1,049 135 41MB
English Pages 418 Year 1949
The Fireside Book
of
*
»
& edited by Irving Chernev & Fred Reinfeld selected
Containing 400 pages of stories, games, articles, quizzes and anecdotes chosen to delight, dazzle, and entertain all devotees of the Royal Game
%
A Fireside Book
”
“That’s right
—you simply pick them up
move them about on
the
little
like this
squares
and
e/I\e
Book of
Fireside
gHESS By
IRVING CHERNEV
and
FRED REINFELD
A Fireside Book Published by Simon and Schuster
-
New
York
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT OF REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN ANY FORM COPYRIGHT I 949 BY IRVING CHERNEV AND FRED REINFELD A FIRESIDE BOOK PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER ROCKEFELLER CENTER, 630 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10020
SEVENTH PAPERBACK PRINTING SBN 67I-2122I-4 MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
For Melvin
,
Don
and Judy
Table of Contents
Part One:
STORIES
Don't Quote Me, But ... by
AND Billy
ARTICLES
Rose
3
Chess Reclaims a Devotee by Alfred Kreymborg
Exchange
Check
The
.
.
Men
of .
by Joseph Cross
19
and Mate by Jay Wilson
31
Devil That Troubled the Chessboard by Gerald Kersh
Capsule History of the Telling Off the
Game
by Chielamangus
World Champion by Solomon Hecht
Part Two:
54 56
69
Remarkable Games and Their
—the Heart
Adventures in the
45
THE MAGIC OF CHESS
Odd, But True
Combinations
6
of
109
Stories
Chess
120
End Game
144
The Problem Corner
169
What's the Right Move?
181
Part Thru:
CHESS AS IT
Quickies
The Hand Blindfold
IS
PLAYED 189
Is
Quicker Than the
Games
Mind
207 211
Odds Games
217
Simultaneous Exhibitions
222
Beating a Grandmaster
227
Surprise Attack
236
*
Table of Contents
The
Brilliancy Prize
253
The Pawns Decide
277
Women in Chess
290
Decisive
Games
294
Attack
303
The Two-Rook
Sacrifice
The Two-Bishop
Sacrifice
Slugging Matches Exciting
Drawn Games
314 320 327
336
Correspondence Chess
341
Old
351
Favorites
Positional Masterpieces
364
Game
380
SOLUTIONS TO QUIZ
399
The
Perfect
Part
STORIES
One
AND ARTICLES
“I don’t see
how he
does
it.
My feet would
Cartoon by Barney Tobey, by permission of the New Yorker Magazine, Inc.
artist.
be killing
me”
Copyright 1948
The
I
talk
a pretty
good game of
play one. At least that’s
my
chess.
A lot of years ago
The
knights of old were so daffy about
on
finger or toe
how
a game.
to play, the stake
could even
story.
Except for foot-racing and wife-beating, chess sport.
I
it
is
they’d sometimes bet a
At the East Side coffeehouse where
was usually
a
cup
known
the oldest
of tea in a glass.
I
I
learned
could have
memorized the Five-Foot Shelf in the hours I spent learning how to think five moves ahead. I never won many games in this particular coffeehouse the chair-warmers thought ten moves ahead.
—
my
Yesterday afternoon the telephone in crazy.
The
twentieth time
spik Engleesh.”
On
Sixth
gals. I
I
got
Avenue
ducked into
my
office
4
it
rang
hollered into the mouthpiece, ‘No
I
hat and skedaddled via the back elevator.
a friendly breeze
was blowing
a side street, fished half a
back a hundred years ago when ten times out of ten.
ringing in I
my
this
walked up. Like
and
window
of the
time the telephone had stopped
my
on saw a — garage “Budnick’s Chess Club.”
over a
Street, I
coffeehouse on the East Side,
a set of high foreheads.
smoke which
remembered
come within an inch
ambled over toward Broadway. Near 50th
ceiling
fair. I
my
head.
a second-floor store I
By
could
I
kisses at the pretty
dozen pennies out of
pocket and started pitching them at a crack. Only
line,
kept ringing like
The
air
it
featured a low
was foggy with the tobacco
generally goes with masculine brainwork. 3
sign
Stories and Articles
At
dozen housemen were taking on
a couple of long tables, half a
comers.
you
If
lost a
game,
it
cost
you a quarter.
If
all
you won, you paid
nothing.
Budnick came over and introduced himself. "It’s about time/' he said, in a Lower Slobbovian accent. “Hays tells me you play.”
“What Hays?”
I
asked.
“Arthur Garfield Hays, your lawyer.
David
He comes
quite often. So does
newspaper publisher, and when he's in town, Harry
Stern, the
Warner, the movie fellow.” I
decided to
and
their empires it
stay. If these
my
wouldn't do
sides,
if I
book,
I
Over
sit
Joseph McGeniuses could step
around Budnick's
awa, *ium
for a couple of hours,
popcorn machines any harm
did likewise. Be-
if I
could remember some of the gambits out of the old
might beat the house out of twenty-five one of the pros was
in a corner
figured
I
Morphy
cents.
available.
I
dropped down in
the chair opposite him.
“Want
move
to
“Anything you
he
first?”
say,”
I
said, lighting a
brown-paper
answered.
“Take the whites and move,” he shrugged. I
tried a fancy
the fourth
move
He moved
opening I
—tournament
stuff
“It's
your quarter.”
out of the book. Around
got the feeling the pro didn't recognize the gambit.
men
his
quickly, almost carelessly
—and
chess
where players have been known to wear out a two-pants moves.
The
the
minutes
pawns and
of his
came
first five
I
my
thought
I
was doing
a bishop. Suddenly, as
into play. Protected
left of
cigarette.
king.
by
if
fine. I
from
suit
between
knocked
off
left field, his
said the little pro.
two
queen
pawn
to
“Want
to
a knight, the lady dusted off the
“Check and mate,”
game
a
is
try another?” I
tried six others. It
was
like
Mortimer Snerd arguing
By game No. 7, I was so shattered the Fool's Mate in four moves.
Einstein. trap
—
that
got up from the table feeling pretty low. blanca,” I sighed. I
“That’s
five
“Seven,”
I
games you owe
for,” said the pro.
told him.
4
relativity
I fell
with
into the old
“Not my
day, Capa-
— Don’t Quote Me, But
He
took out a pencil stub and a
under
it
a
7.
He
put
tried again
down 25
.
pad.
.
He
put down 25 and
multiplied and got $1.25.
“You’re cheating yourself,”
He
little
.
and got
I
$2.25.
pointed out.
He
did a lot of crossing out.
seven times and added. This time
it
Then he
came out
right
$1.75. I
took out a five-dollar
bill.
He frowned and went
He wrote down $5.00 and put $1.75 The answer came out $4.85. He looked up wistfully and said, “I
under
it
back to the paper.
with a big minus sign.
don’t think that’s right. Haven’t
you got the even change?” I
laid the five
it,” I
on the chessboard where
I
had been humiliated. “Keep
told him. “I feel a lot better now.”
Cartoon by H. T. Webster, by permission of the York Herald Tribune, Inc.
New
artist.
Copyright 1937
Qhcss 'Reclaims a QDcvotcc
KREYMBORG
BY ALFRED
Recently, world,
I
after
an absence of nearly twenty years from the chess
returned to the
game
of
my
first
and may now be seen
love,
Manhattan Chess Club, along with many another ex-expert, college champion or duffer, puffing away at a pipe, stogie or cigarette,
at the
and shoving or banging white or black
figures
through a dreamy atmos-
comments
phere, the while onlookers or kibitzers indulge in gratuitous at the expense of the losing players.
No game encircled
had the
of chess in the old days
by spectators
infinitely wiser
least zest unless it
was
than the unhappy combatants;
some time after my retirement from action I sat with the kibitzers and vied with the ancient fraternity in showing a defeated
and
for
player,
much
fraternity his is
is
against his will,
won
a lost game.
impudence
requisite
The
for loosing
tongue in the face of the masters themselves; and the post-mortem
usually
opened with some expletive such
savagely reduced
number
difficult
I
my
me more
earned for
I
could have
open to any tyro with the
bich! Ultimately,
a
how he
drifted
away from the game
energies, lost
all,
intensity.
To
as
altogether. It
Ne-
had
nocturnal fascination and never
—my
combat had subjected
my game
its
than a few dollars a week
of years. All in
played
as Potzer! Pfuscher!
sole livelihood for
the mad, intricate, logical, ferociously
me
to too
many
most other men played
the ignorant outside world, two
6
heartbreaks. theirs:
men
with passionate
over a chessboard
—
a
Chess Reclaims a Devotee
look like a pair of dummies.
And
mos pound
is
incessantly.
Here
yet, inside the pale
nothing
less
automata, dyna-
than a silent duel between
two human engines using and abusing all the faculties of the mind the will, the imagination, logic, memory, caution, cunning, daring,
and courage
foresight, hindsight, perspective, detail, unity
and demolish the
fort to outwit, corner
I
its lighter,
wish to revert to
its
know
in tournaments will
Those eleven
behind
idol.
which
I
at
—
I
lost
broke
I
or
down
way
first
mean.
last
—
made my debut
I
tournament
—
I
at
a national
game
committed
in a
—then the Western champion and an East Side
near the close of a combination some seventeen or
two on each
has given
I
Marshall, with Jose Capablanca half a
eighteen moves deep with
pawn
once what
nine pounds over a simple oversight
against Chajes
ef-
character.
funny aspects; but
took part from boyhood on
won by Frank
an
and anyone who has ever participated
—were absolute nightmares. In my
contest
game
in
jocular, outrageously
tragedies;
in
not-less-than-hateful opponent.
most mysterious jungles of the human
It is warfare in the
Chess has also
—
side.
the pieces on the board, excepting a
all
— pawn which present-day chess — Chajes retorted
To my king's pawn
to the queen's in
opening
a
with the Sicilian defense: a delightfully risky game involving both players in counter-attacks
from the
outset. Counter-attack, the basis
of chess of the classical or romantic era, gave way, about twenty years ago, to the growing inroads of safety
first,
conservatism and science
—
movement ushered in by queen's pawn openings, a movement we'll come to later. At the moment, I must once more relieve myself of that everlasting bugaboo: the game with Chajes. Before I plunged into the mazes of the combination,
I
spent about
fifty
minutes working out
in advance all the possible ramifications involving
both
sides of the
board. I
have to explain to the layman that tournament games must be
conducted with time-clocks in order to force the combatants to move at reasonable intervals. Time-clocks
time players fleisch
—
or as
who won
my
their
had to be invented against
games through a preponderance of
old friend, Dr.
Siff,
wear down
his
7
Sitz-
“What you need for classical era, a man with
used to say:
chess isn't brains, but buttocks." During the a lost position could
old-
opponent by
sitting like
Buddha
Stories and Articles
—
and refusing to move except once every hour or two. Staunton, the old British champion, won many a lost game in that fashion. Time-clocks were the only means of keeping such devils within
gentlemanly bounds, and, in the course of events, ternational, national or local,
twenty: a
player’s turn
it
and the tournament
rate. I
now
was to move.
congenitally slow.
was run
in question
at the
I
was one of
twenty-move
look upon that oversight of mine as the luckiest break in
whole existence. But
Having spent
time
at the
minutes on the
fifty
would have only ten minutes however, was a safe matter:
I
was an overpowering tragedy.
it
first
move
of the combination,
Each time he made
from the table and
flitted
I
make my next nineteen moves. This, knew the combination by heart and, one to
by one, Chajes was making the anticipated moves. But excited.
double
of lesser importance at the rate of
fairly fast rate for players
these,
my
which
little
in-
international contests are run at the rate of
moves an hour; contests
fifteen
tournaments,
were conducted with the
clocks ticking in accordance with
World championships and
all
his next
move and
I
I
was deeply
made mine,
I
got
up
My state was intensified by
about the room.
game shown by the other contestants. Whenever they were free to leave their tables, they came over and followed the course of the combination Capa and Marshall no less than the oththe interest in our
—
ers.
No
one spoke to anybody
other and eye
The whole
me
else,
thing went to
my
to rise
by degrees to the finally,
—then held by Emanuel Lasker.
tied with
Capa
for the State
after a long, heartrending
me. Had I
it
lost:
been
his
the result,
nothing
A
year or
less
in
which
a
York State
than the world
two before,
championship and only
end game
New
I
swore, of defending the
Capa
I
had
lost the play-off
mere tempo defeated
move, we would have drawn, but since
opening. Here was young
damned
it
queen’s
was
pawn
again; ‘‘fools” were already predicting
he was destined to defeat Dr. Lasker. American champion and here was I,
—
battle,
could see experts nudge each
head. For years and years. I’d had a
championship, the American, and
mine
I
amazedly.
consuming chess ambition crown
but
And
here was Marshall, the
after
having drawn an uphill
with two pawns down, against Hodges, a former American
champion
—and having won
a
game 8
against the tantalizing Rice
Club
— Chess Reclaims a Devotee
champion, Tenenwurzel. horse of the tournament providing
how
five,
But
—
I
route to victory over Chajes
would
made my moves by
I
could
I
The
did.
I
En
round
Veteran that
heart.
I
in the lead
was at twenty-
possibly go wrong?
much for my nerves. My move. The silence, above all,
general excitement was too
hand began shaking with each was unendurable.
close the third
—the dark
If I
have spoken to
me
communication
as
could have spoken to someone or someone could
—but no.
if
successive
Chess contestants are pledged to non-
they were prisoners under sentence for commit-
ting egregious crimes. I
shoved
duced.
my
pieces mechanically.
time-clock dangers were re-
My opponent, beginning to detect the outcome of the combina-
moved with
tion,
The
pondered, he
still
entered the trap.
But no matter how he
increasing deliberation.
had
to
make
the moves
They were the
I
had figured on, once he'd
best at his disposal.
neared the close of the combination,
all
By the time we
the unengaged players were
seated about the table, surrounded by practically
the spectators in
all
Capa and Marshall had been forgotten. I was the world and I paced up and down outside the dark
the long, gray room. center of the chess
prey to frenzied emotions. After Chajes
ring, a
move,
would only have to make
I
teenth.
Then my
my
made
his sixteenth
seventeenth and he his seven-
eighteenth, the coup de grace,
would force him to
resign. I
kept looking at the ring for a sign that the East Side veteran had
made his sixteenth move. The sign came. A number of men looked my way and respectfully opened a path. Capa was one of the men who stepped aside. I could see him smile a little. I don't quite recall what followed.
Chajes had
made
it.
was in
I
I
made
clock:
then
the necessary move.
making
I
—
teenth, but
my
made
the
He
why
shook his I
didn’t
penultimate move.
had ample time. But
I
Exultantly,
And
haze and through the haze
haven't the slightest idea
erate before
my
a tingling
move
I
I
didn’t take
stoical
sit
I
saw that
head
down and
as
delib-
remember looking it.
Nor
did
I sit
he
at
down.
leaning over the table and then sat down.
my frozen horror— I saw I had made, not my sevenmy eighteenth move! I had transposed the moves and
to
blundered outright! 9
— %
Stories and Articles
A
few moves
later I resigned. Instead of
—
for chess history a tyro.
An
—
me later cost me the
Marshall assured
as
infinitesimal aberration
the tournament and
an immortal game, a game
had blundered
I
game,
in off hours
and again and again
pened, from the I
lost
my
first
another game
—
move I
lost
to the
game
had
I
game
after
But
I
I
finished next to
had already reached
petrified in a chair
it
had haptime
at night, each
rehearsed the cause of
I
head or near the head of the
last.
a
solemn determination. While
I
sitting
resolved to have done with chess tourna-
ments, chess clubs and chess forever
And
how
which should have been a throne, and accepting
Chajes' cordial condolence,
that oversight.
—
remaining
They buttonholed
to explain
And abed
last.
collapse. Instead of finishing at the
contestants,
chances in
my whole chess career. Throughout the
rounds, people reverted to that strange oversight.
me
my
like
after. I lost
nine pounds over
thanks to a constant devotion to poetry, side by
pound
side with chess, there wasn't another
could afford to
I
lose. I
was about thirty pounds underweight and poorer than a sparrow. So I
gave up chess for poetry. But that
is
another
story.
II
Ultimately,
won
I
caught the serene view of the Chajes tragedy.
the game,
defeats, only to
withal.
The
I
would have been lured on end
to further victories
in a chess master's grave
invincible Steinitz
had
Had
—
and
a dismal profession
fallen before the invincible Lasker,
and Lasker before the invincible Capablanca, and Capa before the vincible Alekhine. Chess mastery is
a thing to
I
—possibly
like
in-
any other mastery
The people who usually enjoy chess are experts who have resigned their ambitions and
keep away from.
the dubs and duffers,
now play for the pastime, and the fraternity of kibitzers. One uncertain day, rather bored with the self-centered world poetry and the self-centered world at large,
I
found myself
of
in the
neighborhood of the Manhattan Chess Club and, being able to “resist anything but temptation," I dropped in. I was greeted with a delight
I
could not have received anywhere else on earth.
scarcely a day older than
the friendly enemies of
when
I
my youth:
had
last
And
here,
beheld them, were some of
Rosen, Rosenthal, Meyer, Warburg, 10
Chess Reclaims a Devotee
Beihoff, Tenner. In chess, the
Rosens bloom on and on. In the old
on Second Avenue, the crack players numbered Rosen,
days, over
—
Rosenbaum, Rosenfeld, Rosenthal, Rosenzweig the last truly a twig compared with the others. Well, I was at home again, more at home than ever before. No time-clock was in evidence; no tourney in progress. Safe from the past, was I safe from the present? What was going on here? What had happened
to chess? 'Tots
"What are I
—
And who as
he was
is
”
Rosen ventured.
pots?”
was swiftly
Calladay
—
initiated. Pots
"Cal, he's called” this
A
Cal?
at the old
game invented by a by way of destroying a
is
—
third-class
goy who's
game. But pots are
now
fellow
serious chess.
poor at
just as
the rage
all
named
this
game
over the chess
world. I
watched the marvelous invention. Three players take turns playing
one another the while the odd or disengaged player calling time.
He
an hour, but
at ten
my
life
—
it
was
acts as the referee
time, not at the rate of fifteen or twenty
calls
seconds a move!
delightful.
And
I
never saw so
many
blunders in
the best of players blundered
No
wonder Cal had invented Pots. If a fellow move on time, "Forfeit!” the referee called and took the place
more
delightful.
offender,
who took
quarter a game.
what
a noise
the place of the referee.
They
—noise
are called
of
all
moves
"union
The
rates.”
—
still
didn't of the
stakes are always a
And
shades of Caissa,
things at a chess club! It was
all
most
al-
luring.
We had played
rapid-transit chess in the past,
but never with such
wholesale gusto. In the earlier days on the East Side, where chess could
be seen
game
at its best
and
grimiest, a
man named
Louis Hein invented a
dynamos engaged in a round-robin the while Hein bellowed "Move!” That was also ten-second chess, but Marathons used to drag on for hours, and long sessions of any sort were precisely the torture most old-timers had begun to revolt against. Before I knew where I was at, I was seated at one of these crazy tables "Try it and see, you old duffer,” I was challenged. Never a fast player, and long out of practice, I could barely see two moves ahead. called the
Marathon,
in
which twenty,
—
n
thirty or forty
Stories and Articles
Still
my
worse,
lack of ambition
often and didn’t
mind
in at the club again,
losing.
undermined the
What had happened
on—and
merely to look
the friendly greeting, "you old duffer!”
youngsters
who
Intercollegiate
derided me.
One
day,
I
my
won
champion and the old-timers
to
me?
I
lost
I
dropped
then to play, always to
The name
There were always old experts who recalled
will to win.
didn’t nettle me.
former exploits to the
a quick
chortled.
game from the
A
large, grave
gentleman, watching proceedings, remarked: "Das war wie Eisen ges-
The
pielt!”
speaker was Alexander Alekhine.
I
thanked him and
fled
the table.
No
one could rouse
champion.
I’d
my
ambition again,
least of all the
new
world’s
sought the old haunt in pursuit of that momentary
Nirvana which chess clubs afford to any profession: the law, medicine, music, commerce, religion or what not.
I
recalled a chess proverb:
You
can lose your wife one day and come here and forget her the next. Each of these
men came
would. Best of
all,
here for relaxation, had always done so and always these pots had buried the cut and dried queen’s
pawn opening. Chess was irregular again, adventurous, delirious, novel, absurd, human. The mummies who formerly shoved pieces about were flesh
my
and blood
world for
cal. It
And the laughter I heard had not been heard in The rude explosion was neither ironical nor cyni-
again.
years.
had nothing to do with modernity, psychology, reasoning.
It
was
And no one laughed louder than the dubs. Men who rarely won a game before won many a game now, and won
forthright.
it
from many a master. The master resigned with grace and then pro-
ceeded to trounce the potzer as the potzer had never been trounced before. fers.
Nothing pleased
me more than
Among my chess memories
—
the
momentary
rise of
or memories in general
the duf-
—none
cling
more tenaciously, or with more enduring affection, than those which shadow underdogs I have known. Here I have to revert again to the Second Avenue of my youth and young manhood. Ill
was then the queer little shaver who earned his livelihood by playing anyone and everyone at so much a game at all hours of the day and I
night.
One
thing that attracted
me 12
to the East Side was the fact that
— Chess Reclaims a Devotee
most men earned
most of the men were older than archs. Still another
over there.
And
no
words
abstract
talk,
—they were
we
or talking chess, I
same way. Another thing
their living in just the
much
I,
cultivated.
talked about music
older,
When we
and books:
for
what we
felt
and thought.
” there
I
remember
who
let
was always
proud
a potzer too
he died on one. Then we chipped
Field.
A
witty fellow he was;
patri-
went
it
such.
that.
off. I
to school
We had
wearied of
And no one
remember the
the addicts sleep on or under tables
stead of won, he’d sleep on park benches. till
them
When we
was so hard up that there wasn’t someone worse proprietor of a chess cafe
of
weren't playing
I
learned philosophy without calling
— “Let’s have another game
overnight.
some
none
for such beds. If
None
of us
in to save
he
found that out
him from
wittier over there
lost in-
Potter’s
where wit
is
an
weapon to losers. I remember a game I played with a rabbi old enough to be my father’s grandfather. He had a beard longer than the beard of Moses. He combed it with care and let it hang at ease over one corner of the board. It was too long to hang anywhere else. We were in the midst of an exciting game in the midst of an excited band of kibitzers. I noticed nothing at the time but the game itself. The old rascal had “swindled”
essential
me
out of the
first
game: a legitimate swindle,
a coffeehouse trap. I
vowed vengeance and dug myself into the table. The smoke was terrific I didn’t smoke in those days. The pieces we handled were heterogeneous: queens looked like bishops, bishops like pawns, and some of the knights had no heads. I was nearsighted, but I didn’t mind. I’d got the hang of the pieces. And I’d got the hang of the position. But I didn’t get the hang of the beard. I paid no attention to that. The game was going my way. The rabbi was attacking on all sides, but I revelled in such tactics. I was always at my best building up walls against attacks, and then forcing a hole with a pawn, another pawn and then the counter-attack. The counter-attack was at work; it was
—
working beautifully. The old fellow shook his head; so did the other old fellows.
They began poking fun
at
him, unmerciful fun. “Warte
nu r,” he said, but kept on retreating. “Warte nur yourself,” I retorted, and went on advancing. Suddenly, I detected a mate in three and cried, “Check!” He moved 2
3
Stories and Articles
Then
his king. I
my
grabbed
The
friend !”
I
shouted, ‘‘Check again !" and he
queen, banged her
rabbi shook his head calmly.
replied, lifting his magnificent
came
my
removed
a rook that
Then
down and
beard
“Not
yet,
my
let
them
in checkmates.
He
to
took a sadistic delight in
He
simply
He'd even make bad moves to keep them
resign.
going awhile longer, and chattered away in an effort to keep cheerful. His favorite
Out
named Ziegenschwarz who hated
encouraging his victims to struggle on to the very end.
wouldn't
he
friend/'
the corner of the board.
off
my
crowed, “Checkmate,
queen!
there was an old fellow
win games that didn't end
moved his king. Then
opponent was
a
them
melancholy soul named Lev-
kowitz.
Levkowitz was an ideal with a less
series of
move.
he not only
loser:
lost as a rule,
but he
lost
groans that deepened and lengthened with each hope-
One
evening
alone forlorn, but
ill,
I
very
watched the ill.
He
pair:
Levkowitz looked not
kept complaining about his Afagen:
he'd eaten some indigestible herring. “There's nothing the matter with herring," Ziegenschwarz argued; “it's
your game disagrees with you."
“I've got a lost
game!"
“No, you haven't, move, you Pfuscher/" Levkowitz made a lame move
—
game, got — “No, you don't " and Ziegenschwarz made a weak move.
Levkowitz brightened a
little,
“I've
a lost
I
resign."
but suddenly scowled and moaned:
“I feel sick."
—move, Dummkopf!” Levkowitz made heroic moved—and was “No, you don't
a
tried to get up,
made
a
effort,
but Ziegenschwarz wiped
move and grabbed
off
sick in earnest.
He
the board with his sleeve,
his victim's sleeve.
“I'm nearly mate."
“No you're not. Move, move!" Levkowitz moved and was violently sick again. His tormentor wiped and moved with mad acceleration. “I'm
lost, lost,"
Levkowitz moaned.
“Move once more, just once more." Levkowitz moved and staggered from *4
the table.
Chess Reclaims a Devotee
“Schachmatt!” howled Ziegenschwarz without wiping the table and
"Come, Y d
hustled after his friend:
better take you
home.”
IV The crown
prince of East Side chess was and
it
won him among
held court around a table, ing gypsy.
The moment he
was
If
and the
ever a
man
this very dark, slender, cigarette-smok-
arrived I
Jaffe. It is
to play
the cohorts along the avenue. it
other tables were deserted.
Charles
game he used
impossible to convey the weird type of respect
still is
and
sat
down with some dub, most
venture to say that
Capa and Lasker had
if
fought out their battles on the avenue and Jaffe and his dubs sat
down
near by, the world warriors would have been deserted by the kibitzers.
kept up a running
Jaffe
ing odds to the potzers.
I
fire
this faculty.
He was a
in
which he was held was
genius against weaker players.
they measured the rest of the chess world accordingly.
than
amaz-
give
never saw any high-class player give such odds
and get away with them. The reverence mainly due to
and could
of caustic badinage
Jaffe (there were, of course,
none
And
If a better player
better!) failed to
win games at
the odds the prince gave, he was treated with comparative contempt.
The
ability to play coffeehouse chess
was one
in
which
Jaffe sur-
passed any master. Coffeehouse chess depends on an alert ingenuity in
waylaying the opponent through subtle the trap
and
baited with a sacrificial
seizing.
hesitate It is
is
Were
the
pawn
little
pawn no
traps or swindles. Usually
potzer can
resist
a consequential piece, the fellow
and look around. But the
little
pawns overwhelm
almost an axiom that most games have been lost and
hastily grabbing those innocent Jaffe
smelling
would
his appetite.
won through
pawns.
was a veritable devil in leaving them about and in keeping up an
undercurrent of teasing cajolery, mock-heroics, encouragement, quips
and puns.
No
wonder Second Avenue held him
in awe!
And no won-
der the avenue held the outside masters in comparative contempt!
Even
Lasker, king of the whole chess world, was held in doubt where
Jaffe
was concerned. As for Capa, he was a duffer by comparison.
"Jaffe
could beat Capa blindfolded!”
Unhappily, once the crown prince invulnerable. Invite
him
to a
left
the avenue he was not so
tournament among *5
his peers, take
away
— Stories and Articles
his
magic banter and force him to face sound,
his traps
proved of
What we
call
little avail.
Traps were often his own undoing.
playing for position
—
damnable modern invention
a
The
was something his valiant combinations couldn’t penetrate. treme caution of modern chess wore
He
tions.
romantic
and
scientific chess,
down
his
temperamental
ex-
inspira-
belonged to the school of Paul Morphy, giant meteor of the era.
should have been born
Jaffe, in truth,
among the Labourdonnais and
MacDonnells who never defended themselves, but went on attacking till the other fellow’s attacks demolished them. Even inferior players, by playing book openings and developing “according to Hoyle,” could defeat
him by
self in
tournaments.
how he
I recall
some
defeat himself. Jaffe seldom disgraced him-
He had
the habit of defeating superiors and losing
No
mat-
he was always defended by the cohorts.
fared,
the international tournament in Europe he embarked on
years ago.
He
didn’t have the fare abroad
through subscription it
him
which seems to be the outcome of taking chances.
to inferiors ter
letting
—
so
I
was told
and had
to raise
it
most
of
at the time. Doubtless,
was raised east of Third Avenue and south of Fourteenth
Street.
Over on Second Avenue, newspapers were scanned as they had never been scanned before, and there was only one daily event the readers turned
to.
gloom.
Jaffe
I’m not in the
went abroad
mood to
for rehearsing those long days of silent
show the Schachmeister what
duffers they
were and finished, not on top, nor anywhere near the top. returned, did the avenue upbraid
went if
him
town with that question
across
necessary.
I
didn’t have to say
it.
in
The I
mind, ready to say what
I
I
could
was surrounded by a ring of
him
sat a
time-honored potzer.
potzer was eying and trying not to eye a terribly tempting pawn.
prayed to
He
he
or drape itself in mourning?
Jaffe
laughing, gossiping kibitzers. Opposite
When
all
the gods that the fellow would nab
hesitated, circled the
but the
little
the kibitzers.
He
board with his eyes and looked
didn’t
It
silenced Jaffe himself. I
wanted
to shake
—
He
16
it.
It silenced
looked rather drawn after
hands with him, wring
hug him but I’d have to He was smoking away as usual. His side back,
nab
at everything
pawn. The suspense was growing quite awful.
the foreign debacle. off, slap his
it.
his
arm
wait.
of the board was strewn
—
”
Chess Reclaims a Devotee
with cigarette stubs, ashes and burnt matches. smile was absent.
Confound
that Pfuscher!
The famous
Why didn't he relieve
suspense? All he’d lose would be a dime, and that fortune to
us.
our
pawn was worth
a
His glance no longer circled, but concentrated on one
The
spot,
confound him, was
he smiled
slyly
and
spot.
lurking
far
removed from the pawn. Then
hand.
lifted his left
Why
did he
lift
hand
that
he always moved with the other?
Then,
praise
Elohim, the hand closed round
his
queen and quietly
clipped off the pawn. Jaffe smiled, lifted a knight and put
—forking the
so gently
rent the
down
queen and two rooks. — hand “Wait, him look!”
duffer’s king,
Jaffe raised his
air.
it
ever
Hysteria
let
“I have to lose the exchange,” sighed the duffer.
“Look
again.”
“I have to lose
“Look
one of
my
—wait— move my king—but wait— my queen —why didn’t you check?” I’ll
don’t want
I
say
“I didn’t have to say check, potzer!
me
you hear
The
—
again.”
“I’m in check to lose
rooks or the queen
are your ears? Didn’t
say mate?”
hysteria revived.
Dummkopf,
Nebbich,
Where
Pandemonium smote
the table. “Rinnsvieh,
Schlemiel!” the cohorts clamored.
.
.
.
V Well, here
game
I
now
Fellows
I
am, here play
is
I
less
am
unashamed of his past. The than the shadow of the game I used to play. again, a ghost
formerly gave odds
pudence to if I
I
offer
now
to,
me odds. Worst of all,
leave a rook en prise in
one game,
I
play
me
even, or have the im-
I’m no longer a hard leave
my queen
loser;
and
in the next. Sic
transit etcetera!
Luckily, I’m in first-class company. Other old-timers
with
me
are not
much
sometimes they pay sions with a
to
sell life
nothing
all
better than
me
I.
Sometimes
—and we always play
few plausible
alibis.
One man
I
who
sit
down
pay them a quarter;
Pots.
We open
our
ses-
has a headache from trying
insurance policies; another looks weary from having done day,
and the third
—
I
mention actual
rotten review of his latest poems.
17
cases
—had read a
Stories and Articles
Somehow, on the evening
won
three pots in a row: an unheard of record for him.
ance salesman that
—who
and shrugged
is
third time
I
and
“Why you
let it
go at
vanquished
immortal post-mortem: "I had a
won game/'
—
Anonymous won game, but I won
sang the slogan,
I
have to
it.”
call
him
that
We started to sput-
and turned on Anonymous: chess? You've retired from business,
argue. Beihoff finally cut us short
shouldn't you beat us at
live
on your income and your
Without entered in
Throughout chess
—
life-insur-
history,
his shoulders.
—shot back: “You had a ter
The
none other than George Beihoff
players are entitled to the
The
weary gentleman had
in question, the
further ado,
my name
my application.
I
sex-life is over.”
rejoined the
Manhattan Club
for a life-membership. It
provides that
if
But
in earnest. I
there's a special clause
I'm ever caught starting anything
remotely resembling a serious game, I'm to be expelled without
by the board of governors.
trial
When the train pulled slowly out of Grand Central, Francis Baron took the miniature chessboard from his pocket and began to contemplate
it.
He
did not set out the pieces, but simply studied the sixty-four
black and white squares on which, you might say, he played not only chess but his whole
life as well.
Already as he watched the vacant
moved and combined
board, invisible pieces
in his mind’s eye, devel-
oping of themselves the studied complexities of his games.
he had once
moves the
“When
said,
one passes a certain
It
was
as
one no longer
stage,
but simply watches them move.” Francis Baron had
pieces,
passed that stage by the time he was twenty years old.
What
he was
doing now, and expected to be doing until the train reached Boston,
might be compared to the
five-finger exercises
performs faithfully every day.
knew that
discipline, a regimen,
that from these simple diversions might
would save
a
It
for the first
Francis Baron.
Now,
.
“The following
his
of the
way
brilliant line of play
was
time in any tournament by the American master,
.
at the age of forty,
ment,
the inspiration
had happened so before, and the books had mod-
themselves agreeably:
employed
come
and more: he
game, the subtle but definite variation that had never
appeared in books. ified
A
which a great virtuoso
on
his
way
to the International Tourna-
appearance certainly suggested nothing so as a chess master.
tinctively dressed,
and
He
artistic
and out
was a small man, neatly and not
his only peculiarity J
9
dis-
was a rather oversize round
Stories and Articles
head from which
large eyes peered
through silver-rimmed
glasses.
This
anonymity of appearance, coupled with his magnificent play, had caused someone to nickname him “the mighty pawn/' a title which, with that other more grandiose one of “master" he had retained since his early tournaments.
Conductors and people passing through the car glanced curiously
man who
at the little
though
nursed in his lap the unoccupied chessboard as
were a treasure or a secret sorrow; and a personable young
it
man, who
sat
“Would you
with a pretty
in
leaned over and asked,
aisle,
game?"
care to have a
Baron looked up
the
girl across
some annoyance. “Thank you, no," he
said
primly, and while he spoke he exchanged queens with his invisible
opponent, and came out with the advantage of a pawn. That was one thing about being a master: you could not play with anybody you hap-
pened to meet. Even a master dropped games such a loss to an
unknown opponent
barrassing, not to
in
tournament
soon would become have looked
Orimund
mund
in a railroad car
and
would be em-
mention the detriment to one's reputation. Also,
though Baron was a young
would meet
surprisingly often,
man compared play,
fear, for
like a naive
in the first of
to
most
he already had
of the masters
a strong respect,
the rising generation.
He
he
which
himself must
innocent when, at twenty-three, he defeated
many
games.
Now
he could not blame Ori-
for behaving so ungraciously afterward.
Fearing he might have been rude, he said now, “I'm terribly busy,
you
see,"
and
“Are you going to
man
must have sounded ridiculous. watch the tournament in Boston?" the young
realized that
it
asked.
Baron hesitated. “Yes," he
said finally. “Yes,
I
expect to be there."
Firmly his mind told him, rook takes rook, pawn takes rook, check .
.
.
the ending would be simplicity
itself.
between Orimund, Savard, and Baron," said the young man. “No one else has much chance against those three." “I guess
The
it's
really
mate, Baron thought, would be accomplished with a very small
force, because the
own “I
white king was blocked in three directions by his
pawns.
admire Orimund very much," the young 20
man
continued. “He's
Exchange of
the
He
the old grand masters.
last of
ever seen.
has the most intense attack I’ve
hope he becomes champion
rather
I
Men
would be a
again. It
victory not only for himself but for his style of play as well.”
“You don’t care for the modern way?” asked Baron. “Too much subtlety, too much caution,” said the young man. “Modern chess isn’t playing, it’s waiting.” “It wins.”
“Look,” the young whatever you
like
—
man
I
feel I
“How
about a game?
I’ll
spot you
a rook, even.”
Baron smiled slowly. “Well,
offered.
“I don’t think that will
should
tell
suppose you’ve heard of me.
be necessary.”
you; I’m Richard James, that I
won
is
—
I
don’t
the intercollegiate championship
last year.”
So
was Richard James. Baron remembered
this
a piece in the papers,
not about the intercollegiate tournament, but about another, a small affair in
Chicago, in which a young
badly to
lost rather
Max Tames
man named
but carried
Richard James had
off the brilliancy prize all
Goldman.
the same for a rather exciting combination against Jacob
He
could see the familiar old pattern as
year, or
two
years, or three,
it
began to repeat
he would be facing the
master, Richard James, across the tournament board,
would be
at stake.
He began
to set
“I’d
still
“Now
But nothing need be given away
up the
itself.
brilliant
In a
young
and everything
at this
moment.
pieces.
prefer to play even,” he said.
are
you
satisfied?”
asked the pretty
girl.
“You’ve trapped the
innocent bystander into a game. That’s what’s such fun about being married to Dick,” she explained to Baron, “you meet such a lot of teresting people.
But by
The young man Sally, Mr.—?” Baron looked the
was not in the
must be slip,
a strange coincidence, they all play chess.”
laughed.
“I
want you
at the board. “Springer,
German name
in-
for knight. His use of
he had
moment. Suppose
an accident, the distraction of being aboard a
disturbingly informal conditions generally 21
meet
my
wife,
John Springer,” he said, using a pseudonym, he told himself,
least disreputable. After all,
jealously guarded at every
to
—he
a standing
which
there should be a rattling train, the
did not intend that
Stories and Articles
such an accident should affect the reputation or the tournament play of Francis Baron during the next week.
But not,
in trying, temporarily, at least, to conceal his identity,
once reveal both his
at
own style of name and his
he knew, employ his
which to an expert would
play,
quality.
He must
the disadvantage of meeting Richard James on the latter's
which would probably be the ground of a violent
and use
whole development
his
and slow exploiting
From
Then,
ground,
attack, initiated as
for defense, for subtle probing
more and more space opponent's critical mistake, which must come the complexion of the match would change.
rapidly,
the reticence of his beginnings and his control of strategic area,
Baron would open out the penetrating, tack.
own
of weaknesses, occupying
in the long wait for his in time.
accept, then,
Baron would withdraw before such an
rapidly as possible. Ordinarily
attack
he must
That was the way, the modern
master. But
now he must
Young James drew tack, quick
and
fight
incisive,
style,
if
riskier
methods.
the white and opened with the
straight
down
fatal counterat-
which had made Baron a
by older and
Max Lange
at-
the center of the board. It was evident
that he was trying for immediate victory,
tageous position
and
and accepting a disadvan-
the attempt failed.
Baron countered along conventional
lines, vigorously fighting for
the center, for the points from which well-masked and defended powers
could extend their grasp on positions within the enemy's
men
Both
were slightly nervous. There was a quality of chess, thought
Baron, which trary, as
made
it
absurd to
say, “It's
only a game."
you could judge from the way people played
and representative struggle self,
lines.
for mastery. It
with the illusion of power over
thinking people laugh to hear of out, overstrained
it,
life,
it, it
On
the con-
was a warlike
was a conspectus of
which
is
life it-
why, though un-
the chess master often dies worn
from an incredible depth and complexity of concen-
tration prolonged over a period of years.
As they entered the end game with an exchange of queens, James was a pawn behind, but occupied better immediate attacking position.
“You play extremely well, sir," he said deferentially to Baron, who nodded and smiled. The position, he saw, was critical. If Richard James possessed perfect
book knowledge, he had what amounted 22
to a win-
”
Exchange of
On
ning game.
the other hand, he was nervous, just about trembling
with eagerness for success. erly, or
Men
If
that nervousness could be exploited prop-
somehow
improperly, for that matter, but exploited
—Francis
Baron regretted exceedingly having been drawn into the match. This
young man would be present
at the
tournament, he would recognize
be some publicity.
his
opponent of the
He
could imagine Savard’s wry, crooked grin; and not alone Savard.
railroad car, there
would
surely
Baron was not so well liked among the masters; they resented
his
youth and perhaps his manner as well. There would be a good deal of laughter over
this.
Abruptly he
‘Tm
said,
afraid
I
didn’t
‘Tm
smiled in apology, held out his hand.
On
the surface
it
was
all right. It
tell
to take the
much
acknowledgment
He was no
at stake.
my
a
identity,
in that spirit.
seemed
with a chance to win, against Francis Baron himself.
mean.
I
“Of course play mine.
me
not.” Francis Baron smiled.
It’s
Two moves
He
to
be
ac-
tried desperately
But there was now too
longer playing a chess game.
— had no idea
name.”
compliment to the
And Richard James
stammered, “I hope you didn’t think
real
Francis Baron.”
was even
younger man. The master, by revealing his
knowledging a worthy opponent.
you
rude
He was playing, He blushed and
—about Orimund,
“Orimund
plays his way,
I
I
your move, Mr. James.” later
Richard James moved the pawn that cost him the
game. His famous antagonist was gracious in triumph, quiet and sured as he complimented the younger
man on
as-
playing a very strong
game.
“We
shall
said cordially
be seeing you in tournament play very soon,
when they
I
fear,”
he
parted in Back Bay Station.
“You’re very kind to say
so;
we look forward
to watching your
games.”
Both men knew what had happened. For Baron the victory was rather empty, achieved by a trick in a class with blowing smoke in your opponent’s face throughout a game (this being the favorite stratagem of
one Russian master), or whistling, or tapping your
table.
And
particular
worst of
all,
he did not know
game without such
a device.
23
if
fingers
on the
he could have won that
Stories and Articles
As
for
Richard James, he said to his wife, “I don't
to pick that
moment
me who he
to tell
then, but Lord! to be
up
was.
I
know why he had
was doing
against Francis Baron!
I just
right until
all
collapsed right
there."
“And that," said Sally, “is just about what he wanted. Your Baron may be a great master, but it strikes me he's just a little
Francis bit of a
heel at the same time."
“Now,
darling,
“Don't 'now
he could have beaten
darling'
me.
I
don't
me
anyhow."
know much about
chess,
may have been able to beat you hollow; but from what I saw at the time,
he didn't think
The players in
It
all
of his face
so."
the tournament, thought Baron, had
and high seriousness of a conclave of cardinals met to
and
and he
all
the solemnity
elect a
new Pope,
the jealousy, to be sure, of a boy's ball team electing a captain.
was the
first
international
tournament since before the war, and
the meeting was marked by the absence of a few faces formerly well
known: Estignan, who was dead; Zinuccio, who had turned was in prison; Einrich, the others he in his rich
knew
tweeds
who was
not allowed to leave his
well enough: the English master, Cranley, looking like
an aged schoolboy; Savard, the Frenchman, a
dumpy little man who resembled a games of any master;
Jasoff,
chef and played the most eccentric
from Russia, looking more than usually
peaked and unhappy; and several other masters from Second-rate, thought Baron.
And
yet,
not
distance, in chess, separated the master
over the world.
from the
expert, the merely
reflected with distaste,
games to more than one of them. But fortunately, chess tournament one was not eliminated for losing a game. Elimi-
that he in a
would
all
really second-rate: so little
was more than probable, he
brilliant player. It
and country. But Fascist
lose
nation occurred at definite stages, on the basis of point score: one for a win, one-half for a draw. After a complete round, the contestants
with the lowest scores went out and the remainder began again.
And
there was
Orimund,
stood out like a wiry halo over his collar
and shiny black
bling hands, his
The aged master whose white hair head, who always wore a high white
at last.
Orimund, nearing seventy, with his tremgentle voice and perfect manners, and that mind suit.
*4
Exchange of
Men
whose keenness had probably suffered somewhat during the last years. They said he had spent time in a concentration camp, and looking at
him now, Baron found the old
man
it
as so gentle, so
not remembered
meek. They met in the lobby of the hotel,
and Orimund seemed to have forgotten
resentment of Baron. They
his
called each other, conventionally, Master,
most
He had
easy to believe this.
and were
for a
moment
al-
friendly.
“Ech,
life passes,
man
Master Baron/' the old
said.
“You, too, are
no longer exactly of the youngsters." Was that the way of it? Did one creep gently out of
life,
shedding
the old antagonisms, ridding oneself gradually of the vicious desire for success? “I
am
glad to have the honor once again, Master," he replied.
“Perhaps for the
when
I
‘How can you waste your
money, or painting
said.
was given
my
life
pictures, or whatever?'
Now,
ceptable answer.
I
confess,
“You know,
life
years ago,
playing chess?'
writing books, or
And
it
and what have an immortal name,"
I
made
replied
making
I
of it?"
Baron
—better to have died ten
Baron recognized, was said with the familiar as
ac-
done?
gravely.
years ago,
much
Perhaps you will understand that someday. Master." This
he remembered
was
I
was a good, an
begin to wonder, what have
I
life,
“You leave “An immortal name ter.
Orimund
was asked ‘How can you waste your
able to reply
I
time,"
last
betlast,
cold, deadly anger that
an element in the former Orimund. But Baron un-
derstood what the old
man
meant: better to have died champion of
the world, rather than face the failing of one's powers, the uprising of the young just
when one
is
no longer able
Better than the last cold years in which,
he believes himself to be losing
his
them with success. master makes a mistake,
to oppose if
a
mind.
That was the last time they spoke together except over the board. Almost angrily, Baron put down the pity he felt for the old genius. If that’s the
way
it is,
that's
all,
he told himself.
When my
time comes,
weep on the conqueror's shoulder. That's what life is, and if we were the same age I would still be confident of winning. For that matter, if the position were reversed would he show any mercy to me? I doubt it. I
don't expect to
*5
Stories and Articles
The tournament was not easy. Few can go through the nervous strain of game after game against excellent players without feeling a sense of desperation, and Francis Baron was no exception. The commore severe, and in the last matches of the opening round one came up against players who, knowing already that they would be eliminated, played with violence and extravagance in the hope of taking home by way of consolation at least one victory over a possible world's champion. Baron was beaten in this way by Jasoff and Cranley, while Orimund dropped games to Savard and to Baron petition grew progressively
himself.
Baron, however, was superbly confident. In the beaten Savard, and his victory over ily,
at least with certainty
invulnerable game.
The
Orimund was
first
round he had
achieved,
if
and power from the opening move of a
old
man
his defenses slightly
vicious counterattack
when
it
finally
Richard and Sally were present at did not in any
way acknowledge
eas-
solid,
played with a brilliance matching his
former great tournament play, but finding his attack met at
he overextended
not
all
points
and was unable to withstand the came.
all his
matches, and though Baron
their interest,
he
felt intensely
and
uncomfortably that they had in some sense seen through what had occurred on the train, that
it
would give them pleasure
they were in fact simply waiting for ironically to himself.
—
perfection.
And
him
to
make
if
he
a mistake.
lost,
He
that
smiled
There would be no mistakes, there must be none
forthwith he proceeded roundly to trounce Dr. An-
derson, his last opponent in the
first
round.
Orimund, Savard, Francis Baron, and an Irishman named Brian alone escaped elimination. In the second round Brian realized sud-
denly that he was very close to being world's champion, and simply collapsed, losing to everyone. Savard lost to
these last drew their
and
games and entered the
Baron and Orimund, and final
with a score of two
a half each for the round.
On
the night before the last match, Baron was sitting in the hotel
lobby, reading,
when he was approached by
the secretary of the local
chess club.
“We
have about ten people collected," 26
this functionary said,
“and
Exchange of
we wondered
if
Men
you'd care to give some sort of exhibition.
be honored, greatly honored, Master, and will
to
be no publicity. Of course,
make
you
all
He
can say definitely that there
realize that
I
the effort on the eve of the
the same."
I
final,
We should
you may not
but
feel inclined
was instructed to ask
I
and seemed,
hesitated, looked apologetic,
though realizing the enormity of his request, to be ready to
as
retire with-
out an answer; but Baron stopped him.
“Under the conditions you
specify,"
he
said, “I
shouldn't object to
the exercise. In fact, I'm grateful for the compliment of your interest.
But understand. first
place,
it
I'll
hold you to
would be a
was so
I
can play tonight only
that
careless of
it is
on
reflection
him as to
I
strict silence
my
on the
opponent
subject. In the
if it
got out that
play for fun on the night before our game.
if it is
understood that the results don't matter,
simply a relaxation from the tournament."
“I quite understand," the secretary said. “This
is
the arrangement.
The members will be told that a master, whose name will not be given, will play blindfolded against all ten of them simultaneously. The master will
be in a room apart, and
not meet the other players either
will
before or after the match. In that
way the
secret of your identity can
be kept between the president and myself until
And
besides, the other players will
after
be asked to keep
tomorrow silent
night.
about the
whole event."
These terms proving quarters of the
he was driven to the
Copley Chess Club, where he was placed in a small
antechamber and “It has
to Baron's satisfaction,
left alone.
been arranged," he
Presently the secretary said, “that
even-numbered games and black
you
came
in.
are to have white in the
in the odd. Fair
enough?"
“Fair enough," replied Francis Baron.
“Then the
first
move
in all the
odd-numbered games
is
pawn
to
king four," said the secretary.
“My reply is the same, and my opening move in games
is
pawn
to
the even-numbered
queen four."
game one allowed the opponents to open up a little, and then when the weak sisters among them disclosed themselves, they must be whipped rapThat was the way of
idly,
it,
he thought. In
this blindfolded
allowing one to concentrate on the difficult games.
27
Stories and Articles
did show themselves very soon.
The amateurs eight,
and nine took
Games
one, two, four,
than fifteen moves for the establishment of
less
Few of the boards presented any great difficulty. There was the usual zealot who felt that the queenside pawns could do everything necessary, one who thought that to fianchetto both bishops was to solve all his troubles, another who overwhelming superiority on Baron's
side.
brought out his queen and proceeded to do damage to the extent of
pawn before falling into a cleverly prepared trap. Few of games were in any way rewarding, except as an exercise in conand
a rook
the
a
centration for the master.
At
last
game number seven
something there.
A Max
sorted itself out from the rest; there was
Lange
attack, with a curious variation in the
placement of the queen's knight. Going over the position in his mind,
Baron began to recognize the tain,
style.
His opponent, he was almost
could be no one but Richard James.
A few minutes later an aston-
ishingly rapid attack confirmed his belief.
pressed with
would be a
some
close
severity
cer-
and marshaled
Baron
felt
himself being
his forces to defend. It
game.
The other games expired in something over the fortieth move. He had won them all, but then, the competition had been very nearly nothing. The seventh game, however, was close and even threatening. James was playing for a within the possible for
way
brilliant
him
win and
to achieve
it.
of breaking the boy's nerve; instead,
might
go. It
as things stood it
And
this
was well
time there was no
Baron knew,
his
own
nerve
was so easy to make a mistake; he was holding precariously
mind the crossing, tangling threads of thirty-two pieces moving altogether more than eighty times over sixty-four squares. The possibilities were infinite. If one forgot a move, or misplaced a move in memory, it was over: defeat. One defeat, of course, in ten blindfold
in his
games,
is
nothing; but to lose to young James!
James knew
him
his
opponent; he
felt
And he was
certain that
an intellectual rapport that enabled
handsome young face as it bent over the board, and James knew perfectly that he was playing and winning
to picture the
realized that
—
—against Francis Baron. And seven.
then
Pawn
it
came.
The
secretary entered, said,
to bishop six."
28
“Game number
Exchange of
Men
he certain of that?” Baron asked, incredulous.
“Is
“That
“My
move,
his
is
sir.”
—queen takes rook.”
reply
made
Francis Baron breathed easily. Richard James had a subtle mistake, to be sure,
now
master could
game. After the accomplish the
mate It
in six
went
and not immediately apparent, but the
imminent
foresee the
sacrifice of
He
rest.
a mistake,
collapse of his opponent's
the queen, knight and two rooks would
announce check-
called after the secretary, “I
moves.”
On
he planned, now.
as
the
fifth
move he
forced the white
rook to occupy the square adjacent to the white king, thus blocking all
escape squares and enabling the knight to mate at bishop seven.
He
returned to his hotel.
But he was troubled
how
natural, considering
mind.
in his
A
mistake like that,
masterful James's play had been up until
then. It was tantamount to deliberate surrender,
He
deliberate surrender! versary,
had
saw
was ...
it
now. James had recognized
it
realized that Baron, strained
deliberately
gesture of the
opened up
as to
probably dislikes
my game
me
he
all,
intensely,
and refrained
Francis Baron found
reflected,
and
appearing to him, saying, “I
am
it
when you
realized that
—that shows the
it difficult
life itself.
true;
but
Chess,
is it
if
you regard
game
he had
worth the demands
now, decrepit, feeling
it
is
a
it
in his
power
greatest delicacy.
I
am
of chess. Chess
properly,
it
was a
consider that he
to get to sleep. His
Francis Baron,
It
was, in a way, a
is
game.
makes? Fancy a
own
face kept
Francis Baron,”
over and over with the utmost pomposity imaginable. for?” he asked himself. For a
his ad-
moment, and he
be defeated.
most subtle and keen sportsmanship;
moral revelation. After
to hurt
board so
his
was
it
by the tournament, could be
upset beyond measure by a defeat of any sort at this
had
was un-
it
man
“What was not, after
A
it
all,
great game,
like
Orimund,
bitterly the decline of his powers, yet playing
with the most religious courtesy and chivalry.
He
could imagine
to Europe.
faction of a
Orimund
There would
still
gocd game, not
after the final
match, returning alone
be many admirers, would
a great game,
be the
mind; but deeply,
he would be an old man, nearing death, alone. 29
still
satis-
essentially,
Stories and Articles
Orimund won
the final game. Francis Baron would never forget
how the reporters gathered around after the game, nor how the old man wept far more over his success than he would have wept over his defeat. And how Orimund called him “Master” and said good-by in the most touching and friendly way, his
had
shoulder. “After me,” he
said,
hand on the younger man's
“in a year, less perhaps,
who
knows?”
Between dejection and
satisfaction, Francis Baron,
runner-up for
the world's chess championship, packed his bag and prepared to
turn to
New
York.
The
analysis of that final
many people reason enough to “Come in,” he said in response to
give
said,
“We
that game.” Sally
thought
“Did?
it I
a knock.
He
invited
them
in,
and
wanted you to know we saw what you did in
nodded
in agreement.
“And we’d
like to tell
you we
was wonderful.” didn't
do anything
“You gave him that
just
game, he knew, would
laugh at him.
Richard and Sally James stood at the door. Richard
re-
—except
lose, of course.”
You did it purposely, and you did it so know both your styles perfectly would ever
the game.
no one who didn't
realize.”
Francis Baron smiled at them. “There's
no need to shout it all over the place,” he said. “Anyhow, I've got you to thank for my quixotic behavior. You taught me a great deal about games and other things last night.”
“Last night?” James looked blank.
At the Copley Club, you know, game number seven.” don't get it,” Richard James said, “I've never been to the Copley
“Yes. “I
Club
in
my
life.”
30
was
It
generally conceded in the circles in which he traveled that
the discovery of the atomic
bomb had been something
of a setback to
Freddy Ferguson’s chances of proving himself an acceptable son-inlaw to General Lane.
made was,
and
had been Freddy,
for instance,
who had
the discovery, the General might have been impressed. As
it
was
felt
more
that just one
field
than a blithe sort of idiot
of the indisputably lovely Jo reduced
least
by
just that
much.
was not entirely certain that Jo herself did not part way with the General’s views on Freddy.
a matter of fact,
go along at
it
had been closed to Freddy,
his chances of being regarded as other
by the father
As
If it
it
'‘And don’t ever,” Jo said one evening, “let Father see you swallow a lighted cigarette again.
They were dancing cate
little
side step
He
at El
and
was
retired for ulcers.”
Morocco and Freddy completed an
glide of his
“I don’t really swallow it,”
he
own
intri-
invention before answering.
said.
Jo tilted her sleek blond head back to look up into Freddy’s serene
countenance. Freddy’s features, as standard assembly jobs went, were
not unpleasant to look could get along with
“Don’t be an as she followed
evolved.
if
at.
Well-fed, amiable and clean.
A
face
one
one didn’t expect too much.
ass,” Jo said.
A
pleased expression
another complicated
Then her mind went back
little
came
into her eyes
dance pattern Freddy had
to the problem at hand. “You’ve
Stories and Articles
got to do something about Father, you know. Assert yourself.
Show
him you've got something." “Card
tricks?"
Jo sniffed daintily. “Save those for the children." “I've just learned the
'Donkey Serenade' on the harmonica."
“Freddy," Jo said impatiently, “are you really as big a chump as you sound sometimes? There is probably nothing Father would like to hear more than a harmonica selection than the sound of a harmonica player sizzling in hot oil."
“Stuffy old coot," Freddy sighed. for?
Of
all
“What's he want to be so grim
the millions of parents you could have had,
to select that old
moose
for
why you had
more than I can understand." the slim body in his arms he knew
is
that By the slight stiffening of somehow he had not said quite the right thing. “What I mean," he added quickly, “is that I don't know just what he expects in a man."
“Perhaps," Jo said coolly, “he just expects a man."
Freddy grunted. the
girl
he loved
it
If
made
there was one criticism he might have
of
was that deep within her there was a streak of the
General. She could laugh at his jokes and listen to his harmonica. She
danced
like a spring breeze in his
ready to love
him
he loved
as
arms and he thought she was almost
her.
But every
so often the General
came out in her and she would want him to prove something for the mere sake of proving it. Like taking a job. He hadn't needed a job. A pair of scissors and a trip to the bank once in a while to clip coupons gave him more than he required. But he had taken a job and gotten three raises, much to his surprise. Lately Jo had become stiffish about the General. She wanted the General to approve of Freddy. He, Freddy, didn’t care whether the General approved of him or not. Jo .
.
.
could be exasperating.
“And I suppose," Freddy growled, “that I'm not a man?" “Would you care to have me quote Father?" Jo asked, still cold. “You know, Jo," Freddy said, “your trouble is you're not satisfied with things
you'd want a truck to
them both
Why
don't
You'd want a town car to do seventy miles an hour
as they are.
.
pull like a truck .
.
and you'd wreck
make them do what they weren't you relax? You can't make me over."
trying to
32
and
built to do.
Check
he
It was,
felt,
a neat
to think about. If she see
.
.
.
and Mate
and pointed
had
speech. Something for Jo
little
a reasonable
bone
in her lovely
body she'd
what he meant. The music stopped and they went back to
table. Jo
was
their
and Freddy congratulated himself upon having
silent
gained a point.
At the
You know
table Jo said, “ You're rationalizing.
you'd like Father's respect. In
fact, I insist
Freddy sighed again. “Did
it
on
perfectly well
it."
ever occur to you," he asked, “that
perhaps your father does not measure up to
all
the things I think he
should be?" Jo stared at Freddy. “Don't be ridiculous!" she said.
“Sometimes he danger
signals.
gets in
“Sometimes
my I
hair,"
Freddy muttered, ignoring
feel like telling
him
all
he's rude, uncivilized
."
and
.
.
now," Jo interrupted. “Why don't you tell him?" As Freddy explained later, a form of madness came over him from “He's
home
right
which he awakened to find himself with
He
Jo's father.
horrible
moments
in
Lane
library face to face
more
describes that awakening as one of the
of his
The General was
in the
life.
playing chess. That
is,
the General was absorbed
working out a chess problem by himself, playing both the white
and the black to Jo,
As always, and
pieces.
anything he had said
Freddy experienced the usual rubbery feeling about the knees.
The General was not ness.
in spite of
a large
man
but he gave the impression of
vast-
His close-cropped mustache was white frost on a steeltrap mouth.
Freddy had never before seen the General so absorbed and unaware of his presence.
He
was
sitting
forward in a deep leather armchair,
leaning over an Oriental table on which was a large inlaid chessboard.
The set,
and
beautiful. It
was a
Freddy knew, which only a devotee of the game would be
likely
pieces were also large, intricately carved
to possess. It
was the
first
time that Freddy had known the General was that
way about the game. At
that
moment, leaning
so absorbed over the
board, he looked like Freddy's grandfather. Freddy shuddered slightly.
Grandfather Ferguson had been a master of the game that
all
—one who
felt
the mental training required to cope with anything that would
33
Stories and Articles
come up in life could be taught on the chessboard. Among Freddy's more vivid memories of his younger years had been those chess lessons his grandfather had insisted on. During the war, at moments when things had been especially tense, Freddy had recalled those lessons and had been able to
relax in the comparative peace of his shell-jarred
foxhole.
Jo said, “Hello.”
The General early, aren't
started.
He
looked up at her. “Oh,
you? Did that young jackanapes
.
it's
Home
you.
The General saw
.
Freddy standing there shifting unhappily from one foot to the other
and the northern
lights flickered in his glacial eyes.
“Har!” he said so explosively that Freddy violently
up and down
felt his
vertebrae jolt
suddenly braked
his spine like the cars of a
freight train.
“Har!” Freddy heard himself echo weakly and involuntarily.
The General stared at him. “What “Uh Tar' ... I think.” “And precisely what in the goddam .
Freddy
.
lethal
.
felt a
same time
mean?”
hell does that
mild perspiration begin to ooze from his brow. At the
a little irritation stirred within
weapon he was
care a hoot about
him, too. Short of using a
anyone who didn't
at a disadvantage against
anyone
there were limits.
else's sensitivities. Still,
Freddy noted that Jo was smiling little
did you say?”
chip off the old block at the
a
little.
She was being a splintery
moment. Freddy pulled himself
to-
gether.
“It means, I suppose, the
An immediate and
same thing that
does
when you
complete silence settled in the Lane
stopped smiling and her eyes widened.
He
it
The
say it.”
library.
Jo
General's eyes narrowed.
inhaled a long, slow breath. Freddy held his
.
.
.
and waited.
“Young man,” the General demanded finally, “are you trying to intimate that I would make an asinine sound like that?” .” Freddy swallowed. “You “You cleared your throat, darling,” Jo interrupted. “To say hello.” .
“I did not,” the
.
General snapped.
He
looked at Freddy.
“What do
you want anyway?”
There
are
two schools of thought regarding the appropriateness of 34
Check
.
.
and Mate
.
Freddy's reply to that question. There were those entirely out of order
inasmuch
who
felt that it
had been nothing
as there
was
in the
General's prior words to warrant any assumption of favorable reaction .
.
and there were those who pointed out that while
.
it
was true that
more sympathetic mood could have been desired, it was also true that it was the first time the General had given Freddy enough consid-
a
eration to utter intelligible sounds in his direction.
latter school
Freddy took advantage of the best opportunity which had
felt that
or
would be
he
really
“I
The
likely to present itself to
go on record about what
it
was
wanted.
want
to
marry your daughter,
sir,"
he
said in a remarkably firm
but respectful manner.
The General made a sort of choking noise. Jo stared at Freddy. “Good Lord!" the General finally said. “The man is crazy! Jo, why didn't you
warn me?"
“Darling," Jo said to her father, “that was the last thing
pected him to say to you
.
.
.
I
ever ex-
tonight." She looked at Freddy. “Pin-
head!" Freddy's irritation increased.
He
looked at
Jo.
“Would you mind
explaining that?"
“There cut
in.
isn't a
“My
damn' thing to
young man," the General
explain,
daughter said you were a pinhead.
It's
perfectly clear.
P-I-N-H-E-A-D, pinhead." “Father!" Jo
said. “I didn't really
she had let Freddy in for
this.
mean
“Freddy
is
that." Jo
was sorry
really very
now
that
sweet in lots of
ways."
“Har!" snorted the General.
“Oh, har yourself!" Freddy said. Even a sweet nature could be pushed too the chessboard again. “Don't that
little
tell
me
far.
Now his eye
fell
upon
you've been having trouble with
problem?"
The General came to his feet. “What?" he roared. Freddy moved over to the chessboard without answering. He studied the problem that was so like the many Grandfather Ferguson had made him sweat out. While the General was obviously trying to decide whether to have the butler throw Freddy out or to indulge in the
35
Stories and Articles
pleasure himself and Jo stood with her lovely lips forming a
amazement Freddy began moving
pieces
little
O of
on the chessboard.
“There's your solution/' he said. “Child's play/'
The General looked
at the
board and then at Freddy. The General
an hour before Freddy and Jo had come in. “Any pinhead could see through that problem/' Freddy went on,
had been rubbing
baffled for
it in.
The emotions that were actually surging through the General at that moment were only feebly indicated by the flush raging on his cheeks.
He
stood frozen until at
he succeeded in pointing to the
last
chair across the table.
down!" he whispered.
“Sit
“Freddy!" Jo said. The General drew the white pieces. In
six
moves Freddy knew that
the General was really a keen player, probably one of the best, but that he was throwing caution to the
The General was
a
wounded
bull
wind
to
pawing the
dirt.
carefully,
waited for the premature attack he
bound
make
to
in that
eral stared at the
mood and
chessmen
as
if
smash Freddy quickly. Freddy developed
knew
the General was
then smashed the attack.
they were so
many
The Gen-
small cobras
flick-
ing their tongues at him.
He
looked up at Freddy. “All right," he said hoarsely. “I resign."
“Why?" Freddy
asked. “I could
win with your pieces from that
position."
“Freddy!" he heard Jo say. “Don't." Freddy ignored her. He turned the board around.
triumph
at its sweetest.
He
was savoring
Pinhead, was he? Freddy acknowledged that
calm frame of mind the General would have been a far different opponent but tonight the General was getting it right in the teeth. It was a rare thing, indeed, when one could take the pieces a player had
in a
resigned with, turn the board around and beat him. In a sort of trance
the General played the pieces that had been Freddy's, to lose the sec-
ond time
more moves. Freddy stood up. “Thank you," he said. In that moment the General showed the stuff he was made of. He looked Freddy in the eye and said, “My boy, that has never been done in ten
36
Check
me
to
again.
before.
I
have carelessly
.
and Mate
.
would appreciate an opportunity to play with you
hope that you
I
.
anything which
will consider as unsaid
I
may
drop about your intelligence and ... uh ...
let
garding that request about Jo
matter entirely up to her.
.
Good
Well,
.
.
night."
I
re-
should say that was a
With
a straight back
and a
head held high the General walked out of the room. It
was
moment
a
before the
clear to Freddy.
But when
done what must
certainly
it
full
import of what had happened was
dawn upon him
did
be the
last
that he
thing Jo could ask
had so
him
to
easily
do by
way
of proving things for her, an exuberance exploded within
that
made him
him
cut several extremely sharp tap steps that culminated
with a double heel click in midair.
when France
“Like Hitler
too bad that
It is
it
fell,"
Jo said.
cannot be said that Freddy became instantly
frozen in midair to remain suspended there with heels about to click
once more. Because that was figuratively about the way
The
affected him. spot.
He
Jo’s
words
cold blast of her voice froze his happiness on the
looked at her in amazement. She was looking at him with
frigid disapproval.
“Huh?" ‘I
said," Jo repeated, “like Hitler
‘But ‘I
said Freddy.
when France
.
suppose you think you’re extremely smart.
pieces against him. crying,
“Look “I
am
was too
Disgusting."
." .
was something to humiliate a beaten old
arms
fell.
‘My
I
suppose you think
I
I
suppose you think
man by
turning his
it
own
should come flying to your
’’
hero!’
." .
.
looking, I’m glad I’ve
late.
had an opportunity
You’re a ... a gloater.
During the course of
Good
a sleepless night
that he’d been wrong, a cad
and
a heel.
He
to look before
it
night."
Freddy persuaded himself called Jo at ten o’clock in
the morning, beginning the conversation with a cheery hello as though all
were
know
well. It
that Jo
had worked
had not
before.
There was no way
for
Freddy to
slept that night either; that after a long
and
stubborn struggle her conscience had convinced her that she had been unreasonable.
Had he known he would have presumed 37
that he was
— Stories and Articles
doing precisely the right thing in calling
Jo.
men he would
Like most
“Good morning!" though the previous night's quarrel had not weighed upon his mind all was not the way to announce his existence to a girl who had
not have understood that the sound of his cheery as at
—
struggled
night with herself over what she had considered to be a
all
major emotional
and who had prepared
crisis,
She could not have reacted with greater
tion of great tenderness.
ness
had she
and Freddy's
lost a leg,
herself for a reconcilia-
first
words had been,
bitter-
“It's a nice
day for a walk."
“Stop chirruping!" she said
“Huh? Who's
Jo, stop
He heard “Well,
chirruping?"
any point in going into
“Is there
“Look,
irritably.
it?"
being unreasonable."
Jo draw in her breath. “I
last
am
being unreasonable?"
jumped to conclusions." remember it you were doing all the jumping.
night you
“Indeed? As
I
All over
the place."
“That was because
I
“That was obvious. of pennies
and go into
was happy."
Why
don’t you go kick some blind man's cup
a real ecstasy?"
Freddy counted ten slowly. “Look, cause
.
.
darling,
I
was happy be-
.”
“There's no need to explain.
what you
in doing just
set
I
have eyes.
out to do
I
have
when we
left
ears.
You succeeded
El Morocco.
I
hope
made you very happy to humiliate Father. To ... to deliver a mortal wound to his pride. I can only say that I am more hurt
it
than angry. Goodby."
Freddy stared it
back
on
at the
the
“Women!" The General .
.
dead instrument in
“Women!" he
hook.
his hand.
breathed
He slammed with
feeling.
.
evidenced no signs of mortal wounds
when Freddy
called that evening firmly resolved to accept whatever
might have
in
mind and
start
punishment Jo out anew. The General placed an arm
around Freddy's shoulder. “Scotch?" he inquired. “Cigar? We're in luck. Jo has gone out. Have the evening to ourselves." 38
Check
.
.
.
and Mate
“Gone out?” Freddy echoed blankly. “With some odd little monster. Squirmed Jo said you'd understand
“Oh!”
if
all
the time he was here.
you happened to drop
in.”
said Freddy.
The General sat down and began setting up “What was his name?” Freddy asked.
the chessmen.
“Haven't the vaguest idea,” the General replied absently. “Someone she gushed
He
Nauseating.”
all over.
tossed a coin. “Call
it
for the
whites.”
Freddy called and
lost to get the black pieces.
“Look, General, do you remember
last
night
I
said
I
wanted to
marry Jo?”
“Eh? Oh, “But have
let
So you
yes.
did. All right with
me.”
with someone!” Freddy protested. “You shouldn't
she's out
her!”
The General
regarded Freddy thoughtfully.
“My boy,
one does not
One just tries to keep out of the line of fire as much as possible. Sit down and let's begin the play.” “You don't even know who she's out with,” Freddy went on, ac'let'
Jo do anything.
cusingly.
A
came over the General's face. “Isn't open with the king's pawn. Your move.”
slightly harassed look
enough “But
“My
if
Jo knows?
I'll
it
.” .
.
dear young man,
“Do you know why
we
she's
are playing chess.”
out with him tonight?” Freddy demanded
indignantly.
“Maybe he has “No.
To
“And
so
oughly.
tickets to
I
humiliated you
you did,” the General
said cheerfully.
spite
me. She thinks
Wouldn't be
Freddy groaned.
The General
surprised
“There
mentioned
she's
it
“So you
did.
Thor-
to her too.”
through with me!”
Oh
must be about seventy milchoose from if you must have one.
well, there
in this nation to
on with the play.” anyone in the world like
let's
isn't
I'd
last night.”
clucked regretfully. “Sometimes she takes things move
more women
Meanwhile,
if
“No wonder
seriously than she should.
lion
Oklahoma/”
get
39
Jo,”
Freddy said vehemently.
Stories and Articles
"Oh, come!” the General said. "And if there isn't it may be just as not at all like well. She has a nasty disposition before breakfast the girls waking up in the toothpaste ads. She has deucedly expensive .
taste in clothes
and
Serve this
oaf she’s out with right
little
Even consider you
I
have to pay a devilish if
.
.
lot of traffic fines for her.
she decides in favor of him.
fortunate.”
"Fortunate!” Freddy said bitterly as he
moved
his king’s
pawn out
meet the General’s opening move. The General had succeeded only revealing to Freddy some further intimate and delightfully fasci-
to in
nating facets of Jo’s character.
He loved her the more for them.
glared across the board at the General. He, Freddy, until Jo
came home, and meanwhile
treat the
would
General to a
Freddy
sit
there
real trim-
ming.
The General
pawn to the General came out with game began brilliantly
played a gambit with his king’s bishop’s
bishop’s four, Freddy accepted the gambit, the his king’s knight to the bishop’s three
and
a
with a daring opening. It
cannot be said that Freddy had ever enjoyed chess under the
instruction of his grandfather but he
had learned
it.
He knew the intri-
and combinations and how to achieve them in the face of keen opposition. Tonight he found himself slowly coming to enjoy cate patterns
his
to
mastery of the game. it all. It
The
desire to defeat the General gave purpose
gave Freddy a tingling pleasure to build a careful defense
against the General’s equally well-developed attack; to counter frustrate his
opponent.
The
chessboard had become a
a
.
.
the atmosphere tense. In the
.
pawn ahead with
a knight
for the
The library became middle game Freddy was still
expression of an urge to bat someone’s ears quiet
medium
and
off.
and a bishop on both
sides exchanged.
But
the General was beginning to crowd his attack, and Freddy sensed the
danger of a
loss of mobility.
Neither was aware of the passing of time.
Neither noticed Jo come in accompanied by a short, somewhat plump young man in evening clothes.
A
grim
when
little
smile of satisfaction touched the corners of Jo’s lips
she saw Freddy. She’d
hoped he might be there so she could throw Hogarth Evans in Freddy’s face and watch him squirm. She could have wished to appear with someone else, but Hogarth had 40
Check
.
.
.
and Mate
been the only man available on short notice. “Hello/' she said
“We've had
brightly.
a perfectly marvelous time."
The General grunted and had been out with,
Freddy, looking up and, noting
a great
felt
relief.
whom
Jo
“Hello, Jo," he said. “Hello,
Hoggie."
“Your move," the General
said.
He
glared at Jo
and Hoggie. “You
two be quiet." “Playing chess?" Hoggie said conversationally.
The General looked
“Keep him quiet!" Jo bit her lip. This wasn't working out right. Freddy had already turned his attention back to the board. Hoggie might just as well have been her aunt
at his daughter.
for all the jealousy
Freddy had indicated. She turned
Hoggie.
irritably to
“Bring over a chair, darling," she said with an effort of lightness.
“We'll watch them."
know anything about
“I don't
as
Hoggie
said.
“How
about
."
turning on the radio and
“Do
chess,"
.
.
say!" Jo snapped.
I
Jo sat in the chair, prepared to show immediate and great interest in
Hoggie
sitting uneasily
on the arm, the instant Freddy should
But Freddy did not
his head.
raise his
head.
The General was
raise
threat-
ening to uncover a check and simultaneously attack his queen. Right at that point .
.
.
He
he could
game if he were not extremely careful. warm bond which had developed between
lose the
was aware of the
himself and the General during the game.
had nothing
to
do with
Jo.
He would
It
was something which
patch things up with Jo pres-
ently; apologize or anything else her little heart desired.
the
moment he was
But
right at
aware of the eager glint in the General's eyes.
General thought he had the game cinched.
Freddy suddenly noted with
He
The
hadn't seen what
a feeling of exultation.
Let the General
uncover check and attack the queen. There was a knight move that
moves of the knight as he studied the possibilities for fear the General might look up and see him looking at the knight. But if that knight would
should
.
.
.
Freddy was almost
.
.
afraid to let his eyes follow the
.
“Aren't they beautiful pieces, Hogarth?" Jo said. There was nothing
Stories and Articles
in the sweetness of her voice to indicate the fury she felt
toward
Freddy.
Freddy looked up. lean forward to pick
and
He
up one
lose his balance in
he was too
late.
looked up just in time to see Hoggie Evans of the captured knights beside the board
doing
so.
He
reached out to save Hoggie but
Hoggie saved himself ... by placing
his
hand
in the
middle of the board and completely wrecking the game. Neither the General nor Freddy moved. They sat silent and motionless
.
.
.
staring at the scattered
men.
Hoggie retrieved himself and laughed a
sound both the General and Freddy turned
little
nervously.
At the
their heads slowly to re-
gard Hoggie.
The General
said, “I believe it
was your move, Freddy. Try not to
get blood over everything.”
Freddy nodded. “Thank you,
sir. I' 11
And he stood up. What she had seen in
be careful.”
Hoggie backed away. Jo jumped to her feet. Freddy's eyes was the same thing she had seen in her
father's.
“Freddy!” she squealed. “Don't!” It
was an unnecessary
the library and
plea.
moment later with Hoggie's hat and coat. them,” he said. He went to the window and looked
came back
“Guess he forgot
Hoggie had gone. Freddy went out of
a
down at the traffic, fifteen stories below. Thoughtfully he opened the window and dropped the hat and coat down into the night. “At the rate he was going,” he said, “he might catch them as he comes out on the
street.”
The General nodded thought,
my
formation
and
boy. Undoubtedly clothes that
like that are
sighed.
his quiet approval.
He
“That was a generous
would
fit
a
expensive and hard to replace.”
human malHe stood up
Without knowing it, Jo was her hand still pressed against her
looked at Freddy and
Jo.
Freddy with the back of open mouth. A grim smile touched the General's staring at
lips.
“Well, the
game is over, so I think I'll retire. But it's still your move, Freddy and please remember about the blood. Good night.”
When
.
.
.
the General had gone Freddy turned to Jo. She backed
nervously away from him.
“Freddy
.
.
.
what are you going to do?” 4^
"
"
"
...
Check
and Mate
moving toward her, your neck, or maybe break some arms and “Oh/'
said Freddy,
"I think legs. I
maybe
don't
I'll
wring
know ...
I
haven't decided."
—
... I haven't done anything bad, Freddy not really bad." “Not really bad?" he shouted. “Not really bad? First you go out Howith that Hogboom. Hoghead, Hoggie whatever his name is garth. Then you drag him back here and have him fall all over the chessboard, just when my knight "I
—
—
—
“Oh, Freddy, I'm
— thought
really awfully sorry. Believe
“Never thought, indeed. a
Double-bah!
Bah!
me, Freddy,
That
I
never
fat little pig of
man!" “I
know
Freddy. But don't rub
it,
it in.
Please don’t rub
it
in."
Freddy allowed himself to remain speechless. Jo backed away from him until she came up against the couch and could back no farther. Freddy put
his finger
on the
tip of
her small nose and pushed. Jo sat
down.
“Rub it?
Am
in?" he whispered heavily. “I suppose I'm gloating? Is that
it I
gloating?
“No, you
Did
didn't.
I
gloat at Hoggie?
You were
Did
I?"
very restrained, and that was very nice
of you." “I
know
it
was."
She laughed a nervous
“He was born “So
little
laugh.
“He
did look funny," she said.
to look funny."
fat," Jo said.
“Comic," Freddy
“So round and so plump." said.
“Fantastic," Jo said.
Freddy
sat
down
beside her.
He
fixed a stern eye
upon
her.
“Now
who's gloating?" he demanded.
“Why He
.
.
.
why
.
.
.
this
is
different,
Freddy."
laughed.
“Gloating at Father
is
no
fair.
Gloating at Hoggie
—
Freddy took her in his arms and kissed her on the mouth. She put her hands on his face and pulled
him
closer. It
was an exceptional
sort
of kiss.
He
let
her go, and she sat up and clapped her hands and laughed. 43
Stories and Articles
“What’s funny?” he
“What
are
you doing?”
him on the couch and leaned her head on his She looked up at him and she smiled a very sweet smile.
She moved shoulder.
said.
closer to
“Gloating,” she
said.
“Har!” said Freddy.
“Careful!” Cartoon by Fred Balk from This Funny World (1947), by permission of
The McNaught
Syndicate, Inc.
44
The
(Devil
That Troubled
the
Qhessboard BY GERALD KERSH
A
shocking book might be written about Pio Busto’s apartment
house.
It
stands on a corner not far from Oxford Street. It stands.
doubt Busto, who knows
No
the laws pertaining to real estate, has
all
managed to find some loophole in the Law of Gravity; I can think of no other reason to account for the fact that his house has not yet fallen down. Pio Busto knows how to make a living by letting furnished rooms. He puts a sheet of wallboard across a small bedroom and calls it
two apartments. His house
from the junk heaps
is
furnished with odds and ends raked
in the Cattle Market.
sleeps in a subterranean washhouse,
a bed-sitting-room furniture
he looks
and bed like
keeps
to
and
a cavalry saber
bay with
crucifix,
and
wasted.
He
this into
crammed with
something of a character,
he keeps
hung on
spare
this Busto;
a service revolver
under
a bootlace over his head.
a rusty horseshoe, the
a lithograph of the
Mona
Lisa,
He
lower half of a
whom
he believes
be the Virgin Mary. His rooms are dangerous.
down comes of
is
in case of burglars
evil spirits at
broken
He
is
and would convert even
the coal cellar were not
linen.
space
Lorenzo the Magnificent, and sleeps with a savage old
dog named Ouif; his pillow,
if
No
little
You
sigh;
a little piece of ceiling.
holes, bored
they shake.
What
is
You
sneeze,
more, the walls are
and full
by tenants of an inquisitive turn of mind. The
curiosity of these people
is
often highly irritating
times obscured by the eye of your neighbor,
45
—your view
who
is
is
some-
trying to peep
Stories and Articles
back at you. But Busto’s tenants rarely stay long. They are mostly
and by the time they come down to Busto’s house, very far from the bottom of things, they have acquired
rolling stones,
which
is
momentum. They come, and As
me,
for
lived for
I
they go.
more than three months
of those spy-hole-riddled bedrooms.
I
in
completed
one of the cheapest
my
education there.
Through three or four tiny holes, which must have been bored by some neglected genius of espionage, I watched people when they thought they were alone. I saw things which walls and the darkness were made to conceal; I heard things which no man was ever supposed to hear. It was degrading, but impossible to resist.
and
to the keyhole of hell,
Among the damned was
I
I
stooped.
I
stooped
learned the secrets of the damned.
Shakmatko. Picture for yourself
this terrify-
ing man. I
saw him
Euoro" black.
for the first
time in the saloon bar of the “Duchess of
—long-drawn-out, somber,
He had
pallid
the unearthly, only partly
in a Japanese print.
tion of shock:
I
and mysterious; dressed
human
all in
appearance of a figure
glanced at him, and said to myself, with a sensa-
“Good God,
man
this
is all
forehead!" Imagine one
of those old-fashioned square felt hats without the brim: his skull
was
towered straight upwards, white and
gla-
shaped exactly
like that. It
brous. His forehead conveyed an impression of
seemed
and then foreshorten ticine that
is all
if
it
—
it
You can
reproduce
you model a human face in white
plasticine,
to have pressed his face out of shape.
something of his aspect
enormous weight
by squashing
it
down on
the table. In plas-
very well; but alive, in a public house,
it
does not look
so good.
And
if all
this
were not enough, his eyes were hidden behind dark-
blue spectacles.
As
I
looked, he rose from his chair, stretching himself out in three
jerks, like a telescope,
and came towards
me and
said, in a
hushed
voice, with a peculiar foreign intonation:
“Can you please give me “With pleasure."
He
recoiled
from the
a
match?"
light of the
cealed eyes with a gloved hand.
I
match
flame, shading his con-
thought of the Devil in Bon-Bon.
46
”
The Devil That Troubled
The
tightly
and
a
clamped mouth parted a
the Chessboard
little,
to let out a puff of
smoke
few more words:
my
“I find the light hurts
eyes.
Will you drink?”
"Oh, thank you.”
He
When we
indicated a chair.
"Pardon me. You
were seated, he asked:
live in this vicinity?”
"Almost next door.” "Ah. In apartments?”
"That would be
a polite
name
for
"You will excuse my asking?” "Of course. Are you looking for "Yes,
I
"I live
am. But
it
a
them.”
room?”
must be cheap.”
on the corner. They have one or two rooms vacant
— They’re cheap enough, but
there.
"Are there tables?”
"Oh! Yes, I think so.” "Then I will go there. One no
thing:
I
can pay in advance, but
I
have
references.” "I don’t
"You "You
suppose Busto will mind that.”
see, I
never stay long at one place.”
like variety,
I
suppose?”
but
"I detest variety,
I
have to move.”
"Ah, landladies are often very "It
is
"I
few.
do not
on with.”
A large number of people live in this house of yours?”
not that.
"A good
difficult to get
Why?”
like to
be alone.” At
this,
"Perhaps you would be kind enough to
he looked over tell
me
Come along with me, kind.” He reached down
his shoulder.
the address?”
you
"I’m going that way.
if
"You
and picked up a great
are far too
like.”
black suitcase which had been standing between his feet. to drag
"Can
him down, I
give
as
if it
were
It
seemed
full of lead. I said:
you a hand?”
"No, no, no, thank you
so very
much.”
We walked to the house and
asked Busto about the vacant rooms. "First afloor fronta vacant, teen bobs. Very nice aroom. include. Spotless.
No
Top
floor
bug,” lied Busto. 47
back aten bob,
thir-
electric light
Stories and Articles
“Ten
room?"
shillings. Is there a table in that
“Corluvaduck! Bess table ina da world.
You come
up,
I
soon show
you, mister."
“As long
We
as there
went
is
a table."
upstairs. Straining at his suitcase, the stranger
time to reach the top of the house, where
slowly. It took us a long
there was a vacant
climbed
bedroom next
to mine. “Ecco!" said Busto, proudly
and
indicating the misbegotten divan, the rickety old round table,
the cracked skylight, half blind with soot.
He
looked at the stranger
and asked, “Hokay?" “It will do.
Ten
week; here
shilling a
within a week, the residue
If I leave
is
a fortnight's rent in advance.
is
in lieu of notice.
I
have no
references."
What
“Hokay.
“There
will
name,
be no
in case of letters?"
letters.
My name
is
Shakmatko."
“Good."
Shakmatko leaned against the door. He had the air of a man dying of fatigue. His trembling hand fumbled for a cigarette. Again he recoiled from the light of the match, and glanced over his shoulder. Pity took possession of me. led
him
up his
to the divan.
He
sat
suitcase. I stooped,
pation of a fifty-six-pound the
I
put an arm about his shoulders, and
down, gasping. Then
I
went back
to pick
clutched the handle; tensed myself in anticilift;
heaved, and nearly
fell
backwards down
stairs.
The
suitcase
weighed next to nothing.
It
something that gave out a dry rattling noise.
Shakmatko
sat perfectly
the wallboard partition. to fade.
still.
Time
passed.
The room
did not like that.
watched him through the holes in
I
The autumn
Absorbed by the opacity of the
gradually disappeared.
I
was empty except for
filled
afternoon began
skylight, the light of
day
with shadow. All that was
left
seemed to be focused upon the naked top of Shakmatko’s he sat with his head hanging down. His face was invisible.
of the light skull, as
He last,
looked like the featureless larva of some elephantine insect. At
when
night had fallen, he began to move. His right
gradually visible;
out of a tube.
it
He
emerged from
his sleeve like
hand became
something squeezed
did not switch the light on, but, standing a
48
little
The Devil That Troubled night light in a saucer, he
lit it
look about him.
My
the suitcase.
He
off his spectacles,
He
heart beat faster.
sickly
and began to
turned his back to me. Snick-snick!
He opened
returned to the table, carrying
an oblong box and a large square board.
He drew a
and
cautiously. In this vague
he took
circle of orange-colored light
the Chessboard
I
my breath.
held
upon which he carefully placed the board. For a moment he hugged the box to his breast, while he looked over his shoulder; then he slid the lid off the box and, with a sudden clatter,
chair
up
to the table,
He
shot out onto the board a set of small ivory chessmen.
ar-
ranged these, with indescribable haste, sat for a while with his chin
on
his clenched hands,
wish
I
I
move
then began to
the pieces.
could convey to you the unearthly atmosphere of that
room, where, half buried in the shadows, with the back of his head illuminated by a ray of blue moonlight, and his enormous forehead shining yellow in the feeble radiance of the night light, Shakmatko sat
and played chess with himself.
After a while he began to slide forward in his chair, shake his head
and shrug
his shoulders.
would waver and
his
Sometimes
in the
middle of a move his hand
head would nod; then he would force himself to
upright, rub his eyes violently, look wildly
sit
listen intently It
with a hand at his
occurred to
me
round the room, or
ear.
—desperately
that he was tired
tired
—and
afraid
of going to sleep.
Before getting into bed
me
I
locked
my
door.
had not been asleep for more than a minute or so when I was awakened by a loud noise. There was a heavy crash this, actually, awoke me followed by the noise of a shower of It
seemed
to
that
I
—
—
small, hard objects scattered over a floor.
Then
I
of Shakmatko’s voice, raised in a cry of anguish
“You
again!
Have you found me
His door opened.
I
opened
standing at the top of the at the black
shadows which
me, he caught
my
stairs,
and
shrill
tones
terror:
Go away! Go away!”
door, looked out,
and saw him,
brandishing a small
silver crucifix
the staircase.
filled
“What is it?” I asked. He swung round instantly,
so soon?
heard the
holding out the
his breath in relief.
49
crucifix.
When
he saw
Stones and Articles
“Ah, you. Did
disturb you? Forgive me.
I
I
— —May I
I
come
into
your room?”
“Do,”
I said.
“Please close the door quickly,” he whispered as he
down and
“Sit
pull yourself together. Tell
came
in.
me, what’s troubling
you?” leave here in the morning,” said Shakmatko, trembling in
must
“I
me
must have followed on my very heels. Then what is the use? I can no longer escape it, even for a day. What can I do? Where can I go? My God, my God, every limb. “It has found
I
am surrounded!” “What has found
What
you?
So soon!
again.
are
It
you trying to run away from?”
I
asked in a calm voice.
He
shivered.
I
“An
replied:
There
evil spirit.”
are occasions
when
the entire fabric of dialectical
materialism seems to go sphut before the forces of nightmarish possibilities.
“What
sort of evil spirit?”
“I think they call
them
“Things that throw
“Not
my
all
I
asked.
poltergeists.”
—that are supposed to throw furniture about?” Only
furniture.
certain things.”
“Such as—” “Chess pieces, and things connected with the game of chess. Noth-
am
ing
else. I
me
from place to
a chess player. It hates chess. It follows
my
papers.
There
is
nothing
too strong for
it,
and so
“Good
chess pieces. It left
it
If
you had told
might have thought is
asleep,
but the board and the pieces; they are
heavens!”
“No, no. that
follows
grows increasingly violent.”
“Perhaps you think that
I
It
and then it tries to has already torn up all my books and
place. It waits until I
destroy
am
me.
so.
am mad?” me that you had I
But
if
merely been seeing things
one’s chessboard
flies off
the table,
another matter.”
“Thank
you.
I
know
I
am
not mad.
My name may be unfamiliar to
you. Are you interested in chess?”
“Not
very.
I
hardly
know
the moves.”
5o
I
replied truthfully.
The Devil That Trouhlei “Ah.
you were you would have heard of me.
If
the tournament at Pressburg.
down
the Chessboard
in history.
I
My
game on
I
beat Paolino, in
that occasion has gone
should certainly have been world champion but for
that Thing.”
been troubling you
“Has
it
“My
dear
twenty
sir, it
has given
years! It visited
with Ljubljana.
I
working nearly
all
and went
to sleep.
me,
for long?”
me no first
of
peace for twenty years. Conceive;
when
all,
was in
I
had been working very hard. night.
I
When
was wrong: a malaise.
I
Paris, training
think
I
had been
I
took a hasty lunch, and then lay
woke up I had a went quickly into my
feeling that
I
study.
down
something
What
did
I
see?
Chaos! “All
my
books on chess had been taken out of the bookcase and
dashed to the
floor, so violently that
the bindings were broken.
A
photograph of myself in a group of chess players had been hurled across the room,
tom
out of the frame, and crumpled into a
The board had
chess pieces were scattered over the carpet.
peared:
found
I
it later,
“I rushed downstairs
stuffed
ball.
My
disap-
up the chimney.
and complained
to the concierge.
He
swore
nobody had come up. I thought no more of it; but two days later happened again.” He trembled as he lived the scene over again.
that it
“And
didn't you ever see it?”
“Never.
It
a coward. It waits until
is
nobody
looking.”
is
“So what did you do?” “I ran away,
and took another
flat,
in another quarter of Paris. I
thought that the house, perhaps, was haunted. such things; but
moved
how
is it
possible to be sure?
did not believe in
I
From
the
Rue Blanche,
du Temple. There, I found that I had shaken it off. I sighed with relief, and settled down once again to my game. Then, when I was once again absorbed, happy, it came again. I
to the Boulevard
“My poor books! Torn to pieces! My beautiful notes—savagely torn to shreds!
My beloved ivory pieces—scattered.
strong for
it.
It
Ah, but they were too
could destroy books and papers;
it
calm detachment and peace of mind necessary to ivory pieces
and
my
inlaid
ebony board; those,
to destroy!”
51
it
could destroy the
my
chess
—but my
has never been able
— Stories and Articles
“But what happened then?” “I ran away again. I found that by moving quickly, I
took to living in streets which were
turnings; remote back-alleys. So
But
when
just
in horror,
I
thought
my
and find
difficult to find;
managed
often
I
had shaken
I
could avoid
I
it
to lose
it.
complicated
it
for a while.
would awake,
off forever I
my
papers fluttering in tiny fragments;
pieces
in chaos.
“For years and years
I
have been driven from place to place,
the world like a leaf on the wind. It has learned it
my track. Two
does not have to look long for
it is
with me.
My God, what am
I
my
all
over
and now
scent,
days, three days, then
to do?”
“Couldn't you, perhaps, consult the Psychical Research people?” “I have
done
when they watch, and
They
so.
are interested.
not come.
will
it
nights, waiting for
comes when
I
must
sleep
It
it.
hides
—and
Why
I,
They watch. Needless
myself, have sat
And moment
itself.
in that
then
up
to say,
for nights
—the
moment
show its face? How can I ask anybody for help? Nobody would believe. They would lock me up in an asylum. No, no, there is no help for me. “Look, I ran away from it last night. I came here today. Yet it found me, this evening. There is no escape. It has caught up with me. It is on my heels. Even at this moment, it is sitting behind me. I am “Coward! Devil!
tired of
creep
won't
running away. Yet
I
it
dare not go to sleep.
do,
it
will
now, tonight.
If
you
If I
in.
“Oh my God, what
The
I
come and
don't believe me,
Shakmatko led
can
me
do?
It is
with
me
see.”
to his door,
and clinging to
chessboard lay in the fireplace.
The
my arm,
he pointed.
pieces were scattered about
the room, with pieces of paper torn as fine as confetti.
“What I
can
I
do?” he asked.
picked up the chessmen, and, replacing the board on the table,
arranged them correctly. Then, turning to Shakmatko, “Listen,
“You
you need some
are a
man
sleep.
Come
sleep in
of high courage,” said
my
I said:
bed.
I'll
Shakmatko. “God
watch.”
will bless
you.” I
took him back, and covered him with 5*
my blanket.
Poor old man,
”
The Devil
That Troubled
he must have been nearly dead
and was asleep I
tiptoed to his
but, for
soon
as
as his
room and kept
all that, I
my
the Chessboard
want of
for
rest!
He
gave a deep sigh,
head touched the pillow.
sat
down.
I
did not really believe in ghosts;
eye on the chessboard,
and turned up the
my coat so as to protect my ears in the event of flying bishops. An hour must have passed. Then I heard a footstep. I clenched my fists and fixed my eyes on the door, my heart pounding. A floorboard collar of
creaked.
The handle
had already steeled myself
I
visibility.
What
I
actually
to
saw proved to be
far
more
in-
horrible.
was Shakmatko. His eyes were wide open, but rolled up so that
It
only the bloodshot white was pression, his I
and the door opened. the expectation of some awful
of the door turned,
meant
tion. I
visible.
His face was set in a calm ex-
hands were extended; he was walking in
my
“Shakmatko!” but
to cry out:
saw him walk steadily over to the
the board with a
terrific gesture,
and
fling
his sleep.
tongue refused to func-
table,
sweep the pieces
the board
itself
off
against the
opposite wall.
The their
crash
awoke him with a shudder. His eyes snapped back to
normal positions, and blinked, in utter
“Damn
you!
Have you hunted me down
“Shakmatko,” His
I
cried, “you’ve
large, whitish eyes dilated.
terror,
again? Accursed
been walking
He
while he cried:
—
in your sleep.”
brandished a skinny
fist.
“You!” he said to me, “you! Are you going to say that too?” “But,”
I
said, “I
saw you.”
“They all say that,” said Shakmatko, in a tone of abject ness. “Oh, God, what am I to do? What am I to do?” I
but I
returned to it
swer.
room. The
was nearly dawn before
awoke
room.
my
I
at seven.
went to
Had he
I
I
rest of
the night was completely quiet,
managed
was drawn,
as
hopeless-
to
fall asleep.
by a magnet, to Shakmatko ’s
door and tapped very gently. There was no an-
his
run away?
I
opened the door and looked
was lying in bed. His head and one arm hung down.
in.
Shakmatko
He
looked too
peaceful to be alive. I
observed,
among
the chessmen on the
floor, a little
labeled Luminal!
In that
last sleep
Shakmatko did not walk. 53
square bottle
The Its
origin of chess
is
wrapped
in the mists of obscurity.
invention has been variously ascribed to the Greeks, the Ice-
landers, the Australian blacks, the Chinese, the Parsees, the Pygmies,
Red
the
Indians, the Irish Free State, the Bataks,
Chess pieces are there.
The
said to
all
have been found in ancient tombs, Ur and
conclusion to be drawn
is
that the
between 10,000
in India, or not in India,
and the Meetaks.
the opponents of this view have by
b.c.
game
originated either
and 2000
now been
a.d. Practically
discredited.
Rapidly spreading over the face of the globe, the game was enthusiastically
taken up by
Ruy
Lopez, a Spanish bishop.
Ruy Lopez, which was popular among all classes of
ever, played the
and
is still
Incidentally,
some
therefore
He
never,
named
after
howhim,
players at the present day.
authorities suspect that
he was not a Bishop
at
all;
but he mitre been.
a
The
next great
book
of faked games,
name
in chess
was Greco, an
Italian,
who
which convincingly show what
published
brilliant
com-
binations were not played in his day.
In the eighteenth century, there arose the great Philidor, immortalized
by the famous opening known
because, as far as
too
much
is
known, he never played
in advance of his time to
have become too
as Philidor’s Defense, so called
far
it.
Philidor’s theories were
be understood, and since then
behind the times to receive any attention.
therefore considered the
first
great chess thinker.
54
He
is
— Capsule History of the
He
Game
was succeeded by Deschapelles, who, when he was no longer
certain of beating everybody, refused to play at
would accept pawn and move. because of the odds. This was
The
all
unless his
opponent
Deschapelles lost he could say
If
known
it
was
as the Deschapelles coup.
next great event was the hundred years' match between Labour-
donnais and McDonnell. During the play, Labourdonnais swore, ges-
and burst into snatches
ticulated,
of song.
He won.
After the match both players died, and were succeeded by Staunton's
“Handbook," which
is
noted for
its
author's shameful treatment
Morphy.
of Paul
This was the name given to a young genius from
New
flashed across the chess world like a meteor, defeating ridiculous ease, especially the
Duke
of Brunswick
in a Paris opera-box. After convincingly
Orleans,
all
who
he met with
and Count Isouard
demonstrating that he was
Morphy retired in disgust. was Wilhelm Steinitz; a very deep
the pride and sorrow of chess,
The
next great figure
also wide, six years,
though
short.
He held
player
the world’s championship for twenty-
and was therefore considered by his
rivals to
be very obstinate
and pig-headed. Dr. Lasker then held the championship for another twenty-six years. Critics explained that this
psychology. Lasker thus
was because he made weak moves. This was
became known
as the apostle of
common
sense.
The
next champion was Jose Raoul Capablanca, the
Cuban
genius.
His perfect technique made him invincible, and he was defeated by A. A. A. A. Alekhine.
Alekhine was recognized
as the greatest player of all time,
drank some alcohol, and was defeated by
but he
AEIOU at Amsterdam,
Rot-
AEIOU
by a
terdam, Blaastendam, and the ague.
Alekhine then drank some sour milk, and defeated decisive margin.
Then
it
was practically now, and history stopped.
55
# Shortly
after
he wrested the World’s Championship from
Emanuel Lasker delivered in London in 1895 a series of leclater published in book form under the title of Common Sense
Steinitz, tures,
in Chess. In this
work he undertakes
play of general application, that all
is,
down
to lay
principles of chess
applicable supposedly to any and
kinds of games, and even with the
game
in all of
includ-
its stages,
game and the end game. astounding that a world’s champion
ing the opening, the middle It is
nothing short of
after the death of Philidor
should thus presume to crowd this game of
infinite resources into the space of a
Without even dismissing them in advance
peanut
reading his rules one would be justified in as
shell.
an impossible pretension. But more astounding
which
flatters itself that it is so chess-wise
generally
and
masters has
it
up
that in this age
is
they should have been
slavishly adopted. Apparently,
occurred,
a century
not even to his
to the present, that there
rival
must be some-
thing radically wrong with them. For have they not adopted the principles in their
own books?
In his preface to
Common
Sense in Chess Lasker
regarded as an attempt to deal with aid of general principles.”
all
parts of a
And, fortunately for
says: “It
game
my
may be
of chess
by the
purposes, he ac-
commodatingly admits that the work was not dashed off in a hurry, adding: "The games and positions given in this book are comparatively few,
but have been selected with care” (capitals mine). 56
Telling Off the
Four Infallible Principles
Lasker’s
Do
“1.
K and Q Do
“2.
upon the
at
Pawn
not move any
in the opening of a
game except the
Pawns. not
move any
right square.
est to post the
KB
World Champion
(
piece twice in the opening, but put
my practice
In
it
have usually found
I
it
at once
strong-
Kts at B3, where they have a magnificent sway, and the
somewhere on
his original diagonal,
if
not exposed to exchange,
QB4.) Bring your Kts out before developing the Bishops, especially the
“3.
QB.
Do
“4.
ponent has
it
it
(by
B
—KKt5)
before your
op
castled.
"In regard to Rule ings, find
KKt
not pin the adverse
1
you
will
sometimes, especially in
better to advance the
with your QKt. This, however,
lation of the principles just laid
QBP two is
Q
side open-
squares before obstructing
the only exception where the vio-
down
unquestionably
is
justified.
will see that according to this plan the mobilization takes six
You
moves,
consumed in the development of two Pawns, the two Knights, and the two Bishops. You may be obliged to spend some of your time in the beginning of a game for the exchange of a pawn or a piece, or it may be necessary to make one or two defensive moves. But the real business of development ought to be accomplished in no more than six separate
First, tically
moves devoted
to that purpose/'
A Dogma Without Precedent in Chess let me call to attention that in these four
nothing
new
except making an iron-clad
which fortunately there the gods!
is
no precedent
History rules there
dogma
of
in chess history
prac-
is
Rule
1,
for
—praised be
No Chinaman, no Hindu, no Persian, no Arab, no European,
no American, has ever before ventured to lay down as a universal principle to utilize only two out of eight pawns. At least four pawns
—the
should be available for immediate service during the opening
KBP
to support the
KP, and the
the Pawns should be subject to tie
one arm and two
legs
and
QBP
call.
57
QP. But
all
of
Why should anybody voluntarily
restrict
Preposterous!
to support the
himself to the use of one arm!
Stories and Articles
But even Rule
1
is
not original, Steinitz in his “Modern Chess In-
back the other pawns but wisely
structor/' suggesting to hold
ing from attempting to dogmatize
There
is
it.
nothing novel in the 2nd Rule except that neither Lasker
nor anybody else follows
who
Philidor,
refrain-
never
This
it.
moved
one of the unwritten
is
a piece twice during the
rules of
opening unless
necessary.
The 3rd Rule is hardly new. It is dogma another idea of Steinitz who
only converting into a religious did not feature
perhaps because he was not sure that he was right. But the credit for this rule;
it
it
too strongly,
let
Lasker have
not one that will win applause from
is
future generations.
The 4th Rule belong in the
merely one of
is
class of universal principles. It originated
Lasker's
He
prefaces his
in our .
...
maxims which do not
fifty
now
Model Ruy Lopez Defense
remains to put
“We
with:
part of a
first
with
CARE and
game which he is
And
ticing,
why should anybody
P—K4, P—K4; 2
1
shall
I
—KB
Kt
if
HE
doesn't consider
3,
not pause long over
.
this
be exceedingly
difficult to
play any
contends that obstructing the BP's great advantage of having the
B3 and
how
the author
them worth
Kt
is
has been
it
game
prac-
But
I
believe
it
of chess correctly. Lasker
insignificant
at B3.
made
compared with the
in this very
game we
shall
not insignificant, for this Knight accomplishes nothing
presently has to lose a
move
in order to free the
thereby delaying the development of a piece. Further this
Kt
will
be found in a useless position at QKt3.
is
subjected
move, being the keymove of mod-
will
at
when
.
.
chess practice, but will say that after
it is
of Chess
else?
em
see that
game
takes the pains to state was selected
offered for practical test. Let us see
himself sticks to them.
have given
to a practical test."
it
Gladly! Let us see what these principles are worth to analysis in a
with Philidor.
Model Ruy Lopez Defense
former lecture the theory of the It
at all
appropriately punished, for at the
end
we
KBP,
shall see
of the opening
he
2
.
.
Kt—QB3;
.
3
B—QKt5,
In a previous article
I
any piece into enemy
.
.
.
pointed out that
B
—QKt5
territory during the opening.
shortly going to exchange himself for the poor,
have gone to
most 3
.
QB4
Kt
.
and had
—KB
4 Castles,
3;
What
Bishops were to
.
But
is
move
in itself
preceding article
Wrong Early
I
the
was see
game
King
whether
it is
will
on the opposite
this act of
be receiving castle.
side. It is
scramble to win in chess .
.
moves. Here at the
such extremely early castling
as pointing
know where
out that in
to find the
enemy
advertises in the newspapers that for the rest of
early to get action than
.
six
whole business
into play.
callers at
He
it is
we
the KKtsq. Philidor never
saw an advantage
where the enemy was concentrating
castle
4
KR
necessary to
an undue hurry to
in
more than
quoted Marshall & Macbeth
White
his
He said that the
in the opening?
be violative of principles of correct play? In the
order to give mate
King. Here
KBP, the
Rook to move? Did Lasker not lay down KP and QP, the two Knights and the two
castling to bring the
let us also see
may not
weak QKt. He could
.
.
of mobilization should require not
White
KB
right has this
the law that only the
4th
move
to
This strong
a serious threat against Black’s
Something Goes Hold!
violative of a
on the board.
vital spot .
is
down by Marshall & Macbeth not
very correct principle laid
is
World Champion
Telling Off the
-
his forces,
no more
in waiting to
and then he might
in the nature of a
bound
so
When we
of an elephant to play tag.
are
Rook
to overlook principles.
KtxP. Unspeakable Humiliation for the King’s Guards
I
am
not interested in the ingenious thoughts behind the strategy
that allows the is
Kt
to capture this
Pawn.
What
I
do know
supposed to be a war game and that any General
is
that Chess
who would
leave
own Guards subject to unopposed capture should instantly be relieved from his command in disgrace. This Division of Infantry is the King’s
composed
of
all
of the
young princes and nobles, the flower 59
of the
Stories and Articles
Kingdom.
can hear the derisive shouts from Black's
I
to the high heavens. ible humiliation 5
P
—Q4,
.
.
camp
reaching
can feel with poor White's King his inexpress-
I
and anguish.
.
down the rule that only the KP and QP must be moved opening. The KP he gives away, so now one solitary Pawn must
Lasker lays in the
serve as the
first
line of offense
and defense.
And how does White's bereaved King By
to avenge the grievous insult?
this
feel
over no steps being taken
time Black's troops are nearly
delirious with their shouts of derision. 5
.
B
.
.
—K2; 6 Q—K2,
.
.
.
Morale at Low Ebb Hold
again!
Where
in the rules
is
there any provision for the
Move? The two Pawns,
developing at the 6th
the two Knights and
the two Bishops were to develop, which requires a
moves. Instead of the
QKt and QB
Queen have been brought are
developing, the
of six
Rook and
the
into play. It seems that at least six pieces
time the morale of White's troops must be appreciably
this
The
lowered.
QKt and QB
King's
Guard has been captured
jealous of the .
.
.
This
in disgrace,
and the
camp when win fame. The Queen is
are muttering discontent over being kept in
they were promised early opportunities to
7
minimum
needed in the opening.
By
6
Queen
Rook, and
gets
ahead of him.
Kt—Q3.
is
the 3rd
BxKt,
.
.
Move
for this Knight.
.
The Bishop Breaks A Rule "As
a general rule," says Lasker in the following chapter, "it
good policy to exchange
in the early stages of a
is
not
game the long-reaching
Bishop for the Knight, whose power does not extend beyond a certain circle."
Since he
is
playing for both parties in devising this opening,
6o
why
World Champion
Telling Off the
did he play
3
B
— QKt5 when he knew that
at the 7th
Move
the Bishop
would
violate the rule against exchanging himself for the
Knight
—the weakest piece on the board?
This
QB
second move for
a
is
made
Bishop,
this
before the
Queen's
QKt and
have had a chance to develop.
7
.
.
KtPxB;
.
PxP,
8
.
.
.
A Powerful Pawn
Center?
A lone Pawn at K5 with no other Pawn
in a position to support
now
does not exactly constitute a strong center. Right
KKt away from KB 3
very desirable to have the
This 8
.
.
is
a
2nd Move
for the
is
would be
KBP
to free the
support of his precariously advanced companion. the Knight has a "magnificent sway/’ but he
it
It
him
may be
for
true that
in the way.
QP.
Kt— QKt2.
.
The Black Bandit Knight, a Reckless Law-Breaker This
is
the 4th
Move
of this Knight,
other developed piece on the board.
give
White
mate
is
castled
QB, making
it
be worse placed?
the Knight had nowhere else
side, so this
the
capture of the KP, a
Kt— Q4,
.
.
It
corner!
There he
is
that,
the open
he
QKt
is
robbing the
file.
Could
QR
a piece
compensation has Black now for the Knight’s
move
discussed and approved by Lasker?
.
Not So Well Oh, ho!
QR
Knight in order to
impossible for Lasker to comply with
commanding
What
while Black has only one
note Black’s position. There
promise of quick development. Besides
of the opportunity of
9
on the King’s
retires as far as possible into
blocking the his
And
Pawn advanced,
being practically not a to go.
made
Posted After All!
seems the Knight was not so well placed
He has to lose a move QKt or QB could have
to free the
KBP. But
developed.
We
specified pieces
them, the valuable KB,
off
the board. 6i
KB 3
for this lost
after
move
are already at the 9th
and only two of the four is
at
all!
the
Move,
have developed, and one of
The whole
business of mobili-
Stories and Articles
zation was to be done in six moves, but at this stage in the field
9
.
a Knight
and
a too-far advanced
that
is
visible
Pawn.
Castles.
.
.
is
all
Black at least
is
He
kingly dignity.
entitled to the credit of having castled with
did not rush to the newspapers at the
first
more
oppor-
tunity.
10
R—Qsq,
A
second
.
.
.
move by
QKt and QB
have developed.
doesn’t belong there.
who knows when bilization
10
.
.
.
this illegally
the
He
He
ought to
QR
developed Rook, made before the
bound to move again because he be at Ksq and the QR at Qsq. But
is
will get into action
under
mo-
this rapid
scheme?
Q—Ksq.
The scheme of frozen Pawns in the opening does not look good. The Queen at this stage ought to be in the 2nd Row, not blocking the King Row, but where
else
How much
really fighting?
hibition in a boxing ring? 11
R—Ksq,
.
.
there breathing space? Are the two forces
is
would you pay
Remember, we
and
this
are at the 10th
Move!
.
The Rook Becomes a What,
to see a corresponding ex-
Rook moving
again? It
Bandit, Too!
the 3rd time, and the
is
QB are still swapping their grievances.
QKt
Eleven moves, and no mo-
bilization yet! 11
.
.
.
B —B4!
Lasker makes an exclamation mark, whether to surprise I
move
or to the fact that this
is
a
call
2nd Move
attention to a
for this Bishop,
do not know. 12
—Kt3,
Kt
The
3rd
.
.
Move
.
for this Knight, while the
QKt and QB
are
still
un-
developed, and to what a position! But no sympathy should be wasted 62
— World Champion
Telling Off the
on him. This is the same Knight who blocked the KBP at the 2nd Move, and he is only getting what he deserves. Note the peculiar strategy. Both Kings are castled on the King's but instead of the Knights trying to worry the Kings, both parties
side,
are retiring
12
.
.
B
.
them
away
as far
as possible.
—Kt3.
This Bishop
now
has
moved
three times, while the
QB
is
unable to
develop because completely blocked.
Kt—QB3,
13
.
.
.
Instead of developing during the
from
first six
moves,
this
Knight emerges
now he would not have been
his tent at the 13th. Perhaps even
allowed to develop except for the fact that his brother Knight
some
lone-
in that far-off corner.
These Knights have not yet learned blocking the
QBP
and QKtP.
venient to have at least the
good during the
first 1 3
It
QBP
the key
calls it
.
.
move
of
their lesson, for
would seem that
it
now
they are
would be con-
Pawn
free for advance. If this
is
no
moves, when will he become useful? Philidor
and Franklin K. Young considered P
13
is
—QB3 the best 3rd Move. Young
an opening.
P—Q4.
.
Why the Bishop Hasn't Developed Yet This to
is
he
as far as
carries the opening.
show development
Behold If
B
of the
QB? The
But was there not Bishop
is
still
a contract
undeveloped.
a mystery!
White undertakes
KKt5,
to free this Bishop at the next
move, then 14
P— Q5; 15 Kt—R4, P— QB4; 16 KtXB, RPxKt, and Black
has a superior game.
So not yet
White 14 still
.
.
will this
will play .
Bishop develop. Instead,
it is
a safer guess that
—R4, then
(under a suspension of the rules) 14 Kt
P—QB4;
undeveloped!
15
KtXB, RPxKt;
Two
principles
16
P—QB3—with
would be violated
at
the Bishop
one stroke un-
der this suspension of the rules, the Bishop having failed to develop
during the opening, while a forbidden 63
Pawn was
forced to move.
Stories and Articles
Couldn't Get Along
The Knights is
blocking the
seen that the
because the effected,
are a positive
With Only Two Pawns
hoodoo, again blocking Pawns. The
QBP, while the KKt is blocking KKt had to make two moves to
KBP
the
QKtP.
QKt
We have
a miserable position
was needed before the rapid mobilization could be
and that the
QKt
QB3
should immediately vacate
to free
QBP, and at the cost of exchanging with the Bishop and strengthening Black's Pawn center. So we have proof that Lasker needs at least the
four is
Pawns
opening
in the
as
badly as anybody
else,
and that chess
governed by laws not to be violated with impunity by the mere
dictum of world's champions.
Rule Violated Eleven Times So the famous Rule
1,
the only original one in the collection,
is
The hoodoo Knights themselves have exploded while Rule 4 is to be brushed aside as having no place among principles of chess play. Now let us see what has become of and then we shall have disposed of all of the Principles, Laws,
completely exploded.
Rule
3,
general
Rule
2,
Dogmas,
Rules,
Do
Articles of Faith.
move any White's KB moved 2 “2.
This
is
not
a total of 10
piece twice in the opening/' times, the
KKt
moves made by 4
3,
the
pieces
KR
3,
and the
and
his
KB
3
times. This
There have been 11 violations half of the
is
in
moves were against the
7
2.
and Pawns which should
have moved only once each; hence 6 violations. Black's times,
QP
moves by two
KKt moved 4
pieces; 5 violations.
26 moves, which means that nearly
Could it be violated any worse? But the fault is not with the rule, which is based on Philidor's play. It lies in the simple fact that there is no way of applying consistent rule.
principles to inconsistent openings.
But
let it
not be thought that this opening of Lasker
is
a very ex-
ceptional offender. Analyze almost any Knight opening, and you will also find wholesale violations, only perhaps never so thoroughly out-
rageous.
The Military But we
Principles
are not through with Lasker's four Principles that are sup-
64
— World Champion
Telling Off the ______
posed to be a panacea for
my
own.
"5.
all
chess
ills. I
propose to add a 5th, one of
It is:
Chess should be played in
strict
accordance with the best mili-
tary principles.”
But how about the
military principles here involved?
heard of a war conducted
like this?
Who
ever
When
“The King of France with 20,000 men Went up the hill, and then came down again,” he did only once what was done twice in this game. White's KKt made three moves to get as far away as possible from Black's King because he heard that he had the smallpox, while Black's KKt, hearing
rumor about White's King, made four moves to a haven of The rumor spread through the ranks, and all of the Pawns,
a similar safety.
except one on each side that had advanced before hearing the report,
remained
at their posts, frozen stiff with fear.
Move back White's KP, move back Black's QP, out of danger quick! And then we shall be able to see more clearly that the parties have only been
firing
smoke-screen empty cartridges at each other
there never was an intention to mobilize.
warfare
is
all
mobilization in real
supposed to mean something! In 13 moves
pieces ought to be
and
Why,
commanding powerful
a thing as the whole
consumes weeks of
own territory? White has not
of White's
positions, each with a threat,
together constituting a terrorizing menace.
ought to be vibrating with tension.
all
Who
The atmosphere
ever before heard of such
army standing still while one Knight on each side time on a reconnoitering expedition and in his
—
the semblance of an attack.
Storm'd at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the
When
O
mouth
of
Hell
can their glory fade?
the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Shade of General Sherman, who said son,
who wrote “The Charge
“War is Hell”; shade of Tenny-
of the Light Brigade”; shade of Philidor,
65
Stories and Articles
shade of Labourdonnais, shade of Macdonnell, shade of Anderssen,
shade of Morphy,
rise,
Oh
rise,
from your tombs
Cartoon by H. T. Webster, by permission of the York Herald Tribune, Inc.
artist.
—speak!
Copyright 1932
New
Part
Two
THE MAGIC OF CHESS
Cartoon by Martha Blanchard, by permission of the artist, from The Saturday Review of Literature. Copyright 1948 Saturday Review Associates, Inc.
1
A game
of chess can be
won
two moves! Here’s how:
in
WHITE
BLACK
—KB4 —KKt4
P— K3
P 2 P 1
Q— R5
mate
2
The
shortest master
game
of all time
QUEEN’S
is
this
snappy four-mover:
PAWN OPENING
Paris , 1924
WHITE Gibaud
P
1
3
4 P resigned.
takes the Knight, 5
.
—Q4
Kt—KB 3
—KR3
Kt—Kt5 Kt—K6!
P—K4
Kt— Q2 PxP
2
And White
BLACK Lazard
He .
.
is
threatened with loss of his Queen;
Q—R5ch
if
he
forces mate.
3
The
record for the longest
number
of
69
moves
in a master
game
is
held
The Magic
of Chess
by Makogonov and Chekover, who fought of playing time) at
Baku
in 1945.
The
for four days (21V2 hours
result of this titanic struggle
was a draw on the 171st move. Such a battle
is
the equivalent of five
tournament games rolled into one!
4 Runner-up
for the longest-game record
Wolf and Duras at Karlsbad lost a Pawn in the opening, at throughout
six sittings
is
the encounter between
1907, which lasted 168 moves! Duras his seventh
move but hung on ,
grimly
(22Vi hours of playing time) until he was
checkmated by Wolf, who had two Queens. Duras, who had only
King on the board, must have been hoping atomic
bomb had
his
an earthquake (the
for
not yet been invented). 5
Other lengthy contests were: Duras
—Janowski,
San Sebastian 1911,
161 moves (another tortuous loss for Duras); Lipshutz
—
—Bird, New
York 1889, 159 moves; Mason Tchigorin, Monte Carlo 1902, 144 moves; Pinkus Denker, New York 1940, 141 moves. This last game was printed in the New York Post in three weekly installments! To this list of long-drawn labors must be added the report of a
—
game
have been played in 1888 for the Australian Champion-
said to
ship between
W.
Crane and H. Charlick which
lasted 219 moves!
Luckily for the editors, typesetters and readers of this book, the score of this
game
is
unobtainable!
6
Many
game owes its existence to an early mistake made by one of the players. But when four allies discuss their ideas with each other, and then get mated on the sixth move, that is unique. a miniature
CARO-KANN DEFENSE Palma, 1935
WHITE
BLACK Four Allies
Alekhine 1
2
P—K4 P—Q4
P—QB3 P—Q4 70
Odd, But True 3
Kt—QB3
PxP
4
KtxP
Kt
5
Q—K2
6 Kt
—Q2 KKt—B3??
—Q6 mate
7
A
correspondence player can take a day or two for each move.
make blunders rarely, and the games so played be long drawn-out affairs. The world's record for brevity in chess
would expect him to
One
to
by mail must therefore be
this quickie:
BUDAPEST DEFENSE Correspondence 1930 ,
WHITE Warren
BLACK Selman
Dublin
Amsterdam
1
2 3
4 5
P—Q4 P—QB4
Kt—KB 3
PxP P— QR3 PxP
Kt—K5
6 P
—KKt
P—K4 P— Q3 BxP
3
KtxBP
Resigns
On 7 KxKt, BxPch wins the exchange.
Queen; on other moves, Black wins the
)
The Magic
of Chess
8
* *
Many
a
good player would
like to try his skill against the masters in
a tournament, but dreads the possible
Not
so Colonel
of 1903.
He
Moreau, who played
outcome
—
a long string of zeros.
Monte Carlo Tournament
in the
played two games with each of 13 opponents, and lost 26
times in succession.
Not even
much
so
as
one measly draw could he
get!
9
What
is
the best
move
to begin a
game? At one time the masters
—
—
P K4; then they switched to 1 P Q4. Paul Morphy, considered by many critics the greatest chess genius that ever lived, never played 1 P Q4. In contrast, Ernest Gruenfeld, one began automatically with
1
—
on opening
of the greatest living authorities
P
—K4 only once
in his entire
at Karlsbad 1929).
swered, “I never
When
make
play,
ventured on
1
tournament career (against Capablanca
asked
why he avoided
1
P
—K4,
he an-
a mistake in the opening!”
10
Chess
is
thought of so highly in the Soviet Union that
the public schools. Yet, blindfold play realize,
we wonder,
moves deep
is
it is
forbidden by law!
is
taught in
(Do they
that a master player analyzing a combination ten
really playing blindfold chess?
11
Franz Gutmayer wrote a book on
how
become a chess master, but could never become one himself! Gutmayer never won a Hauptturnier first prize, a requisite in Germany for the title of master. to
12
Dr. Lasker was certainly a hard in
May
man
to beat. Marshall
1900, and then once again on another
May
won from him day.
But that
second victory came after forty years of tournament and match play, in the course of which they had
met many 72
times.
Odd, But True 13
Humorists who poke fun
at
some
names
of the strange
may add this item to their collection: The St. Petersburg tournament of
of chess players
1903 had three players
surname Znosko-Borovsky. Evidently sioned them no complexes, as they all won prizes. joiced in the
their
who
names
re-
occa-
14
A book was once published
in
German with
the
title,
Advice to Spec-
Chess Tournaments. All the pages, with one exception, were completely blank. On this page there were only two words, Halt's tators at
Maul!” which means ''Keep your mouth shut!” 15
The
first
eight
they played at tling in that,
moves between Capablanca and Reshevsky
AVRO
but
this
in
in a
game
1938 took exactly one hour. Nothing
star-
was the breakdown: Reshevsky, 58 minutes
Capablanca, 2 minutes 16
Beethoven astonished the world of music by composing masterpieces
when he was
deaf.
Arthur Ford Mackenzie matched
this miracle
by
composing chess problems when he was blind. 17
Chess
critics are
almost unanimous in the opinion that the three great-
est chess masters that ever lived
ker.
were Alekhine, Capablanca and Las-
Rarely did any of them lose a game, and yet, Akiba Rubinstein
defeated each in turn the
first
time he played them! 18
Capablanca played 103 games simultaneously His percentage of wins in
at
this exhibition has never
proached before or since, by any other master.
drew
1,
lost
Cleveland in 1922.
none! 73
even been ap-
He won
102 games,
The Magic
of Chess
19
Mr. A.
won
P. Barnes
Nothing
easily.
finished
once gave an amateur Rook and Knight odds and startling in that,
up with more pieces than he
REMOVE WHITE’S QUEEN ROOK AND QUEEN KNIGHT
1
10 2
WHITE
BLACK
Barnes
Amateur
—K4 P — Q4
p_QB3
4
B—QB4
5
p_QR3
6
Kt—B3
7
O—O
8
9
this case his
opponent
started with originally! 11
R—Kl
PxP
12
R— Ql
PxB(Q)
P—K4
p
3
but in
PxP PxP Kt— QB3 QKt— K2 P—QR3
P— QKt4 P— QB3
B—R2 Kt—Kt5
Kt— R3
Q—Kt3
Q—R4
White announced mate in three moves, as KtXQ; 14 BxKtch, K— Ql; 15 Kt—K6 mate!
follows:
13
QXPch!,
20 In 1851 the Chess
Champion
of the world
was A. Anderssen; the
Checker Champion of the world was A. Anderson! 21
The
year 1894 was a disastrous one for board champions. William
who had held the chess title for twenty-eight years, lost it in his World Championship match with Emanuel Lasker. In the same year, James Wyllie, who was World’s Checker Champion for the alSteinitz,
most incredible period
of forty years, lost his title to
James
Ferrie.
22
Norwood
Potter once gave an amateur the tremendous odds of a
Queen. After only checkmate
in nine
six
moves were played, he announced a forced
moves!
The game 74
follows:
Odd, But True
REMOVE WHITE’S QUEEN WHITE
BLACK
Potter
Amateur
3
—K4 Kt—KB B —B4
4
Kt—B3
5
KtxP P— Q3
1
2
6
P—K4
p
Kt— QB3 Kt— B3 Kt—QR4
3
KtxP
Kt—B4
White announced mate
K—Q3;
9 Kt
K— Kt5;
—
KxKt;
BXKt all
K— K2;
BxPch,
P—B4ch, K—B4;
10
P— R3ch, K— Kt6;
12
Kt K5; 15 Mates of
—Kt5ch,
as follows: 7
Kt— K2ch, KxP;
13
8
11
14
B
—Kt5ch,
Kt— Q4ch,
B—Q5ch,
mate.
have been announced before and since this
sorts
game, but never one which,
as here,
is
longer than the rest of the
game
itself!
23
The capped Knight odds
is
it
.
.
.
to undertake to give
Clearly, the
is
a rare
Pawn or piece. up any amount of material
mate with
opponent can afford
just to rid himself of the
him. Here
Much more difficult even than giving Queen to give
a specific
only piece that has the power to checkmate
example of
this stipulation
being carried out suc-
cessfully.
Max Lange
contracts to checkmate with his
MUZIO GAMBIT WHITE Lange
8
KxB K—Kt2
Q— R5ch RxP
11
B— K3
Kt—R3 P-Q3
12
Kt—K2
Q-K2
PxP
13
KxP
14
QR—KB1
B—K3 B—B2 KxQ K—R4 KxR
Von Schierstedt P— K4 Kt—QB3
P—K4
2
Kt— QB3
3
P
4
Kt— B3
P
P—Kt5
6
B—B4 0—0
PxKt
15 16
7
P-Q4
PxP
17
5
BxPch
9 10
BLACK
1
—KB4
Queen Knight.
—KKt4
75
QxKtch
R—Kt4ch Kt—Kt3ch
The Magic
—KR3
18
R— B5
P
19
P— R3ch
K— R5
20
R— R5ch
21
Kt
of Chess
BxR
—B5 mate!
In the course of completing his task, Lange sacrificed his Queen, two
Rooks, a Knight and a Bishop!
24
Cambridge University once played insane asylum, and lost!
a
SICILIAN DEFENSE Correspondence,
WHITE Cambridge 1
P—K4
1
Q—B3
R—Kt5
22 23
QR—K1
QR—KKtl
Kt—Kt2
R(Ktl)
24
RxB
PxR
25
B—K2
R—R3
5
KtxP
B
6
Kt—B3
7
Kt—Kt5 P—QR3
8
KtxB
B x Ktch P—Q4
9
PxP
PxP
B
B—K3 O—O
12 13
BxKt
Kt—K2 PxB
14
B— Q3
K—R1
15 16
Q-R5
P— B4 Q-Q3
—Kt3
Resigns
—Kt5
B—K2 O—O
17
—KKt3 P— KB4
20 P
P—QB4 P—K3
P— Q4
Kt—K2 Kt—Q4
R—KKtl
21
4
11
Q—Kt2
Kt—B3 Kt— R4
Bedlam
Kt— QB3 PxP
—KKt5
19
BLACK
3
10
18
883-1 885
Kt—QB3 Kt—B3
2
game by correspondence with an
V/.
m.
Q—K4 76
m.'
wam.'
nmm.
m
wm£W%.
mk
mtmim mm
V- bhb
Odd, But True
25
The
exhibition of simultaneous blindfold play in chess history
first
The
occurred in January of 1266.
two games blindfold, and the third
three Florentine experts, playing
over the board. posterity in
The
Saracen master Buzecca opposed
result of this seance has
somewhat vague form
—two wins
been handed down to
for the Saracen,
and one
draw. In spite of the loose reporting, one important fact was deter-
mined
—
pieces
a world's record for playing chess
had been
be exact) was
established.
this record
Not
without sight of board or
until centuries later (517 years, to
broken!
26
When
Philidor played three blindfold games simultaneously in 1783,
affidavits
had
were drawn up attesting to the fact that
really
would
believe that such an astounding feat was possible.
until three quarters of a century
eclipsed. Louis Paulsen ventured
in 1857, then five, seven, ten,
a hard-working performer,
part of
performance
taken place. Chess players of that day doubted that future
generations
Not
this
two
days.
and
had passed was
Philidor's
on four simultaneous sans
and
finally fifteen
voir
mark games
games. Paulsen was
his exhibitions generally took the better
At about the same time, the
peerless Paul
Morphy
was astounding the natives with the speed, accuracy and brilliancy of
Morphy
his blindfold play.
time, but there
is
never tried more than eight boards at a
no doubt that he could have handled many more
with ease. Blackburne, a few years after learning the moves, managed ten boards
effortlessly. Later,
he raised
his
mark
to sixteen,
which record
was subsequently equaled by Zukertort. This branch of the game reached such a stage of perfection that Pillsbury played 12
who have
seen
him
and 16 games in action
as a
still
matter of routine. Old-timers
get misty-eyed as they recall the
smooth, easy technique with which Pillsbury created his elegant combinations. Pillsbury increased the
fold
games to
17, 20, 21
and
number
finally
22 at
of his simultaneous blind-
Moscow
in 1902.
His record stood for seventeen years until Reti surpassed
it
with 24
games, played at Haarlem in 1919. Reti’s triumph was short-lived, as 77
The Magic Breyer outdistanced
of Chess
him with 25 games two
years later. In 1924, after
New
York tournament, Alekhine played 26 games in this style, scoring 16 wins, 5 draws and 5 losses. Prominent among the opposition were such strong players as Kashdan, Steiner, Tholfsen and the great
Pinkus!
The following
year at Paris, Alekhine shattered his
with an exhibition on 28 boards.
number to Along came Alekhine
Reti raised the 30.
A
few months
29, only to
later at
own
record
Sao Paulo,
be topped by Koltanowski with
again, to raise the standard to 32 games.
Nothing daunted, Koltanowski 34 games at Edinburgh in 1937.
mark still higher by playing He seemed quite safe, and was until
lifted the
—
the year 1943. In 1943, Naidorf played 40 boards at Rosario, in a display which lasted 17^2 hours. Despite the fact that he opposed two players at each board,
he achieved the impressive
make
games, drawing one and losing three. Just to
would go ringing down the .
.
but
.
this deserves
result of
winning 36
sure that his
name
corridors of chess history, Naidorf played
another paragraph
.
.
.
In 1947 at Sao Paulo, Naidorf established a world's record for
multaneous blindfold
play.
Without
pitted himself against 45 opponents
sight of the
—
as
si-
board or pieces, he
remarkable a feat as any in
the realm of mnemonics! This phenomenal exhibition lasted 2 3^2 hours, at the
end
of
4 draws and only 2
which Naidorf had compiled a score of 39 wins,
losses!
27
William all
Steinitz
defended the World's Chess Championship against
comers for twenty-eight years
conqueror, Dr. the
title for
Emanuel
—an
astonishing achievement! His
Lasker, proved a worthy successor; he held
twenty-seven years!
28 In 1940 skill
Reuben Fine toured North America,
giving exhibitions of his
at blindfold play, "ordinary" simultaneous chess,
and
serious
games against single opponents. He played 418 games altogether, of which 21 were conducted blindfold. Of these last, Fine won 17, drew four and lost none. Of the remaining 397, Fine won 376, drew 18 and lost
only three games!
78
m Odd, But True
29
Devotees of the Philidor Defense
who
Frenchman himself managed
the great
are interested in seeing
its
intricacies will look
how
through
the scores of his games in vain. In
all his life,
Philidor never played the Philidor Defense!
30
Can you win possible,
a
game
but here
is
moving
of chess without
how Hans Bruening once
QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED WHITE Amateur
a piece? It sounds im-
did
mat Mi
BLACK Bruening
m
1
P
2
P— QB4
3
Kt— QB3
P— Q4 P— K3 P— QB4
4
B— B4
BPxP
li
5
BxKt
PxKt
9
6
B— K5
BPxP
—Q4
m
B
resigned! Black threatens 7
.
.
.
m
mm.
HP A IT 99.
m.
'/***&
m
m A mm. iii
w>. W////A
9 99
99 .
mXmXm
m
White
it!
« 9
PxR(Q),
Zi&teZ
A*
fOS as well as 7
.
.
.
—Kt5ch winning the Queen. 31
All sorts of sacrifices have been
made
in order to force
checkmate;
Queens, Rooks, Knights, Bishops and Pawns have been offered up.
But
to Dr. Ballard belongs the
Pawns
eight of his
unique distinction of giving away
in the course of
an odds game!
REMOVE WHITE’S QUEEN
5
P— Kt3
KNIGHT
6
O—O
PxP Kt— KR3
7
P— Q4
0—0
PxP K—Kt2
BxP
B— Q3
R— R1
Q-B3
P— K5
Q—Kt3ch
K—B1 KR—Ktl
Kt—B4 Kt—Kt6ch
WHITE Ballard
BLACK Fagan
8
1
P—K4
P—K4
9 10
2
P
PxP
11
3
Kt— B3
B—K2
12
4
B—B4
B
13
—KB4
—R5ch 79
all
The Magic
—K5ch B —Kt5ch
14 K-~B2
Q—
R8ch 29 30 Kt Kt5 mate
Kt
15 K--K1
—
K—B2
KtxP BxPch
16 P--B3
17
of Chess
PxKt
Q-QB3 BxR
18 K--B2
19 B--Q3
Q— Kt3ch Q—Kt7ch
20 P--Q5
B- -K3 22 K--B1 23 B--Q4 21
P
—KB4
QxP QxP
24 BxB 25 p--K6 26 p--K7
P
—KKt3
R—K1 Q—B4
27 Q-— K2 28 Q- -QKt2
RxP
The
final position
32
Immediately
match
after the conclusion of the
in 1945,
gymnastics.
He
Reuben Fine gave
S.
A.-U.
S. S.
R. radio
a startling demonstration of
mental
undertook to play four blindfold games simultaneously
move!
at a speed time-limit of ten seconds a his “seeing”
U.
He made
short
work
of
opponents, chalking up a score of 4-0. 33
Solving Otto Blathy’s problems positions, the shortest
moves!
The longest
is
no
picnic. In a booklet of his
problem requires that White
specifies that
mate
is
is
to
mate
comin 30
to be forced in 292 moves!
34
“Only one or two Pawn moves in the opening,” says Lasker. Tarrasch said, “Nothing so easily ruins a position as Pawn moves” and, jokingly to his pupils, Steinitz says,
to be
moved
“Never move a Pawn and you
“The King Pawn and the Queen Pawn in the early part of the
But genius knows no consecutive
will never lose a
a piece,
8o
are the only ones
game.”
restrictions; here
Pawn moves, won
game.”
is
and
how
Marshall played ten
later the
game!
Odd But True ,
SICILIAN DEFENSE
New
York, 1940
WHITE
BLACK Rogosin
Marshall
P— K4 P— QKt4
1
P— QB4
7
P— Kt5 P— QB3 P— K5
PxP Kt— QB3 Kt—B3 Kt— Q5 Kt—K3 Kt— Q4
8
p_QB4
Kt(Q4)— B5
9
P— Kt3
Kt— Kt3
2 3
4 5
6
10
p_QR3 PxP
P
Not
—B4
a single piece of
MarshalPs has been brought into
play,
and yet
won game! Rogosin played 10 Kt(Kt3)XP and quickly Kt B2 would also lose a piece after lost. The alternative 10 11 P B5, KtXP; 12 P Q4, and the Knight has no retreat! he has
a
.
.
—
.
.
.
.
—
—
35
Show
this
diagram to any chess master! Just
before you finish telling
him
reason? It
is
five
one of the oldest and
to play,”
and
moves.
prettiest tricks in the expert's
The position in the diagram was first published by Lucena The winning idea is useful, as it comes up quite often. The
repertoire.
in 1496!
“White
the stipulations, he will polish off the
Black King by a smothered mate in
The
say,
8i
— The Magic solution
is
Q—K6ch, K—Rl;
1
K—Rl; 4 Q — Kt8ch!, RXQ;
5
2
Kt
of Chess
Kt—B7ch, K—Ktl;
3
Kt—R6ch,
—B7 mate!
36
In an end-game competition sponsored by Sydvenska Dagbladet Snaellposten in 1924, Henri Rinck
won
2nd prize, 3rd prize, honorable mention, 2nd honorable mention and 3rd honorable
first
A
mention!
1st prize,
remarkable achievement, but
In 1936, in an end-game competition, Grigoriev shared
second
won
prizes,
able mentions,
3rd,
first
and
4th and 5th prizes; shared 1st and 2nd honor-
and was awarded
3rd, 4th, 5th
and 6th honorable men-
tions!
37
game against Forgacs, Maroczy sacrificed his 'Queen, won his opponent’s Queen Rook, and promoted a Pawn to a new Queen. Within the next eight moves Forgacs duplicated the feat! He sacrificed his Queen, promoted a Pawn to a new Queen, and won Maroczy’s Queen Rook. The score of this extraordinary game: In the
first
13
moves
of a
IRREGULAR DEFENSE Budapest 1902
15 16 17 20
B— R7 P—B7ch
18
B
,
WHITE
BLACK
Forgacs
Maroczy
1
2 3
P—K4 P p
—Q4 —KB4
P— QR3 P—K3
7
Kt—B3
B-Q2
8
B—K3
Kt— R3
P—Kt5
10
PxP Kt— Q4
Q—R4
11
P— QR3
PxBP
12
KtxKt
PxPch
13
KtxQ
PxR(Q)
14
P—B6
B—B1
9
B—Q2
BxQ —Kt8 P— B8(Q)ch K— K2
—Q4 P—QB4 P — QKt4
6
5
19
Kt—B4 BxP
P
P—K5 P—B3 B— Q3
4
Q—R4
Kt—QB3
Q—Kt7ch
K—B1
Odd But True ,
22
QxR K— B1
23
B
24
QxRP
21
—Kt5ch P—Kt4 K—Kt2 B
—B7ch
25 26
27
Q—Kt7
B
—Kt6
Q—B8ch
K—B2 B—B1
QxR QxP
Resigns
38
In 1878 Paris and Marseilles played a game by correspondence with these curious conditions: Paris gave Marseilles for this advantage Marseilles
Queen
odds; in return
undertook to force Paris to checkmate
them! 39
In the Nuremberg Congress of 1906 there was no time-limit
took
six
hours or
the rate of If
a
1 5
Afterwards the players were required to
less.
game move at
if
a
moves an hour.
they exceeded the time-limit, they were penalized at the rate of
mark
minute of extra time. Under
a minute, for each
this ruling,
Tarrasch not only lost his game to Salwe but had the unique privilege of paying the equivalent of $20.00 in fines for doing so!
40 Jacques Mieses was a participant in the almost legendary tournament at Hastings in 1895,
Emanuel
where he drew with the then World Champion
Lasker. Fifty years later, Mieses played in the Hastings
Christmas Tournament of 1945, where he drew with former World
Champion Euwe and
won
also
the Brilliancy Prize. Early in 1946, at
the age of 82, Mieses played a match against Arturito Pomar, aged 14!
41
tournament where he won 44 games succession, without even permitting a draw. A mighty feat, and yet
Frank Marshall once played in
he won only third
prize!
in a
Here
is
how
it
happened,
as
John Keeble
tells it:
In
its
early days the British
Chess Federation used to run a contest
for congress competitors in
which they might play
All entrants were classified.
A player received 7 points for a win against 83
in their spare time.
The a player in his
own
class,
Magic of Chess
8 for a
win against
a player in a class above,
9 for a win against a player two classes above, and so on; correspondingly,
6 points for a win against a player one
This went on
up too
until, at
late to play in
Richmond
class
in 1912,
below, and so on.
Frank Marshall turned
any of the ordinary tournaments, so entered
this
He won
44 games in succession, with no losses and no draws, and he took third prize! The reason was that he had been put in a class one.
by himself! 42
Do
you believe in reincarnation of chess ideas? The diagram shows a
game played
position which occurred in a
and Sorensen. This
identical position
in 1945
between Jorgensen
described by al-Adli in an Ara-
is
bian manuscript dating back to the ninth century!
Jorgensen mated in three moves (thereby solving al-Adli’s problem)
by
1
Kt
—R5ch, RXKt; 2 RXKtch, KXR; R—K6 mate! 3
43
The
greatest players have
When
five
been known to blunder; that
masters combine their talents as a team, and
a simple combination
—that
is
is
not news.
still
overlook
news.
In the diagram, the Allies conducting the black pieces (Bogolyubov,
Gruenfeld, Kostich, Sterk and Abonyi)
doubt they expected 2 in
Knight
between 2
forks! .
.
.
BxR
in reply;
played
1
.
.
.
RXR. No
what they did get was
a lesson
—
White played 2 Kt R6ch, and Black must choose K R1 when 3 KtXPch wins the Queen, or 2
—
•
84
•
0
Odd, But True
K— Kt2, when Queen
3
Kt
— B5ch wins the Queen. Note that
after Black's
the hungry Knight threatens both Rooks.
falls,
44 Rubinstein
fell
into an opening trap against
Euwe
at
Bad Kissingen
in 1928:
QUEEN’S GAMBIT DECLINED
13
WHITE
BLACK
Euwe
Rubinstein
2
P— Q4 P— QB4
P— Q4 P— K3
3
Kt— KB3
Kt— KB 3
4
B
QKt— Q2
5
P— K3
6
Kt—B3
1
— Kt5
8
R— B1 B— Q3
B— K2 0—0 P— B3 P— QR3
9
PxP
KPxP
0—0 U Q—Kt3
R—K1
7
10
—
pitfall,
—
B KB4 KtxP!
Kt— R4
P— R3
White wins a Pawn. PXKt; 14 B B7 wins Ordinarily, there
12
is
If
13
.
.
.
KtXB;
14
KtXKt, and
if
13
.
,
.
the Queen.
nothing unusual about a master stumbling into a
but Rubinstein
against Alekhine at San
fell
into the
Remo! 85
same
trap only
two years
later
The Magic
of Chess
45
How
important
to
is it
know
the openings? In the Fifth American
Championship tournament held at New York in 1880, Preston Ware P QR4 whenever he had the black pieces, against any played 1 .
.
—
.
opening chosen by
his
With
opponent!
this
meaningless
move Ware
managed to win four out of nine games. As White, he began two games with 1 P QR4, winning one and losing the other.
—
46
Many competent
critics
consider
Emanuel Lasker
greatest player that ever lived. Perhaps
that he was beaten the
first
he was.
to have
been the
It is curious,
though,
time he encountered each of the following
players:
Van
Vliet,
Amsterdam 1889
Makovetz, Graz 1890 Tchigorin, Hastings 1895 Tarrasch, Hastings 1895
Charousek, Nuremberg 1896 Marshall, Paris 1900
Rubinstein,
St.
Petersburg 1909
Dus-Chotimirski,
St.
Petersburg 1909
Moscow 1925 Levenfish, Moscow 1925
Torre,
Stahlberg, Zurich 1934
Nottingham 1936 Reshevsky, Nottingham 1936 Fine,
47
The
Russian master Ilyin-Genevski had to learn the moves twice!
Shell shock in the
World War took away his memory, and the be told how the chess pieces move and capture!
first
master player had to
48 Racing down the first
home
stretch in a thrilling neck-and-neck tie for
place in the San Sebastian tournament of 1912 were Rubinstein
and Nimzovich.
Fittingly enough, they were scheduled to play each
86
Odd, But True other in the last round. First prize would go to the winner of this one
game! In the opening, Rubinstein had a bit the better of
it,
and kept
his
advantage to the mid-game. Suddenly, Nimzovich, affected no doubt
by the keen excitement of the occasion, blundered. He made a move which would allow his opponent to mate in two moves! An unbelievable error in a master of Nimzovich’s ability,
and sure to be pounced
on by the eagle-eyed Rubinstein. This was the
situation:
But, “curiouser and curiouser,” eagle-eyed Rubinstein missed the mate
by
1
QxPch, K
—Rl;
2
QxP mate. Undoubtedly, this was one of the
strangest double blunders in chess history!
49
The
record for simultaneous chess
ish master.
He
which started
held by Gideon Stahlberg, Swed-
played 400 games at Buenos Aires, in an exhibition
at 10:00 p.m., Friday,
10:00 a.m. on Sunday. wins, 14 draws
is
August
He wound up with
and only 22
29, 1941,
and ended
at
the remarkable score of 364
losses!
50
Even the most confirmed problem solver would think twice before tackling this problem, which N. Babson composed for Brentano’s J. Chess Monthly in 1882: 87
The Magic
These were
his terms:
of Chess
Mate on the 1220th move,
after
compelling
Black to make three successive and complete Knight's tours!
51
In the Fifth American Championship tournament, held at
New
York
Congdon and Delmar reached a position which was “hopelessly won" for Delmar. He had a Queen and five passed Pawns (five potential Queens, if he needed them against Congdon's lone Queen. Did he win? It was almost impossible not to, but this is what hapin 1880,
)
pened:
—
Delmar played 1 Q B6 (as the Tournament book says, “Almost any other move would have won") and Congdon saved his game by 2 Q Kt8ch, KXQ, and White is stalemated. .
.
.
—
88
Odd, But True 52
Dr. Lasker
He won
made
a clean
sweep
at the
New
York tournament of 1893.
13 games straight, without allowing a single draw!
But history repeats
itself.
In the
New
Capablanca too faced 13 opponents and
York tournament
of 1913,
mowed them
down
all
in
quick succession, wihout allowing a single draw!
53
Do
you sometimes wish your opponent would
around to help analyze
let
you move the pieces
a position?
In 1911, Spielmann and Alapin played a match at Munich, in which analysis
by means of moving the pieces was permitted. Alapin used
privilege;
P.S.
Spielmann decided not to do
this
so.
Spielmann won the match!
54 Steinitz
and Capablanca had race horses named
after
them!
55 Steinitz
was once misjudged to be a spy! Police authorities assumed
that the
moves made by him
in playing his
correspondence games with
Tchigorin were part of a code by means of which important war crets could
se-
be transmitted.
56
Rubinstein
won
only
six
games
But of
at Teplitz-Schonau in 1922.
these six games, four were winners of brilliancy prizes!
57
G. A. MacDonnell was the winner of in 1868. All the competitors their Knights
book
play!
and Bishops
(And
this
began
reversed.
a
tournament played
their
The
London
games with the positions of
reason?
was way back in 1868!) 8g
at
They wanted
to avoid
The Magic
of Chess
58
Alexandre Louis Honore Lebreton Deschapelles was once acknowl-
edged to be the best player
world at both chess and whist.
in the
Deschapelles Coup, his invention,
is still
The
used today by master bridge
players.
59
The famous Bishop Ruy Lopez recommended placing the board so that the light eyes!
(A
as
would shine
valuable addition to the theory of the
good chess
tactics
in the opponent’s
Ruy Lopez
opening!)
60
The
organist Sir
at the
Walter Parratt was able to play a Beethoven Sonata
same time that he was conducting two games of chess blind-
folded!
61
An
extraordinary set of coincidences
to the 8th
Composing tourney
These were the
marked two problems submitted
of the “Brighton Society” in 1898.
positions:
H. W. Lane England
A. F. Mackenzie
America White mates in two Key: Q—R2
White mates Key.
90
in
Q—R2
two
Odd, But True
Not only were
the positions almost alike, the key-moves matched,
the resulting ideas duplicated each other, but strangest of
all
.
.
.
both composers were blind! 62 In 1850, an old passion for chess awoke in Szechenyi (founder of the
Magyar Academy) and took an insane character. It became necessary to pay a poor student to play with him for ten or twelve hours at a time. Szechenyi slowly regained his sanity, but the unfortunate stu-
dent went mad!
63
What
the favorite recreation of a chess master?
is
bury, in the course of the
More
chess! Pills-
Hannover 1902 tournament, spent one
of
his precious days of rest in a record-breaking exhibition of simulta-
neous blindfold play!
He
offering prizes to those
tougher!).
around to losses
were
He
took on 21 of the best players of Germany,
who
scored against
(just to
make
things
permitted consultation, as well as moving the pieces
facilitate analysis.
His
final score of 3 wins, 1 1
more impressive than might
is
him
first
draws and 7
appear, as his opponents
budding masters.
all
64
One
of the greatest chess teachers that ever lived was Dr. Siegbert
Tarrasch.
The one
his actual play
“Bring
forces. tral
squares!”
thing he harped on in his books, his teachings and
was the importance of continual development of one’s all
He
your pieces out! Give them scope! Occupy the censtressed this, time
and
again, in his annotations.
Rarely did he stray from the path he marked out. But once did It
.
.
when he
.
was in the important Ostend tournament of 1907, confined to
six of
the seven leading grandmasters.
was to challenge Lasker for his world
The winner title.
reached this position against Marshall: 9i
of the
tournament
Tarrasch, playing White,
The Magic
Play continued,
K—R2; a row, tually
4
B
of Chess
R-Rl; Q—K2; R KB1; 5 B Bl. 1
—K2, —
White's pieces
drew the game
—
all is
occupy the
2
Q-Q
1,
Kt— K3;
3
B-Bl,
After five retreating moves in
first
rank!
That Tarrasch even-
a tribute to his great ability.
65
A
ten-year-old once played in a master tournament!
Sammy
Reshevsky, subsequently
won
The
prodigy,
the United States Champion-
ship.
66 Before retiring from his throne, Paul Morphy, King of Chess, offered to play a
match with anyone
move! The handicap was
big,
in the
world at the odds of Pawn and
but no one accepted. They were con-
vinced that he was invincible!
67
Even the
greatest masters
speed. Capablanca,
sometimes get bowled over with surprising
who was
a wizard at simultaneous play, got a
13-move shock from Kevitz, then
a youngster, in
one of these
sessions.
Arthur Dake, one of America's strongest players, once gave an hibition of his
skill at
simultaneous chess at Baltimore.
One
ex-
of his
opponents, an amateur, was evidently unimpressed by Dake's reputation, as
he mated the
Pacific
Coast
by-blow description: 92
star in
9 moves! Here
is
the blow-
,
Odd But True
FRENCH DEFENSE WHITE Dake
BLACK
Amateur
1
P-Q4
P— K3
2
P—K4
P-Q4 B
4
Kt— QB3 Kt—K2
5
p_QR3
B x Ktch
6
KtxB
Kt—QB3
7
Q_Kt4
KtxP
8
QxKtP
KtxPch
9
K—K2
Q — Q6
3
—Kt5
PxP
mate
68 Dake’s 9-move upset was speedy, but not the record for such debacles.
On
Kmoch met all One of his oppo-
January 25, 1948, the European master Hans
comers
in a
simultaneous exhibition at Cleveland.
nents did the unexpected.
Here
is
He made Kmoch
surrender in only 8 moves!
the morsel:
FRENCH DEFENSE WHITE
BLACK
Kmoch
Ellison
2
P—K4 P— Q4
3
Kt—Q2
4
KKt
5
6
KtxP Kt(Q2)xP
7
B
8
B— Q2
1
—B3
— KKt5
White
resigns, as
P— K3 P— Q4 P— QB4 BPxP PxP Kt— KB 3
Q—R4ch Q—K4 he must
lose a
piece.
69
was once sent to L. Hoffer for adjudication. He spent eight hours analyzing its possibilities, which was more time than both play-
A position
ers
had spent on the game themselves! 93
— The Magic
of Chess
70 Can't solve problems? Here Just
move, and think
is
a six-mover
we guarantee you can
do.
later!
White mates
in six moves.
71 Steinitz's style
Morphy's
is
play,
usually described as “sound, safe, dull
on the other hand,
spired, sparkling
and
is
and cautious."
generally regarded as “daring, in-
brilliant."
In a book entitled Quick Mate! 700 Short , Brilliant
Chess the player having the most examples to ,
Next
in order
is
is
of
Steinitz!
Tarrasch, whose methods in the popular eye seemed
to parallel those of Steinitz. after these
his credit
Games
two “dull"
The
brilliant
Morphy comes
next
players!
Curiously, Capablanca
is
not even in the book, while Lasker
is
rep-
resented by a lost game!
72 Paul
Morphy once
gave a simultaneous exhibition against
five players.
What's startling about that? All five were in the master class! He won from Arnous de Riviere and H. E. Bird, drew with S. S. Boden and Lowenthal, and lost to T. W. Barnes. Incidentally, Barnes, whose J. J.
name may be completely unknown to present-generation chess won more games from Morphy than anyone else ever did! 94
players,
Odd, But True
73
Former United
States
whether he expected to
Champion Sammy Reshevsky was asked win the Western Chess Association Cham-
pionship tournament of 1933. His reply was,
me?” Remarkably enough, he was
right.
“Who
Nobody
is
there to beat
did beat him; but
he did not win the tournament!
74 In the eighth edition of a popular manual by Dufresne and Mieses, the following line of play
WHITE
BLACK
— Q4
j
P
2
P— QB4
3
4 5
given:
is
Kt— QB3 Kt— B3 KKtxP
P— Q4 P— K3 P— QB4 BPxP
P—K4 P— Q5
8
Kt(Q4)— Kt5 Kt— Q5 Kt— QR3 Q— R4 B— Q2
9
P— K3
6 7
Kt—K2
In this situation, the authors’ position.”
What
comment
is,
“Black has the superior
the analysts seem to have overlooked
is
that
White
can mate on the move!
75
A
book
of Yates’
and One of
My
games was published with the Best
Games
of Chess.
The
title,
One Hundred
reader gets a baker’s
dozen, as the book contains 109 games.
76 In the International tournament held at
won won
a
grand total of two games,
London
in 1851,
lost eight, forfeited the rest
a prize!
95
Mucklow
—and
still
The Magic
of Chess
77
game
In Die Hypermoderne Schachpartie Dr. Tartakover annotates a
between Spielmann and Tarrasch, played
To make
at
Mahrisch-Ostrau, 1923.
sure that the student does not miss any of the fine points,
he gives 11 columns of notes to two moves in the game! lyst
would have
filled
up
this space
with
1
1
A
lesser ana-
games, notes and
all!
78 Schottlander needed only a draw to win
tournament of 1888. Mieses offered him game, but he declined
it!
first
a
prize in the Leipzig
draw
in their last-round
Schottlander lost the game, and with
it first
prize!
79 Perhaps the most fanatical devotee the game has ever iel
Harrwitz.
had chess Cafe de
figures
la
stickpins shaped like chess pieces, chess
embroidered on his
shirts.
He
his
ties,
and
played chess at the
Regence morning, noon and night seven days
one stage of failed to
He wore
known was Dan-
match with Morphy, Harrwitz pleaded
a
week! At
illness,
and
put in an appearance. His admirers found him resting up at
the Cafe de
la
Regence, playing chess!
SOME FAMOUS
FIRSTS
80
The
first
scription
known on
historical
a tablet in a
document connected with chess
pyramid
at Gizeh, dating
is
an
in-
back to 3000 years
before Christ!
81
The
first
chess problem, as far as can be ascertained, was
by the Caliph Mutasim Billah during to 842.
96
his reign in
composed Baghdad from 834
Odd, But True 82 chess was a testament
The first legal document in Europe dealing with of Armengo of Urgel in January 1010. 83
The
first
title
Dass Goldin
book dealing with chess was published Spil, in the city of
in 1472,
under the
Augsburg.
84
The
International Chess tournament was played at
first
Madrid
in
1575, at the court of Philip the Second.
85
The
first
newspaper column on chess appeared
in the Liverpool
Mer-
cury, July 9, 1813.
86
The
first
match
to be played by correspondence
was begun
1824 between the London and Edinburgh Chess Clubs. lasted
two
years,
in April
The match
and was won by the Scotsmen. They scored two
wins, lost one, and drew two games.
87
The
first
chess magazine appeared in Paris in 1836. It was called
Palamede and ,
its
editors were
La
Labourdonnais and Mery. 88
The
first
chess
match by telegraph was played
in 1844, the year in
which the telegraph was invented. The players represented the of Baltimore
cities
and Washington, D. C. 89
The It
first
problem-composing tournament was held
at
London
in 1854.
was confined to Englishmen, and was won by Walter Grimshaw. 97
The Magic
of Chess
90
H. Blackburne, the great British master, once announced a forced mate in 16 moves in one of his games! This would be remarkable enough for over-the-board play, but in this case Blackburne was play-
J.
ing blindfold! This
is
White
the position, with
Scott
move:
K— R2
1
RxBch
2
Q—Q3ch
R—Kt3
PxQ
4
QxRch R—K7ch
5
B
K—B1 K—K1 K— Q1 K—B1 K—Ktl K— B1 K—Q1 K—B1
3
6 7 8
11
12
R—Q7ch
10
13
14 15
16
K—Ktl
—K6ch R—B7ch Kt— B6ch R— Q7ch
RxRPch Kt— Q7ch Kt—B5ch
9
Blackburne
to
R—KB7ch Kt—Kt7ch
K-Ql
KtxPch B Kt6 mate
—
K—K1 K—Q1
91
The American Chess
Bulletin
had
this
advertisement in
its
issue of
February 1909:
"WANTED ory of Pillsbury
...
A
youth with the genius of Morphy, the
and the determination of
which he values above
rubies; full of a
Steinitz; of robust health
modest
joy of living
sessor of habits of life that square with a sensible ideal
for the present
one
will
mem-
and pos-
—
as adversary
and invincible champion of the world. Unto such an
come support
unlimited, friends by the legion, imperishable
glory, and, possibly, Victory!”
They
received a speedy reply to this advertisement (the terms of
which seemed so difficult to fulfill) when their own pages recorded, a few months later, the decisive victory of Capablanca, the new chess star,
over Frank Marshall,
Champion 98
of the
United
States.
This was
Odd, But True the beginning of Capablanca's meteoric chess career, which culminated
winning the World Championship from the mighty Lasker.
in
92
A
book
of Philidor's games, published in 1819,
grams showing the position of the pieces J.
had
after every
illustrative dia-
move! The
editor,
G. Pohlman, must therefore be given credit for being the originator
“movie” form.
of chess in
93 Dr. Milan
Vidmar won more games than anyone
tournament of 1912, and yet he finished games, and yet he tied for
Marshall Schlechter
Duras
Teichmann Vidmar
won
point score explains:
draws
losses
first!
the least
point-total
0
3
0
3
1
2Vi
1
2Vi
3
1
Maroczy
Marshall
The
14 14 13
wins
last!
Budapest
else in the
0
4
1
2
2
0
3
2
94 Arthur Dake took
a
1
500-mile airplane trip to play Alekhine,
scheduled to give a simultaneous exhibition.
He
lost in 13 seconds!
Describing the game, the American Chess Bulletin after play
had
started
who was
(on Alekhine's second round)
says, all
“Shortly
eyes were
focused on Dake’s board, where the two were moving the pieces at less
than one second per move! Dake lasted thirteen seconds,
when
he blew a piece and the game.” 95
One
Tarrasch and Mieses played in 1916, was a half prize in
match between pound of butter! The
of the prizes donated for the winner of the
was more valuable than might
wartime Germany. 99
first
appear, as butter was a rarity
The Magic
of Chess
96 In the
game
Bad Kissingen tournament of 1928, Spielmann won only one but that one game was from the almost invincible Capablanca!
—
97
At Monte Carlo in 1902, Tchigorin fought for 144 wearisome moves to defeat Mason, only to lose to Marshall in 8 moves! 98
On
a wager,
C. F. Burille solved 62 chess problems in one hour!
99
Conducting the chess and checker automaton A/eeb, C. F. played 900 chess games, of which he lost only three!
Of
Burille
the countless
checker games he played, he never lost one!
100 In January of 1922, Frank Marshall played 155 games simultaneously at Montreal.
He won
126,
drew 21 and
lost
only 8 games, in the
quick time of 7 hours and 15 minutes, an average of three minutes per game! recalled
all
More
impressive than his speedy pace was the fact that he
the moves that were
made on
153 of the boards!
101
In the double-round tournament at Vienna in 1873, William Steinitz
won
16 games in succession, without allowing even a single draw to be
scored against him!
The
casualty
Steinitz
2
Rosenthal
0
2
Paulsen
0
2
Anderssen
0
2
Schwartz
0
2
Gelbfuhs
0
2
Bird
0
2
Heral
0
2
Blackburne
0
16
Opponents
xdting
^The eye.
masters and the rank-and-file players do not always see eye to
One
games
(Drawn Qamcs
in
perennial cause for disagreement
master play. There are
high level of playing strength, the
and the
like.
Whatever the
many
less
reasons for these draws: the
time pressure, fatigue
reasons, the average player has sour recol-
which offered
little
instruction
enjoyment.
Yet there
is
attacking
moves
becomes the
draw which
a type of
students alike. This
is
are
justified
gives pleasure to players
and
the draw in which ingenious and determined
met by and
equally inspired parries, so that a draw
logical
Thus Znosko-Borovsky, rifices
the prevalence of drawn
risks involved,
lections of going over scrawny scores
and
is
outcome.
finding himself in a desperate situation, sac-
piece after piece against Vajda (p. 337)
a neat pattern for perpetual check. Material
is
and
finally
works out
hopelessly against him,
he must continue checking. As for Vajda, he too has no choice: perpetual check is the only alternative to checkmate! so
Weenink, with the Black pieces, plays sharply for the initiative (p. 339) At length we reach a point where Mikenas seems clearly lost. Yet by leaving his Queen en prise for several moves in the course of a diabolical counterattack,
he
is
able to
work out
a
draw
in
an appar-
ently lost ending.
Purdy
(p.
338)
is
making comthe seventh move! Only four moves later, he
so full of fighting spirit that
binations as early as
336
he
starts
—
.
Exciting
seems quite
Drawn Games
Yet he manages to find
lost.
Menaced
a saving clause.
with mate on the move, he barely escapes with a forced draw!
Excitement? These games feature
in generous measure.
it
Many
a
outcome has nowhere near as many thrills as these brief battles in which a keen will to win is concentrated on a very few moves. So, don’t condemn drawn games per se/ These games
game with
a decisive
Fame.
surely merit a place in Caissa’s Hall of
Tartakover would
West
call this
Wild-
Q—B4 11 Q— Kt3?,
11
chess! If
Kt—K5
wins at
once.
QUEEN’S GAMBIT
U
...
12
Q—Kt3!
DECLINED Budapest 1926
Q—K5! Q—B7!
,
One
WHITE
BLACK Zn osko-Borovsky Vajda
P— Q4 Kt— KB 3
4
—Q4 — B4 B — Kt5
10 5
Kt— B3
2 3
P p
White
to re-
sign!
Kt— KB 3
1
almost expects
P— K3 P—B3
—
By playing the simple 5 P K3, White could have saved himself an enormous amount of trouble!
PxP
5
.
6
P—K3
7
p_QR4
.
P— Kt4 P— QR3!
This looks nonsensical, in view of 8 PxP, BPxP; 9 KtxP. But then comes 9 Q Kt3!; 10 Kt B3, QxKtP; 11 Bl, B R6!
Q—B3
— B — Kt2 B — Kt5
B— K2
Q—Q4
.
.
.
Q—
8
9
Kt—K5
13
O—O!
14
BxKt
—
The 14
16
PxB 14
As White cannot Queens because of Black
is
able
to
counterattack;
fear
.
.
R—
QxP,
BxKt
.
.
.
QxB;
nor 14 Bl; 16 B
White need not
15 .
.
QxP, .
R—Bl;
BxKtP;
—R5.
15
PxB
.
afford to exchange his
How
Pawn minus,
begin
a
powerful
If
15
K—K2
Queen maneuver. 337
can
White defend
Q—Kt7, etc.
everything?
PxKt!; 16 QxRch,
—
.
Chess as
15
KtxKBP!? KxKt
If
15
.
.
R— Bl;
.
It Is
First-rate chess players are not
16 Kt
ways articulate
—06ch
B
writers
—R5ch K—K2
But not 16 B7 and wins.
17
Q—
Purdy
ian
Q—Kt7ch K—Q3
18
QxB!
As
The Q2; 19
QxR,
Kt
only chance; Kt7, BxKtP with an easy
g—
.
18
.
.
White
.
BxKtP!
.
Kt
.
—Q2;
PxP!
19
BxR
Not 20 RxB, P
2
—Kt5 with
a win-
3
Kt— QB3
alive to tac-
20
.
.
.
After 20 draw with 21 .
.
.
RPxP White
g— R3ch
has a
etc.
Pawn
this .
R— g2!
Q— Kt7!
is
R—
too hasty. Correct was Ql!; 22 RxPch,
K—
R— R1 game
—
of
players.
in his favor.
PxP!
22
RxPch!
KtxR
7
23
QxKtch
K— Q2
The
Q—Kt7ch
—
Drawn!
Black cannot escape the perpetual check, as after 24 K 3; 25
Q— Kt6ch
the King
(25 mate, or 25 .
.
g — must .
.
K— 04??;
.
.
.
.
return to
26
K— K2??;
B—B3 26
g—
B7ch and mate next) fantastic
game,
variation
which Purdy expected
a tribute to his
—was
powers of calcula-
Q — R4ch, QxQ;
8 Ktxg, Kt— K5!; 9 Q2!; B3, 10 PxKt, BxKt; 11 KPxP, Kt— R3!; Bl, Kt— 12 R Ktl, B B7; 13 Kt5; 14 QR3, BxP; 15 Q2, BxRch; 16 KxB, B Q6! and Black, with the exchange ahead, should win! tion
.
Q—R4!
is to counterattack by combined pressure on White’s Knight on QB3. This is a course which involves risk for both
means
Kt Q2I), and Black’s Pawns should
decide the
or two.
Black’s idea
g— Kt7ch?,
23
(if
R— R7ch?,
or 23
is
QPxP!
6 .
P—B4!
determined to avoid a constricted position: he intends to achieve freedom even at the cost of a
Q—Kt7?
RxB
21 K2!; 23
—KKt3 P—Q4 B —Kt2 P
BPxP Purdy
But
Kt—KB3
B—B4 P—K3
4 5
A
is
BLACK Purdy
P—Q4 P—QB4
1
ning position.
and
and keenly
WHITE Vaughan
leaves
20 PxP!
Q2
he
Correspondence, 1945
excellent prospects.
QxR
19
24
as a player,
GRUENFELD DEFENSE
18
.
fields.
tical possibilities.
win.
21
rare
profound, pungent, deeply versed in theory
18
if
Austral-
shine in both
and
a writer
The
distin-
one of those
is
who
people
17
always
guished as players.
K—Bl??;
.
.
.
chess
first-rate
not
are
al-
in explaining their
Similarly,
ideas.
wins Black’s Bishop.
16
Played
—
7
P—
P—
—
R—
—
rich in stratagems
spoils.
7
338
.
.
.
KtxP!
B—
K—
— Exciting
10
QxKt PxB K—K2
11
B
8
9
Drawn Games
BxKtch
—K5!
In this
game both players with might and main for
thrilling
QxPeh
strive
QxR
the initiative. brilliant
The
efforts
result of their
a
is
legitimate,
hard-fought draw.
Now White
will
win
a
maining a piece ahead. Black save the game?
Rook,
How
re-
QUEEN'S GAMBIT
can
DECLINED Prague
Team Tournament,
WHITE Mikenas
Weenink
(Lithuania)
(Holland)
BLACK
2
P— Q4 P— QB4
P— Q4 P— K3
3
Kt— KB 3
Kt— KB 3
4
P—K3
P—B3
1
Curious:
instead
once with for the move! .
11
13
B
Q—B8!
.
Q— Q 2??,
Q— winning the Queen), B 14 K— Kl, QxQch; IS KxQ, Ql? (not
13
—B5ch
B5ch;
13
BxB
winning a Pawn. On the other hand, after the text, 13 B B5ch? would lose: 14 K B3 and White threatens IS Q .
—
.
.
.
Drawn if
QKt— Q2
B—K2 0—0
7
0—0
8
P— K4
9
KtxP
—
PxKP Q-B2 P
11
Q—K2 P— QKt3
12
B
13
QR-Q1
KR—Ql P—B4!
—QKt3 B — Kt2
—Kt2
last!
The
position
is
14
PxP
KtxP
15
QxKt
16
KtxKt Kt—K5
R-Q3!
17
Kt—Kt4
Q—KKt4!
18
KtxKtch
BxKt
Black
Q—
14 K B3, B4ch and White cannot escape from the per-
For
6
has counterplay.
Q—B7ch!
.
QKt— Q2
about even: White has attacking chances, Black
B8 mate. 13
.
B— Q3
At
—
.
.
equalizing at P--B4, he prepares of
5
10
B — K3!!
BxR QxP
12
If
.
.
1931
KxB; 20
QxP 19
petual check!
339
does
not fear
RxR
as
19
BxPch,
he threatens
mate.
P— B4
Q—B4ch
.
.
.
— Chess as
20
K—Rl
BxB QR—Q1
Qx B Q—K2
21
22
.
pre-
23
P— B5!
PxP
24
BxP
R—Q7
.
.
.
.
.
.
P—Kt3! RxQ??
Nor 26
.
.
.
.
.
mate
allows
K—Ktl
—
in
(White was
Q R5ch); 27 RxR, 28 R—Qli, Kt4; 29 Rx 27 Rch and White is a Pawn ahead.
threatening 27 .
—
.
.
26
three.
Black should have played the P Kt3! prudent )
Played
26
Q—Kt5
Somewhat premature. Before paring to play his trump (24
R—Q7
It Is
—B
QxR;
Q—
27 RxP!! So
if 27 RxQ??; and mate follows!
that
RxRch .
.
.
.
.
28
BxPch!
.
RxQ
If
now 28 KxB??,
28
QxB!
RxRch!
29 30
BxR
R—Bl
RxBch RxRch
31
QxR
Q—Q7!
check!
This assures Black the draw, despite Pawn minus. The position of his Queen is too commanding to permit any winning possibilities by White. B8ch, K R2; 33 Thus if 32 K8ch B7ch, K R3; 34 QxP, with perpetual check. the
Q—
K—Rl! Not 25 KxB?; 26 Q— R5ch, K—Ktl; 27 QxPch, K— Rl; 28 RxR, QxR; 29 QxB Or 25 .. K— Bl?; 26 RxPch!, 25 BxPch!!
32
P— QR4
K—Kt2
33
Q—B3
K— R3
etc.
34
K—Ktl
P—R4
—Blch, B—B6; 28 RxB
35
P—R3
36
K—B2
Q— 8 ch Q—Q7ch
.
.
.
.
KxR; 27 R mate!
26 B If
Q—
Q—
Q—
Drawn
—B2!!
26 Q— R5, BxPch!; 27 K— Ktl,
PxQ
B4ch!; 28 QxQ, and Black has somewhat the better of it.
340
White can
avoid the perpetual only check by surrendering his Knight’s Pawn. A superbly contested
game.
(Correspondence 0tess
Although correspondence century,
it
more than
did not really begin to acquire a vogue until 1920 or
The number still
chess has been played for
a
so.
and
of correspondence fans has risen to large proportions
continues to increase. In this country, Chess Review has rendered
valuable service in fostering the growth of postal chess.
In the old days,
many
players were prejudiced against correspond-
ence chess because they had a mistaken notion that the games were likely to drag
out interminably.
The
average contest of this type pro-
ceeds at the rate of about eight moves (on both sides) per month. As
each player
from ten
usually conducting
is
the same time, there
no danger
is
games
of losing interest in the games.
varied problems arise constantly; the
fashion in the comfort of one’s
to thirty other
games
at
New,
are played in leisurely
own home; new
contacts are
made and
friendships are formed.
Not only has correspondence chess become popular; it has produced many beautiful games. Of the group presented here, Gonzalez Per-
—
rine (p. 343)
is
undoubtedly the
games ever played. Black’s play liant.
To make
such a
finest; it
is,
in fact,
one of the best
flawless, logical, forceful
is
game known
to a wider audience
is
and
bril-
one of the
pleasures of chess authorship.
The
best proof that postal play
fact that
it
has produced
many
is
not stodgy
may be found
in the
outstanding examples of superb 34i
at-
Chess as
It Is
Played
tacking play. Young's masterpiece against Daly (p. 344) point.
the tenth to the 23rd move,
From
we
is
a case in
see a thrilling contest
which reminds us of a struggle between two first-rate fencers; 23 P QB4!! is a stroke of genius which decides the game in Black's .
.
.
—
favor.
Many
masters, including Alekhine
and Keres,
started their careers
correspondence players. Maroczy was another master
as
some
great
(p. 346),
he
Queen and
One
games
a handful of
of the
famous encounter with Zambelly
in this field. In his
sacrificed so
much and Pawns
most useful
—
so often that
he had to mate with
the material he had
all
left!
features of corespondence chess
Thus Davis adopts
that
is
it
study of theoretical innovations
offers excellent opportunities for the
in the openings.
who produced
move recommended by Alekhine
a
349) and carries out the ensuing attack brilliantly in the face of
(p.
but ultimately inadequate counterattack. Alekhine himself
a clever
could not have managed the attack more impressively.
Demuth's win sizes
his
against
Mermagen
is
a classic
in a difficult variation.
exposed to attack on a grand
how many players Winning Chess
effective,
because
less
scale!
slight slip
and he
Yet Mermagen’s
finds himself
failure
is
excus-
could have foreseen the progress of this attack,
especially the exquisite 25
tion in
One
which empha-
moves Black holds
the vital importance of tactical play. For 19
own
able:
(p. 347)
R— B4!!,
which reminds us of the observa-
modern master finds it highly hackneyed, to wind up his combination with a that “the
.
.
.
stinging surprise."
In Dimock's fine win against Hogenauer (p. 348) the final combination
is
quite pretty; yet White’s treatment of the whole
vating in is still
its
logic
and
simplicity.
another indication of
The many
The
effective
game
is
capti-
Knight maneuvering
first-class play.
beautiful points of these
first
even the most skeptical that postal chess
rate is
games should convince
a very rewarding pastime.
-
—
.
Correspondence Chess
Had
a fa
game been won by
this
mous master
would have acu quired the status of an Immortal
in
Game”
it
,
It deserves that status
any event: Black's play
is
per-
fection itself!
NIMZOINDIAN DEFENSE Correspondence, 1943
WHITE
BLACK
Gonzalez
Perrine
Kt—KB 3
P—K3
11
2
P— Q4 P—QB4
3
Kt— QB3
B
A
Q—B2
Kt—B3
1
—Kt5
4 5 6
Kt— B3
P—Q3
B
0—0
7
P—K4
This
—Kt5
then 7
.
.
—K3
.
is
P—K4;
8
.
8
P—QS
.
is
for
P—QS Q5.
B
P—KKt4!l
—R4?
mission for the balance of the game and prepares for a beautifully executed attack. now see that White should have tried 10 B Q2.
We
—
—Kt3
Had he foreseen what was coming, he might have tried the inadequate but more aggressive line 11 KtxKtP, PxKt; 12
BxP
R—K1
QxKt??,
13
R—Kl!
QxP
Practically forcing
14
if
B
—
unexpected thrust which puts White’s Queen’s Bishop out of com-
B
now
if
White
to castle
RPxKt
IS (not 16
— K2, B — KB4;
16
BPxKt??, B B4 winning the unfortunate Queen), BxKt followed by
An
11
PxKt
O—O?, KtxB;
—KR3
P
Q—
KtxKt
long, for
Kt—Q5!
Q—Q3
13
and
This Knight, which cannot very well be captured, is now a thorn in White’s center.
9 10
—
if
P—K4
.
KtxKP!!
.
wins the Queeen.
The more
stronger,
Black’s Knight cannot go to
7
12
where “discretion
the better part of valor/'
modest 7 P
.
charming conception: if 12 QxKKt?, B KB4; 13 K3, Kt— B7ch wins the Queen!
And
a case
is
.
etc.
343
.
.
.
RxB
winning
14
0—0—0
15
PxKt
a piece.
KtxKt B R6ch
—
Forcing White’s reply, for if J 6 K Ktl?, B B4ch!; 17 R1 (if 17 Q3??, B B4 again traps the Queen! ), B B7 and the Rook is caught (18
— —
—
K—
B—
R— Q2?, R—K8ch!). 16 K—B2 B —B4ch Now
White's King must venture into the great open spaces (17 B Q3??, B B4! ) 17
— K—Kt3
Beautiful play: B4! attacking the
P—B4!l if
18
PxP
Queen and
e.p.,
B
threaten-
— Chess as
ing a quick mating attack with
Q— Kt3ch
Q—02
19
B—Q3
At
last!
.
Q—R4
P
—Kt4!!
PxP
21
QxB
P—B5ch!!
.
.
.
sacrifice
prelude to a fine finish.
Q—R5
P—Q4?
7
Q—K2,
.
better.
B—QKt5!
.
B—Q2
B
—Kt5
has no really good way guarding his menaced Queen’s Pawn; but he does the best he can.
is
the
now 22
If
8
QR—B1
9
R—K5!! .
K—B2
.
much
is
“put-
to the advanced
Now White
10
.
B— QKt5
BxKKt
QxB P—Kt3
Q—R5ch KtxB!!
Forcing White into the following combination, as 11 KxKt, QxQPch wins easily for Black.
Once more threatening Q R5 mate. If 24 QxR, RxP mate! .
R(5)—QB5! 11
Resigns
of
6
6
mate.
QxP Q—Q 3
The
KtxP Kt—QB3
of
The second Pawn
24
5
BPxP Kt—B3
Knight,
20
23
P—Q4
ting the question"
Q— R5 mate. BxB
22
P—B4
3
.
Sadly premature. 6
Threatens
KxP,
Played
4
.
.
.
etc.
18
19
.
It Is
QxP
QxQP!!
Again leaving White no choice, for
and precision Black's play remind one of Alekhine elegance, force
if
12
QxQ,
Kt
—B6ch
etc.
at his best!
Franklin K. Young
famous as the author of several books which read as if they had been written in the ful
for
is
Tower of Babel. This beautigame speaks more eloquently him than all his wordy para-
graphs lique ”
about
“major
left
ob-
and similar matters.
VIENNA GAME Correspondence, 1911
12
BxKtch
PxB
13
QxQBPch QxRch
K—Bl!! K— K2
WHITE
BLACK
14
Daly
Young
15
1
P—K4
P—K4
2
Kt— QB3
Kt—KB 3
Q—B6
Courteously declining the second Rook, for if 15 QxR, BxKt; 16 PxB,
344
Correspondence Chess
Q—K6ch;
K—Ql, Kt—B5
17
—
Q—Q6ch;
(17
—
K — Ql,
Kt K5 or 17 Kt B6 also wins) and mate cannot be stopped. .
.
.
.
.
16
K—Ql
If
.
16
Q—
.
Q—K6ch
15
.
.
A
Kt— K2, Kt— K5ch;
K—Ql
B3, B7ch; 18 with a quick win. .
17
Kt—Q5ch
A little pleasanter than Kt— Kt6ch; 18 K— Ktl,
If
17
.
18
QxR 19
19
P—B3
20
Q—Q4
Forced:
the stop
to
Q—B8ch!!
.
.
Kt
.
Q— Q7
22
22
is
QxPch
of
leading
to
mates depending on
23
how White
—
35
Q—
—
—
Q—
ending.
are as helpless as ever:
R— R2, Q—K5ch now
will
wins a Rook.
.
.
passed
a
establish
in sight.
QxP
.
P—B4ch
K—B3
R— R3 R—Q3
P—KR4! P—R5
R(l)
—Ql
.
32
R— Q6ch
PxP K—Kt2
33
R—Q7ch
K—R3
.
RxP
RxP 35 36 37 38
39
.
faster
Q—R2ch!
than 34
.
.
.
—Kt7;
P
etc.
K—Kt2
P—Kt7
R— Q6ch
K—R4
RxPch
R—Kt7ch R—Kt3
K—Kt5 KxBP
P—Kt8(Q)
Resigns
22
.
23
PxB
If
R— QB1
Much
re-
Or 22 K—Bl, BxP!!; 23 PxB (if 23 QxPch, K K3; 24 PxB, Q7ch and mate next move), P QB4!; Q7ch Ql (if 24 24 R4, followed by mate), Q K6ch winning the Queen and remaining with a won
Q—
K— Q4
31
34
KxB,
plies.
Q—
P—QR4
QxP
beautiful
three
KxP
After 31 PxP, Black would simply advance his passed Pawns.
no
Q—K7ch
K—Kt3, Kt—B4ch!;
PxKtch
mate.
Q—B6ch
.
KtxQ
Pawn, with quick victory
31
K—B2 K—Ktl
21
If
.
27
Queen must be on .
Q—Q6ch
Black
P—QB3M
.
is
—
The Rooks
—B7
White’s material advantage value to him.
20
27
if
Queen
no matter where White plays (24 Ktl, Q Q6ch and Black mates
24 25 26
K—Bl,
17
26
P—QB4!!
.
beautiful position: the
27 28 29 30
.
.
Q—
R—Qlch
,
mate. Bl, Kt— B7ch; 20 mate. .
KR—
Q— K8
hand
lost
RxKt Kt—K5
.
Threatens now 19
RxKt,
P—
.
—B7 mate.
Kt
in two).
.
.
17
R—Ql!
16
.
23
K—Bl, B—Q7ch;
25
.
.
23 QxPch,
BxP!!
Some
K—K3;
24 Q— Kt7,
345
players talk a better
game
of
chess than they play. In Young’s case the reverse was true!
— Chess as
Maroczy steps out of character and unleashes a wild attack which ends up in a forced mate by Black when he is two Rooks and a Bishop down!
Circumstances
alter cases:
It Is
Played
strides.
Maroczy
2 3
Kt—KB 3 PxP
This gambit
is
more
sacrifices
where that
Kt—Kt5ch open spaces:
into the great
—
—
if
Q— K—
R—
14 K Ktl, Q KR3; 15 Kl, Bl, R7ch; 16 R8ch; 17 K2, QxP; 18 Bl, Kt— R7 with a winning game.
one of the most
ferior lines at Black’s disposal.
are
K—Kt3
Out
P— K4 P— Q4
P—K4
White’s
BxPch!!
KxB
14
Zam belly
a subtle preparation
came from!
GAMBIT BLACK
1
There 13
WHITE
is
0—0
12
PAWN COUNTER
Correspondence, 1897-1898
text
intended castling.
,
QUEEN'S
The
for a battering attack against
K— Q— R—
Q—B2ch
14
.
15
P—B4
PxP
16
KxP
R—Q5!
.
.
in-
e.p.ch
How-
White’s poor handling of the (Maroczy) to build up a crushing attack. ever,
position allows Black
3
.
4
Kt— B3
.
Much K5; 5 Kt for
B—Q3
.
—
is 4 P Q4!, P with a clear initiative
stronger
—K5!
White.
4
.
B 6 B
5
.
.
—Kt5ch —R4?
Kt—KB3
P—B3
Another weak move which puts the Bishop out of play. Better was 6 PxP, PxP; 7 B K2. As played, White lets his King’s Bishop wander off an im-
—
portant diagonal.
6
.
.
.
P—K5
8
PxP
9
KtxBP
Q—Kt3
10
KtxKt B Kt5
RxKt R—Qin
11
—
Black’s development has
made
.
—
—
—Q3
17
p
18
Kt—K4
.
.
Q—
B
Or 18 K—K2,
0-0
PxP Kt—Q4
7
Now we see the point of Black’s 11th move. The threat is 17 K4ch and R B5ch; 18 K K2, mate next move.
—Kt2ch
Q—K4ch with crush-
ing effect.
giant
18
.
19
KxKt
20
PxB
He
offers his
living
.
.
BxKtch
Q—R7! Queen
in the
through the attack.
hope of
Correspondence Chess
20
.
21
K—R4
.
.
QxPeh
11
QKt—Q2
RxB!!
12
BxKt Kt—Q4 PxKt
Spurning the Queen and playing for a quick mate.
22 23
R— R4ch!!
QxR KxR
The
P—R3ch P—Kt4ch
K—B4 K—K5
guises that
we might
has
PxP
BxP
16
QR—B1
Q—Kt3!?
17
BxP
QR— Q1
— —
game
—
18
B— R5!
BxPch
19
QxB
QxB
20
Q—B5!
Q—Q7?
Correct was 20
de-
spair of ever seeing it in a novel
form. Yet in the following
Pawn
surrendered Pawn must be reif 18 B K4??, BxB wins a piece, or if J 8 B Kt3?, B Q6 wins exchange. the
been used so often and in so
many
15
The
KB7
the backward
file.
gained:
Q—K3 mate!
classic attack against
—
P—B4
rid of
on the open
Q—R6ch
K—Kt5
14
Getting
Aside from his enormous material inferiority, Black is threatened with mate!
24 25 26
13
KtxKt B KB4 KtxKt
21
.
.
.
B
—K3!
Q—Kt4
QR— Ql!
22
this attack is as surprising as it is
rich in
charming
effects.
RUY LOPEZ Correspondence, 1937
WHITE
BLACK
Demuth
Merma gen
1
P—K4
P—K4
2
Kt—KB3
3
B
Kt—QB3 P— QR3 Kt—B3
4 5
—Kt5
B—R4 0—0
KtxP BxPch!!
Tarrasch’s favorite defense, which has a well-earned reputation for leading to lively play.
6
P—Q4
7
B
8
PxP
9
P—B3
P— QKt4 P—Q4 B— K3 B—K2
10
Q—K2
0—0
—Kt3
A
stunning surprise. If now 22 K6 wins. If 22 Rl; 23 K6, R Kt2 (if 23 RxB; 23 K7); 24 QxB!, Bl; 24 QxQ; 25 RxRch forces K2 (24 B7ch!, QxQ; 26 Rx mate); 25 Rch and mate next move.
K—
P— P— P—
KR—
.
22
347
.
.
.
.
—
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Q—
Q— .
KxB
Chess as
It Is
KxP P—K6ch!! K— Kl; 24 Q—B6ch, If 23 25 K— K2; 25 Q—B7ch, K—Kl K— B3; 26 RxR etc.); 26 P— .
.
.
.
QxP; 27 RxRch, QxR; 28
K7!,
Klch and mate
R—
11
.
12
B
13
QxB
.
.
—Kt4!
BxB PxP?
He
14 by 15 ..
should play
g—B3, P— K3
P—B4;
O—O
.
with a
13 .. followed .
game.
fair
.
R—B4M
25
A lovely
Resigns
finishing touch:
—
if
.
.
14
KtxP
15
QxP
PxP
The consequence
25 Meanwhile 26 R mate. gxR; K7 Black has the insoluble problem of .
to castle
is
he
that
the threat of 26
For
mate!
matter-of-fact character ,
all its
castling
R—g4
is
an
is
to castle in
good time leads
WHITE
BLACK
Dimock
Hogena uei
1
P—K4
P—QB4
2
Kt—KB3
3
P— Q4
Kt—QB3 PxP Kt—B3
7 8
Kt—Kt3
B—K3
9
P—B4
P
.
.
White
18
.
.
is
ready for the
—K5
11
0—0
final
phase.
Kt—B3
g6 mate — 19 Kt(Kt5) —B7 mate! to
19
threat was 19
Kt
or
QR—Q1
play
Getting his
P
—
Kt—K3
.
Q—QR4!
The
—Q4 gets
Kt—Kt5!
Again attacking and defending; but
B5.
10
destruction
Kt—B4
.
now White
wants to break up the hostile before
16
17
—KKt3 —Kt2
P B
He
.
menaced Knight and contemplating Kt B7ch, not to mention the threat of BxKt. Note the astonishing line-up of all four Knights on the same rank!
P— Q3
B—K2 B—K3
enter
Kt— Q4
.
Indirectly defending the
,
6
16
17
Correspondence 1939
5
.
Attacks and defends.
SICILIAN DEFENSE
KtxP Kt— QB3
Kt(3)—K4
15
to a
sparkling finish.
4
threatened with
Threatening instant with 17 Kt— K6.
Black’s failure
art.
of Black’s failure
16 g—B7 mate and 16 Kt—B7ch.
finding a satisfactory defense against
—
.
P—B3
.
Suicide.
K—Q2 K—B3; 25 g—B6ch, 24 .. K—B2; 26 g—K6 mate! If
.
follows.
QR—Klch!
24
answered by 11
is
KKtxP.
(if
.
KtxP
11
23
.
Played
Now
Kt— Q2
19
348
the threat .
.
.
last is
20
piece
into
play.
Kt(g5)—B7ch.
Q—B1
Correspondence Chess
6 7 8
B
0—0
BxKt P—Q3
PxB
P—K5!
9
10 Already a up a second
Pawn down, White gives Pawn in order to open up
the attacking diagonal
9
.
.
10
Q—Ktl KxKt; 21 Q— R3ch
20 KtxKP!! If
20
.
.
.
wins the Queen.
White mates on 21
.
.
.
.
23
.
Kt
0—0
—QR4?? 12 B — R3ch is
disastrous:
K—Bl;
11
Kt—Kt5!
Or
11
.
.
.
13
etc.
Q—K1
Kt— QR4;
BxPch, KR3; 14
12
Q— Kt5, P—
QxKt, PxKt;
B—
Kt3 and White’s 15 attack outweighs his Pawn minus.
Resigns
K— Ql;
.
BxPch,
K—Rl;
KtxKt
PxKt
—Q6ch
22
20 ..
the move.
KtxKt
22 Kt
On
If
.
QR3 — KB8.
PxP
.
Q—Kt3 11
—Kt5
Kt—B3
QxBP
Black completely helpless. A very enjoyable game, with instructive strategy and sharp tactical play.
leaves
12
B— R3
Kt—QR4
13
Q—Kt4
P— QKt3
3
1
.
.
loses the
.
QxKt
KtxB; 14
simply
exchange for Black.
B— Q3!
14
Not 14 QxRch?, QxQ; 15 BxQ, KtxB! and White’s Bishop is trapped!
Here
is
an attacking game that has
everything:
nation
,
a
farsighted
numerous
14
.
.
P—B4
.
combi-
sacrifices , spar-
kling finesses, able defense
and
masterly repulse of the counter-
is
Saves the exchange; but now White ready for the King-side attack.
Q—KR4
15
attack!
P—Kt3
—
If 15 P KR3; 16 Kt— K4 with a very difficult game for Black KtxKt be(he cannot play 16 .
SCOTCH GAMBIT
.
.
.
Correspondence, 1939
WHITE
BLACK
Davis
Walker
2
P—K4 P—Q4
3
P—QB3
1
4 5
KtxP B—QB4
cause of 17
.
.
winning a Rook).
Q—R6!I
16
P—K4
QxKt
In order to rule out the possibility of P R4 as a defense.
PxP PxP Kt— QB3 Kt—B3
.
349
.
—
.
16
.
17
B—K4!!
18
P
.
.
—KB4!!
Q—R5! B
—Kt2
Cltess as It Is Played
Leaving
White which
is
both
Bishops en prise, the main chance,
19
goes for to eliminate Black’s valuable
defensive Knight at
KB 3.
.
.
Q—B71
.
The mating it
21
looks, for
21
stronger than
20 R—B2?, —Kt5ch and
QxRch!;
wins.
R—B3! PxB
The
is
if
KxQ, Kt 20
threat
BxR
KR—Q1
only chance: a try for perpetual
check.
22
PxKt
R—Q8ch
23
RxR
QxRch
24
K—Kt2!
He
can get out of the checks, after
which his mate threat decides.
24 25 18
.
19
PxP!
.
BxB
.
.
.
K—R3!
For
after
K—Kt3!,
Q—
Kt8ch; 28
The
point:
White
is
a piece down,
Q—K7ch
.
Resigns
25 Q K8ch; 27 .
K—B4l
.
.
—B8ch;
K—Kt4!, Q—
Black must sur-
render.
An
but the attacked Knight cannot budge.
350
enthralling
26
game
all
the way!
Old
Ik These are old
Favorites
old games, and not-so-old games, wear well.
enough
to
be new
—games that we
first
saw
Some
of
them
as youngsters
who
were deeply impressed by the freshness of their combinative play.
Sometimes there as for
example
is
in the
an element of disenchantment in these games,
famous Evans win against MacDonnell
Viewing the game with
a coldly analytical eye,
overlooked moves that are just as attractive
as,
we
see that
(p. 352).
both players
but a good deal sounder
than, the actual continuation!
Hoffman
—Petroff
(p. 353),
on the other hand, could not possibly
be improved upon: the striking Queen
sacrifice leads to
mating tableau in which the victim’s Queen
Morphy performs against Marache (p. him to. The dread Evans Gambit has no clusion
is
a pretty
worse than useless!
354) just as terrors for
we would expect
him, and the con-
worked out with the perfection we naturally expect
Morphy game. The is
is
many
final
Knight maneuvers are
in a
irresistibly droll.
That the word “dread” is used advisedly about the Evans Gambit proved by Clemenz against Eisenschmidt (p. 355) surely a mas-
—
terly
game, though not played by masters. Curiously enough, the
utilization of the
Knights
is, if
anything, even prettier than in
final
Mor-
phy’s game.
We
come now
more modern vintage. The two immortal games between Lasker and Pillsbury have to be seen together to be appreciated properly. Lasker’s win (p. 360) is the more profound to
games
of
35i
Chess as
It
flashy,
has the bubbling energy which makes his games so enjoyable.
Breyer’s best games, such as the
he had the
they are
show that the numerous sacrifices
one with Esser
genius in him. Brilliant as
stuff of
(p. 358),
impressive than the originality of Breyer’s plan of
less
attack. Reti rightly
as
Played
original of the pair; yet Pillsbury’s victory (p. 361), while less
and
are,
h
K—B1
admired Breyer’s 14
which we describe
!!!,
"one of the deepest moves ever made on the chessboard.”
Do
you
agree?
Capablanca’s scintillating combination against Baca-Arus (p. 357) has something in
White not only
To
common
many
with
exploits a weakness,
he
first
forces
very existence!
its
the connoisseur, Capablanca’s provocation of
just as brilliant a
modern games:
of the best
.
.
P
.
—KKt3
conception as the slashing attack which follows
is
it.
About Nimzovich’s glorious win against Hakansson (p. 356) we ask, "Who but Nimzovich had the knack of getting such positions?” The answer is of course: "Nobody!” In this game we can detect that blend of sardonic humor, fiendish ingenuity and determination to wear no man’s collar which are uniquely Nimzovichian. He is as indestructible as a Dickens creation!
The beauty of these games does not fade with the passage From today’s headlines will come tomorrow’s old favorites. It was a great day in the history of
chess
when Captain Evans
4
intro-
5
duced his famous gambit. Although the Captain was only a middling player while his opponent was the greatest English
6
master of his time , MacDonnell
7
Evans
MacDonnell
P—QKt4 P—B3 P—Q4
BxP
B—R4 B
is
by the new-
baffled .
.
.
B
—Kt3!
Q—Q2
9 10
Kt—Kt5 PxP
Kt—Q1 PxP
11
B—R3
The development this diagonal
1
P—K4
P—K4
of
2
Kt— KB 3
Kt— QB3
castle?
3
B—B4
B—B4
.
is
.
.
of the Bishop
is
on
one of the key ideas
opening.
the
11
352
—KKt5?
Q—Kt3
8
London, 1838 BLACK
P—Q3
MacDonnell
EVANS GAMBIT WHITE
0—0
fangled opening. 7 the move.
was helpless against the gambit.
of time.
How
is
Black
Kt—R3
to
Old
P—B3 K— R1
12 13
B B
—Kt3ch —KR4
—
14
Favorites
20
B K3; 14 R— Ql, Or 13 BxB; IS RxQ, BxQ; 16 R K7ch .
.
.
B
—Q6 mate
History had been made; the gambit had successfully survived its first test!
—
with a winning game.
Q —B1
R—Ql!
Chess history is a procession of names which for most of us are no more than names. Occasionally we run across a game which gives us a vivid notion of the per-
sonality behind the
name.
GIUOCO PIANO Warsaw, 1844
WHITE Hoffman
Petroff
1
P— K4
P—K4
2
Kt— KB 3
Kt— QB3
B— B4
4
B—B4 P— B3
5
P-Q4
6
P—K5
3
RxKtch?!
IS
There
is
sacrifices!)
16
B
—
Q5
an easy win (but without by IS Q Kt5ch!, Kt B3; and Black is helpless.
—
—
.
.
15
.
.
QxR?
.
.
7
.
8
9
16 KtxBP!!
clever
move. The point
—
is
— — .
—
.
.
16
.
17
Q—Kt5ch
17
B
.
.
—Kt5ch mates
17
.
18
QxKPch
19
Q—K6ch
.
.
the strongest
move
Q—R5
KtxKBP!?
KxKt K—Kt3
PxPch
11
12
KtxBP
that
16 ... KtxKt; 17 B Kt5ch!, P B3; 18 Q K6ch, mate follows; or 16 BxKt; 17 BxBch, KtxB; 18 Q K6ch with the same result.
after
is
B— Q5 BxP Kt— Kt5?
10
MacDonnell must have overlooked this
—Q4!
Kt—B3 PxP Kt—K5
such situations.
After IS KxR! White has no good continuation of the attack! .
P
.
BLACK
QxKt
PxP Kt—K2 KtxB
not do because of 12 QxKtch in reply, with a winning game for Black. The text seems very ingenious, the idea being that if KxKt; 13 QxKtch followed 12 .. 12
.
.
will
.
.
QxB.
by 14 a
move
sooner.
P—B3
12
.
.
.
O—O!!
Foreseeing that despite the loss of the Queen, he will have a mating at-
K—Q2 K—B2
tack.
3S3
— Chess 05
— It Is
Played
18 K—Kt5, P— R3 —KR4, Kt—B4ch; 18
R5, Kt— B5ch; mate; or 17 P
K— R5, K6
P
—Kt3ch
and 19
.
.
B
.
mate!
Kt— Q5ch
17
.
18
Kt—K6
BxKtch
Kt—B4ch
20
K—R4 K—R3
20
K— Kt4
19
.
.
with 20
.
.
—
.
mate beginning Kt—K6ch.
allows a
20 K Kt5 holds out the longest, but White still succumbs.
KtxQ
13
20 21
13 QxKt, RxKt leads to some smart variations: J4 QxB, Kt4ch; IS K R3, Q3ch winning the Queen; or 14 P K6, B B7ch and 15 R5 mate; or 14 R KB1, Kt4ch; IS K R3, P Q3ch again winning
The
—
—
.
—
—
13 ..
.
.
Q—
Q—
B
.
—B7ch
14
— P— — K— — — — — —
If
.
P—Q3ch
.
now IS P
15
16
a
17
if
.
after
y
’
keep the earth after they inherit
New
KtxKP! for
a
of
EVANS GAMBIT
waiting
—
P—Kt3
—
3S4
Orleans 18S7
WHITE Marache
,
BLACK
Morphy
1
P—K4
P—K4
2
Kt—KB3
Kt—QB3
B—B4 P—QKt4 P—B3
B—B4
3
White’s helplessness is curious: thus 17 K R3, Kt B5 mate; or 17 K
—
Defense was named
,
Kt—B5ch
situation
.
—K6 mate
it.”
move! Black threatens mate beginning with 17 R B5ch. .
B
Mara che’s effrontery in playing an Evans Gambit against the great Morphy! “It’s goin’ t’ be fun,” said Kin Hubbard “t watch an’ see how long th meek
—Kt4, Kt—B5 mate!
P—K6 K—Kt4
What
P—Kt3ch
K—Kt5
Think
— —
.
.
K—R5
is
R5ch; 16 K Kt5, R3ch followed by Kt K2 mate), P R3ch; 16 R5 (if 16 K Kt6, Kt— K2ch; 17 K R5, R R5 mate), R R5ch; 17 K Kt6, Kt K2 mate! .
22
.
Petroff’s
leads
the winner of this astounding game.
K—Kt4, R—B5ch there a shorter mate: IS K—Kt5 (if IS K R3, R— R5 mate; or IS K— R5, R On
.
23
P
Kt—Kt7ch
21
.
—KR4!; 22 R— RxP, K— B2!
P—Kt4,
21
Ktl, PxPch; 23 to mate.
K—R3
14
Kt—K6ch
.
K— R4
On
P—
— White’s Queen!
.
.
alternative
Q—
14
.
4 5
BxP
B—R4
Old 6 P 7
—Q4
PxP
Black’s Knights are poised for the
P— Q4!
P— K5
Morphy never
Favorites
failed
kill!
19
open up
to
8
PxPe.p.
QxP
9
0—0
KKt
—K2
play 10
B
— R3,
he gets sidetracked on a puerile demonstration which Morphy thrusts back with almost insulting ease. Instead,
11
—Kt5?
B— Q3
0—0 B
—B4!
—
BxB
KtxB
13
B— R3
Q—Kt3
14
BxR
QxKt PxP
16
Q— Q3, Kt— KKt6!!
19
wins the
two Knights (20 Qx either Kt, Kt— K7ch) or if 20 QxQ, Kt( 5)
Queen
for
— K7 mate.
R— Ql, Kt— K6! 20 QxQ, Kt— K7ch; 21 K— Rl, RxR mate. 19 Q— R4, P— Kt4!; 20 QxB, Kt— K7ch; 21 K— Rl, KtxB; 22 R— Ktl (or 22 P— Kt3, Q— B3ch; 23 P— B3, QxPch!! R— Q8!; 23 P— Kt3, If
19
;
.
17
B—B4
Q—Kt3 R— Q1
18
Q—B2
Kt(3)
),
Q— B3ch
and mate next move. Morphy’s combination was as sound it was brilliant.
the great masters
have produced with the Evans
known. The following game, played by two amateurs, is a masterpiece which richly deserves a place of honor in any collection of fine games.
Gambit
16
.
If
position:
The gems which
Nobody could afford such timewasting maneuvers against Morphy! .
grammed
as
12
B— R3 B— B1
QxQ,
20
If
Black is not afraid to lose the exchange, as he will have three Pawns for it not to mention a strong attack.
15
—
Kt(5) K7 mate! A stunning surprise for White, but could he have done better? From the diaIf
although even then his attacking prospects would not be worth a Pawn.
10 Kt
Kt—KKt6!!
20 Resigns
lines for his pieces.
White should now
Q—K4
—Q5
are well
EVANS GAMBIT Dorpat, 1862
WHITE Clemenz
BLACK Eisenschmidt
1
P— K4
P—K4
2
Kt— KB 3
Kt— QB3
B— B4
6
B— B4 P— QKt4 P— B3 P— Q4
7
PxP
B
8
0—0
P— Q3
3
4 5
BxP
B—B4 PxP
—Kt3
The famous “Normal 355
Position” of
—
8
Chess as
It Is
K—B1 20 KxKt; 21 Q—K6ch, K—Kt2; 22 Q—B7ch, K— R3; 23 Kt —K4ch and mate follows. 20 .. K—Kt3; 21 Q— R5ch, K—B4; 22 P—Kt4ch, KxKt; 23 Q—
the Evans, from which Morphy, Anderssen, Zukertort and Tchigorin evolved some of their most beautiful games.
9
.
.
Kt—R4
.
20
or 9
.
.
.
.
B
—Kt5
P—K5
PxP
11
R—Kl
12
Kt—KKt5
KKt K2 B—K3
K—
—
14
KtxKP
Q-Q3
15
KtxKtPch
K—Bl
16
Q—Kt4
BxP
17
Kt—K4
Q—Kt5?
21 If
Q—
.
.
18 Kt 1
good enough
—
22
mate
threat.
QxB
21 ..
Q—B5
.
(to prevent
KR—QBl!
22
Q—K6.
to allow
Q—K6!
Kt—Q1
—
parry,
.
.
22
forces Black
If 22 K Kt2; 23 and mate next move.
23 a
K—
.
Q— K—
.
.
—K6ch! B — Q2 was but White
.
Q—
Q— K6);
tempting, both as Rooks are attacked and mate is threatened. The best defense, however, was Kt3! 17 .
K—
.
Relieves the
Superficially
.
K— K—
Q—
—Q7 mate! 21 B — R3M
Q—R5!
PxB
.
K—
O—O
BxB
—
K Kt2; 21 Kt— R5ch, 20 .. Bl; 22 B3ch, Kl; 23 Kt— Bl; 24 B6ch, Q1 (if 23 Kt Q5ch wins the Queen); 24 Kt B7ch, Bl; 25 R3 ch, K Ktl; 26 Kt—Q7ch, Bl; 27 Kt—Kt6ch, B8ch!!, RxQ; 29 Kt Ktl; 28
—
13
.
.
B7 mate.
Best under the circumstances. 12 would be ruinous because
of 13
.
.
If
10
.
.
If
gives Black better chances.
.
Kt—Kt5chl!
If
B—Q2
Kt—B3
9
Played
Q—B7ch!!
—K6 mate!
Kt—R5ch
KtxQ
24 Kt
sees brilliant possibilities in
One
the position.
18
.
19
Kt— B6ch
.
.
K—K1
K—B2
of the
most beautiful mating
positions ever brought off in actual play!
Black
castles
leaves his
with his
King
Queen but ,
in danger!
FRENCH DEFENSE Match, 1922
WHITE Nimzovich
3
P—K4 P— Q4 P—K5
P—K3 P—Q4 P—QB4
4
Q—Kt4?l
PxP
1
2
3S