Trade Union Chess

"Davar's chess players in play against Egged's team." Davar, 26.12.58 , p. 7

In the 1950s Israel, as we mentioned before, organized labor was all-powerful. The Histadrut, which united most of the trade unions, was large enough to organize an important and large regular yearly championship between the unions. On 24.12, Davar reported two days later, the prizes for last year's championship were awarded and the first round of this year's championship began. 

It included ten teams of 4 players each. The contestants included trade unionists from the post office, Davar itself, the national bank (Bank Le'umi), Egged, the bus corporation (misidentified in the caption above as "Eshed", but spelled correctly in the report itself), and more.  

Samushi - Yaron, Israeli Women's Championship, 1956

In continuation from the previous post, from the same source, here is the ending of the second game between Shamushi and Yaron, this time with Yaron as Black:

Shamushi, Esther - Yaron, Ora

Israeli Women's Championship (playoff), Ein Harod, 1956

Annotations: Czerniak

Black's advantage is in the attacking chances on the king's side, the two bishops, and the control of the e-file. 21... Bd6 22. b4 Re1 23. Qf2 Rxf1+ 24. Kxf1 Ba6+ 25. Kg1 Qd8 Black is setting a cunning trap. 26. axb6? Bc5! 

A nice ending. White cannot stop the loss of the queen. White resigns (0-1). (Naturally, 27. Qxc5 Qd1+ 28. Kf2 Qf1#  - A. P.) 

Yaron - Samushi, Israeli Women's Championship 1956

A frequent correspondent points out attention to Moshe Czerniak's Ha'arertz column of February 17th, 1956 (p. 5). Czerniak gives two games - both won by Ora Yaron against Esther Samushi (ph. spellings) in the playoff of the Israeli women's chess championship, 1956. Yaron was clearly the stronger player. Here is the first game. Interestingly, in both cases, Yaron won by winning the opponent's queen. 

Yaron, Ora - Samushi, Esther

Three Knights' Game (C46)

Israeli Women's Championship (playoff), Ein Harod, 1956

Source: Ha'aretz, 17.2.1956, p. 5

Annotations: Czerniak

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Bc5? This is known as a weak move. Now White gets a better position. 4.Nxe5! Bxf2+ The loss of the castling right is unimportant, compared to the control White gains in the central squares.5.Kxf2 Nxe5 6.d4 Qh4+ 7.g3 Qf6+ Such moves only help the opponent's development. 8.Bf4 Ng6 9.Nd5 Qc6 10.Bb5! 

A nice move, winning the queen. White won (1-0).

When not to Ask for Leave

  Source here

The following is from an interview of a chess player who shall, here, remain anonymous. As a new recruit in basic training in the IDF's armored corps, the talented young player he made the mistake of asking his sergeant for special leave. He wanted, he told the sergeant, to play in the Israeli chess championship, for which he was eligible.

The sergeant made the entire platoon stand in attention in the form of the array, with beds, packages, and other heavy equipment brought to take the place of the rooks and other pieces. The sergeant then explained to the platoon and to the player specifically they can expect similar treatment every time someone does the mistake of asking for leave for a stupid reason.