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.

Palestine Tournaments in Chess Review, 1947

 

Source: Chess Review, March 1947, p. 9

In Chess Review, 1947, there is a short - but detailed - report on three tournaments in Palestine. One was the Tel Aviv championship (held, we add, in the "Lasker" chess club), mentioning in particular - with slightly variant spellings - A. Labounsky, Mandelbaum, Keniazer and Porat [Foerder]. It also mentions the "Jewish settlements" tournament - presumably the one of the communal settlements - and the upcoming 1947 championship, which eventually did not take place (the next championship, of the new state of Israel, took place in 1951) but mentions Hon, Aloni, and Rabinovich-Barav, as well. 

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).

Kniazer - Blass, 1952.

From the same sources as the previous post, Israel Kniazer's win agains Moshe Blass. An interesting point is that while the tournament was called a tacharut amanim (masters' tournament) by Fasher and most others, Kniazer always insisted that the tournament, in which he did quite badly (2.5/9), was actually a tacharum immunim (training tournament). The two are very similar in Hebrew. 

'Training tournament' is also the name under which the tournament it also appears in Kniazer and Persitz's collection of Kniazer's games. Was this merely an excuse for a bad result? Perhaps, but it cannot be denied that Kniazer deliberately used many risky opening ideas in this tournament. 

Curiously, Persitz himself calls the tournament a 'masters' tournament' in his own, earlier tournament book (Tacharut Amanim Be'shachmat [Masters' Chess Tournament], 1953, by Persitz and Mandelbaum). The latter book reveals (p. 23) that the game took place in the third round, and adds that 6. g4?! is Keres' idea. 

Kniazer, Israel Yosef - Blass, Moshe 

Sicilian Scheveningen  (B81)

Masters' (Training?) Tournament, 1952, rd. 3. 

Sources: La'merchav 6.6.58, Ha'derech Le'nitzachon Be'shachmat pp. 83-84.

Annotators: Fasher (also punctuation) and Persitz. 

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 The Schwenigen variation, which gives Black a solid but passive position (Fasher). 6. g4?! Typical of Kniazer's style (Fasher). 6... a6 7. Bg2 Be7 Better was 7... Qc7. White confused his opponents, who makes many inaccuracies (Fasher.) 8. g5 Ng8? An inexplicable withdrawal. The correct move is 8... Nfd7 (Fasher). 9. h4 Nd7 10. f4 Qc7  1. f5 Ne5 12. O-O Bd7 13. fxe6 fxe6 14. Bh3 Qc8? Correct is}  14... Qc4 (Fasher.) 15. Nce2 Bd8 The idea is to clear the e7 square for the g8 knight, but "invites" the following combination (Persitz, p. 84).

16. Nxe6 Bxe6 17. Qxd6 Ne7 18. Qxe6 Qc5+ 19. Kh1 Qxc2 This is Fasher's score as well as Persitz's in Tacharut Amanim Be'shachmat, p. 24. In Ha'dererch Le'nitzchon Be'shachmat, p. 84, Persitz has 18.Qxc2 immediately instead. 20. Qxe5 Qxe2 21. Qe6! and Black resigned (1-0)  since mate is unavoidable without sacrificing the queen (Fasher).

Czerniak about the 1951 Championship, and Prizes

 4 .Source: Al Ha'Mishmar 6/4/1951 p

In Al Ha'Mishmar, Czerniak gives an interesting view of the 1951 championship. Before this, the editor, Eliyahu Shahaf, adds that the tournament took a long time -- two months -- as opposed to the Passover, 1939 tournament where the "Lasker" club organized six tournaments in one weekend. 

He then publishes a long interview with Czerniak. The latter overviews the strengths and weakenesses of the players, noting that, overall, is a 'second level international tournament', comparing it to Venice, 1947 (won by Tartakover) or the Hastings tournaments in England.

One of the reasons the tournament took long is that the games were played in many locations. The result was a large number of special prizes. As Shahaf notes in the same column:

Oren also won the beauty prize for the second round in Haifa (against Czerniak) and for the best result in the last five rounds (4 out of 5). Kniazer won a prize for the most beautiful game for the first round in Haifa (against Glass) and Smiltiner -- the beauty prize for a game in Hadera (against Fischer), and Braun -- the beauty prize for a game in Rishon Le'Tziyon (also against Fisher). Glass also won a special prize for the shortest game (23 moves, against Braun). The overall beauty prize was won by Dobkin for his game against Mandelbaum.

This makes for five beauty prizes, a special prize for the shortest game (presumably, the shortest decisive game), a prize for best performance in the last five rounds, as well as (as Davar reports, April 6th, 1951, p. 12 of the weekly supplement) five "regular" prizes for overall placement as 1st to 5th. making it a total of eleven prizes for an 13-person tournament, or -- since (as Davar reports) the fifth prize was shared by three players, 13 prizes in a 13-person tournament. 

A Snapshot

Who, exactly, were the masters, or international masters, or gradnmasters, etc. in Israel in the 1950s? Wonder no more: the complete list was, helpfully, given by Moshe Czerniak in first issue of 64 Mishbatzot (Feb. 1956, p. 17):

Source: see above

It is noted how these include the "old guard" who was in Palestine before the war (Porat, Czerniak, Barav, Knaizer, Mandelbaum, Macht, Fischer, Dobkin, Beutum, and Smiltiner and Blass-- we are using Gaige's spelling), but also the new arrivals, Aloni, Dyner, and Oren, as well as new blood, in particular, Perstiz. This did not mean other talented players did not exist; only they didn't yet have time to gain titles.

This is listed in the same page has an article by a visitor, Saul Wachs (USA), who notes how chess advanced in Israel and, in particular, its popularity in the kibbutzim and other agricultural communes, not just in the large cities.

Chess by Phone

Source: Davar, Jan. 4th, 1952, p. 22

We have previously noted in this blog that chess was occasionally on the radio in Palestine (possibly) and (the early years of) the state of Israel. As the article in Davar notes (in Hebrew), another version of "distance" chess was a match by telephone, which took place on Dec. 27th, 1951, and arranged by Kol Israel, where, as we saw before, Hon was employed at the time.

The games are reported (verbally) in the article. The summary is (from first to fourth board):

Jerusalem                      Tel Aviv

Czerniak        0            Aloni                1

Dyner                           Kniazer            'Adjourned with Kniazer a piece up'

Porat             0.5          Mandelbaum   0.5

Glass                            Hon                   'Adjourned in a drawn position'

Hon, who wrote the article, adds that the success of the telephone match means also that one should arrange "pure" radio matches between Israeli and other teams abroad. He adds the interesting point that such matches are difficult for the players since they cannot see the opponent's expression, which is often very important.

Another interesting point is that the photographs of the players are arranged by board and team as in the list -- i.e., Czerniak's photo is at the top left, Kniazer's second from the top on the right, etc. The two bottom photographs show Yochanan Maroz (l.) and Y. Ish-Horowitz (ph. spelling), who were the communication men in Tel Aviv, and David Carmeli (ph. spelling) who received and sent moves in Jerusalem.

Finally, these photographs were taken (notes the article) in Tel Aviv by S. Frank (ph. spelling) and in Jerusalem by W. Brown (ph. spelling). It is of some importance that these very same photographs were often re-printed in numerous Israeli-printed articles and books for years afterwards.

Kniazer's Dates

Yisrael Yosef Kniazer. Source: E. A. Mandelbaum & R. Persitz,  Yi'srael Be'Olympiadot: Helsinki - Amsterdam - Moskva - Skirat Ptichot U'Mivchar Siyumim [Israel at the Chess Olympiades [sic], Helsinki - Amsterdam - Moscow - A Review of the Openings and Selected Endings. Tel Aviv: Yeduha Marcus Press, 1958, p. 95.

Several correspondents, including Moshe Roytman, notified me that Tel Aviv's Chevra Kadisha web site (link in Hebrew) notes that Kniazer had been born on April 1st, 1894, and died on May 4th, 1958. Thanks to all the correspondents!