More Caricatures By Ross

 

Source: see below

Herbert Halsegger notifies us that G. Ross (the initial is taken from the source mentioned below, p. 49) had made many more illustrations of the players in the 1964 Olympiad. The above sketches are taken from the report, "1964 Olympiad - Selected Games" by Hans Kmoch, on pp. 49-53 of Chess Review, February 1965. Many more are found there. See also about Ross in this post.

Israel in the Finals

Source: see below

The same volume of Shachmat mentioned in the previous post had, following the article about Israeli chess history, also a short article reprinted from the Jerusalem Post about Israeli in the 1964 Olympiad's finals (pp. 29-28, again in reverse order). 

It is a rather interesting article - as typical of the period, having little to do with chess itself, and much more with the relation of chess to education, Jews in general, a cure for the "dismal performance" of Israeli athletes in physical sports, and so on. Again, as in the previous post, the name of the player - Zadok Domnitz - was printed in Hebrew. 

Domnitz - A. Labounsky, 1954

One of the relatively lesser-known chess columns was that of Zmanim ("The Times"), a smaller newspaper in Israel than the major papers like Davar, Al Ha'mishmar, and others. The editor of the chess column was A. A. Mandelbaum. This column was brought to our attention from a frequent correspondent. From Zmanim we offer the followin game of the young Zadok Domnitz, when he played in the IDF's team in the Isreali premier league against the older Avraham Labounsky. 

Domnitz, Zadok - Labounsky, Avraham

Pirc Defense (B07)

Israeli Premier (Aleph) League, 1954

Source: Zmanim, 13.8.54, p 8S

Annotator: A. A. Mandelbaum

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be2 Sharper and more promising is 4. f4. 4... Bg7 5. Be3 O-O? 

Routine. Since White didn't apply the usual h3, Nf3, etc. attack and left himself more flexibility in pursuing the attack, Black should have used delaying tactics and defer the castling to a more  appropriate time. 6. h4 e5 Needed is 6... c5 7. dxc5 Qa5 8. cxd6 Nxe4 9. dxe7 Re8 10. Bd2 Nxc3 with compensation for the pawn 7. d5 b5! 8. Bxb5 (8. Nxb5 Nxe4) 8... Nxe4 9. Nxe4 Qa5+ 10. Nc3 Bxc3+ 11. bxc3  xb5 and with the threat of Ba6 Black has nothing to fear. 7. d5 c6 8. g4 Qa5? Correct was 8... cxd5 9. exd5 Qa5. 9. Bd2 Qb6? 9... Qc7 immediately is better. 10. g5 Ne8 11. h5 f5? 

Weakens the g8-a2 diagonal, and loses immediately. More consistent with the position is 11... Nc7.  12. dxc6 Be6 Bc4+ must be stopped at all costs.13. Be3 Qxc6 13... Qxb2 is forbidden due to 14. Na4 Qa3 (14... Qb4+ 15. c3 and wins) 15. cxb7 and wins. 14. Bb5 Qc7 Better is 14... Qc8. 15. hxg6 hxg6 16. exf5 gxf5 17. Qh5 Nc6 18. Qg6 Qc8 19. Rh6 f4? 

Up to now all of Black's moves were forced, but now 19... Nd4 would allow longer resistance. For example 20. Bd3 Bc4, Or 20. O-O-O Nxb5 21. Nxb5 f4 22. Nxd6 Bf5! 23. Nxc8 Bxg6 24. Ne7+ Kf7, etc. 20. Bd3! Threatens Rh8+ followed by Qh7#. 20... Rf5 21. Qxe6+ Enough to win, as we shall see. 21... Qxe6 22. Rxe6 Rxg5 The fight to regain the piece is hopeless. 23. Nf3 Rh5 24. Bd2 Rh1+ 25. Bf1 Rd8 26. O-O-O The Re6 is not in danger. 26... Nc7 27. Rxd6 Rh6

The Re6 rook was protected indirectly: 27... Rxd6 28. Bc4+ And wins the Rh1. 28. Rxd8+ Nxd8 29. Bxf4 A double attack on the Nd8 and Rh6. 29... exf4 30. Rxd8+ Bf8 31. Bc4+ Kh7 32. Rd7+ Black resigns (0-1).

Israeli Championship,1968-1969

Source: Sarah Aloni's collection

Above are some nice photos of the players in the Israeli Open Championship, 1968-1969, which took place in Be'er Sheva, Israel. Can anybody help identify the players? I believe the seond image from the top has Malchiel Peretz (white) playing Yair Kraidman, and the third from the top might have Uzi Geller (white) playing Zadok Domnitz, but I might be wrong.

Edited to add: A frequent correspondent suggests that in the top photo, we have Avraham Kaldor (white) playing  the old Moshe Blass. Another correspondent suggests that Geller's opponent is not Domnitz, but rather  Ya'akov Bernstein ("Ya'akov" is Gaige's preferred spelling in Chess Personalia). He also suggests In the second picture from the top is the young Michael Porat (son of Yosef Porat) playing against Yoel Aloni, Be'er Sheva open 1972. 

I believe the second correspondent is surely correct about Bernstein, but am less sure about Porat-Aloni. This can be resolved by looking at the list of participants in the 1968-1969 vs. the 1972 tournament. I am quite certain the photo is from the 1968-1969 tournament because of the source -- a set of photos from that tournament in Sarah Aloni's collection. But it's not inconceivable a photo from a later tournament was misplaced in her photo album. 

"Another 100,000 Israeli Pounds"

Source: La'Merchav,  Oct. 8th, 1964, p. 3

The same frequent correspondent notes that Eliyahu Fasher reports in a long article in La'Merchav on the government's agreement, due to the great success of the Olympiad's preparation, to donate another 100,000 Israeli pounds to the proejct. Fasher notes that chess is Israel's 'top sports export'. The article also has a good quality photo of  Zadok Domnitz. 

A Snapshot

Source: La'Merhav Feb. 12, 1960, page 8 

A frequent correspondent notifies us of the interesting "snapshot" of the Israeli first league in 1960. We see the "old guard" in Jerusalem's Rubinstein club: Czerniak, Dobkin, Mohilever and others. We see a "mixture" in Tel Aviv's Lasker club: Aloni and Oren, but also the young Domnitz. The IDF's and the students' teams naturally feature young players: Kraidman, Guti, Stepak, and others. Tel Aviv's Reti has the "old timers" Smiltiner and Barav but also the young Persitz in the first board. 

Of particular interest is the Bat Yam club, which has Gereben in the first board, but the article (by La'Merhav's chess columnist, Fasher) notes that he already left the country -- and that Bat Yam also lost Ya'akov Mashian, the Iranian-Jewish master, 'who also left the country'.

Mashian returned to Israel in the mid-70s (at least according to Wikipedia), and -- incidentally -- played with Stepak a 193-move game in the Israeli championship semifinals (Stepak won, 1:0). This game, according to Tim Krabbe, was the longest recorded game ever played for seven years (1980-1987), and is still the longest game in time -- 24.5 hours -- 'a record it will forever hold'.

As for Gereben, he had emigrated to Israel in 1959 and played in the 1959 Israeli championship (coming in second), but left the country soon afterwards, as Fasher already notes. Ha'Tzophe of Oct. 9th, 1959, p. 4, notes our correspondent, says the 'Erno Gereben (Grünfeld)' had come to the country shortly before the championship began. Can any reader explain why 'Grünfeld'?

Edited to add: a frequent correspondent noted that the English-language Wikipedia entry for Gereben has his birth name as "Ernest [or Ernst] Grünfeld' and adds:

This name change, with other survival skills, probably helped him survive the holocaust. It was printed in the Israeli press that during one of the Olympiads, a Hungarian player, in a worse position, whispered to the Israeli player (in Yiddish) 'I am a Jew', and the game was drawn. 

It turned out to be Gereben. Based on the details given by our correspondent, an Olimpbase and Chessbase search reveals the game is probably Gereben - Kniazer, Amsterdam 1954, ending in a draw in the following position:

1959 Blitz Championship

Source: Ma'ariv, Nov. 2nd, 1959, p. 12

We have just mentioned the 1959 championship. The poster notes that, among other things, there will be a blitz championship. Moshe Roytman adds a link describing the results: the winner was Raafi Persitz, the youngest Israeli master at the time (7.5/8, drawing with Gereben) and that the 2nd and 3rd places were held by the two other young masters, Guti and Domnitz -- a full 2.5 points behind him.

From Zvi Bar-Shira's Reporting on the 1964 Olympiad.

Credit: Ma'ariv, 12/11/1964, p. 3ff. See also below. 

On 12/11/1964, Ma'ariv's reporters Zvi Bar Shira (who had given me the right to photograph the newspaper articles in his collection) and Avner Bar-Nir reported a sensation: for the second time ever, an Israeli (or, for that matter, pre-state Palestinian) player had drawn (and as black, too!) with a reigning world champion.

In previous Olympiads the Israeli (or Palestinian) players had managed many "upsets", and Porat had drawn with Botvinnik in the Amsterdam, 1954, while Czerniak drew with Capablanca in the 1939 Olympiad and with Botvinnik in the 1956 one (as a commentor reminds me). But this is the first time any of the "youngsters" -- not of the group that came to Palestine in the 1930s or 40s --had managed the same.

The photo shows Zadok Dominitz (the caption mistakenly claims it is Kreidman) shaking Petrosian's hand after the draw; the headline, in large letters, notes: 'DOMINITZ - PETROSIAN: DRAW!'.

Chess on the Radio

Credit: Occam's Razor blog

A frequent contributor had returned from the evening in honor of Shimon Kagan, the first native-born winner of Israel's national championship (in 1967) among other achievements, had noted that those who arrived had reminiscences of the "good old days" -- and, in particular, noted the importance of radio in Israeli chess. They recalled how they used to listen to chess programs on the radio, and when Zadok Domnitz had drawn with world champion Tigran Petrosian in the 1964 Olympiad held in Israel, this item opened the radio's regular news program.

A few more details: there were already regular chess radio columns in the 1940s before the declaration of the state of Israel in Kol Yerushalayim ["Voice of Jerusalem"], the British-mandate run radio channel. After the founding of Israel and of the national Kol Israel ["Voice of Israel"] channel, Shaul Hon ran the chess column for a few years, followed by Moshe Czerniak. Czerniak's programs were quite advanced: in 1951 he ran an entire series of broadcasts about chess endings, including "Queen vs. Pawn" (14.2.1951) and "Bishop vs. Pawns" (11.4.1951), to name two.

Edited to add: a (different) frequent contributor notes that Aviad Yafe [link in Hebrew], an Israeli politician who was inter alia the head of the Israeli Chess Federation, had given an interview in the 1970s where he remembered how, in 1936 or 1937, as a 13-year-old, he served as an assistant to Czerniak in producing his radio column. This makes it likely that Hon took over when Czerniak, who left for the Argentine Olympiad in 1939 and only returned in the early 50s to Israel, was not in the country. Hon, apparently, gave the column "back" to Czerniak by the 1950s. The same reader also notes Davar mentions as recently as 1964 regular chess columns in the radio and provided us with the link (below).

Also, from Yochanan Afek: 

During  Haifa olympiad 1976 there was a special national radio studio there run by  professional presenters like Amos Goren and Khaiuta Dvir with a daily program broadcasted at 23.00. Moshe Czerniak was the chess expert summerizing the daily round and  interviewing  celebrities of whom I can remember the good old Edward Lasker. My own role in that studio was to announce every night the results of the day to the entire nation.

Sources (In Hebrew): "A Listener's Comments" [B. Ron], Davar, 21.1.1949; "A Radio Chess Department" [Shaul Hon], 29.10.1948; also the weekly "radio guide" published in Davar (Friday supplement) for details concerning Czerniak's programs. "The New Kol Israel Schedule", Davar, 27.3.1964 (chess is mentioned in the last line [link in Hebrew]); personal email from Afek and a contributor.

Why I Created this Blog

Image credite: Hangvirus.

Without comment, I am giving here the English-language version of two letters published in Ha'aretz on November 12th, 2010, in reply to Natan Sharansky's claim in the same paper on Oct. 29th that there was hardly any chess activity in Israel before the 1980s. This blog exists, partially, so that such mistakes will not be repeated...


With all due respect

Regarding "King for a day," Haaretz Magazine, October 29

In Eli Shvidler's article about Alik Gershon, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky says, "When I came to Israel, they played backgammon here" and "Chess is part of the culture of sport that the mass aliyah from the Soviet Union brought with it." The mention of backgammon to insinuate that sport in Israel existed only at a "primitive" level does an injustice to the people who lived here.

With all due respect to the immigrants from the Soviet Union, chess matches were being held in Israel long before they arrived, even before the founding of the state, and in 1935 and 1938 Israel took part in the Chess Olympics. In 1945, my father, the late Shaul Hon, was a major chess organizer, and after the state was founded called for chess to be included in the education system. In 1958, on the state's 10th anniversary, the first international chess competition was held, and other international competitions have been held in Israel since then.

Aliyah from the Soviet Union did indeed bring many strong chess players, but this began with immigration in the 1970s from the Soviet Union; the infrastructure was in place long before that.

Orna Shkedi

Petah Tikva


Cultural snobbism

Natan Sharansky's cultural snobbism knows no bounds, and is especially galling coming from someone who bears the title of Chairman of the Jewish Agency. In one stroke, Sharansky erases the glorious history of chess in Israel, which dates all the way back to the British Mandate period.

Sharansky would do well to learn a little more about the history of Israeli chess. A brief overview: ninth place in the 1939 Chess Olympics, seventh place in the 1954 Chess Olympics (including a 2:2 tie against the team from the Soviet Union ), second place in the 1965 Chess Olympics for students. And here are a few names worth remembering: Yosef Porat, Moshe Czerniak, Zadok Domnitz, Raafi Persitz, Shimon Kagan, Dr. Menachem Oren, Yitzhak Aloni. To the best of my knowledge, all are acclaimed chess players and all are Jewish Israelis, even if they weren't born in the countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.

Michael Edelman

Petah Tikva

An International National Championship

Jews came to Israel, or Palestine, from many countries. In the 1961/62 Israeli chess championship the result was that the players were, in effect, an international team: Jewish emigrants from all over the world, as well as native-born Israelis.

This could be seen in the different languages used to record the moves, according to Eliahu Shahaf's (ed.) book, Alifut Israel be'Shachmat 5722 [Israeli Chess Championship 1961/62] (Tel Aviv: "Mofet" press, 1962), p. 90:

Rudy Blumenfeld - English
Amiel Harel - Hebrew
Zadok Domnitz - Descriptive English
William Potasman - German
Moshe Czerniak - Spanish
Itzchak Aloni - Hebrew
Raffi Ruppin - Hebrew
Zelig Chessakov - Russian
Aveshalon Yosha - Hebrew and Latin [sic]
Yedael Stepak - Hebrew
Israel Gat - Hebrew
Yuval Ron - French
Ya'akov Bernstein - Hebrew
Amir Helman - Hebrew
Yosef Porat - German.

That's from six to eight different languages, depending on what exactly was meant by 'Latin', and whether to count 'descriptive English' notation as a separate "chess language" than 'English' (here meaning algebraic English notation).

Lowest-Rated Player to win National Championship?

Zadok Domnitz. Photo Credit: Shachmat [Israeli Chess Association's magazine], Year 2 No. 5 (Dec. 1963), p. 6.

The Israeli chess championship of 1961/62 (officially, of the Hebrew year H'TSKV -- 5,722 -- which began in September 1961) caused a sensation: the three winners (with 9.5/15) included not only IM Yosef Porat (who played in all previous championships, from 1935 on, only once finishing below 3rd place) and Itzchak Aloni (a player in the championships since 1945 -- which he won -- finishing below 3rd only twice), but the 28-year-old Zadok Domnitz. Not only did he not have any FIDE title, he was not even an Israeli Chess Association master -- merely a 'senior candidate master'. The other participants were mostly ICA masters, including two FIDE IMs (Porat and Moshe Czerniak).

Domnitz is probably one of the lowest-rated players to ever win a national championship, at least in countries where chess is popular. His victory caused quite a sensation, although Aloni eventually won the championship on the three-way tie-breaking match (scoring 2 /2). (To avoid a possible misunderstanding, 'low rated' does not imply 'weak'!)