Chess Trivia II
In 1881, the first Canadian chess championship was held in Quebec. The winner was Joseph W. Shaw (1834-1897) of Montreal, who scored 7 out of 8. (source: Chess Review, Sep 1935, p. 213)
In 1882, the Toronto Chess Club played the Detroit Chess Club by telegraph. This may be the first telegraph match between the USA and Canada.
On April 26, 1883, the London International Tournament began. It was the first tourney in which double-headed chess clocks were used. Time control was 15 moves in two hours, and if you failed to make the time limit, you forfeited the game. The time piece consisted of two balanced clocks on a seesaw beam so that when one was tilted, it stopped and the other started. The tumbling-clock was manufactured by Fattonini & Sons of Bradford, England.
In 1884, the Scottish Chess Association (SCA), the oldest chess association in the world, was founded. In 2001, the Scottish Chess Association merged with the Scottish Junior Chess Association to become Chess Scotland.
In 1885, Colonel Isaac Trabue (1831-1907) held a chess tourney funded by pineapples in Florida (source: British Chess Magazine, 1980, p. 599)
On January 11, 1886 the first game for the official world chess championship began at Cartier’s Hall on 5th Avenue in New York. Steinitz wanted the U.S. flag to be placed next to him during the match, even though he still was an Austrian citizen (he became an American citizen almost three years later). Less than 40 people were present at the start of this historical match, despite Steinitz's daughter, Flora, selling programs and photographs to earn a few extra dollars for the family. Steinitz couldn't even afford a winter coat for her daughter. The time control was 30 moves in 2 hours, with a 2 hour dinner break, then 15 moves an hour. A demonstration chess board was first used in this world championship match, run by George Mackenzie.
In July 1887, Frederick Viewig, manager of the Eden Musee in New York, was arrested for having violated the Sunday law by exhibiting wax figures, permitting music to be played, and also by allowing Ajeeb, the chess automaton, to play a game of chess. He responded, “I consider it absurd to contend that a playing a game of chess or looking at was figures was a violation of the Sunday law.” Mr Viewig had to pay $100 for bail. (source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 16, 1887)
In May 1888, the Intercollegiate Chess Association was organized. Colleges included were Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania. (source: New York Times, May 25, 1888)
On Jan 27, 1889, Frederick Perrin died in Brooklyn of pneumonia, aged 73. He was Secretary of the New York Chess Club. His last words to his physician were: “Doctor, I am puzzled over that last move of mine.” (source: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan 28, 1889)
On Jan 22, 1890, a large fire broke out in New Orleans. It burned down the New Orleans Chess, Checkers, and Whist Club, including its chess library, valued at $15,000. The chess club had one of the most valuable libraries in the world, including a lot of Paul Morphy memorabilia. Morphy’s relics, score sheets, autographs, portraits, and stationary were all destroyed. (source: New York Times, Jan 23, 1890)
In 1891, a team match was played in the Manhattan Chess Club between the bald-headed members and the full-haired members. The bald-head members won, scoring 14-11. (source: Chess Review, April 1937, p. 89)
In Feb 1892, Matthew Wilson, a well-known portrait painter, died while playing chess at the Brooklyn Chess Club. He was 77 years old. His portraits included President Arthur and Lincoln. (source: New York Times, Feb 24, 1892)
In 1893, Emanual Lasker (1868-1941) was a mathematics lecturer at Tulane University in New Orleans and almost gave up chess for a teaching post. In 1895, he published two mathematical articles in Nature magazine. In 1901, he was a mathematics lecturer at Victoria University in Manchester, England. He was awarded a doctorate in mathematics in 1902.
In 1894, Charles O. Jackson, who said he was a former President of the Indiana Chess Association, advertised that the Terra Haute Chess Club was hosting a Great Masters Continental Chess Congress. He sent flyers to chess players encouraging them to send $25 entrance fee for this major tournament. But it was a scam. He had run fake tournaments in the past. (source: New York Times, Jan 15, 1894)
On March 9, 1895, the Manhattan Chess Club played the British Chess Club of London by cable. Only about 22 moves were played in each of the 10 games after 9 hours. One game was agreed drawn. All the other games were adjudicated as drawn by the new world chess champion, Emanuel Lasker. (source: New York Times, March 10, 1895)
On March 13, 1896, the first cable chess match between Great Britain and the United States began. It was organized by the Brooklyn Chess Club, and would be the first Anglo-American chess match. The first team match had 8 players per side. Subsequent matches had 10 players per side. Sir George Newnes (1851-1910) was president of the British Chess Club and he provided a $300 silver cup that would go to the winning team. Newnes was an editor and publisher of magazines in Britain. He was the first to publish the Sherlock Holmes mystery series, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. USA won the first match, 4.5 to 3.5
In February 1897, the press falsely reported William Steinitz’s death. The headline of the Indianapolis News was William Steinitz Dead. A dispatch from Moscow says that William Steinitz died in a private hospital, where he had recently been placed on account of mental disorder. (source: Indianapolis News, Feb 22, 1897 and New York Times, Feb 22, 1897) The story was retracted several days later after associating chess with brain disease, and that Steinitz was not dead, but hopelessly insane. (source: New York Times, Feb 26, 1897)
In Jan 1899, former world chess champion William Steinitz resigned from the Manhattan Chess Club after Judge Jerome said that the club was not a club for professional players. Steinitz took offense and resigned his membership. (source: New York Times, Jan 15, 1899)
In 1910, Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch objected to the entrance of Fred D. Yates at an international tournament in Hamburg on the ground that Yates was not strong enough to compete. Yates did play and the only game he won was against Tarrasch. (source: Chess Review, Jan 1935, p. 5)
In 1922, Akiba Rubinstein won 4 brilliancy prizes in one tournament, held at Teplitz-Schonau. (source: Chess Review, Dec 1935, p. 285)
On June 3, 1923, Sam Katz was playing a game against Louis Silverman at the Pitkin Chess Club in New York. Katz made a move which resulted in the loss of Silverman’s queen. The shock of losing his queen caused Silverman to have a heart attack. He died at the chess board. Silverman was only 47. (source: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 4, 1923)
In 1924, there were 3,000 chess club members in all of Russia. Only 7 chess players were considered in the master class. There were about 50 players in the first class division. Then a major movement under the auspices of the Physical Culture Federation began. In 10 years, there were 500,000 enrolled chess club members. (source: Chess Review, April 1935, p. 82)
In September, 1925, Mrs. June Sawyer was granted a divorce from her husband, Barritt Sawyer of Philadelphia, on the charge of cruel and barbarous treatment. Mrs. Sawyer alleged that her husband lost control and hit and beat her following chess games in which she defeated him in a game of chess. (source: Delaware County Daily Times, Sep 23, 1925)
In 1926, the first Polish Chess Championship was held in Warsaw. The winner was David Przepiorka. In 1927, the 2nd Polish Chess Championship was held in Lodz. The winner was Akiba Rubinstein. There was a pause of 8 years before the next Chess Championship was held. It was held in Warsaw in 1935 and won by Tartakover. The 4th championship was held in 1937. The 5th championship was held in 1946.
In January 1927, Efim Bogoljubov (1889-1952) was officially banned and excommunicated from the USSR. Because he exhibited the typically bourgeois vice of putting his pocket book above has principles, Bogoljubov, who was chess champion of the Soviet Union, was excommunicated by the chess section of the All-Union Soviet of Physical Culture. The chess section declared he was no longer chess champion. He was also no longer a member of the Soviet chess organization. He was expelled when he expressed the desire to give up his Soviet citizenship in order to be able to attend a tournament in Merano, Italy. He was unable to go because the Italian authorities refused to recognize his Soviet passport. Bogoljubov wrote to the Soviet chess organization declaring that in view of the difficulties of moving about Europe with a Soviet passport, he was thinking of assuming the citizenship of another country. (source: The Bridgeport Telegram, Jan 27, 1927)
In July 1928, the Brooklyn YMCA banned chess. All the chess tables and pieces were removed and the YMCA management forbade its members from playing chess even on a magnetic or pocket chess set. The secretary of the YMCA concluded that chess attracted too many undesirable elements to the YMCA and that too many chess players or spectators were smoking during a chess game. Smoking was forbidden inside the YMCA. The YMCA also did not want to fund the extra supervisory personnel it needed to keep a room open for chess. (source: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 11, 1928)
In August 1929, Alexander Alekhine was present at the
In April 1930, chess was banned in Harbin, China as too dangerous and against the public welfare. Manchurian Chinese police raided cafes to stop anyone from playing chess. Players protested they were not gambling or playing for money. The Chinese police responded, No matter. Such games are dangerous. (source: Edwardsville, Illinois Intelligencer, Apr 24, 1930)
In September 1931, Alexander Alekhine won at Bled, 5 1/2 points more than 2nd place (Efim Bogoljubov). Alekhine scored 15 wins, 11 draws, and no losses. Geza Maroczy (1870-1951) challenged Aron Nimzowitch (1886-1935) to a pistol duel at dawn during the chess tournament in Bled. Earlier, the two got in an argument and when Maroczy challenged Nimzowitch to a duel, Nimzowitsch rightly refused. Alekhine won the event. Nimzowitsch took 3rd place. Maroczy took 11th place. (source: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct 1, 1931)
In 1932, chess master Norman Whitaker (1890-1975) gained notoriety during the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh, Jr in March 1932. A former FBI Agent named Gaston Means concocted a scheme to swindle $104,000 from a wealthy heiress by claiming to be in contact with the kidnappers. Means intended to use Whitaker as the bagman to pick up her money, but both were arrested and convicted. Whitaker was later convicted of attempted extortion. He claimed that the Lindbergh kidnappers had refused $49,500 of the ransom money paid by Mrs. Evalyn McLean because the serial numbers on the money had been published. Therefore, he demanded replacement money in the amount of $35,000, in exchange for which he promised to return the original $49,500 plus the baby. That was when the FBI was finally called in. Whitaker never got any of the money and, when asked what happened to the money, Whitaker replied, "I do not know and I wish I did". Whitaker got out in just 18 months. Earlier in his life, he was convicted of several other crimes, including auto theft, sending morphine through the mail, and sexual molestation of a minor. He served time in Alcatraz and was a friend of Al Capone there. (source: New York Times, Jun 29, 1932, p. 9)
On May 25, 1933, William Shinkman (1847-1933) died. He lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan and worked there as an insurance and estate broker. He was known as the “Wizard of Grand Rapids.” In his lifetime, he published about 4,000 chess problems. (source: Chess Review, Aug 1934, p. 140)
Up to 1934, neither Lasker or Capablanca had ever finished below 3rd in tournament play. But in 1934, Lasker finished 5th at Zurich. In 1935, Capablanca finished 4th at Moscow. (source: Chess Review, Dec 1935, p. 286)
In 1935, an international chess tournament was held in Moscow, with players such as Botvinnik, Lasker, Capablanca, Florh, and Spielmann. Botvinnik and Flohr tied for 1st-2nd. Lasker took 3d and Capablanca took 4th. The event has held in the Soviet Fine Arts Museum. There was standing room for 5,000 spectators. When the tournament started, the entrance fee for the spectators was 5 rubles. But when there was 100,000 people demanding admission to the first round, the price doubled to 10 rubles. (source: Chess Review, April 1935, p. 79)
In March 1935, Dr. Lasker announced that he would make his permanent home in Russia. Where he was to organize and direct an academy of chess. Philosophy and psychology of chess would be studied at his academy. (source: Chess Review, April 1935, p. 79)
In 1935, Hans Kmoch wrote several books and magazines for Russia. He was given over $1,000 honorarium, but it was deposited for him in a Russian State Bank. He never received a cent in royalties since the Russian Government allowed no money to be taken from the country. (source: Chess Review, Sep 1935, p. 211)
On Nov 14, 1935, Arthur Dake was finally mated when he married Helen Girard of Long Island. They had met on a ship on the return trip from Warsaw where Dake played on the USA team in the Chess Olympiad. I. A. Horowitz was best man and Frank Marshall gave the bride away. (source: Chess Review, Dec 1935, p. 279)
In January 1936, the All-Russian Trade Union Chess Tournament was completed after 6 months of steady play. About 700,000 competitors participated in the event. G. Lizitzin and V. Chekover tied for 1st-2nd. (source: Chess Review, April 1936, p. 92)
In 1937, Manhattan Chess Club member Louis Zeckendorf (1838-1937) died at the age of 99. He was less than a month short of reaching 100. During the Civil War, he played chess with Confederate General James Longstreet (1821-1904). (source: Chess Review, April 1937, p. 85)
In 1938, a customs guard in a Southeastern European contry caught two trains travelers in the act of smuggling some diamonds into another country. The two travelers concealed the diamonds in a small travelers’ chess set. When asked to explain how the guard detected the smuggling, the guard replied, “I can play chess, you know. I took a casual look at the position on the board and at once realized such a position could never have arisen in a real game!” (source: Chess Review, Aug 1938, p. 181)
In 1938, Alexander Alekhine stated that he was able to rcall every chess of note by masters of the last 30 years, with all their moves. (source: Chess Review, Jan 1939, p. 21)
George Emlen Roosevelt (1887-1963) was a cousin of Theodore Roosevelt. He served as President of the Marshall Chess Club in the 19338-39. He headed a committee to select the chess team to represent the USA in the International Team Tournament in Buenos Aires in August 1939. The USA team was unable to participate due to schedule conflicts of the tournament from July to August and lack of funds. 40 teams were to play, but only 27 nations participated. Roosevelt was also vie-president and treasurer of the newly formed United States Chess Federation in 1939. (sources: Chess Review, Mar 1939, p. 53 and July-August 1939, p. 149)
In 1939, the Hollywood Anti-Nazi Chess League was formed and participated in chess team events. Its top board was Harry Borochow, champion of California. (source: Chess Review, May 1939, p. 104)
In 1939, the American Chess Federation merged with the National Chess Federation to form the United States of America Chess Federation (U.S. of A.C.F.). (source: Chess Review, Sep 1939, p. 174)
World War II was declared on Sep 3, 1939. The England team, having qualified for the Olympiad finals in Buenos Aires, was obliged to sail home back to England. The games between France vs. Germany and Poland vs. Germany were not played and the match scores were halved without play. (source: Chess Review, Oct 1939, p. 197)
In September 1939, the headquarters for FIDE was transferred to Argentina. President Augusto de Muro of the Argentine Chess Federation became the president of FIDE. (source: Chess Review, Oct 1939, p. 199)
Puerto Rico was to have sent a chess team to Buenos Aires. A bill was approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate which authorized a fund of $3,000 for the team. However, Governor Blanton Winship was against it and did not sign the bill. (source: Chess Review, Oct 1939, p. 213)
In 1939,
Elaine Saunders (1926-3012) won the British Ladies’ championship. She was only 13. She also won in 1946, 1956, and 1965. (source: Chess
Review, Oct 1939, p. 215)
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