Starting on the Right Foot

A frequent correspondent had send us an especially informative number of a chess column - Davar's column of July 23rd, 1954, p. 9, edited by Eliyahu Shahaf. It was the first column under this editor, after a hiatus, and indeed started with "game 1" and "problem 2" (the games and problems were numbered together). It contains:

1). A detailed report about the just-finished first year of the Israeli chess league, complete with a list of participants.

2). A game from the turnament - Itzchak Aloni ("Lasker" Tel Aviv") - Bereny (ph. spelling, Haifa).

3). A report on the selection of the 1954 Olympiad team, as well as the fund-raising efforts of masters to make the trip possible.

4). Yosef Goldschmidt winning a third prize in Chess's (the English periodical) international composition competition.

(This posting will be updated with more details.)

From the Workers' Organization

The Histadrut, or "organization", was the common name in Israel to the Ha'Histadrut Ha'Klalit shel Ha'Ovdim B'Eretz Yisrael - The General Organization of Workers in Israel. It was all-powerful in the early state, with each worker's union (that of, say, pilots, mailmen, physicians, or most other professions) having their own sub-division. The organization was so large the joke was that the state of Israel is an important part of its holdings. A frequent correspondent sent me this game, which was held in the Histadrut's own chess league, in January, 1954. We note that while this Kahana might be the Zvi Kahana we mentioned elsewhere in this blog, it is a very common name.

Hauser - Kahana
KID, Classical w/h3 [E90]
Holon - Ramat Gan tournament (Histadrut league), Holon, 01.1954
Source: Davar Ha'shavuah 29.1.1954, p. 6.
Annotations: adapted from Fritz 14

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 d6 5.e4 Nbd7 6.Bd3 e5 7.d5 Nc5 8.Bc2 a5 9.h3 0–0 10.Be3 Nh5 11.Qd2 f5 12.Bxc5 dxc5 13.0–0–0 Bd7 Better is 13…a4. 14.Rde1 14.d6! 14...f4 15.Rd1 Rb8 15...a4 is still indicated. 16.a4 16.Kb1 is better. 16...Bf6 17.Ne2 Ng7 18.Qxa5 Ra8 19.Qxc5 Black must now prevent Qa3.

19...Be7 20.d6 Bxd6 21.Qd5+ Be6 22.Qd3 Much worse is 22.Qxb7?! Rb8= 22...Qf6 23.Nc3 Bc5 24.Rhf1 c6 25.Ne2! Bf7 26.Qc3 Bd6 

27.c5! White is really pushing. 27...Bc7 28.Rd7 Ne6 29.Bb3 Ba5? The losing move. 29...Rfd8  30.Rfd1 Kh8 is best, although White is still much better. 30.Qxe5 Qxe5 31.Nxe5 Nxc5 32.Bxf7+ Kg7 33.Rfd1 Nxd7 34.Rxd7 Kf6 35.Ng4+ Kg5 36.Ng1 Intending Nf3+ and mate. 36...Bd8 37.Nf3+ Kh5 38.Rxb7 winning easily, but there was also a mate in five with 38.Bxg6+! #5/13 Kxg6 39.Nfe5+ Kg5 40.Rg7+ Kh4 41.Rxh7+ Kg5 42.h4#. 38...Rxa4 39.Bg8 h6 40.Rb8 g5 41.Rxd8! Black resigns (1–0).

Rauch - Weil, Tel Aviv Championship, 1938

The following game, brought to our attetion by a frequent correspondent, was played in the Tel Aviv championship in 1938 (see details and source below). 

Rauch - Weil

Nimzo-Indian, Classical [E33]
Tel Aviv Championship, Tel Aviv, Feb. 1938

Source: Davar, 11/3/1938, p. 4

Annotations: Marmorosh (Davar's chess columnist)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.e3 0–0 7.Be2 Re8 8.0–0 Bxc3 9.Qxc3 Ne4 10.Qc2 d5 11.a3 a5 12.b3 f5 13.Bb2 Rf8 14.Rad1 Rf6 15.Bd3 Rh6 16.Rfe1 g5 The beginning of a very dangerous attack. Black is already threatening to win with g4, followed by Qh4. 17.Bxe4 fxe4 18.Nd2 g4 19.Nf1 Qh4 20.Bc3 Bd7 21.Qd2 Rf8! 22.g3 Qf6 23.Rc1 Rh3 24.Rc2 b6 25.Ra1 Nd8! The knight is aiming at f3. 26.Qe2 Qf5 27.Bb2 c6 28.a4 Nf7 29.cxd5 exd5 30.Nd2 Qh5 31.Kf1 The king abandons his pawns and runs away from the front. 31...Rxh2 32.Ke1 Ng5 33.Nf1 Nf3+ 34.Kd1 Rh1 35.Rcc1 Qh3 36.Kc2 Qg2 37.Kc3 Ng1 38.Qd1 Rxf2 White resigns (0–1)

The final position is an amusing example of an overwhelming attack:

Mate in 10

The following game was brought to our attention by a frequent correspondent. It was played in a match in February 1950, and is notable for the '10 move combination' that was made. Annotations by the winner, Gruengard. 

Dr. Y. Gruengard - L. Braun

QGD (D40)

Match, February 1950
Source: Davar, Feb. 17th, 1950, p. 29.
Annotations: Y. Gruengard

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.e3 Be7 6.Nbd2 Capablanca's idea: to capture on f3 with a knight and not a bishop to gain a tempo. 6...a6 To develop the QN pawns while threatening White's pieces, but White prevents this. 7.c5 c6 8.b4 b6 9.Qa4 Bb7 10.cxb6 Qxb6 11.Rb1 0–0 12.Bd3 Rfd8 13.0–0 h6 Black tries to free himself from the heavy pressue on his position. 14.Bh4 g5 ...but at a price of weakening the KS. 15.Bg3 Nh5 To take the B and prepare a center break with e5. 16.Ne5! Denying Black's hope. 16...Nf8 17.Qd1! The Q finished her role on the QS, so she moves quickly to exploit the KS's weaknesses. 17...Nxg3 Better is 17...Ng7. 18.fxg3 f6 Better is 18...f5 immediately. 19.Qh5! f5 19...fxe5? 20.Rxf8+ Bxf8 21.Qg6+ Bg7 22.Rf1 e4 23.Rf7 and mates. 20.g4 Bd6 21.Nf7 Qc7 Now white has a mate in 10 combination.

22.Nxh6+ Kg7 23.Qxg5+ Kh7 24.Qg8+! Kxh6 25.g5+ Kh5 26.Be2+ Kh4 27.Nf3+ Kh5 28.Ne5+ Kh4 29.g3+ As he saw mate already, White didn't notice the quicker 29.Rf4#... 29...Kh3 30.Rf4 Ng6 31.Bf1# 1–0

Youth Champioship, 1959

Source: Kol Ha'am, 28/8/1959, p. 6

A frequent correspondent notes that the 1959 youth championship - reported above - had many players who later became important in Israeli chess. These include Gelfer, Kagan, Beliman, Peretz and more. 

Shabtai Teveth and Chess

Source: Ha'Aretz, Nov. 15th, 1960, p. 2

Our frequent correspondent found what we think is a forgotten article by a major Israeli historial and author - Shabtai Teveth - about Israeli chess. The entire article (in Hebrew of course) is found here. 

In the article, Teveth notes that, as an outsider, the only different he noticed between the Israeli and the other teams is that while Israel's team consistent entirely of Jews, the other teams were only mostly Jewish - and that if the Israeli team had a non-Jewish Israeli player, 'the difference would disappear'.

Teveth adds that it seems to him odd that Israelis celebrate Israel's achievement in the 1960 Olympiad - 14th place - when chess is a 'Jewish game' and Israel should be expected to do better. He notes that this seems to him a sign of the lack of progress Israel had made in 'field of the spirit', and fears that if this is the best Israel can do, then it might prove Zionism had 'weakened, and not strengthened' the spiritual force of the Jewish people.

Teveth is far from being an anti-Zionist. On the contrary: he believes that it is essential, as part of the improvement, to continue to strengthen Zionism, and not see Zionism's job as finished now that it had created the Jewish state. Rather, if one is to move the spiritual center of the Jewish people to Israel,  emigration to Israel of the Jews - such as the Jewish players on foreign teams - is necessary, and this can be done only by instilling the Zionist ideal strongly in the world's Jewry. 

Who's Who

Source: Davar, March 9th, 1951, p. 20

Identifying the actors in Israeli / Palestinian chess is sometimes hard. So it's good to have photos such as this, pointed out to us by a frequent correspondent of a photo, probably from the first Israeli championship. It notes: 

Israel Barav (left) vs. Yosef Dobkin. next ot the table sits Y. Schwatz, the secretary of the Rishon Le'Tziyon [chess] club. Next to Barav stands Aryeh Mohilever - the first Hebrew editor of the 'Shachmat' magazine (1924).

This photo, we should add, was often reproduced in Israeli chess books of the 1950s and 60s, but often without details or credit (the article gives credit to the photographer: 'photographer - Frank.')  

A Hon Simul

Source: Davar, February 17th, 1950, p. 29

From the same frequent contributor, we also have a photo of Shaul Hon giving a simultaneous display in a high school in 1950. As we noted in the past, players often gave such displays in the early state, not only for financial reasons, but to help the troops or youngsters.  

Marmorosh's Book

Source: Ha'Boker, Feb/ 16th, 1945, p 6

When was Marmoroh's primer published? A frequent correspondent to this blog found the details (the exact publication date is not in the book itself). It was published by the Barlevi press, Allenby 57, Tel Aviv, in 1945. The ad notes that the same publisher, who also sold educational toys and games, will sell the book with a special discount to buyers of their chess sets. It notes (probably correctly) that this is the 'first chess primer', presumably in the sense of the first one published in Palestine.