Herbert Halsegger notes that the Judische Rundschau of 13.8.37, p.11, has a collection of photos from Palestine. One of them is supposed to show two men playing chess. But the players are likely Arab (the fez and clothes suggest) and the board seems to have no chess pieces and a heightened border. This means they are probably playing, not chess, but the popular oriental game of backgammon.
Yehudi Menuchin, the famous violinist, was a chess fan. Naturally interested in Jewish chess in general, the Palestine Post published a friendly game he played on 14.9.45, p. 6. Menuchin lost this game (against Cpl. Aird Thomas) and the final note adds: "every chess player will agree Menuchin is a great violinist."
There's no arguing with that.
Having chess terms, or chess personalities, as items in crosswords isn't rare. But here is something much more unusual. As our frequent correspondent Moshe Roytman notes, in La'merchav, 21.9.60, p. 17, there is an entire crossword made only of chess hints.
The clues range from the "one of the world's chess greats who died young" and "a famous studies composer" to "the first name of the ex-Jerusalem champion" - and even clues such as "owner of a chocolate factory and a great chess fan" and "the first and last name of a shepherd in the lower Galilee, one of the best Israeli problemists." The latter, by the way, is Yechezkel Hillel.
The report adds - on what authority we do not know - that Lasker "planned to settle in the country" (i.e., Israel / Palestine) despite the (correct) fact that he never managed to even visit it. It also adds, less accurately, that Lasker died "more than 40 years ago," which would mean before 1935.
Source: Ma'ariv, 2.9.75, p. 17.
P.S.
For some reason formatting is off and cannot be fixed in this post.
Chess is a notoriously unremunerative occupation, even on the highest levels, and many chess players were poor all their lives. Two lesser-known examples of attempts to help masters are given here, courtesy of Herbert Halsegger.
In Die Stimme, 22.6.33, p. 6, It is noted that the "top player in Palestine," M. Marmorosh, is putting together a collection for Rubinstein in his difficulties. We note that this might have to do with Marmorosh trying to make amends for the Palestinian chess world's failure to pay Rubinstein his agreed fee when he visited, as previously noted in this blog.
In the Tagesbote of 30.4.29, p. 8, notes Halsegger, it says that the Viennese master Mueller, Spielmann, and Hoenlinger [English spelling] wished to arranged a simultaneous display to help the poor and old author Franz Gutmayer. They failed because only two persons had been interested. This is interesting, adds Halsegger, since Gutmayer was a notorious anti-Semite. I add that this is seen for example in Jeremy Spinrad's research.
Moshe Roytman notifies us that Al Ha'mishmar, 1.7.68, p. 2, has an interesting interview with Robert "Bobby" Fischer by Uri Tzahor [ph. spelling].
Some interesting notes is that Fischer claim to make his living from the royalties from his books and his chess column in Boys' Life (see the link for Edward Winter's article on the subject). Fischer notes in particular that he does not give chess lessons or play simultaneous games, which "did not help" those masters who gave them. Fischer "forgot," notes Tzahor, his tournament appearance fees or winnings.
Fischer arrived two an a half hours late to the interview, and to the first question, "Who is Bobby Fischer?" he replied, "the world's best chess player." Given Fischer's later well-known antisemitism (or perhaps paranoia), it is noted that not only did Fischer agree to play in Netanya, but also was satisfied with the conditions and was willing to come again.
He explicitly declines to discuss anything except chess, in particular refusing to answer Tzahor's incautious question about "how a Jew like you can join the Adventists sect?" He blames the Soviets for collaborating against him out of fear. He ended the interview when Tzahor asked what he no doubt considered an intrusive question, "what are you interested in except for chess?"
In a coda to the interview, Tzahor adds his own thoughts. He notes that Fischer likes Fidel Castro and the Cuban people in general - not for political reasons, but due to the warm reception he received there and the legal loophole which allowed him to legally play in Havana, 1965, through telex, despite the American embargo.
Tzahor also adds one of the stories about Fischer's alleged ignorance anything except chess. He claims that "soviet players like to tell" that when Vasco da Gama was mentioned in his presence, Fischer asked "what team does he play on?" Whether this story is factual or not, I make no judgment.
In Ha'olam, 13.1.44, p. 4, the bulletin of the World Zionist Organization, a note by Dr. Helpmann [ph. spelling] who recollects his world tour for Zionism in Jewish communities from South America to Finland. Near Finland, his ship was hit by an iceberg and damaged. The captain disembarked all the passengers on the North Sea's ice, walking them to a small nearby island off the Finnish shore, until their evacuation could be arranged. One of the passengers with Dr. Helpmann in the journey and adventure was no less than Emmanuel Lasker, who was traveling from Moscow through Finland.
"In those endlessly long days, Emmanuel Lasker tried to teach me some chess, and I taught him about Zionism and told him about the new Palestine. The philosopher's sharp wit allowed him to learn more about Zionism from me than I learn chess from him. I was happy to later hear Dr. Emanuel Lasker always remained one of Zionism's friends."
Marmorosh was, as we often stated in this blog, a very active simultaneous performer, but how many games did he actually play? A rough idea can be seen in the following note, from Davar, 1.4.42, p. 5. During the war years chess activity in Palestine was limited, both by the war conditions and the fact that some of the best players were left stranded in Buenos Aires after the 1939 Olympiad. But Marmorosh still did what he could. In this case, it is announced that an upcoming simultaneous display will be his 70th display.
Edward Winter's feature article about chess in Nazi Germany contains, inter alia, a BCM report about the "Aryanization" of chess books (from January 1942). Davar (18.1.42, p. 4) also reported on the matter, crediting the Daily Telegraph:
"London received chess textbooks recently published in Germany. The Daily Telegraph reports, that the names of the chess geniuses Lakser and Steinitz were erased - except when it was stated they were beaten by Aryan opponents."
An interesting report by Nathan Gordose [ph. spelling] about the Kremlin is found in Ha'aretz, 22.8.41, p. 3. Among many other "insider" reports, it is state that "Stalin, when not working, is a chess fan. There are ten chess clubs in the Kremlin, and Stalin is the best player in the place."
I can certainly see that nobody would dare to beat Stalin in chess, but so far as I know there is no record of Stalin being a chess player at all, let alone a strong one. The number of chess clubs in the Kremlin seems excessive as well, to put things no stronger than that. Can any reader add anything to the matter?
"An Ukrainian delegation, wearing the special uniform of an Ukrainian unit set up by the Germans, headed by Ossip Boydunyk, met the general-governor of the German-occupied areas in Poland, Dr. Frank, and gave him a present - chess boards in an original Ukrainian design. They also gave him the Ukrainian people's wishes for a quick German victory and a new order in Europe."
Bad chess jokes are eternal, it seems. Here are two from Omer (Tel Aviv), 15.9.40, p. 2:
A man came to Alekhine in the Warsaw chess Olympiad and - not recognizing him - asked him to play. "I am sorry, but I'm not a amateur," said Alekhine. "That's all right" - said the visitor - "I'm not one of the best players myself!"
"My son wants to be a chess master." "Does he have the talent?" "Yes, he can fast for three days!"
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| Source: Wiener Schach-Zeitung, 3/4 1949, pp. 99-100. |
We have noted in this blog before that Israeli players did their bit to help the country in the wars. Our Austrian correspondent, Herbert Halsegger, notes that their effort was reported also abroad, in this case, in the Wiener Schach-Zeitung. Based on the similarities in the scores, these may well be the same games reported by Shaul Hon in sept. 1948 (see the link just given), but this is not certain.
The article also mentions that Israeli radio has a weekly radio broadcast, again a point mention by Hon at the time, as mentioned previously in this blog. Apparently, chess was beginning to be noticed abroad.
The bottom photo is an advertisement from the August 1976 Haifa's Merchants' General Union publication, asking 'Haifa Merchants' to 'properly decorate their businesses', and that the union can give them appropriate decorating material. They also suggest giving a discount to 'all comers who wear the Olympiad's symbol.'
Source: Haifa City Archive, files no. 23589-01161/11 (top photo) and 23582-01161/4 (bottom photo).
A frequent correspondent sent us another news bulletin of the 1964 chess Olympiad in Tel Aviv. It was recorded by the "Geva Bulletins" (Yomaney Geva) in Herzlia studios.
From an interview with Yosef Porat by Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, Ma'ariv, Oct. 19th, 1962, p. 11, brought to our attention by a frequent correspondent:
Botvinnik is very modest and doesn't demand special treatment... Bobby Fischer the American is the exact opposite: incomparably vain, a show-off. Success had gone to his head...
Najdorf lost to Fischer in the [1962] Olympiad. After the game, in which he blundered, I've heard him say: 'I always told myself there's only one chess player I need to fear - Najdorf.'
Nimzowitsch once played in an international tournament against an old English player and got into difficulties. He muttered [in Yiddish]: 'this alter ganef [literally, 'old thief'] tricked me after all...' the English player understood the entire sentence except for the word ganef [thief] but all present didn't want to explain it to him. So finally he asked if a ganef can be a gentleman or not.
The last anecdote was shared by Porat in good faith, but unlike the other two, he was of course not a witness. Is there any proof of the actual occurrence of this 'once' story?
We are skeptical. First, Nimzowitsch is the subject of quite a few such 'once' stories. Second, the opponent and occasion are not specified. Third, we have read at least one other version. In it, Nimzowitsch himself, and not all present, does not want to explain what ganef means. It is added that he quickly agrees that, yes, a ganef can be a gentleman, calming the English player.
The same correspondent which we just mentioned in the previous post had also notified us of two newsreels made in Israel of the 1964 Tel Aviv Olympiad: one of the start and one of the end of the tournament. He also provided us with a clip of the 1968 Netanya tournament, with - naturally - concentration on Fischer's participation.
A frequent correspondent notified me of the chess stamps' collection of Yoram Lubianiker. It is a collection, not of chess stamps per se, but of chess stamps related in some way to war. The online (and physical) exhibition has 94 different placards, of which this is one - showing the cancellation stamp commemorating the 1935 Olympiad, as well as two more modern stamp and collections about the Olympiad.
Today in the mail arrived a present from Mr. Herbert Halsegger. It is an original participation certificate from the 1976 Haifa Olympiad! We thank Mr. Halsegger for this gift, indeed, and will update with more information about Ms. Wagner when available.
Edited to add: well, the first update, form more material Mr. Halsegger sent us, is that it is Ms. Wagner and not, as we assumed, Mr. Wagner. She also had gotten a certificate for making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the same time.
We have previously posted on this blog a picture of the 1939 Palestine team. Herbert Halsegger had kindly provided us with a much better quality photo (obviously taken on the same occasion, based on the clothes). In particular he noted Salome Reischer, born in Austria, who was part of the Palestinian team in 1939. As her Wikipedia page points out, she (like Karff) didn't stay in Palestine after the war, but went back to her native country, Austria.
Added: Mr. Halsegger notes the photo is found on this web page, of the Associacion Rosarina de Ajedrez, which credits La Nación, sept. 3rd, 1939 for the photos, as well as Edward Winter, David McAlister, and Knud Lysdal.
A frequent correspondent notes that in 1960, the Israeli composer Abel Ehrlich composed a suite 'A Game of Chess', which was performed on Kol Israel radio. The above criticism (La'merchav, Oct. 28th, 1960, p. 6) notes the suite's parts are named 'White opens the game,' 'Black regrets his move,' 'White wins, Black upturns the board in anger' and so on. The work's score is available for purchase at the Israeli Music Institute, which has complete details about it.
We noted before that Siegmund Beutum was a strong player before he came to Palestine. Here is one example: his defeat of no other than Ernst Gruenfeld in 20 moves. The game does not seem to appear in Chessbase's database. We thank Herbert Halsegger for providing us with the source, the Pilsner Tagblatt, 16 March 1930, p. 5.
It is comforting to a "patzer" like myself to note that Black, in a worse but not lost position, loses the game to a one-move blunder - and that he was one of the best players of the era!
Beutum,Sigmund - Gruenfeld,Ernst
Two Knight's Defense [C56]
Trebitsch tournament
Source: see above
Annotations: Pilsner Tagblatt
1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.0–0 Nxe4 6.Re1 d5 7.Bxd5 Qxd5 8.Nc3 Qa5 9.Nxe4 Be6 10.Neg5 0–0–0 11.Nxe6 fxe6 12.Rxe6 Be7 Better is the old 12...Qd5
13.Ne5! Nxe5 14.Rxe7 Rhe8 15.Bd2 Qd5 16.Rxe8 Rxe8 17.Qh5 This positional move is already discussed in [Tartakover's] "The Hypermodern Game". 17...g6 18.Qxh7 Qe4 19.Re1 Qxc2??
Loses the queen. 20.Rc1! Black resigns (1–0).
The above street poster from 1961 was brought to our attention by a frequent correspondent. It advertises both a lesson about opening traps and a simultaneous display (the next day) in the lecture hall in the Philip Murray cultural center in Tel Aviv. Both were given by Dr. Menachem Oren, Israel's first chess champion.
The above quote has been brought to our attention by Herbert Halsegger, an Austrian chess historian. It concerns Berend Lehmann, the most important "court Jew" of his time (1661-1730), being an advisor to the courts of Prussia, Hanover, and Saxony. The memory is of his great-great-grandson, Emil Lehmann. Halsegger's translation (adding the last words of the paragraph, missing in this photo) is:
He earned the favour of KING FRIEDRICH I. through a chessgame! Coming to an audience, the king played chess with PRESIDENT VON RUCK, said to him, he should wait, because his position is bad and he will lose. Berend Lehmann (Bermann) a fine chessplayer had an other opinion and played instead of the king and won!!
Such dramatic stories are often not 100% accurate, being in this case a story from nearly 200 years after the fact. But since Berend Lehmann was a well known archivist, among other things, and his descendant may well have had detailed family information, I am tempted to consider the story genuine.
We add that Mr. Halsegger is engaged in research about, in particular, Jewish players of Ha'koach in Graz. Mr. Halsegger can be reached at: h.halsegger@aon.at .
The above photo is of Brig. Gen. Ehud Gross (from Yochanan Afek's facebook post about him). Gross was not only a general, but in particular the IDF's Chief Education Officer, responsible for the Education and Youth Corps. He was, as Afek and others noted, both a chess master (in the Israeli Chess Federation) and an international judge. He was surely one of the strongest chess players among senior officers.
Above, from Ha'aretz, September 18th, 1938, p. 4, is a nice photo of Mona May Karff, identified as the 'Queen of American Chess' (with the word 'chess' misspelled...) after her victory with a clean score in the 1938 American women's championship.
Here is an odd occurrence. It is often the case that a chess column does not appear in a certain week or day in a paper. But on November 12th, 1937, in Ha'aretz, two different issues of Marmorosh's chess column appeared... both on two different "page 12". A partial explanation is that one of them appeared in the regular (morning) edition and another in the supplemental (evening) edition.
Above is a long article from Davar, April 9th, 1939, p. 5, by Y. Straight (ph. spelling). It looks at the various players in the Lasker club in Tel Aviv during the triple tournament held there: the men's, women's, and youth championship of Palestine. The author praises Marmorosh's organization of the tournament (in the "Palga" coffee house next to the beach), and gives pen portraits of both many of the men and the women playing - Dobkin, Czerniak, Kniazer, Porat (then Foerder), and the woman player Zitolenitzka (ph. spelling).
Charles Jaffe's Chess Primer, a 'spectacularly awful book' according to Edward Winter, was also advertised in Palestine. The advertisement above is from Davar, June 18th, 1937, p. 8. It is a Hebrew translation of the biography from the book. See Winter's article for more details about the rather significant inaccuracies in the description.
The above picture of Abdullah of Transjordan playing chess is well known, but what was the occasion? The answer is found in, of all places, Omer (5 June 1937, front page,) an obscure 2-page paper published in Tel Aviv. The photo, says the caption, was taken when Abdullah played in London with no other than Sir Ronald Storrs, ex-military governor of Jerusalem, when Abdullah was on a private visit.
Storrs and Abdullah apparently played whenever they met. One time they have met in 1922, they have played 'eight games after dinner while the rest of the conversation flagged.' On the same British diplomatic visit, Abdullah also played chess with British diplomats Sir John Philby and with Sir Herbert Samuel (Samuel won). See Mary Wilson's King Abdullah, Britain, and the Making of Jordan (Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 70.
One of the problems with doing history is that even primary sources are often not 100% reliable, to say the least. For example, starting from ca. 1935, Davar proudly claimed it has a chess column in its paper on Fridays. But there is no chess column. Had Marmorosh, the chess column's editor, quit? Not quite: the chess column moved to Thursdays, but the newspaper's table of content was not updated...
We have already noted that Marmorosh was filmed playing a simultaneous display in Tel Aviv in 1935. From the same column as in the previous post, we find the advertisement for that display, adding in large letters, 'This game will be filmed by Carmel-Film for the Newsreel.'
The exact date and time were Saturday, June 22nd, 1935, 2:30 PM, in 'the Palga coffee house on the sea shore' of Tel Aviv. One could also buy tickets 'at I. Vest's flower shop, Allenby 45 [phonetic spelling]'. The results (reported the next week, Ha'aretz, June 28th, p. 13) were Marmorosh winning by +26 =1 -2.
