/PCA reunification contest between Kasparov
and Karpov (‘the match of the century’) was likely to
take place in the Théâtre impérial de Compiègne, France
from 20/21 October to 25 November 1997. The organizer
was named as Carol Stroë, the president of a village
chess club (Le Plessis-Belleville), and he claimed to be
putting forward prizes of ten million French francs for
the winner and five million for the loser. There would
be no sponsorship for the 22-game match. Funding would
come from selling the pictures to 43 television
companies for $80,000 each, and from audiences in the
780-seat theatre (200 French francs per ticket).
Following a statement from Kasparov’s representative,
Owen Williams, a report on page 10 of the Journal
de Genève, 6 September 1997 made it clear
that the whole thing was off or, better say, had never
been on.
9063. Kolisch
Jerry Spinrad (Nashville, TN, USA) draws attention to
an item on the front page of Gil
Blas, 3 November 1886 which contained
oblique references to the private life of Baron Kolisch:
9064. A long game
From Ross Jackson (Raumati South, New Zealand) comes a
report on page 3 of the Wellington Independent,
3 June 1846 which he found at the Papers
Past website:
We note from Google
Books this earlier report, on page 390 of Brother
Jonathan, 29 July 1843:
9065.
Emanuel Lasker at the chessboard
‘His demeanour at the board reminds one of the
detached attitude of a judge, weighing up a case and
dissecting its strengths and weaknesses. Absolutely
unruffled he sits motionless at the board, hardly ever
rising from his seat till the game is over, and never
exhibiting in the slightest degree either elation in
victory or despondency in defeat.’
Source: page 30 of Modern Master-Play by F.D.
Yates and W. Winter (London, 1929).
9066. Openings
and Morphy
From D.J. Morgan’s column on page 204 of the June 1974
BCM:
This Morganism
reminds us of the first sentence of the Preface, on page
vii, in Basic Chess Openings by Raymond Edwards
(London, 1976):
‘All chess games start with an opening.’
Overleaf (page 1) the book states, more
controversially:
‘... it was not until the advent of the famous
American master, Paul Morphy (1837-84), that the chess
world fully realized the significance of developing
pieces as fast as possible.’
C.N.s 8435, 8440 and 8452 gave pre-Morphy citations on
this topic, but another question arises: during Morphy’s
career where was his practice of rapid development
identified, at least to some extent, as an innovation?
9067. More
photographs from the Illustrated London News
Olimpiu G. Urcan (Singapore) has forwarded a further
set of pictures:
Illustrated London
News, 12 January 1952, page 65
Illustrated London
News, 9 October 1954, page 593
Larger
version
Illustrated London
News, 31 August 1957, page 332
Illustrated London
News, 3 November 1962, page 700
Marlon Brando ‘also compared working for
Chaplin with playing chess at 90 mph.’
Larger
version
Illustrated London
News, 23 April 1966, pages 34-35.
Illustrated London
News, 25 July 1970, page 9
Illustrated London
News, 12 September 1970, page 7.
9068. A
long game (C.N. 9064)
Mr Urcan adds two early newspaper reports:
Boston Evening
Transcript, 14 July 1843, page 2
Washington Reporter,
29 July 1843, page 1.
9069.
Misidentification
From page 271 of Veliki šahovski turnirji 1851-1911
by Janez Stupica (Ljubljana, 2013):
The photograph is of Julius Adam Kaiser, as shown in
C.N.s 6260 and 6290.
9070. Tartakower
v Atkins
Ivor Goodman (Stevenage, England) asks about the move
order in Tartakower v Atkins, London, 1922. He points
out that after 34 Kc2 ...
... databases have the continuation 34...Ra2+ 35 Kc3
Rc8+ 36 Bc6 Rxc6+ 37 Rxc6 Qb4+, whereas 34...Rc8+ 35 Bc6
Rxc6+ 36 Rxc6 Ra2+ 37 Kc3 Qb4+ is given on pages 106-107
of H.E. Atkins Doyen of British Chess Champions
by R.N. Coles (London, 1952).
The game was widely published at the time, e.g. in the
BCM, Chess Amateur and (with Brian
Harley’s notes from page 4 of the Observer, 13
August 1922) American Chess Bulletin. It is in
the London, 1922 tournament book by Maróczy with Amos
Burn’s annotations from the Field, and it was
later anthologized in A Treasury of British Chess
Masterpieces by F. Reinfeld (London, 1950) and 500
Master
Games of Chess by S. Tartakower and J. du Mont
(London, 1952). In all of these publications the move
order was 34...Ra2+ 35 Kc3 Rc8+ 36 Bc6 Rxc6+ 37 Rxc6
Qb4+.
Capablanca did not mention the game in his report on
the ninth round of the London tournament on page 14 of
the Times, 12 August 1922, but the same page had
this paragraph ‘by our chess correspondent’:
‘The game between Tartakower and Atkins was the first
example of this opening in the tournament, Atkins
playing the KtxP variation on his fourth move. The
middlegame was even. Tartakower castled on the queen’s
side with a view to a king’s-side attack. Mr Atkins
countered by an attack on the queen’s side, but again
got short of time. However, he seemed to play all the
better for it, for with only about 14 minutes to make
as many moves he drove Tartakower’s king all over the
board by a series of checks, and finally mated him on
the 42nd move.’
9071.
Patron saint of chess
An addition to C.N. 2215 (see page 142 of A Chess
Omnibus) comes from page 4 of the Observer,
13 August 1922:
9072. Icelandic
book on Karpov
Aðalsteinn Thorarensen (Reykjavik) provides an addition
to our list of books
about Anatoly Karpov: Karpov by Gunnar Örn
Haraldsson (Reykjavik, 1981):
Readers’ vigilance in making the book lists as
comprehensive as possible is always appreciated.
9073.
Katarina Beskow
Siegfried Hornecker (Heidenheim, Germany) asks for
information about Katarina Beskow of Sweden, who
competed in pre-Second World War tournaments for the
women’s world championship.
The only article about her that we know is by Allan
Werle on pages 99-104 of the 5/1983 issue of the Swedish
magazine Schackkorrespondenten. It states that
[Anna] Katarina Beskow was born in Stockholm on 2
February 1867 and died in Salzburg on 12 August 1939.
The picture below, showing her with Bogoljubow, is a
detail from a group photograph (Göteborg, 1920) which
was the frontispiece to the September-October 1920 issue
of Tidskrift för Schack:
When Vera Menchik became the first women’s world
champion by winning a tournament in London in 1927,
Katarina Beskow was second, with nine wins, two losses
and no draws. She was then nearly three times older than
Vera Menchik.
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