'Meet our Masters': Moshe Blass, by H. Reed

Our frequent correspondent Moshe Roytman had sent us, a while ago, quite a few nice "finds" from the chess literature of the early state of Israel. A particularly interesting one is that Al Ha'Mishmar's chess column had run a 'meet our masters' series of pen portraits of Israeli masters. Here is their portrait of Moshe Blass -- From Al Ha'Mishmar, Aug. 12th, 1949, p. 8, by H. Reed [ph. spelling]. Below is our translation, and our comments in square brackets.

Meet Our Masters

We are beginning this week a series of articles about Israeli chess players. We wish to introduce the reader a series of players that are not known to the public and, especially, to the youth. This week we overview Moshe Blass.

Moshe Blass

Among the chess masters in the country there are players of international caliber, which have succeeded in many tournaments and matches.

One of them is Moshe Blass. Before arriving in the country, 17 years ago, he was one of the strongest players in Poland, often mentioned together with Rubinstein, Tartakover, Frydman, Makaryczyk, Dr. Kohn, and the late Przepiorka. In 1927, when Najodrf and Czerniak were young beginners [in Warsaw], he already won the Warsaw championship, after a brilliancy against P[aulino] Frydman. He played in the Olympiad twice for the strong Polish team: in 1928 in the Hague and in 1938 [sic - 1930 is correct] in Hamburg.

From 1933 he is part of the chess life in our country and for many years he had no equal, until younger forces like Foerder [Porat], Czerniak, and Aloni dethroned him.

His greatest victory was in 1935, in the international tournament arranged with the Maccabiah, when he came first before Foerder, Enoch, and the Viennese Glass, who recently returned to the country after many troubles [a hint that Glass ran away from Vienna to Shanghai in 1938, thus surviving the war].

Blass' style is superb, pure and classical, without entering opening complications. He shows his talent in the middle game, and his desire for beauty and perfection is evident in all his games.

As a man, Blass is modest, which made him popular with chess players.

Despite his age removing him from the tournament hall, it is a pleasure to see him next to his regular table in one of the coffee houses, beating strong opponents in offhand games.

The game added is Blass - Dobkin, Tel Aviv Championship, 1945 (Slav defense). According to the computer (Fritz 6), the game was more or less equal until Dobkin blundered, allowing mate in two, but it is still an interesting example. The analysis is by the editor of the chess column or Fritz 6, as indicated.

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 c6 3. d4 d5 4. e3 e6 5. Nc3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 dxc4 9. a4 b4 10. Ne4 Bb7 11. b3 c5 12. Nxf6+ gxf6 13. Bb2 cxd4 14. Nxd4 Nc5 15. Bc4 Rg8 16. Rg1 Rxg2 17. Rxg2 Bxg2 18. Qh5 Bd5 19. Rd1 Bxc4 20. bxc4 Qa5 21. Qf3 Rc8 22. Nc6 Qxa4 23. Bxf6 b3 23... Rxc6? 24. Qxc6! Qxc6 25. Rd8# - editor. 24. Na7

24... Qxc4? Fritz 6 recommends 24... Rb8 or 24... Qb4+. 25. Qc6+ and Black resigned (1-0) due to 25... Rxc6 26. Rd8#.

Edited to add: we thank our correspondents for supplying the spelling of the names!

Kniazer in London, 1921

Eudardo Bauza had notified us that Kniazer had played in 1921 in England, in all places in a league game betweent Kent (Kniazer) and Surrey, played at Westminster, March 5th, 1921. 

The game was reported, adds Mr. Bauza, in the 1921 BCM 4/1921, pp. 136 and 152. He adds that the London Times noted, On March 21st, 1921, that Kniazer was the "champion of Egypt during the [First World] war". 

This is no doubt the same Kniazer we have encountered previously, here playing against H. C. Griffiths. This is especially interesting since Kniazer's early chess career -- though found in, for instance, Persitz's book -- is incomplete, and little seems to be known about his career in Egypt, let alone in England. 

Kniazer, J. -- Griffiths, H. C.

Old Indian Defense (A54) 

Annotations: A. P. noting Fritz 6's analysis. 

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d6 3. Nc3 Nbd7 4. Nf3 e5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. Qc2 c6 7. O-O-O Qc7

 8. e3 a6 9. c5 exd4 10. cxd6 Bxd6 11. Rxd4 O-O 12. Bc4 b5

13. Rhd1  Fritz 6 prefers the quieter 13. Bd3 or 13. Be2. 13... Be5 14. Nxe5 Nxe5 15. Bxf6 Nxc4 16. Rh4 h6 17. Qe2 Bf5 18. Rxh6

18... Bg6 19. Qg4 gxh6 Fritz 6 believes this is perfectly sound, and that in fact Black has a significant advantage. "Real life" is something else, however... 20.  Qh4 Kh7 21. Ne4 h5 22. g4 Ne5?

The losing move. 22... Rad8 is necessary. 23. gxh5 Bxe4 24. Qxe4+ Ng6 25. hxg6+ fxg6 26. Qh4+ Kg8 27. Qh8+ Kf7 28. Qg7+ Black resigns (1-0). 

More Chess Ads -- a Double Issue

Credit: Shachmat, Oct. 1964 (exact page?)

We add here, to our chess advertisement page, the following from the Oct. 1964 Shachmat.

It has two chess-related advertisements: one for avocados, 'the delicacy of kings', and another for Amcor's televisions. The interesting point is that at the time -- 1964 -- there was no Israeli television broadcasting, although it was clear that they will begin in the near future (the first broadcasts were in 1966).

But Amcor's TV were chosen (as the ad notes) as the close-circuit TV used to broadcast the games in the Olympiad -- as noted before in this blog, see, e.g., the 'Television' tag.

David Raziel and Chess

Photo Credit: A. P., the Eztel Museum (Hebrew)

Visiting Tel Aviv, we have gone to the Eztel museum. 'Etzel' (אצ"ל) is the Hebrew acronym of Irgun Tzvai-Leumi -- literally, the 'National Military Organization', or just (the) 'Irgun' (organization) in English.

We do not, in this blog, deal with politics, and we shall say no more about the Irgun as a political or military organization. What is relevant to this blog, however, is that the museum has the personal effects of many of its prominent leaders.

Inter alia, it has those of David Raziel, which include -- above -- a miniature chess set; click on the image for a larger one.

Chess and Stamps: Commemorative Envelope

Credit: see below; click on image for large picture.

FM Allan Savage (the link is to his chess homepage) shares with us an  envelope from the Third International (Preolympic) Tournament, Nethanya (נתניה - also spelled Natanya, Netanya, etc.), June 1964.

It was one of three international tournaments in Israel that year -- the other two being the Tel Aviv Olympiad, and a small tournament in Jerusalem which "recruited" some of the Olympiad's players. All were mentioned in this blog (look under the "tournament" label).

To avoid a possible misunderstanding, 'preolympic' does not refer to any official FIDE designation of the tournament, but simply to the fact that this (individual, not team) event took place before the Olympiad, which, as the link (to Olimpbase) notes, took place later in the year than usual -- in November -- due to the climate.

USSR - Israel, Sept. 14th 1954

Credit: See below.

Ami Barav had generously sent us the following two informal photographs, taken by his father, Israel Barav (ne Rabinovich) in the 1954 Olympiad (Amsterdam), of the match between the USSR and Israel in the third round, Sept. 14th 1954 according to Olimpbase.

The meeting caused a sensation in Israeli chess circles: while Oren lost to Keres, Porat and Czerniak drew with Botvinnik and Smyslov, respectively, and Aloni beat Kotov. 2:2 -- against the world's strongest team, with the "bonus" that one of the draws was against the world champion.

"The Half Dozen Defeats of Grandmaster Savielly Tartakover"

This is a video (in Hebrew) of an Israeli group, "Gute Gute", send to me by a colleague (link in Hebrew as well).

The song tells of Savielly Tartakover (also spelled Tartakower), who, having lost six games in a row, gave outlandish excuses for each of first five losses: he forgot who is black and who is white, arrived a day late to the game, fell asleep in the comfortable player's chair, etc. As for the sixth, he notes: 'do I have to win them all'?

This old story about Tartakover (with someone less outlandish excuses in the "original" version) is, no doubt, a tall tale, but how the story originated -- and what possessed the group to write a song about it -- is beyond me. I would not be surprised if it was told about other players as well.

Tartakower & His Parents' Death

Tartakover's Parents. Credit: See Below

It is often stated that Savielly Tartakover (or Tartakower)'s parents were killed in a pogrom. A frequent correspondent to this blog notes that an excellent article about his early days, recently published online (in Russian), found the exact details: they were in fact killed in a robbery gone bad by one of their shop's workers. The article has numerous rare photographs, including those of his parents (above), their shop, and much much more. The article is by Sergey Voronkov (thanks to readers who pointed it out!).

More on Rivka Lichtenfeld

A regular correspondent with this blog notes that Rivka Lichtenfeld was born Rivka Chwoles, to Chava-Leah and Moshe Chwoles. According to her testimony in Yad Va'Shem, her entire family -- both her parents and her three sisters -- were all murdered in 1942 near Vilno, Poland (both links partially in English and Partially in Hebrew). Such a life story was by no means unusual for holocaust survivors who arrived in Israel -- or anywhere else -- after the war; they were often the only remnant of their entire family.

In addition, Lichtenfeld (who is still alive, at 92) had recently been -- finally -- awarded her fair share of her late husband's property; i.e., the entire apartment she lives in now belongs officially to her, and not half to her and half to the state's general trustee. The mix-up was due to the fact that the Israeli ministry of the Interior decided she was divorced, when in fact she was not, as the link (from the Ynet web site, Feb. 2nd 2012, in Hebrew, by Yair Harush) notes.