Chess Trivia III
In December 1939, the National Chess Centre opened in London. After a few months, it had 360 members. An advertisement for the Centre was “Large and well-appointed Air Raid Center on the premises.” (source: Chess Review, March 1940, p. 31)
On February 17, 1940, the several times New England chess champion, Harold Morton (1906-1940), died in Iowa after a car wreck. His passenger, Al Horowitz (1907-1973), was seriously injured. They were travelling together giving tandem simultaneous chess exhibitions across the country. Morton was driving on the return trip from the west back to an exhibition in Minneapolis when he collided with a truck. Morton was killed instantly and Horowitz suffered a concussion and chest injuries. (source: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb 22, 1940)
In 1940, the California School for the Deaf lost 3 matches in a row to the chess team of the California School of the Blind. (source: Chess Review, May 1940, p. 73)
On January 11, 1941, Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941) died of a kidney infection (uremic poisoning) in Manhattan at the age of 72. He had been a charity patient at Mount Sinai hospital. About the same time, his sister died in a Nazi gas chamber. A condolence letter was sent to his first wife Martha Lasker (1867-1942) by Albert Einstein, when Emanuel Lasker died. He was the second official World Chess Champion, reigning for a record 27 years after he defeated the first World Champion, William Steinitz, in 1894. (source: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan 12, 1941)
On May 24, 1941, L. Walter Stephens (1883-1948), Vice-President of the US Chess Federation, was referring a match between Rehsevsky and Horowitz on Staten Island. He left his car unlocked outside the hall where the match was being played. His car was stolen by an ex-convict. Staten Island police captured the convict the next day and recovered the car. Stephens asked the Judge to parole the thief in his custody and perhaps teach him chess. The judge said no. (source: Chess Review, May 1941, p. 76)
In late 1941, Herman Steiner (1905-1955) gave a gigantic simultaneous chess exhibition in Hollywood for the benefit of British War Relief. He played 400 players on 100 boards, winning 83, drawing 11, and losing 6. The event drew a large movie crowd. (source: Chess Review, Dec 1941, p. 232)
In January 1942, Jose Capablanca (1888-1942) gave a series of chess lectures in Spanish and broadcasted to Latin American listeners. Before the lectures, he had to go out and buy a chess set. He had no chess set in his house. He had to buy the chess set to prepare his lectures for the radio, which he had written in Spanish. In Capablanca’s Last Chess Lectures, he wrote, “I received a great number of chess sets as gifts. I especially remember a very handsome and rare set which I tried to hold on to, but which has gone with the others. The result is that today (1942) I do not possess a single set. My travels, my changes of residence, and my children did away with every single one.” Capablanca died two months later.
In 1942, Dr. Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956) joined the Free French Army in England. He changed his name to Lieutenant Dr. Georges Cartier. (source: Chess Review, Feb 1942, p. 46)
In 1943, Eugene Znosko-Borovsky (1884-1954), a Russian chess player who lived in Paris, was giving chess exhibitions in Paris for the benefit of war prisoners. (source: Chess Review, Feb 1943, p. 46)
In 1943, the movie Above Suspicion was made, starring Joan Crawford, Fred MacMurray, and Basil Rathbone. The plot involves a doctor who collects chess pieces. There was $50,000 worth of rare chess pieces used in the movie. Special guards were hired by MGM to guard the chess pieces. The chess pieces were on loan from museums and were the finest available. One set alone was valued at $5,000, carved from ivory and took three generations of one family to complete. Each piece took more than a year to make (32 pieces). During the movies, Fred MacMurray and Basil Rathbone took up chess, and they played many chess games between scenes of the movie. (source: Canonsburg Daily News, Jan 18, 1943)
In 1943, Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) was playing several correspondence chess games with military personnel. It all started when a private, stationed in California, visited the set of Casablanca. At the set at the Hollywood Theatre, Bogart was playing Sydney Greenstreet between scenes. The private asked for a game against Bogart, which Bogart accepted. When the soldier was transferred to the South Pacific, he kept up a game with Bogart by mail. Since starting the game with the soldier, Bogart took on several other members in the Armed Forces that were stationed overseas. (source: Chess Review, Feb 1943, p. 56)
On Oct 10, 1943, Miguel Najdorf (1910-1997) broke the record for simultaneous, blindfold chess play by playing 40 boards at Rosario, Argentina. He faced 2 players at each board for a total of 80 opponents. He won 36, drew 1, and lost 3 games after 17 hours of play. (source: Chess Review, Nov 1943, p. 329)
In March 1944, chess was banned by trans-Atlantic mail. It was explained this was done to prevent enemy agents from employing such mediums to get code messages across the Atlantic. Censors searched letters for discussions of chess because enemies would often hide codes in chess symbols and moves. Chess moves were censored between American players and Canadian military in 1943. (source: Troy Record, Mar 31, 1944)
On May 7, 1944, Arnold S. Denker (1914-2005) won the 5th US Championship, held in New York. (15.5-1.5). He won 9 straight games in this event (winning 13, drawing 3, and losing none). Gisela K. Gresser won the US women's championship with 8 straight wins. Reshevsky did not compete in the U.S. chess championship that year because he was studying for his Certified Public Accountant (CPA) degree. (source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 8, 1944)
In 1945, Alexander Kotov (1913-1981) was awarded the Order of Lenin for an important invention relating to mortars. His father was an armory worker. Kotov won the championship of Tula at age 16. In 1939, he took 2nd in the USSR championship, behind Botvinnik. He was awarded the Soviet Grandmaster title, the third to do so after Botvinnik and Levenfish. (source: Chess Review, Feb 1945, P. 9)
On August 12, 1945, the first Pan American Chess Championship, held in Hollywood, was won by Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992). It was also called the Western Hemisphere championship. Marlene Dietrich, just returned from a 13-months overseas entertainment tour, was a spectator at the event. Reshevsky won $1,000 (over $13,000 in today’s currency). He was supposed to play PFC Herbert Seidman in the final found, but the Army cancelled his leave. (sources: Salem Daily Capital Journal, Aug 6, 1945 and Ottawa Journal, Aug 11, 1945)
In January 1946, during the last round of the Hastings chess tournament, an unexploded mine washed up on shore by the site. Military personnel were called out to deactivate the bomb. The event was won by Dr. Savielly Tartakower. (source: Chess Review, Jan 1946, p. 7)
In December 1945, Valentina Belova (1920-1993) won the world women’s championship. At the time, she was a sophomore at the Leningrad Mining University. First prize was 4,000 rubles ($750 in 1946, worth over $11,000 in 2022). (source: Chess Review, Jan 1946, p. 11)
In January 1946, a Victory Chess Tournament was to be held in London. World Champion Alexander Alekhine was first invited by the British. TThere were objections from the Dutch and the U.S. Chess Federation because of his articles of anti-Jewish content published under the signature of Alekhine. Some of the masters (USA) had threatened to withdraw from the tournament if Alekhine was invited. Alekhine was not invited to the event, which was won by Herman Steiner (8 wins, 1 loss, 2 draws) (source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan 31, 1946)
In 1946, the Friburgo Xadrez Clube in Brazil was the world’s largest chess club, with a theatre that could seat 2,000 people. The completion cost of the club was $250,000, which included a swimming pool and tennis courts. (source: Chess Review, Feb 1946, p. 8)
In 1946, the Association of American Masters was formed. Its President was Edward Lasker (1885-1981). (source: Chess Review, Mar 1946, p. 8)
During World War II, the Japanese in the Philippines destroyed all chess sets, chess club furniture, chess books and equipment. The Philippines were isolated from the chess world for more than three years. (source: Chess Review, Mar 1946, p. 9)
On March 24, 1946, Dr. Alexander Alekhine died penniless in a hotel room in Estoril, Portugal. His funeral was delayed for 5 days until the Portuguese Chess Federation raised enough money to pay for his burial. In 1956, his body was transferred to a cemetery in Paris. (source: Chess Review, May 1946, p. 5)
In 1946, a chess book published in 1474 was sold at auction in London for $7,600 ($116,000 in 2022 currency). The book is The Game and Playe of Chess by Jacobus de Cessolis, translated by William Caxton. (source: Chess Review, May 1946, p. 5)
In 1946, Mikhail Botvinnik received his second government decoration, the Order of the Badge of Honor, for his work in the development of electric power stations in the Urals. (source: Chess Review, May 1946, p. 8)
In 1946, there were 9 Soviet chess grandmasters – Botvinnik, Smyslov, Keres, Bolesavsky, Flohr, Kotov, Bondarevsky, Lilienthal, and Ragozin. (source: Chess Review, Oct 1946, p. 11)
On Feb 4, 1947, I. A. Horowitz (1907-1973) was traveling the country giving simultaneous exhibitions. While traveling by train near Fresno, California, his train, the Southern Pacific San Joaquin Daylight Express, wrecked. He was uninjured but many passengers were killed and over 100 were injured. Horowitz was in the 13th car. (source: Chess Review, Mar 1947, p.6)
On March 5, 1947, Russian chess master Dr. Boris Blumenfeld (1884-1947) died in Moscow. He invented the Blumenfeld Counter Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nf3 b5). He was a student of chess psychology. He received his doctorate in 1945 for a dissertation on the nature of blunders in chess. (source: Chess Review, May 1947, p.8)
In 1947, Herman Steiner was the chess advisor for the movie Cass Timberlane, starring Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner. Steiner told Lana Turner, "Don't play chess. Sitting at a chess board for hours might make you fat and spoil your perfect figure." There were several chess scenes in the movie.
In 1947, there were 37 international chess tournaments, 29 international team matches, and over 50 foreign champions mention in Chess Review magazine. (source: Chess Review, Jan 1948, p. 1)
In 1944, there were 637 players that entered the U.S. Postal Championship. In 1945, there were 1,127 players entered in the first Annual Golden Knights Championship (1945 Post Chess Championship). In 1946, there were 1,456 players entered in the second Annual Golden Knights Championship. (source: Chess Review, Jan 1948, p. 5)
From June 9, 1943 to Dec 7, 1947, Bruno Czaikowski (1908-?) devoted over 2,000 hours to playing chess and checkers with hospitalized veterans in the Chicago area. He never missed a Sunday of visiting hospitalized veterans through 1951. (source: Chess Review, Jan 1948, p. 5)
The Polish chess master Akiba Rubinstein (1880-1951) and his family survived the Nazi occupation in Belgium by hiding in a sanitarium for more than four years. He was Jewish. He spent the last 29 years of his life living at home with is family and in a sanatorium because of his severe mental illness. (source: Chess Review, Mar 1948, p. 1)
On January 1, 1948, Allen G. Pearsall (1877-1948), age 70, was struck by a car and was killed instantly in Chula Vista, California. He was a member of the Correspondence Chess League of America (CCLA) and a member of the International Chess Olympiad, playing on the USA team. He was returning home after playing chess at the San Diego Chess Club and had just stepped off of a street bus when hit. (source: Chula Vista Star, Jan 9, 1948)
In 1948, Charles “Kit” Crittenden (1935- ), a 13-year-old junior high school student from Raleigh, became the nation’s youngest state champion when he tied for first in the North Carolina Open Tournament. He tied with Russell Chauvenet, but Chauvenet was a resident of Virginia and the title went to Crittenden. Crittenden also won in 1952, 1953, 1956, and 1959. In 1949, he won the Tennessee Open on tiebreak. (sources: Chess Review, Sep 1948, p. 5 and Feb 1949, p. 34)
On January 8, 1949, Nicholas Rossolimo (1910-1975) won Hastings 1948/49. During the tournament, a chess player, exasperated at losing a piece, snapped his jaws together so hard that he broke his upper dental plate. He asked for his game to be adjourned while he hurried off to a dentist for repairs. (source: Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 3, 1949)
In 1949, after getting his PhD in psychology from the University of Southern California, Dr. Reuben Fine (1914-1993) opened up an office in Manhattan as a clinical psychologist. He was available for personality, diagnosis, and psychotherapy. He later founded the Creative Living Center in New York City. (source: Chess Review, Feb 1949, p. 36)
In 1949, Captain (later Major) Edmund Czapski
(1917-1955) won the New Mexico State Championship. He won it again in 1950. He was a B-47 navigator and pilot in the
Strategic Air Command (SAC) who flew out of Walker Air Force Base near Roswell,
NM. During World War II, he earned 12
battle stars. He flew the last air
mission of WW II, acting as navigator of the plane which escorted the Japanese
generals on the way to sign the surrender.
He died on active duty in 1955 in an aircraft accident. (source: Chess
Review, Aug 1949, p. 230)
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