Chess Notes

Edward Winter

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11276. Press coverage of Nottingham, 1936

From pages 3-4 of CHESS, 14 September 1936:

With regard to the first section, where had the quoted material been published?

11277. Emanuel Lasker and London, 1922

Can an authoritative explanation be found, or put together, concerning Emanuel Lasker’s absence from London, 1922?

11278. Buenos Aires, 1927 (C.N. 11219)

Eduardo Bauzá Mercére (New York, NY, USA) provides some further photographs taken by him at the Club Argentino de Ajedrez, Buenos Aires, on 25 March 2019:

11279. Dishonesty

An item on page 370 of Womanhood, November 1905:

The poem in question was not identified, but the following had been published on page 130 of the April 1905 issue:

Alfred Breese’s ‘Sing a song of Staunton’ composition appeared on page 154 of Lasker’s Chess Magazine, August 1905:

The credit to the Weekly Irish Times will be noted, but Gerard Killoran (Ilkley, England) informs us that he has been unable to find the poem in any 1905 edition of that newspaper.

He has, however, come across the following, which will be added to Chess and the House of Commons:

Larger version

11280. Advice from Alekhine

Alekhine annotated his loss to Euwe in the 25th match-game of their world title contest on pages 224-226 of CHESS, 14 February 1936, with this introduction:

The final two paragraphs of the article, which was dated 3 February 1936:

‘A master should never trust the analysis of others without careful verification; nor should a player allow himself to be over-influenced by the state of the score in a contest, whether it be a match or a tournament, but should try instead only to solve the problem of the position before him.

Advice far more easy to give than to take!’

11281. Goldschmied v Preinhälter

Although familiar from databases, this game is worth adding here for comparison with Lasker v Thomas, London, 1912:

Source: Schachjahrbuch für 1915/16 by Ludwig Bachmann (Ansbach, 1917), pages 61-62.

1 d4 f5 2 e4 fxe4 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 f3 exf3 5 Nxf3 e6 6 Bg5 Be7 7 Bd3 O-O 8 O-O b6 9 Ne5 Bb7 10 Bxf6 Bxf6 11 Bxh7+ Kxh7 12 Qh5+ Kg8 13 Ng6 Re8 14 Qh8+ Kf7 15 Ne5+ Ke7 16 Qxg7+ Bxg7 17 Rf7+ Kd6 18 Nb5+ Kd5 19 c4+ Ke4 20 Re1 mate.

11282. ‘Sing a song of Staunton’ (C.N. 11279)

The poem in C.N. 11279 has reminded John Townsend (Wokingham, England) of the following on page 120 of the Westminster Papers, 1 December 1869:

11283. George H. Derrickson

The gallery of the Cleveland Public Library’s digital chess collection now has two photographs of George H. Derrickson.

It was gratifying to be able to show in C.N. 3263 (see pages 1-2 of Chess Facts and Fables) a full-length portrait of Derrickson from the scrapbooks of George Allen, with the permission of the Library Company of Philadelphia:

From the privately-circulated 1994 edition of Chess Personalia by Jeremy Gaige:

11284. Emanuel Lasker and London, 1922 (C.N. 11277)

Plans to hold an international tournament in London were reported on page 12 of The Times, 19 September 1921:

A similar account was on page 362 of the October 1921 BCM:

A tentative list of participants was published on page 195 of the Chess Amateur, April 1922:

From page 258 of the June 1922 edition:

Neither V.K. Khadilkar nor B. Kostić participated. Regarding the former, page 14 of The Times, 31 July 1922 reported:

‘Znosko-Borovsky takes the place of the Indian Champion, V. Khadilkar, who found himself unable to make the journey to England.’

The name of J.S. Morrison of Canada was added in a report on page 5 of The Times, 26 June 1922:

Most British reporters wrote about the tournament as if German chess did not exist, although two BCM issues in 1922 carried reports in the ‘Colonial and Foreign News’ section, under the heading ‘Germany’, about Lasker’s non-participation in London, 1922:

July 1922, page 273:

‘In connection with the proposed quadrangular tournament in Hastings between Capablanca, Lasker, Alekhine and Rubinstein, the Deutsches Wochenschach remarks that in Hastings they appear to be more open-minded than in Chauvinistic London! The DW does not propose to report the London tournament.’

August 1922, page 307:

‘The Deutsches Wochenschach has reconsidered its decision not to report the London Congress, influenced by the fact of the invitation of Dr Lasker to Hastings, which, our contemporary says, shows that the exclusion of German masters from the London Congress is a mistake for which the whole of England must not be held responsible.’

It will be borne in mind that after Lasker wrote a series of nationalistic/patriotic/jingoistic articles about the Great War in the Vossische Zeitung from 16 August to 25 October 1914, he was strongly criticized in England, and especially in the Chess Amateur. See C.N. 3272, reproduced on page 211 of Chess Facts and Fables.

Pages 277-279 of the April-June 1927 Kagans Neueste Schachnachrichten reproduced a statement by Lasker from the Essener Zeitung of 21 December 1926. His explanation as to why he would not be participating in New York, 1927 included the following about his absence from London, 1922 (and Hastings, 1922):

Another version of such remarks by Lasker was given on page 195 of our book on Capablanca.

In an endnote on pages 319-320 we quoted from Brian Harley’s column on page 19 of the Observer, 26 March 1922:

On page 8 of the 23 July 1922 edition of the Observer, in a column by Harley entitled ‘Capablanca and his rivals’, there was a rare reference to Lasker by name in connection with London, 1922:

‘In the Masters’ Tourney we have the world champion, Capablanca, most of the other great foreign experts (with Lasker a conspicuous exception) and six representatives of the British Empire.’

Further details are still sought concerning the basis on which invitations to London, 1922 were, or were not, extended, and especially with regard to Lasker and Tarrasch.

11285. Pulcherio and pulchritude

An episode in the 1936 Munich Olympiad was related on pages 159-160 of the Schweizerische Schachzeitung, October 1936:

The Austrian magazine referred to was the Österreichische Schachzeitung, and the relevant passage on page 5 of the September-October 1936 issue is given below, courtesy of the Cleveland Public Library:

Gerbec did not name the player on the Yugoslav team who lost to Pulcherio after being distracted by the beauty of a young Brazilian ‘mascot’. Pages 106-107 of part two of Schach-Olympia München 1936 by Kurt Richter (Berlin and Leipzig, 1937) record that in round 16, played on 28 August, Pulcherio (Black) defeated Imre König. We have not found the game-score.

11286. How to pronounce Nimzowitsch (C.N. 11156)

From ‘The Editor’s Mailbag’ on page 199 of CHESS, 14 February 1937:

A reply from G.C.A. Oskam was discussed on page 236 of the 14 March 1937 issue:

11287. Louis Paulsen

Just received and immediately placed at the top of our reading list: Louis Paulsen. A Chess Biography with 719 Games by Hans Renette (Jefferson, 2019).

11288. Sämisch v Whitaker match (C.N. 11213)

C.N. 11213 asked for information about a contest referred to by N.T. Whitaker on page 503 of the December 1969 Chess Life & Review:

Peter Anderberg (Harmstorf, Germany) reports that he has traced no reference to such a match in either the Deutsche Schachzeitung or Schach-Echo of the time.

11289. Gheorghiu v Quinteros (C.N. 7261)

The Oxford Companion to Chess by D. Hooper and K. Whyld (Oxford, 1984), page 128

In C.N. 7261 a correspondent, Richard J. Hervert, pointed out notational errors and, in particular, that the Lone Pine, 1980 crosstable shows that Quinteros defeated Gheorghiu, and with the white pieces.

Now, Florin Dănănău (Bucharest) reports that the game was played in the Le Baron Open tournament in San José, CA, on 8 March 1980. From the Daily Review, 6 April 1980:

The result of the tournament:

Our correspondent also remarks that the Gheorghiu v Quinteros game was published on page 87 of the June 1980 issue of the Revista Română de Șah, in a feature headed ‘Lone Pine, 1980’ (pages 86-88). However, when the annotations were reproduced on pages 202-204 of Integrala de șah Florin Gheorghiu, volume two (Bucharest, 2017), the occasion was given as San José, 1980.

The game also appeared on page 11 of the March-May 1980 edition of Chess Voice.

11290. F.W. Womersley

Concerning F.W. Womersley, John Townsend (Wokingham, England) writes:

‘The birth indexes of the General Register Office show that Frederick William Womersley was born in the registration district of Hastings during the quarter ending 30 September 1839 (volume 7, page 328), his mother’s maiden name being Shaw. He seems to have been called William in the family, since he is listed by that forename in the censuses of 1841 and 1851. In 1841 the family was at Albion Place, Hastings, his father, Charles Womersley, being described as an upholsterer, with Caroline Womersley (aged 30-34), and four children, of whom William was the youngest (National Archives, HO 107/1107). In 1851, at 3 and 4 York Place, his father was described as “Upholsterer Auctioneer”, born at Tenterden, Kent; in the place of Caroline, who had died since 1841, was Catherine Womersley, aged 37; William was a “scholar” at that time (National Archives, HO 107/1635, folio 69). By 1861 he had become an upholsterer’s clerk (National Archives, RG9/560, folio 80), and in 1881 an upholsterer (National Archives, RG 11/1024, folio 39). During the quarter ending September 1859, Womersley had married Mary Ann Long in the registration district of Hastings (volume 2b, page 17). The 1881 census indicates that she was born in Bexhill, and that at that time they had two children, Emily and Godfrey. Mary Ann died in the March quarter of 1899 (Hastings, volume 2b, page 16), and in the same year the National Probate Calendar shows that Womersley also lost his father (full name Charles John Womersley). In the 1911 census, a few months prior to his death, Frederick William Womersley was shown as a widower, professional accountant and public auditor, living with his daughter, Emily, 50, who was single and served as housekeeper (National Archives, RG 14/4747).’

Our correspondent has also provided some information about Womersley’s killer, Joseph James, from page 7 of the Western Daily Press, 9 September 1931:

‘Murderer Dies at Broadmoor

The death has occurred at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum of Joseph James, a chemist (71), who at the Sussex Assize, in December 1911, was sentenced to be detained during his Majesty’s pleasure on a charge of wilful murder.’

Mr Townsend adds:

‘Confirmation of Joseph James’ death is provided by the death indexes of the General Register Office, in an entry in the September quarter of 1931 in the registration district of Easthampstead (vol. 2c, page 416), his age also being given as 71.’

11291. Charles Henry Stanley (C.N.s 3503 & 4955)

Jerry Spinrad (Nashville, TN, USA) points out that a news item about the disappearance of Charles A. Libby on page 3 of the Savannah Morning News, 14 July 1885 referred to his acquaintance with C.H. Stanley, ‘a phenomenally clever chess and whist player’:

11292. Howell v Tietjen

Page 52 of the scrapbook mentioned in C.N. 10811 has this game from an unidentified newspaper:

1 d4 d5 2 e3 e6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 c4 c5 5 Nbd2 Nc6 6 dxc5 Bxc5 7 Nb3 Bb4+ 8 Bd2 dxc4 9 Bxc4 O-O 10 O-O Bxd2 11 Nbxd2 Qe7 12 a3 Rd8 13 Qe2 b6 14 Rac1 Bb7 15 Rc3 Rac8 16 Rfc1 Nb8 17 Nd4 a6 18 a4 Qd7 19 b3 Nd5 20 R3c2 Nb4 21 Rb2 N8c6 22 Nxc6 Qxc6 23 Nf3 Nd3 24 Rd1 Nxb2 25 Rxd8+ Rxd8 26 Qxb2 Qxc4 27 White resigns.

The game was played on 14 December 1893 on top board in the club match, the venue being the Bohemians Chess Club in London (BCM, January 1894, page 18).

11293. Lasker v Schlechter

A new feature article has just been posted: The Lasker v Schlechter Controversy (1910).

11294. Morphy and checkers

On the subject of draughts/checkers, details are requested regarding this paragraph on page 48 of the American Chess Bulletin, February 1927:

11295. Posters and advertisements

A larger version of the poster shown in C.N. 7513 (included in Chess in Advertisements):

CHESS, 14 September 1936, page 11

11296. Capablanca playing simultaneously (C.N. 7704)

Information is still sought on the exact occasion when the well-known photograph of Capablanca shown in C.N. 7704 was taken. (See too Capablanca’s Simultaneous Displays.) Below is what appeared on page 9 of the 29 April 1916 edition of the Wiener Illustrierte Zeitung:

Larger version

11297. Sketches of Capablanca and Alekhine

From page 9 of the Illustrierte Kronen Zeitung, 15 November 1927:

11298. Kostić v Zollner

From page 4 of the sports section of the Salt Lake Tribune, 5 November 1922:

1 d4 f5 2 e4 fxe4 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5 d5 5 Bxf6 exf6 6 Qh5+ g6 7 Qxd5 Bd6 8 Qxe4+ Kf7 9 O-O-O Re8 10 Qh4 Kg7 11 Bd3 Nd7 12 Nf3 Nf8 13 Rhe1 Be6 14 d5 Bf7 15 Rxe8 Bxe8 16 Nd4 Bf7 17 Re1 Be5 18 Qe4 c6 19 Bc4 Qb6 20 Rd1 Re8

21 Ne6+ Nxe6 22 dxe6 Bxe6 23 Bxe6 Rxe6 24 Rd7+ Kh8 25 Qh4 h5 26 Nd1 f5 27 Qg5 Bg7 28 Qd2 Qb5 29 Ne3 Qxb2+ 30 Kd1 f4 31 Rxg7 Qa1+ 32 Ke2 Qxg7 33 Qd8+ Kh7 34 Qc8 Qe7 35 White resigns.

Details are sought from any Newcastle chess columns of the time.

11299. Albin v Réti

Rod Edwards (Victoria, BC, Canada) writes:

‘On page 43 of Hundert Jahre Schachzweikämpfe (Amsterdam, 1967) P. Feenstra Kuiper listed a +1 –1 =0 result for a match between Albin and Réti in 1918, and G. Di Felice reproduced that information on page 249 of Chess Results, 1901-1920 (Jefferson, 2006). However, on pages 124 and 127 of Chess Fathering a Nation (Olomouc, 2004) O.G. Urcan gave the same result in the year 1912, and no results for Albin in 1918. Which year is correct?’

Finding contemporary references is difficult, but we note the following on page 344 of Schachjahrbuch für 1917/18 by L. Bachmann (Ansbach, 1919), in the section relating to 1918:

Pages 62-63 of the same book, but in the section on 1917, had a game dated 7 December 1917:

The game-score was published with the same information (i.e. without any indication of the conditions) on pages 36-37 of the February 1918 Deutsche Schachzeitung.

1 e4 b6 2 Bc4 Bb7 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 Bxf7+ Kxf7 6 Nxe4 e6 7 Ne5+ Kg8 8 Qh5 Qe7 9 d3 g6 10 Qf3 Bg7 11 Ng4 Bxe4 12 dxe4 h5 13 Ne3 Nc6 14 O-O Rf8 15 Qe2 Qh4 16 f3 Be5 17 g3 Qe7 18 f4 Bf6 19 e5 Bg7 20 Qd3 Qf7 21 Bd2 Rd8 22 Qc4 Bf8 23 b4 b5 24 Qe4 Kh7 25 Bc3 a5 26 a3 a4 27 Rad1 Bg7 28 h3 Ne7 29 g4 hxg4 30 hxg4 c6 31 Bd4 Kg8 32 Bb6 Rb8 33 Bc7 Rc8 34 Bd6 Nd5 35 Rd3 Bh6 36 Ng2 Bf8 37 f5 Bxd6 38 exd6 Kg7 39 f6+ Kg8 40 g5 Rh5 41 Rg3 Kh7 42 Nf4 Rh4 43 Nxd5 Rxe4 44 Rh3+ Kg8 45 Ne7+ Qxe7 46 dxe7 Resigns.

11300. Timothy Whitworth (1932-2019)

John Beasley has written a warm tribute to the late Timothy Whitworth, a highly respected study specialist committed to accurate research.

C.N. 9508 referred to his two books on Leonid Kubbel, and here we reproduce a letter from 35 years ago:

Timothy Whitworth did not have an entry in Chess Personalia by Jeremy Gaige (Jefferson, 1987), but he was included in the privately-circulated 1994 edition:

11301. Chick Evans with Alekhine and Edward Lasker

Philadelphia Inquirer, 9 February 1924, page 15

11302. Florin Gheorghiu

Florin Dănănău (Bucharest) has prepared a list of Florin Gheorghiu’s tournament and match results.

He also provides this official portrait of Gheorghiu, taken after he became world junior champion in 1963:

11303. Another Capablanca sketch

The image in C.N. 11297 reminds Eric Fisher (Hull, England) of this sketch in F.P. Wildman’s chess column in the Yorkshire Weekly Post, 26 June 1909:

11304. David Andrew Mitchell

An addition to the feature article on David A. Mitchell comes from page 1 of the Hartford Courant, 10 October 1912:

11305. Lasker v Schlechter

Ola Winfridsson (São Paulo, Brazil) writes:

‘On pages 38-39 of the 2/1963 issue of Tidskrift för Schack an article by the Swedish correspondence chess grandmaster and botanist Åke Lundquist throws possible light on the contentious issue, often discussed in C.N., of whether a two-point margin was required for Schlechter to win the world championship title from Lasker in 1910. It referred to an article by Gideon Ståhlberg on pages 295-296 of the 10/1962 issue of Tidskrift för Schack which had discussed the final game of the match. Mentioning analysis by Tarrasch and Spielmann, Lundqvist took issue with Ståhlberg’s description of the course of the game and suggested that Schlechter could have drawn with 39...Qh4+. Stating that Schlechter did see that continuation and asking why he did not select it, Lundqvist wrote that there was a possible explanation other than Spielmann’s suggestion of noblesse on Schlechter’s part:

“According to Yudovich in Shakhmaty v SSSR 2/1960, no less than a two-margin of victory had been set as a condition for the title of world champion to change owners. Such a stipulation would, in and of itself, hardly be unreasonable, and Yudovich quotes as proof a contemporary Russian chess periodical.”

Lundqvist added that Spielmann, who ought to have had first-hand information, said nothing about such a clause, but that if Yudovich’s claim were correct, it would explain Schlechter’s play: he had to win the last game to achieve the necessary two-point margin of victory. Lundqvist did not specify the contemporary source quoted by Yudovich. What exactly did Yudovich write in the 1960 Soviet magazine and what was the contemporary source that he gave?’

Vitaliy Yurchenko (Uhta, Russian Federation) has sent us not only the article by Yudovich on pages 53-54 of the 2/1960 Шахматы в СССР but also the source material used by Yudovich, i.e. page 328 of Шахматное обозрение, September 1909, and pages 455-456 of the December 1909 issue. These texts have been added direct to The Lasker v Schlechter Controversy (1910).

11306. Chick Evans with Alekhine and Edward Lasker (C.N. 11301)

A ‘tidied up’ version of the photograph on page 2 of the Pictorial News section of the Courier-Journal, 24 February 1924:

Alexander Alekhine, Chick Evans, Edward Lasker

Larger version

11307. Bogoljubow v Alekhine

‘Played without board or men, this game should go down in history as one of the most remarkable games on record.’

David A. Mitchell made that remark on page 85 of his book Chess (Philadelphia, 1918):

It is one of two such blindfold games in Rastatt on page 108 of the Skinner/Verhoeven book on Alekhine. The source specified (page 317 of Shakhmatny Vestnik, 1914) is shown below, courtesy of Vitaliy Yurchenko (Uhta, Russian Federation):

11308. Ortvin Sarapu (C.N.s 9477 & 11063)

C.N. 11063 reproduced a biographical article about Ortvin Sarapu on pages 177-178 of the August 1952 Chess World, with this paragraph highlighted:

Ola Winfridsson (São Paulo, Brazil) comments:

‘Wittingly or unwittingly, that paragraph makes it sound as if Sarapu finished fourth in the top section of the Nordic Championships (the term “Scandinavian” was used). In fact, he played not in the Championship section but in one of the two groups (group A) of the Master section immediately below it. Furthermore, he did not come outright fourth but shared fourth to seventh places, with a score of 6½/11. For the detailed results, see page 209 of Tidskrift för Schack, August-September 1946.’

As mentioned in C.N. 9711, the Swedish magazine is available on-line.

11309. A 1936 game

Which game did the Schweizerische Schachzeitung describe as the most eventful/lively/turbulent (mouvementée) of 1936?

Many incorrect guesses can be imagined, with or without the additional information that it was between two leading masters, although not included in the winner’s best games collection.

In 1936 the game received little attention. For example, the bare score appeared on page 135 of the June 1936 Chess Review:

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Bc5 5 Be3 Qf6 6 c3 Nge7 7 Qd2 Bxd4 8 cxd4 d5 9 Nc3 dxe4 10 d5 Ne5 11 Nb5 O-O 12 Nxc7 Rb8 13 Bxa7

13...Bg4 14 Bxb8 Rxb8 15 Nb5 N7g6 16 Rc1 Nf4 17 Rc3 Ned3+ 18 Bxd3 exd3 19 O-O Qg5 20 h4 Nh3+ 21 gxh3 Qxd2 22 hxg4 Qe2 23 Rc4 d2 24 Rd4 Qxb5 25 Rd1 Re8 26 R4xd2 Re4 27 f3 Re2 28 Rc1 h5 29 Rcc2 Qb6+ 30 White resigns.

The game (Kashdan v Reshevsky, US championship, New York, 4 May 1936) was called ‘La partie la plus mouvementée de 1936’ when it was annotated by Fritz Gygli on pages 74-76 of the May 1937 Schweizerische Schachzeitung:

Brief annotations by Reshevsky were published on page 24 of the 25 June 1936 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle: