First Original Problem in a Palestinian / Israeli Chess Publication -- but Mistakes will Happen...

Mate in .. ? Source: Doar Ha'Yom, 27.11.22

We have previously published various "firsts" about chess problems in Palestine: we believe the first original chess problem published in a Palestinian chess magazine by a Palestinian composer were those by Mohilever, which were published in Ha'Sachmat [Chess], the first Palestinian chess magazine. We also reported that the first problem of any sort published in a Palestinian paper was in 1918, a famous Loyd problem. Finally, we noted that, currently, we think the first chess problem published in a Hebrew (not necessarily Palestinian) source was "L. M."'s mate in three (can any reader with an access to a problem database find the author?)

All this leave open the question: which was the first original problem, not published elsewhere before,  published by any composer, including a foreign one, in a Palestinian chess publication -- or, for that matter, a Hebrew-language one? Assuming L. M.'s problem is not an original publication, the latter question remains open for the moment. Our candidate for the Palestinian chess publication first original problem is one is from Doar Ha'Yom, by Jacob Kopel Speiser of Zawierci, Poland -- as so often, the exact name was found using Jeremy Gaige's Chess Personalia -- on 27.11.1922, i.e., about a year before the first issue of Ha'Sachmat was published.

On 29.10.22 Doar Ha'Yom notes they received two original and two previously-published problems from Speiser, who notes in his letter [which they published] that he by chance saw a copy of Doar Ha'Yom and wants to support it with his problems.

The problem with all this, as it was published, it was not mentioned a mate in how many moves it was supposed to be; and there was a rather brutal "cook" -- 1. Bxd6 with mate on the next move. In the next column, 4.12.1922, there was a correction printed... which was itself, due to a printer's error, unclear: a line was printed twice, so all the correction tells us is that a piece should be added on f8. But the only two pieces that prevent the cook -- a bishop or a queen -- make it into a rather pointless mate in 4, or highly unlikely mate in 8, in both cases starting with the crude 1. d5+. Surely this was not the composer's intention.

Can any reader attempt to reconstruct the original problem or improve it?

Congratulations to Gelfand

Credit: www.chessbase.com

As the final standings [above] in the 2013 candidates' tournament shows, Boris Gelfand had a very decent tournament. Scoring a respectable 6.5/14 against -- literally -- the world's strongest opposition, he had tied for 5th/6th place.

What's more, his performance was 50% or better against everybody except for Magnus Carlsen, which is hardly a shame, considering that Carlsen is very likely the greatest natural chess genius since Robert "Bobby" Fischer.

Congratulations, Boris -- and good luck in the future.

A Nice Marmorosh Win

This game is quoted in Eliyahu Fasher's book, Shachmet Le'Hanna'atcha [Chess for Pleasure, 2nd Edition, 1980], p. 165. Fascher notes - without comment -- that the game is taken from "Chernov's book" -- presumably Fasher is using a variant Hebrew spelling for Irving Chernev [or Cherniev], the prolific chess author -- who says the game was played by "the Egyptian [sic] player Mussa Marmorosh" in Jerusalem in 1928.

This is surely the Palestinian player Moshe Marmorosh ["Mussa" is the Arabic version of "Moshe", that is, Moses], who at the time was indeed giving such exhibitions quite often. Can anybody locate the original quote -- and if so, how could Chernev make such an odd mistake with Marmorosh's name?

In any case, the game itself:

White: Moshe Marmorosh
Black: Polani [Ph. spelling]
Vienna Opening [C29]

Source: Irving Chernev?

Annotator: Eliyahu Fasher

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 d5 4. fxe5 Nxe4 5. Nf3 Be7 6. Bd3 Nxc3 7. dxc3 Bc5 8. Bg5 f6 9. exf6 gxf6 10. Qe2+ Kf7 11. Ne5+ Kg7

 12. Bh6+! Kg8 (12... Kxh6? 13. Nf7+) 13. Qf3 fxe5 14. Rf1 Qh4+ 15. g3

15... Qe7 (15... Qxh6? 16. Qf7#) 16. Qxd5+ Be6 

17. Bc4!! "with unaviodable mate" 1-0

Quick Note on Gelfand...

Well, Chess is Hard. Credit: Horsham Chess Club.

Boris Gelfand's performance in the World Championship Candidates' Torunament is, more or less, as expected: he is last on the rating scale for the tournament, and currently in last place. However, his performance -- two losses, four draws through round six, losing to Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian, who are leading the field by 1.5 points -- is hardly shameful. Chessbase, for its part, has an extremely detailed look at Gelfand's career, including all previous games against all his opponents.

How Chess is [Sometimes] Reported in the Media

Boris Gelfand, from the same news story mention below. 

Boris Gelfand will plays  in the Candidates' Tournament in London. As expected this is reported in the Israeli media. Unfortunately sometimes the reporting standard is not up to snuff. The following report [in Hebrew] has the headline: "Gelfand is waiting for the Norwegian Fashion Model". The meaning, of course, is that Gelfand will also play Magnus Carlsen, who had dabbled in modeling.

While the report's headline is intended to be tongue-in-cheek [the sub-header notes Carlsen is "a Scandinavian which also models"], it is annoying. First of all, it might mislead those who only have a casual interest in chess, i.e., most of the readers, who might be left wondering what chess and fashion have to do with each other.

But the real annoyance, as I see it, is not that the headline is seriously misleading [it is not], but that the idea is that the game itself is boring, or hard, so that the reporter must concentrate on the "interesting" details, like Carlsen's modeling career, to make the reader care at all. After all, what is more glorious -- chess or modeling?

75 years of Documented Chess Activity -- a World Record? [Edited: Probably not, but...]

Credit: Pixar

What is the longest time a Jewish, or Israeli, or Palestinian chess personality was active? We already saw the case of A. L. Mohilever, who published a letter in a chess magazine as late as 1994 -- 73 years after his first chess publication, in 1921.

A reader notes two more cases.

Shmuel Friedmann, known as "Dugo", who started his activity in the Rishon Letziyon chess club in 1940, and was still active upon his death last year -- 72 years of activity, including 50 [1947-97] as the club's president.

Beating both, however, is Eliezer Pe'er [nee Perelberger], who appears as a solver in Davar on Dec. 10th, 1937 [link in Hebrew] and is still active today, 2013, in the Reti chess club in Tel Aviv. This would make it 75 -- going on 76 -- years of chess activity.

Is this a world record?

Edited to add: various web sites, such as this one, claim the record is held by Walter Ivans, who "started to play chess at age 10" and "died at 98" having "played for 85 years" [i.e., to age 95].

However:

1. It is not clear what the source of this record is. Does any reader have information about Ivans?

2. Pe'er, too, is to be 98 this year [b. 1915], and probably "started to play" chess as a child [most players do]. If we accept that he learned chess before his 13th birthday -- which would be unusually late -- then he already beat Ivans' record.

3. It is not clear of what Ivans' chess activity had been [can some reader enlighten me?], while Pe'er constant activity in Palestinian / Israeli chess is well known. He was, for example, the captain of the Israeli team to the 1962 Olympiad; he was active in the Reti club since its founding in 1952, the reader noted above informs me; etc.

Many people learn the game as children and play occasionally all their lives; any centenarian who plays an occasional game could thus claim 90+ years of "chess activity", beating both Pe'er and Ivans.This is why I attempt to find documented evidence of "chess activity": actually joining a chess club, publishing or solving a problem, etc. Hence I am not claiming that Pe'er has nearly 90 years of "chess activity", nor make similar claims about "Dugo" or Mohilever.

4. Finally, "learning the game at age X" is too vague. For one thing it would add -- as we saw -- quite a few years to the records of Mohilever, Pe'er and "Dugo" as well. For another, it's usually impossible to verify -- how can one tell, nearly a century later, if a player learned to play at age 6, 10, or 14?

More editing: The same reader noted that, for example, Andor Lilienthal and Aron Schvarzman probably had longer documented careers. True, true -- but it is still surely an Israeli record, at least...

Von Weisl and Chess

Binyamin Ze'ev von Weisl [credit: wikipedia]

Von Weisl was known as the "Jewish Lawrence of Arabia". His fascinating life included also a reference to chess. In an article in Doar Hayom on July 18th, 1927 -- long link in Hebrew is well worth reading -- he notes that he played chess with Abdullah of Jordan in 1924, and had also played chess in the "Sassinid  court in Mt. Assir [in Yemen]", through the invitation of no other than Jamal Pesha, then serving as a vizir [chief counsel, prime minister] in Yemen after leaving Amman. Pesha was taught chess by Abdullah and established, says Weisl, a small chess circle in the Yemenite court, where he taught a few ministers as well the crown prince.

After Weisl deliberately lost to the crown prince, the latter started telling Pesha how, despite being his student, he clearly is now a better player then him, and started kibitzing his game with Weisl. When alone, Pesha told Weisl sadly: "Poor Arabia, poor princes -- they never hear a word of criticism, being considered rules by the holy will of Allah, and thus their self-esteem and lack of judgment is like madness, making them unfit to rule."

Some People will Steal Anything.

Credit: www.butterybooks.com [and yes, the board is reversed...]

A constant reader [to use Dorothy Parker's old moniker] of this blog and of the Hebrew Jewish press noted what is probably the first case of stolen chess property reported in Israel, and possibly including pre-state Mandatory Palestine. On 29/7/1949, Ha'Tzophe ["The Observer"] reported that a woman was arrested when in her possession was found a chess clock which was stolen from the Jerusalem chess club a year before.

To whom, exactly, did this woman plan to sell this stolen property -- considering it was highly unlikely anyone who knew what a chess clock was in Jerusalem at the time would probably have been affiliated with the Jerusalem chess club -- is not clear. Perhaps she didn't know what it was, and kept this strange, obviously broken double clock [only one of the clocks works at once, after all] as a novelty item.

This leads us to the question -- by the same reader -- of when, exactly, was the first chess clocks used in Palestine or Israel? Various chess clubs had such clocks by the 40s, but, for example, in photographs from the first Championship of Palestine in the mid-30s it seems most of the games seem to have taken place without clocks. We have already commented on how, in the 1920s and even later, various tools were used instead for speed chess or regular chess -- i.e., using a stick to beat on the floor every 10 seconds or using two wristwatches [see the tags" "clocks" for example in this blog].

Perhaps it should be added that the modern chess clock [with a flag] was already invented in 1899 but rigid insistence on using it for claiming a win on time was not consider sportsmanlike until about 20 years later, according to the Oxford Companion to Chess.

Marmorosh and Przepioka

Davar, 20  9 1935 p/ 4

The above article notes that Moshe Marmorosh returned from the 1935 chess Olympiad in Warsaw. It notes two interesting facts: first, that on his way back in Poland and Romania he played many simultaneous games "which were very successful" -- +70 -8 =4, and that he was praised for his "brilliant style and quick wit". In particular the Georg Marco club in Czernowitz arranged a successful simul, with many visitors.

What's more, the paper claims that Przepiorka, "the general secretary and organizer of the Olympiad", particularly praised the Palestinian team for sending a special correspondent [Marmorosh was not one of the players but came as a reporter] to the Olympiad despite this being their first appearance.