Boris Spassky, 1937-2025

 

Gligoric (l.) vs. Spassky, 1965. Source: see below.

Boris Spassky was the 10th chess world champion. He was also, simply put, a gentleman. He was always generous and gallant. In particular, his willingness to continue the match with Fischer in 1972 after Fischer lost the first game and forfeited the second was one reason the match was not aborted. Edward Winter had updated his web page about Spassky with a link to an "exceptionally fine" obituary by Leonard Barden, from which this photo is taken. Needless to say, Winter's web page is intended merely as a sampler of the great amount of material in Chess Notes about the 10th world champion. 

Almost all the obituaries note that Spassky was, even more than a chess player, a gentleman: generous to other players, including his opponents. To give only examples from Winter's page noted above, Spassky was very generous towards Fischer, pointed out Keres as a "particularly kind and gentlemanly colleague," and his evaluation of Petrosian was higher than that of some other masters, notably Botvinnik, to say nothing of the chess public which often belittled Petrosian (see also Winter's page about Petrosian for more details.) 

It is a bit odd to speak in this way of a world champion, but it seems that in the popular perception among the rank-and-file players, Tal and Fischer - due to their aggressive and perhaps more accessible style - are seen as superior to the "loser" (to Fischer) Spassky and "weak" Petrosian. As if Spassky's 1972 match was the whole of his career, or Petrosian is to be faulted, as Winter notes, for not playing in Tal's style. But in the case of one of the truly great players, like Spassky, I am certain history will remember him more kindly than the often-jingoistic press and potboilers falsely portrayed him.

Interestingly, it was claimed that Spassky is Jewish - but as the Jewish News Syndicate reports, Spassky himself denied this and was "mystified" how this rumor was circulated. It should be noted that, as the same source notes, Spassky rather foolishly signed an infamous 2005 antisemitic petition, but he distanced himself from it almost immediately.

Spassky was in Israel for the 1964 Olympiad. He was occasionally mentioned in this blog (check "Spassky" in the subject list for details). The chess world lost not just a legendary player, but a gentleman. 

Samuel Schweber

Source: Chess Review, July 1955, p. 198

The above note was brought to our attention by Herbert Halsegger. It should be noted that Samuel Schweber had also played in the 1964 Olympiad in Tel Aviv, and in a first-day postcard signed his name in Hebrew, as noted previously in this blog. He also signed his name in Hebrew in Eliezer Pe'er's notebook in the 1960 Olympiad. Mr. Halsegger also notifies us of a game between Petrosian and Schweber with notes by Najdorf, found (in Spanish) on this web page, with nice photographs of both.

 

Another News Bulletin of the 1964 Olympiad

 

A frequent correspondent sent us another news bulletin of the 1964 chess Olympiad in Tel Aviv. It was recorded by the "Geva Bulletins" (Yomaney Geva) in Herzlia studios. 

Signatures

 

The above is a set of signature of chess players who played in the 1964 Olympiad in Tel Aviv. How many can you recognize? 

The selection is from an article about the players' "signature habits" by Aryeh Lin (ph. spelling), Davar, 29.11.1964, p. 4. The author notes that in this Olympiad, the usually cagey soviet players signed more readily than in previous Olympiads, due to the "heartwarming" atmosphere at the Olympiad. He notes that Petrosian is hard to get to sign, and that in general when the soviet players do sign, they do so between other signatures, perhaps so as to not have their signature misused. Reshevsky on the other hand offered a fan to sign either in Hebrew or in English, and waited with the pen in his hand "for more customers." 

The reporter finishes with a trick he learned: to get signatures, use an envelope - not regular paper - and write a few fake signatures on it before you show it to the first "victim," who will find it hard to refuse if others already signed! 

Simul Results

The Medal of the 1964 Olympiad. Credit: Wikipedia.

We have already mentioned the simultaneous displays the USSR team gave in Israel in 1964 here, here, and here. We is some more information about simuls games, from the same source (Herut, 4.12.1964, p. 7) mentioned in the last post, with date when available. The last link, noting Smyslov's exhibition in Rishon Le'Tziyon, reports slightly different results (+37 =5 -2) than the one's reported in Herut. Presumably the latter, higher figure which represents more complete results. 

Szabo (Hungary):

Tel Aviv University, 30.11, +28 =3 -2. 

Lehavot Ha'Bashan, +20 =1.

Kfar Masarik, +23 =3 -1.

Petrosian:

Bat Yam, 28.11, +7 =2 -1 ("against top players.")

Smyslov: 

Bar Ilan University, 27.11, +29 =8 -3

Rishon Le'Tziyon, 28.11, +32 =6 -2 

Botvinnik: 

Holon, 27.11, +21 =4 ("an excellent result.")

Petrosian - Israeli Players, 0.5:1.5

Edward Winter noted the following in his review of Alexander Alekhine’s Chess Games, 1902-1946 (Leonard M. Skinner and Robert G.P. Verhoeven, Jefferson (NC): McFarland, 1998):

[A] major attraction will be the hundreds of simultaneous games, which may be regarded as the chess artist’s pencil sketches... Not unexpectedly, Alekhine’s losses are over-represented in the book, because of the tendency of parochial columnists to publish the club hero’s isolated or fluke defeat of the maestro. Over the years, how many chess masterpieces have been lost through journalistic provincialism?

This is indeed true, as can be seen by the two simultaneous games played by Petrosian, played after the close of the 1964 of the Tel Aviv Olympiad, published by Mordechai Rosenfeld in his chess column  (Herut, 4.12.64, p. 7). 

But nevertheless, it depends how the master's "isolated or fluke defeat" - or draw - occurred. Was it good play from his opponent? Here are two games, one a draw (against Rosenfeld himself), and the other a defeat by the "talented Ramat-Gan player", Avraham Kaldor, who also "drew against Smyslov" the day before. The draw is unremarkable, but Kaldor's win is interesting - in particular, giving back an exchange to simplify into a winning ending. 

Petrosian, Tigran - Rosenfeld, Mordechai

Sicilian Rossolimo (B30)

Simultaneous display, Ramat Gan, 29.11.64

Source: Herut,  4.12.1964, p. 7

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 e5 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. O-O Bd6 6. Na3 Be6 7. d3 h6 8. Nc4 Qc7 9. Nxd6+ Qxd6 10. a4 a5 11. b3 Ne7 12. h3 O-O-O 13. Be3 g5 14. Nd2 Rhg8 15. Nc4 Bxc4 16. dxc4 b6 17. Qxd6 Rxd6 18. Rfd1 Rgd8 19. Rxd6 Rxd6 20. Kh2 f5 21. exf5 Nxf5 22. Re1 Nd4 23. Bxd4 exd4 24. Kg3 

24...Rf6 25. f3 Kd7 26. Kg4 b5 27. Kh5 b4 28. Re4 Rd6 29. Re2 d3 30. cxd3 Rxd3 31. Rb2 Rd6 32. h4 gxh4 33. Kxh4 Ke6 34. f4 Kf5 35. Rf2 Rd3 36. g4+ Kg6 37. Re2 Rxb3 38. Re6+ Kg7 39. Rxc6 Rb1 40. Rb6 b3 41. Kg3 b2 42. Kg2 Rc1 43. Rxb2 Rxc4 44. Rb7+ Kf6 45. Rb6+ Drawn (0.5-0.5)

Petrosian, Tigran - Kaldor, Avraham

Symmetrical English (A34)

Simultaneous display, Bat Yam, 27.11.64

Annotations: Rosenfeld

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c5 3. g3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Bg2 Nc7 6. Nc3 Nc6 7. O-O e5 8. b3 Be6 9. Ne1 Nd5 10. Bb2 Be7 11. Na4 b6 12. f4 exf4 13. gxf4 f6 14. Rc1 Rc8 15. a3 Nd4 16. e3 Nc6 17. e4 Nc7 18. Nf3 Na5 19. Rc3 Nb5 20. Re3 Nd4 21. Bxd4 cxd4 22. Rd3 b5 23. Rxd4 Qc7 24. Nc3 Bc5 25. b4 Bxd4+ 26. Nxd4 Qb6 27. Qh5+ Ke7 28. bxa5 Qxd4+ 

29. Rf2 Rc5 30. Qh4 h6 31. h3 Kf7 32. Kh2 Rf8 33. Bf3 g5 34. fxg5 Qe5+ 35. Kg2 Qxg5+ 36. Qxg5 hxg5 37. Bg4 Rd8 38. Bxe6+ Kxe6 39. Nd5

39... Rdxd5!! 40. exd5+ Rxd5 41. Re2+ Kf7 42. Kf3 f5 43. Rg2 Rd3+ 44. Ke2 Rxh3 45. Rxg5 Kf6 46. Rg8 Rxa3 47. Rb8 Rxa5 48. Ke3 Ke5 49. d4+ Kd5 50. Rd8+ Kc6 51. Rc8+ Kd7 52. Rf8 b4 53. Rb8 Ra3+ 54. Kf4 a5 55. Kxf5 b3 56. Ke5 a4 57. Kd5 Ra2 58. Rb7+ Kc8 59. Rb4 b2 60. Kd6 a3 61. Rc4+ Kb7 62. Rb4+ Ka6 63. Kc6 Ka5 White resigns (0-1) 

Obituaries and Congratulations

Source: Sachmat, Vol. 17 no. 2 (#183)

A frequent correspondent of ours notes the obituary of  Ya'akov Gavish, the late Haderah (Is.) chess player and organizer, not only in his city but in the Ha'Poel sports organization and correspondence chess. The writer of the editorial, Zalman Gurevich, was the treasurer of the ICF in the 50s and 60s, after Dr. Menachem Oren resigned. 

The curious historical part of the obituary is that Gavish was the manager of the local Ha'Poalim bank in Hadera, and that without his contributions and those of others in financial circles, the ICF could never afford to send teams to the Olympiads in the 50s and 60s. The entire ICF's budget at the time, notes Gurevich, was based on voluntary contributions from well-wishers. 

In addition, the page has a congratulatory message for Roman Dzindzichashvili for his victory in the 1977/1978 international tournament in Hastings (ahead of ex-world champion Petrosian and many other top players). Understandably, the same issue has him on the cover, stating 'Roman Dzindzichaschvili -- I came, I saw, I conquered', the latter statement also in the original Latin.

Yair Kreidman -- 66 years of active high-level chess

Credit: see below.

As the Israeli Chess Federation's web site reports (Hebrew), GM Yair Kraidman (left in the photo) had just played and achieved a very respectable 9th place in a large international tournament in Malta.

This marks his 66th year playing in serious events, starting from the very first Israeli junior championship, 1950, where he shared 1st place with Raafi Persitz (3.5/6), Persitz being declared the winner on the tiebreak, as Kraidman himself notes in an interview on the ICF's web site (Hebrew).

What is more, It is easy to find in numerous online databases that Kraidman has been playing regularly in international events, and this is not a one-off return, but a continuation of a constantly active career. The article also notes, inter alia, that this year marks Kraidman's 40th years as a GM. While this is not a record of chess activity per se, of course, it is quite noteworthy. Congratulation to Kraidman for his longevity!

The interview, for Hebrew speakers, is worth reading in its entirety, especially in its comparisons of Israeli chess (and chess in general) today as opposed to in the past. For example, he notes that in the past chess - even in the highest levels - was much more "gentlemany". For example, when Kraidman was playing in Manila (Philippines) in an all-GM tournament right after getting the GM title, his opponent, Petrosian overslept, and came an hour late.

Kraidman could have demanded a technical victory, but he didn't want to miss the chance to play the (ex) world champion - so he played and lost. Today, he notes, this will simply not be done: players would just demand the technical victory without playing as a matter of course.

We add that losing is, of course, never fun - but it does not seem that Kraidman is too sorry for having actually played Petrosian in a serious tournament, not an opportunity that comes every day, even if he lost. By chance, a colleague of ours, a strong but not a top-flight player, had happened to play both Mangus Carlsen online in two games, and John Nunn in a tournament. He lost all three games, unsurprisingly - but is glad he had the experience.

Chess and Politics, 1964 Olympiad

Credit: Shachmat, vol. 3 no. 4 (28), November 1964

In the "Chess and Politics" file, we add the following photo, on the cover of Shachmat from November 1964, with the self-explanatory title, 'World Champion Petrosian is welcomed by president [of Israel] [Zalman] Shazar'.

P.S.

Shachmat mistakenly put 'October 1964' on the front cover of the issue, despite the fact that it was in fact the November issue; this may well be due to the magazine switching back and forth at the time between "real" print and multi-lite print, and encountered various other technical problems. The new editor (Eliyahu Fasher) warned the readers in advance, in the "real" October 1964 issue (p. 3) to expect such issues.

Good thing he Amounted to Something in the Chess World

Without comment, here is a scan of a document found in the collection of one of Yoram Lubiainker's friends (or, rather, that of a friend of a friend, as he notifies me):

I hardly think FIDE should have denied "T. Petrosian" his participation certificate in the 1964 Olympiad, just because he was world champion at the time, but still, are Lubialinker and myself the only ones who find this amusing?

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!'.

Memories of a 3500 Player (for New Year's Eve)

(Yes, this post has nothing to do with Jews -- but I am allowed one such post a year, am I not?)

First, I would like to apologize for the lack of updating of this blog for a while, for personal reasons. I hope to get better soon at it.

Second, I am the 3500+ player in question. Well, not really. My rating is, let us say, significantly below 2000. But, if all the chess books I have had fulfilled their promise -- "will raise your rating by 50 / 100 / 200 points" -- then, put together, they should have made me at least a 3500, if not a 5000, player. It is a mystery to me as to why this is not the case.

There really ought to be a law about books that promise such rating increase. It almost never happens. But what is more, it completely misses the point. Suppose there was some simple trick -- say, a sure-fire way to make sure you never ever hang a piece or a pawn -- that made it possible for you to beat all mediocre players, and thus make you by default a "master" player. Would this make you a good player? Certainly not! You would win a lot of rating points, sure -- by waiting for your mediocre opponents to blunder. But you would not really know chess any better.

It is simply absurd that amateur players are so concerned about their meaningless rating. What difference did it ever make for an amateur to be rated, say, 1400 instead of 1800? I challenge anybody to give me one instance where it made any difference, apart for one's ego.

If it were up to me, I would simply cancel the rating system for anybody below FM strength. The advantage -- easier to fit people with similar skill -- seems to me to be far outweighed by the disadvantages, namely, that most amateurs consider actually playing the game to be a bother, a necessary distraction on the way towards the REAL goal, raising one's rating from 1625 to 1677.

Is this not absurd? Would it not be much better if amateur players simply played the game -- and get a lot stronger -- than "protect" their (meaningless) rating? What's more, rating stops improvement. Instead of players trying to learn, say, new openings, or trying to play in ways they are weak in so as to eliminate their weaknesses (say, positional players deliberately going for tactical complications and vise versa), they prefer to settle for the same-old, same-old, so as not to risk losing games and "hurt their rating" -- damning them to never, ever improve significantly... not to mention, never actually enjoying the richness of the game.

After all, the vast majority of us will never play as well as the top players. But surely the whole point is to sample the richness of the game of chess -- even if we risk losing? It is one thing if, say, Bobby Fischer has a "secret weapon" in the Sicialin Najdorf to unleash against other top GMs, or for Petrosian to prefer a prophylactic, positional style. We say they played like that because they could play any sort of position very well, only they preferred specific styles when possible. It is something completely different than for an amateur to be deathly afraid to play the Sicilian (for example) because he simply had no idea about tactics, and thus is afraid to lose rating points!

This is not a player who has a "positional style" -- this is a player who doesn't know how to play chess, period.  Had he learned to play tactically, as well, and then found out that he prefers positional play, even on a lower lever than the top players (of course), that is one thing. But saying your style is "positional" because you don't know tactics, or to claim your style is "aggressive" because you do not know the simplest rook endings and therefore must do or die with sacrificial attacks, is meaningless. It's fooling yourself -- because you are afraid to lose games when you try to improve. And why do you fear to lose games? Because, oh heaven, you might lose rating points.

My new year's wish? Elimination of the rating system for all but the world's top 1%, or 0.1%.

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.

Candid Camera

Itzhak Bar-Ziv was a young chess player in 1964, and he was one of the staff in the chess Olympiad held in Israel that year. He shot quite a few candid photographs of the players. Above is one such photo, showing (l. to r.): Keres, Eshel (Israeli Chess Assoc.), Botvinnik, Smyslov (back to camera), Ben Gurion (Israel's prime until 1963, holding a scroll and the cup), Darga, Petrosian.

(Thanks to the reader J. K. for correcting two mistakes in the original post.)

Petrosian vs. Najdorf (Blitz) Match

From Zvi bar Shira and Avner bar Nir's report on the 1964 Chess Olympiad in Tel Aviv, Israel (Ma'ariv, Nov 28th, 1964):

'While the Olympiad was going on in the playing and demonstration halls, Najdorf and Petrosian sat privately to play a match of blitz games. The few spectators heard, after every strong move, comments such as "My name is Najdorf!" or "I'm Petrosian!". During the match the world champion [Petrosian -- A.P.] came "out of his shell" and was seen as a humorous, witty man.'

While such offhand reports shouldn't be taken too seriously as character analysis, this certainly fits with Edward Winter's note (reviewing The Games of Tigran Petrosian) that Petrosian was well liked -- and his chess greatly appreciated -- by his colleagues. He was very far from the dour, humorless 'drawing master' he was supposed to be according to the popular chess press, merely for, in Winter's word, 'not playing like Tal'.

Is anything else known about these games? (Perhaps one of the spectators recorded the moves?) Unfortunately, even the match's result is unknown, since the very line where the reporters gave it was garbled by the printer.

Edited: while the facts are as written in the newspaper, most likely, the dates must be wrong: Nov. 28th 1964 was a Saturday, and newspapers in Israel do not come out on that day. 

Czerniak about the Great Players

Moshe Czerniak has met--and played--many of the past greats of chess history. A partial list of his views of them is found in his book, Toldot Ha'sachmat ('History of Chess' (1963). Tel Aviv: Mizrachi Press.) 

Frank Marshall: 'When the Palestine team played the USA [in the 1935 Chess Olympiad -- A.P.] it was the late David Enoch's turn to play Marshall. He played well and had a considerable advantage (two pawns) and was sure he would win easily. I remember that during the adjournment I warned Enoch to be careful, precisely because he has the advantage, for he is playing the "king of swindlers!" And indeed, what I feared happened... one inaccurate move was enough for Marshall to pull out of his sleeve a counter-combination and draw the lost battle. You should have seen the old man's joy after saving the draw; it was as if he had won.' (p. 53). 

Jose Capablanca: 'In 1939, Capablanca admitted to me that "for some reason" he finds it hard to beat even relatively weak opponents (he meant regular masters), and his game isn't as accurate as it used to be. He told me [this is] "because today chess is no longer a struggle of intelligence and talent, but also very hard work, one needs to know a lot of theory." (p. 59). 

Savielly Tartakower: 'I knew Dr. Tartakower personally. I came to realize that behind the brilliant and somewhat cynical exterior, there is a man of rare fairness, honesty, and objectivity.' (p. 71). 

Mir Sultan Khan: 'In 1931 I had the opportunity to play two games with him as he passed through Strasburg, on his way to the match with Tartakower... I was a young and inexperienced player, and of course was defeated by a giant like him. But when the games ended and we analyzed the games together, he amazed me with the numerous original ideas he considered during the game.' (p. 75). 

Alexander Alekhine: 'That year I had the chance to talk with Alekhine about the reserve players [anshey ha'atuda--the context suggests it's a misprint for anshey ha'atid, "up-and-coming players"--A.P.] in world chess. The world champion pointed out four youngsters as greatly talented: Flohr, Kashdan, Nussbaum, and Sultan Khan. Only a select few got praise from Alekhine!' (p. 75). 

Miguel Najdorf: 'In [the Lodz championship], that took place in 1929, he already showed his special style. He lost eight games and won only three, and I remember that, when he returned to Warsaw, he told me that there is one opening for White that Black cannot defend against! (He meant the Queen's gambit). The three games he won were chosen as the tournament's three most beautiful games!' (p. 83). 

Samuel "Sammy" Reshevsky: 'Reshevsky... does not believe in studying opening theory... does not use seconds to analyze adjourned games... and wastes most of his time in the opening. In the Helsinki Olympiad I had a long talk with him, and when I noted all these weaknesses in his play, he replied: "I think none of that is crucial, not opening novelties, not adjournment help and not even rational time allotment.... one must simply find the mathematically best move at every position in the game, though this is not always possible over the board."' (p. 88) 

David Bronstein and Tigran Petrosian: 'In the Belgrade tournament in 1954, I spent many hours with Bronstein and Petrosian, and we analyzed various games. I soon realized the difference in their approach. Bronstein was interested in discovering the way to reach the goal, while he left its execution to Petrosian.' (p. 91). Vasily Smyslov: 'I have never seen him angry, even when all his plans fail.' (p. 93). Petrosian and Flohr: 'During the Leipzig Olympiad, in 1960, I asked Petrosian if he had any beautiful games worthy of publications in the Olympiad. Salo Flohr, who say next to him, laughed: "don't you know, Tigran has no beautiful games, he has only good games!"' (p. 99).

EDITED 2/2022: 

Tomasz Lissowski informs us Czerniak's recollections of Najdorf are somewhat inaccurate: 

"The Lodz championship, that took place in 1929..."

The tournament was played from 10 October till 28 December 1928, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Lodz Chess Club (LTZGSz), which was established in 1903.

"He lost eight games and won only three."

According to "Young Najdorf" by Tomasz Lissowski (Nottingham 2010, pages 12-14) we know four games won by Najdorf: Najdorf - Frenkiel (Sicilian Defence), Najdorf - Regedzinski (Sicilian Defence), Szestakowski - Najdorf (Irregular) and Szpiro - Najdorf (Queen's Gambit). We know also the game Kremer - Najdorf (Queen's Gambit), won by Kremer. Therefore, Najdorf has lost 5 or 6 games.

"The three games he won were chosen as the tournament's three most beautiful games!"

No information in press is available about Brilliancy Prizes in mentioned tournament.

Petrosian Arrested as Spy by Israeli Soldiers!

Just look how proud they are, having captured their spy, and how despairing and depressed the then-world champion, Tigran Petrosian, looks.

OK, not really. Yes, these are Israeli soldiers flanking Petrosian in the picture, but they are not arresting him. They are just young chess players, on leave from their army service, visiting the 1964 chess Olympiad in Israel. That they are still in uniform means that they didn't bother going home to change into civilian clothes--they came right from their army base to the Olympiad. The picture is from the personal collection of Itzhak Bar-Ziv, who is one of the soldiers.

So why does Petrosian look as if he's really being arrested? Don't look at me... I'm just the blogger...

Six World Champions (and 50+ Grandmasters) in one Notebook

Eliezer Pe'er, the captain of the Israeli team to the 1960 Leipzig chess olympiad, came well prepared: he brought with him an autograph book and asked everyone to sign it. Most agreed.



There are the signatures of six world champions past, present and future: Mikhail Botvinnik, Max Euwe, Robert "Bobby" Fischer, Tigran Petrosian, Vassily Smyslov and Mikhail Tal. Other famous players include Salo Flohr, Svetozar Gligorić, Viktor Korchnoi, Andor Lilienthal and Miguel Najdorf, to name just a few. Above we have the Soviet team's signature. Below, the American and Argentine ones.