Graphic Design

 

Persitz and Keniazer's Ha'derech Le'nizachon Be'sachmat [The Way to Chess Victory]. Credit: Yakov Zusmanovich.

Van Amerongen's 133 Malcodot Ba'ptichot [133 Opening Traps]. A. P.'s photo.

 

Van Amerongen's 222 Tachbulot [222 Combinations]. A. P.'s photo.

Above are covers of three chess books printed in Israel, respectively, in 1959 (Ha'derech Le'nizahor Be'sachmat), 1973 (133 Malcodot Ba'ptichot, 2nd edition) and 1963 (222 Tachbulot, 1st edition.) The publication dates and more information are found in the links above. 

It is obvious that the same graphic design cover was used in all three books, and indeed, a similar shade of green was used in the 1959 and 1974 books. Are there other similar cases of unrelated chess books - not even, in this case, all from the same author - using the exact same graphic design? 

Israel Zilber

Roman Dzindzichashvili as Israel's champion, 1978. Source: Shachmat vol. 17 nos. 6-7 (June-July 1978), front cover. 

We already mentioned in this blog the case of Soviet Bloc Jews who came to Israel and, from there, moved to the USA. We mentioned in particular Jacob Yuchtman. Another, more famous, player who did the same was Roman Dzindzichashvili. A third, tragic, case is that of Israel Zilber. 

In Fred Waitzkin's Searching for Bobby Fischer, Zilber (pp. 21-22 of the 1993 Penguin edition) was known as the "sheriff" (due to his odd clothes) and lived as a homeless man in Washington Square Park. Waitzkin notes Zilber had beaten Tal "who would soon become world champion" in a famous game - probably in the Latvian championship, 1958. (Tal became world champion in 1960.) Zilber also beat Tal in the 1952 Latvian championship and lost to him in the 1953 one. 

Presumably, these are the games that Zilber meant when he said that he had beaten Tal "two out of three times" (Waitzkin, ibid, p. 22.) Zilber and Tal played other games. Two are given by Hanon Russell in "The World's Chess Archives" (Chess Life, August 1998, pp. 48-52, 55-56). Russell presents a win by Zilber in 1949, and a loss in 1950, both in youth events. Tal was 13 in 1949, Zilber 16. 

An international master, Zilber was the strongest player in the park - until Dzindzichashvili arrived, when, no longer being to be the strongest player in the park, he moved to a smaller one (Waitzkin, ibid, pp. 173-174). In Israel, Zilber had played in the 1978 Israel championship, ending in 4th place - a tournament his later "nemesis," Dzindzichashvili, had won. 

Zilber, from Waitzkin's commentary, was mentally ill, suffering from hallucinations and showing odd behavior. Perhaps he even froze to death as a homeless man in New York in the 1980s - although this is an "unconfirmed report," like other stories about Zilber. Unsurprisingly, it is difficult to find reliable information concerning Zilber's life since the 1980s.