Postcard from Oren to Barav

 
Credit: Prof. Ami Barav

Prof. Barav presented us with the following postcard, to his father (Israel Rabinovich-Barav) from Menachem Oren, with the signatures of the Soviet team in the Amsterdam Olympiad. 

The signatures, as identified by Mr. Kosimov, are:

1. Botvinnik

2. Smyslov

3. Bronstein

4. Kotov

5. Keres

One of the signatures in black, just below Smyslov's, is that of Igor Bondarevsky. The other member of the Soviet team not represented here is Geller. 

A Chess Set Made in Hiding

 

Source: Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

Mr. Herbert Halsegger notifies us of a new exhibit in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews: a chess set made in hiding by Pola Najder during the war. The details are in the link above. 

A Good Photo of the Soviet Team, Amsterdam 1954

 
Credit: see below

Prof. Ami Barav notifies us of the following good photograph of the soviet team, Amsterdam, 1954. From right to left: Bronovski (administrator, holding the cup), Botvinnik, Keres, Bronstein, Smyslov, Geller, Kotov. 

Chess Poem

 

Source: see below

The same book mentioned in the previous post, Eliahu Shahaf's Israel Chess Championship 1961/62, also has a chess poem by H. Ben Shlomo on p. 104. The readers of this blog have done nothing to deserve a translation of this poem, although, to judge by the scenes described, it is not a poem about this tournament, but about the Amsterdam Olympiad, 1954. 

The poem mentions in particular the game Botvinnik - Porat and the international scene, and the claim that the whole Olympiad was really an "internal Jewish battle," despite the various flags, due to the large number of Jews on the leading teams. The poem ends with the claim that the prize "stayed in the family": that is, with the USSR team, three of whose players (Botvinnik, Bronstein and Geller) were Jews. Perhaps the author believed that Smyslov was also Jewish.

Chess Advertisements, Continued

 

Source: see below

Advertisements in old chess books - using a chess theme, of course - are quite common. Here is one, from the inner back cover of Eliahu Shahaf's (editor), Alifut Israel Be'shachmat 1961/2 (Tel Aviv: Mofet, 1962). It is an advertisement for the Egged bus company: "The right move - a trip in Egged." 

The book has quite a few advertisements, in both Hebrew and English. A large majority of the advertisements, for some reason, were for banks or insurance companies.

Photos

Itzchak Aloni

Yosef Porat

Menachem Oren

Eliahu A. Mandelbaum

Israel Yosef Keniazer

Yosef Dobkin

Moshe Czerniak

Shlomo Smiltiner

Source: see below

Sometimes, it is good to remember that chess players are also people, and to find photos of how they looked - or at least, how they looked to the public. Above are photos of the Israeli players of the 1952, 1954, and 1956 Olympiads as given in Mandelbaum and Perstiz's Israel Be'olympiadot Ha'shachmat [Israel in the Chess Olympiads] (Tel Aviv: Mofet, May 1958). They all seem - to judge by the sets and clocks - from the olympiads in which they participated, but this is tentative. 

Photos are, respectively, from the following pages:

Aloni - 90; Porat - 93; Oren - 89; Mandelbaum - 92; Keniazer - 95; Dobkin - 91; Czerniak - 94; Smiltiner - 92. 

Why this order? The photos are from a section of endings they played, and are arranged by the Hebrew alphabetical order, with Oren first and Keniazer last.

A Nice Combination by Macht

 

Source: see below.

This ending, from an undated tournament game between Alexander Macht (White) and Moshe Blass is given by Moshe Czerniak in his Book of Chess, p. 77. The annotations are Czerniak's, illustrating the issue of a critical square:

1.Bxg6+ fxg6 2.Qxg6+ Kh8 3.Nf5 Bd4! 

This move seem to stop White's attack. After 4.Nxh6 Rxe1+ 5.Rxe1 Rf8 6.Nf7+ Rxf7 7.Qxf7 Qxg3+, White will have to work hard to draw. 

4.Re5! 

The winning move. If 4...Bxe5 3.Rd7 and mate in a few moves. If 4...Rxe5?? 5.Qxg7#. The fatal critical square e5 decided the game.

4...Ne6 5.Rxd4! cxd4 6.Rxe6 Black resigned (0-1).

Czerniak's Opinion of Bishops vs. Knights

Source: amazon.com

From Moshe Czerniak's Book of Chess, 1967 edition, p. 186 (my translation):

"It is usual to consider the knight and the bishop as equal in value. But it is known to all that in the opening, the knight is slightly better, while in the ending, the bishop is. The knight is therefore the most active piece in stormy attacks, especially when both knights cooperate." 

Any dissenters? 

Multi-Lingual

 

Source: Czerniak's Book of Chess, pp. 350-351

We have already noted in this blog (see link above) Moshe Czerniak's Book of Chess. One more interesting tidbit is Czerniak's well-know linguistic abilities. The book contains a six-language chess terms dictionary - in Hebrew, English, French, Spanish, German and Russian. Czerniak did, indeed, speak all of these languages.