Monday, February 26, 2018

Another Stormy Petrel - and Some Things Never Change.

Source: Palestine Post, April 25th, 1945, p. 2
As Edward Winter noted in Chess Notes 8191, several players were known as "stormy petrels". We add another one -- Israel Barav (then Rabinovich, or Rabinovitch), so named in the Palestine Post's newly-established chess column in 1945. They also published a game by him, reproduce here (game 29, see for full details).

The column, incidentally, suffered from the usual false start. As they note on March 16th, 1945 (p. 6):




Thursday, February 22, 2018

'Based on Barav-Vidor'

Source: Al Ha'Mishmar, Aug. 22nd, 1946, p. 3
What is the first Israeli or Palestinian chess game where a player chose an opening based on a previous game played in the same country? Our first suggestion: the game Yona Margalit - Hanan Ben-Artzi (Staunton gambit, Galillee championship, 1-0) where it is reported the winner 'chose this reply to Black's move based on Rabinovich-Vidor, [Shaul Hon's] Shachmat 1, game 6'.