Fischer in Reykjavik... in 1961

 

Source: Chess Life, vol. 16 no. 2 (February 20, 1961), p. 37

Mr. Herbert Halsegger notifies us that Fischer was in Iceland, winning in Reykjavik... already in 1961, in a small round-robin tournament against the Icelandic players, including the GM Fredrik Oalfsson. 11 years before his rather better known victory against GM Boris Spassky in the same location... 

Source: See below

Terje Kristiansen notifies us of a book, published in Lithuanian, about Jewish chess players from Lithuania. The book, in pdf format (1442 pages) is available on the blog of the Lithuanian Correspondence Chess Federation. Kristiansen notifies us that Eugenijus Paleckis started working on the book in 2008 and published with the help of Boris Rositsan (see full names above). In particular, Alexander Macht is often mentioned. 

We thank Kristiansen for the information and add that, as noted in their email, the blog in question contains a great deal of archival material, including also a compendium of Lithuanian chess history that is nearly 3500 pages! 

More About Yuchtman

 

"Victory in Be'er-Sheva - Mated in Rome," by Aharon Dolev. Source: Yamim Ve'leylot (Days and Nights), Ma'ariv's weekly supplement, 7 September 1973, p. 4 (article on pp. 4-5, 45).

A frequent correspondent sends us this additional information about Jacob Yuchtman, in particular about his time waiting in Rome - like many other Soviet Jews who arrived at, and then left, Israel in the 1970s - in order to enter the USA. The article is very critical of those who left Israel in general and describes their life in Rome as semi-criminal (!), but also notes the blundering treatment of the new immigrants to Israel which led some of them to leave. 

In particular, Dolev gives Yuchtman's own reasons for leaving - to wit, that he was offered "300 Israeli Pounds a month" (a very small sum) as a trainer, which deeply insulted him, especially since he couldn't find any other job except in chess. Dolev is highly critical of the ICF's treatment of Yuchtman and the apparent lack of any reforms after the loss of this talented player. 

Jacob Yuchtman

Source: Shachmat, vol. 12 no. 1, p. 10 (above) and cover (below)

The player Jacob Yuchtman emigrated from the USSR to Israel, and then to Germany before finally settling in the USA. His life and his biography as a "forgotten artist" on the "Tartajubow On Chess II" blog had been brought to my attention by Mr. Herbert Halsegger. 

Yuchtman was never Israel's champion, but he was a (joint) winner of the third Israel Open Championship in December 1972. This is not to be confused with the invitation-only Israel Championship. He is seen as a joint winner with Czerniak in the two photos above, where (on the cover) he is described as a "new hope" for Israeli chess. 

His later life was not successful, chess-wise. He is described in the movie (and the book) Searching for Bobby Fischer as playing all comes in Greenwich village, advertising himself (truly) as a player who beat Tal. 

Ross' Caricatures

Source: Chess Review, March 1965, p. 81

We have noted in this blog Ross' caricature of Itzchak Aloni. Now, Mr. Herbert Halsegger notifies us that the caricature, together with those of many other masters - see list in the bottom of the post under "תוויות" (subjects) - are found in a Chess Review article of the 1964 olympiad, March 1965, pp. 78-81. Two are given above; the rest can be found in the article itself. In particular, there are caricatures of the entire USSR team. 

P.S.

Trying to find more information about Ross, I googled in Hebrew "רוס מאייר" - "Ross illustrator." As it happens, this is the way you spell in Hebrew the independent (if that is quite the word) film maker Russ Meyer, which google gave me a lot of, how shall we say, educational information about (link goes to Wikipedia's biography of him). 

Alla Kushnir

 

Source: Chess Review, April 1964, p. 124

Mr. Herbert Halsegger notes the following nice photo (part of an article by Panov for Chess Review) about Alla Kushnir being "Woman Chessplayer no. 2" in the world.