Chess Notes

Chess Notes 2648-2668

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2648. Sounds impossible

Chess Notes Which leading player won a tournament despite being the only
participant not to win a single game?

Edward Winter The case we have in mind is Los Angeles, 1968 (Interzonal play-off
tournament). The three participants, Reshevsky, Stein and Hort,
played four games against each other. Reshevsky drew all eight of
his games, whereas Hort and Stein’s encounters featured a win
apiece and two draws. Thus all three players finished with four
points, but, as page 99 of the April 1968 Chess Review reported,
‘Reshevsky won by virtue of a superior tie-break standing at Sousse’
(the previous year’s Interzonal tournament). The Review also
commented regarding Los Angeles, 1968: ‘Here must be an all-time
record of an important event won without a single full point by the
winner.’

2649. Kostic in the Far East

The game below is of interest not for spectacular combinations or

limpid technique but for the energy with which Kostic pursued the
attack:

Oei Kang Ing and Liem Tjoe Bo – Boris Kostic

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Soerabaja, 12 September 1925

The Chess Cafe Queen’s Gambit Declined
E-mail Newsletter
Each week, as a service to 1 d4 d5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 c4 e6 4 Bg5 h6 5 Bh4 Bb4+ 6 Nc3 c5 7 e3 Qa5
thousands of our readers, we 8 Qb3 Ne4 9 Rc1 b5 10 cxd5 c4 11 Qc2 exd5 12 Nd2 Bf5 13 Ndxe4
send out an e-mail newsletter,
Bxe4 14 Qd2 Nc6 15 f3 Bg6 16 Be2 O-O 17 a3 Bxc3 18 Qxc3 b4 19
This Week at The Chess Cafe.
To receive this free weekly axb4 Qxb4 20 Bg3 Rfe8 21 Kf2 Qb6 22 Ra1
update, type in your email
address and click Subscribe.
That's all there is to it! 22…Re6 23 Ra3 Rae8 24 Qd2
Nxd4 25 Bd1 Nb5 26 Ba4 d4
27 e4 c3 28 Qd3 Nxa3 29
bxa3 Qb2+ 30 Bc2 f5 31 Qd1
fxe4 32 Kg1 exf3 33 White
Subscribe resigns.

Source: Jubileum Uitgave van de Soerabajasche Schaakclub by

W.N. Dinger (Soerabaja, 1936), pages 159-164.

Boris Kostic (seated) Soerabaja, 13 August 1925

2650. Daniel Starbuck (C.N. 2627)

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We have now found the following death-notice in the Cincinnati

Enquirer of 30 January 1884, page 5:

‘STARBUCK – Saturday, 26 January 1884, at 6:30 p.m.,

D.F.M. Starbuck, son of Nancy J. and the late C.W. Starbuck,
aged 27 years.

Funeral services on Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 from the

residence of his mother, No. 455 West Eighth Street. Burial
private. (Denver and Chicago papers please copy.)’

The chess column in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette of 2

February 1884, page 3 reported:

‘In the death of Mr Daniel F.M. Starbuck, of this city, the

chess world loses one of its most promising players. Mr
Starbuck was well known in many leading chess circles of the
country. He was but a youth when his genius for the game
attracted notice in this city, and as it was developed many
predicted that he would become one of the great players of
the world. He was the best blindfold player Cincinnati has
produced, and his bold style of play and excellent knowledge
of the openings made him formidable to every opponent. Mr
Starbuck’s health had been declining for several months, and,
hoping to benefit it, he went to Denver to engage in business.
His bronchial trouble, however, became worse in Colorado,
and he returned a few weeks ago to Cincinnati, his native
city, to pass to rest at the early age of 27. Mr Starbuck
possessed many generous traits of character, and some
remarkable gifts of mind. His father was the late Mr Calvin
W. Starbuck, proprietor of the Cincinnati Times. To the
mother who survives him he was ever an affectionate son.
The funeral occurred at the family residence in this city last
Wednesday.’

2651. Perpetual check or stalemate

The position below comes from page 68 of Schach by H. Ranneforth

(Leipzig, 1936), which merely states that White was A. Jülich and
that the game was played in 1906:

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Play is said to have gone 1

Rd2+ Bxd2 2 Rd3+ Kxd3 3
Qe2+ Kd4 4 Qd3+ Ke5 5
Qf5+ Kd6 6 Qd7+ Drawn.

2652. A peculiar move

On page 94 of Schach Ranneforth offered the opening of a game

(players unidentified; White gave the odds of his queen’s rook). It
began 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 b4 Bxb4 5 c3 Bc5 6 O-O Nf6
7 d4 exd4 8 cxd4 Bb4 9 e5 Ne4 10 Qe2 Nc3 11 Nxc3 Bxc3 12 Ng5.

Black’s 12th move was rare,

not to say unique: 12…Ba1.
Ranneforth related that Black
knew the theory of the
opening on level terms, i.e.
that 12...Bxa1 could be
played, and cautiously decided
to rely on his memory rather
than his judgment.

2653. The Hague, 1921

Three photographs taken at The Hague, 1921:

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F.D. Yates, G. Marco and G. Maróczy

A. Alekhine, A. Rubinstein and M. Euwe

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M. Euwe and S. Tartakower

2654. Knight mate

Over the years we have built up a small collection of games in which

mate was administered by a knight’s first move. Now, though, comes
what is only a possible case, with many complications. It is from
page 188 of the Chess Monthly, February 1887:

This was presented as from ‘a

game played in New York,
between Mr Thompson
(White) and Geo. H.
Mackenzie (Black)’.

10…Rb8 11 Rf1 Qxd4+ 12

Kxd4 Bg7+ 13 e5 Bxe5+ 14
Ke4

14…Nf6 mate.

Various databases list this

game as having occurred
between D. Thompson and
G.H. Mackenzie in London in
1868, but we have found it
earlier still, on page 240 of the
1865 Chess World, indicated
as ‘played lately in New
York’. (The opening moves
were 1 e4 e5 2 f4 exf4 3 Nf3
g5 4 d4 g4 5 Ne5 Qh4+ 6 Kd2 Qf2+ 7 Kc3 Nc6 8 a3 d6 9 Nxc6
bxc6 10 Bd3.) However, the conclusion of the game was given as
‘14 K moves B mates’ (i.e. mate by the bishop at a6 or e6 after 14
Kc4). After 16 Ke4 too there is a choice of mates (i.e. with knight
or pawn).

2655. Televising world championship chess

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From a report by Harry Golombek on the seventh game of the

Botvinnik v Smyslov world championship match in Moscow on 30
March 1954:

‘Television made its first appearance in the history of world

chess championship matches during the course of this game,
which was televised from 8 till 8.30 p.m.’

Source: BCM, May 1954, page 141.

2656. Signature challenge (C.N. 2606)

The winning entry came from Calle Erlandsson (Lund, Sweden),

who identified all the signatures, as follows: Hans-Werner von
Massow, GER; (Mrs) Bertl von Massow, GER; L. Reissenberger,
HUN; Horst Rittner, DDR; Janos Balogh, HUN; Armin Heintze,
DDR; Harald Norell, SWE; Hermann Heemsoth, GER; Costica-
Constantin Stefaniu, ROM; György Négyesy, HUN; Walter Merten,
DDR; Tibor Flórián, HUN; Jozsef Vándorffy, HUN; Bohuslav
Lukás, CZE; Gheorghi Teodoru, ROM; C. Niewiadomski, POL; Paul
Diaconescu, ROM; Bozidar Kazic, YUG; Vladimir Zagorovsky,
RUS.

Mr Erlandsson also correctly pointed out that the signatures were

gathered at the ICCF Congress in Budapest in October 1965.

2657. Chess Strategy

At the Bulletin Board in May 2002 Rick Kennedy reported that in

1976 Coles Publishing Company Inc. brought out a book entitled
Chess Strategy by Frank Eagan which was, in fact, a verbatim
reproduction of Capablanca’s Chess Fundamentals. We have now
procured a copy of the Coles volume and find that, apart from the
title page, the entire contents are identical to the crown octavo
edition of Chess Fundamentals (i.e. the 184-page version first
produced by G. Bell in 1951).

The copyright page (‘Copyright 1976 and published by Coles

Publishing Company Limited Toronto – Canada’) also has, in tiny
letters, ‘Originally published by G. Bell & Sons Ltd. London
England’, but neither Capablanca’s name nor the title Chess

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Fundamentals is given anywhere.

The publishers of this outrage are/were an internationally-known

company, the producers of the ‘Coles Notes’ series of booklets of
literary criticism. How did such fraud occur and, apparently, remain
unnoticed (bearing in mind, incidentally, that in 1976 the company
G. Bell was still producing chess books)? And who is Frank Eagan?

Title page, but Frank Eagan did not write one syllable of the
book.

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The first page of the contents of Chess Strategy (but also of Chess
Fundamentals).

2658. Endgame tactic

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A. Edelheim – A. Albin,
Berlin, 1899.

White played 1 Rf8 and his

opponent resigned.

Source: Der Schachfreund,

May 1900, page 30.

2659. The Hague, 1921 (C.N. 2653)

Three more photographs from this tournament:

A. Alekhine and B. Kostic

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J. Mieses and A. Rubinstein

F.D. Yates and G. Maróczy

2660. Worst move ever?

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J. Loffroy – E. Anglarès,
Marseilles, September 1928.

Black tried the desperate

24…Bxd5, and the game
continued 25 Bxg7+ Kg8 26
Rf8+ Kxg7

Here is a nomination for the

worst move ever played:
White blunders away his
queen when he could have
used it to give mate in one:

Instead of 27 Qf6 mate White

now played 27 Qg8+.

Source: Les Cahiers de

l’Echiquier Français, issue 20,
page 128.

2661. Resignation in winning position (C.N. 2144)

The position below comes from page 297 of issue 26 of Les Cahiers
de l’Echiquier Français, published in 1931. It is from a ‘recent’
game between W.H. Watts and J.A.J. Drewitt in the London Chess
League:

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Black played 1…Qxf6+ and

Watts resigned, instead of
winning on the spot with 2
g5+. (Black, however, did not
wish to accept the resignation;
the game was continued, and
White won.)

The second diagram shows the

final position in a game
between Urban and E.
Zimmer, Karbitz, 1924 as
reported on page 5 of the January 1935 Chess Review:

Believing that his only choice

lay between losing his queen
and being mated, White
resigned. He could have won
with 1 Bg6.

2662. Unfortunate misprint

From page 19 of Chess for Match Players by W. Winter (London,

1951), in a description of the position after 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Nf6 3 Nf3
Nxe4:

‘Also good for a combinative player is 3…Kt-B3 transposing

into the Five Knights’ Defence q.v.’

The error was subsequently corrected (cf the Dover reprint).

2663. High praise from Lasker

Regarding the original edition of Chess for Match Players by W.

Winter (London, 1936) it may be noted that Emanuel Lasker praised

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it highly in a review published in a Russian journal and quoted

extensively on pages 194-195 of CHESS, 14 February 1938. To cite
just one passage:

‘In the case of the difficult science of the openings on which

attention has been focussed for decades, any master, even a
world champion, might be proud of such an achievement as
this. Neither Euwe nor Alekhine nor Capablanca nor I can
boast of such a splendid achievement in this sphere. There is
one man in the USSR who would be equal to this task, and
that is Botvinnik, but the time has not yet come for him to
share his thoughts with the world.’

We have two signed copies of the 1936 edition. The first merely
reads ‘With best wishes W. Winter British Chess Champion 1935-6’,
but the second has an enigmatic inscription to Edith Price (1872-
1956):

2664. Fischer book planned?

Page 224 of the September 1963 Chess Life had this box
announcement:

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‘Want to Get Published?

Bobby Fischer is compiling his early games, 1955, 56 & 57,

for publication. He is missing quite a few – and he was on the
losing side of many of these. If you have any of the scores,
send them to Chess Life, c/o J.F. Reinhardt, 80 E. 11th Street,
N.Y. 3, N.Y.’

Is anything more known about this publication project? As ever, the

call is for solid information. This is not the place for observations
along the lines of ‘If memory serves, my understanding has always
been that I read somewhere that maybe there was talk once of a
rumour that someone perhaps mentioned an oral tradition that it may
possibly have been claimed that it was widely believed that…’

2665. Verbed

We sometimes jot down unusual turns of chess phraseology,

neologisms, etc. For example, page 131 of Chess Review, May 1967
used the phrase ‘Fischer post-mortems his game with Bergras[s]er’
when describing the photograph below:

2666. Fischer’s mother

A photograph of Fischer’s mother demonstrating outside the White

House in favour of US participation in the 1960 Olympiad in
Leipzig:

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Her banner reads: ‘Ike says YES. The American Chess Foundation
says NO.’

2667. Capablanca bibliography

In the apparent absence of any bibliography of monographs about

Capablanca we have prepared the one below:

● A Brief Review of the Chess Record of José Raúl Capablanca

by D. Welles (New York, 1911)
● Kh.R. Kapablanka Opyt kharakteristiki by E.A. Znosko-
Borovsky (St Petersburg, 1911)
● 20 Partien Capablanca’s by B. Kagan (Berlin, 1915)

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● Glorias del Tablero “Capablanca” by J.A. Gelabert (Havana,

1923)
● The Immortal Games of Capablanca by F. Reinfeld (New
York, 1942, 1974 and 1990)
● Homenaje a José Raúl Capablanca (Havana, 1943)
● Partidas Clásicas de Capablanca by G. Stahlberg and P.
Alles Monasterio (Buenos Aires, 1943)
● Capablanca by F. Chalupetzky and L. Tóth (Kecskemét,
1943)
● Capablanca Veszit by F. Chalupetzky and L. Tóth
(Kecskemét, undated)
● Capablanca’s Hundred Best Games of Chess by H.
Golombek (London, 1947, New York, 1947, New York,
1978, St Leonards on Sea, 1989 and London, 1996) – plus
German translation/adaptation: J.R. Capablanca 75 seiner
schönsten Partien
● Het Schaakphenomeen José Raoul Capablanca by M. Euwe
and L. Prins (The Hague, 1949) - plus German, Spanish and
Russian translations
● Trofei di Capablanca by L. Penco (Milan, 1954)
● Kapablanka by V. Panov (Moscow, 1959)
● Capablancas Förlustpartier by J.E. Westman (Uppsala,
1963)
● Weltgeschichte des Schachs: Capablanca by J. Gilchrist and
D. Hooper (Hamburg, 1963)
● J.R. Capablanca by B. Hörberg and J. Westberg (Örebro,
1965)
● Kapablanka by V. Panov (Moscow, 1970) – plus Spanish and
Italian translations
● Capablanca by S. Petrovic (Zagreb, 1974)
● The Unknown Capablanca by D. Hooper and D. Brandreth
(London, 1975 and New York, 1993)
● Capablancas Verlustpartien by F.C. Görschen (Hamburg-
Bergedorf, 1976)
● Capablanca, Leyenda y Realidad by M.A. Sánchez (two
volumes, Havana, 1978)
● The Best Endings of Capablanca and Fischer (Belgrade,
1978)
● Capablanca’s Best Chess Endings by I. Chernev (Oxford,
1978 and New York, 1982)
● Capablanca – das Schachphänomen by W.N. Panow
(Stuttgart, 1982)
● Endspieltechnik à la Capablanca by L. Nikolaiczuk
(Mannheim, 1987)
● Das Schachgenie Capablanca by I. Linder and W. Linder
(East Berlin, 1988)

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● Gent Nostra Capablanca by M. Fontrodona (Barcelona,

1988)
● Así Jugaba Capablanca by J. Daubar (Havana, 1988)
● Kapablanka v Rossii by V. Linder and I. Linder (Moscow,
1988)
● Kapablanka Vstrechi c Rossiey by A.I. Sizonenko (Moscow,
1988)
● Capablanca A Compendium of Games, Notes, Articles,
Correspondence, Illustrations and Other Rare Archival
Materials on the Cuban Chess Genius José Raúl Capablanca,
1888-1942 by E. Winter (Jefferson, 1989)
● Partie Jose Raoula Capablanki 1901-1927 (Warsaw, 1989)
● Partie Jose Raoula Capablanki 1928-1939 (Warsaw, 1989)
● José Raoul Capablanca Ein Schachmythos (Düsseldorf,
1989)
● Capablanca by J. Daubar (Havana, 1990)
● The Games of José Raúl Capablanca by R. Caparrós
(Yorklyn, 1991). Second edition: Dallas, 1994 – plus Spanish
translation
● Jose Capablanca by S. Akhpatelov and S. Gordon (undated)
● José Raúl Capablanca by D. Bjelica (Madrid, 1993)
● Capablanca 222 partidas (Madrid, 1994)
● Jose Raul Capablanca Games 1901-1926 (1997)
● Jose Raul Capablanca Games 1927-1942 (1997)
● Capablanca’s Eighteen Select Chess Games by F.N. Tapia
(Havana, 1998).

This bibliography includes only books which we possess, with two

exceptions: our collection lacks the 1911 Znosko-Borovsky work
and the Spanish translation (Buenos Aires, 1959) of the Euwe and
Prins monograph. We should very much like to acquire both of those
volumes and, more generally, to hear from readers who have
corrections to the above list. (We are aware of the existence of a few
1990s titles, mainly from Eastern Europe, which we have yet to
obtain.)

The rarest of the works in the above bibliography may be the first.
Our own copy is rather battered:

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2668. Missing Fine games

Aidan Woodger (Halifax, UK) informs us that for a book on Reuben

Fine he is seeking Fine’s games against Heiestad (Oslo, 1936),
Marshall and Forsberg (Marshall Chess Club Championship, 1940-
41), Altman, Chernev, Isaacs, Neidich, Persinger and Stromberg (US
Championship, New York, 1944), Rossetto and Horowitz
(Hollywood, 1945) and Planas (match between the Havana Chess
Club and the Marshall Chess Club, New York, February 1951). He is
also looking for the crosstable and other information about the
Marshall Club sextangular tournament in March 1951.

All images from the Edward Winter Collection.

We invite you to visit the Photo Gallery Archives to view all the
images currently available online.

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