Chess Notes

Edward Winter

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6495. Banks on Marshall

Page 7 of Banks’ Blindfold Checker Masterpieces by Newell W. Banks (Philadelphia, 1947) quoted his view of F.J. Marshall:

‘I received more good ideas on opening and mid-game chess play from my old friend Frank Marshall than from all the other chessplayers I have known. If Marshall had had the urge to continue to apply himself to study and analysis he could have been at the top all his life. He was the greatest natural player of them all.’

6496. Quiz question (C.N. 6424)

A last call for proposals concerning the question posed in C.N. 6424: what was the largest number of opponents ever faced by Morphy in a simultaneous exhibition?

6497. Signatures

For readers who enjoy identifying signatures, we give another illustration from our collection (the 1982 Dover edition of Chernev’s book on Capablanca):

6498. G. Levenfish

Javier Asturiano Molina (Murcia, Spain) asks about the correct spelling of Levenfish/Löwenfisch.

Both are commonly seen, with a distinct trend nowadays towards the former in many countries. The German rendition ‘Löwenfisch’ or ‘Loewenfisch’ was particularly common in English-language literature in the first half of the twentieth century, although the BCM sometimes had ‘Lövenfisch’. The 1971 volume Dizionario Enciclopedico degli Scacchi used ‘Levenfisch’. The last two spellings mentioned may be regarded as non-standard.

The above photograph was published in Chess Review, April 1947, page 9.

6499. Claim about Janowsky

From an article ‘Tall Tales of Teetotalers’ by H. Kmoch and F. Reinfeld on pages 136-137 of the May 1952 Chess Review:

‘He considered himself the strongest player of all time ...’

What are the grounds for asserting that such was Janowsky’s belief?