Underpromotion

Diagram and game credit: Tim Krabbe's Chess Curiosities web site, "Practical underpromotion" section.

In the above game, Stahlberg - Czerniak, Buenos Aires 1941, Black is clearly lost. However, he hopes for a trap: If 51. g8=Q, then 51. ... Re2+, etc. -- and White cannot take the marauding, checking rook without stalemating Black, at least for a while.

So Stahlberg played 51. g8=R and Czerniak resigned -- a rare case of real-life underpromotion in a masters' game.

It is no shame, of course, losing to the great Gideon Stahlberg. I am putting this game here not to show Czerniak lost games, too, but to show how much fighting spirit he had: two pawns down, against a great master at the height of his career, Czerniak will still not resign until he sets at least one last clever trap. But it also shows Czerniak's respect for his opponent: once his last chance was gone, he did, in fact, resign immediately.

In lost positions, Czerniak would play on -- as long as there was a chance of saving the game. He would not play on just for spite in hopeless positions, however, in a serious game, merely hoping for a blunder by the opponent.

To fear nobody, but respect everybody, was Czerniak's way of playing chess.

From the "King on its Own Color" Mafia

Yet another picture -- this time, from a doctor's office -- where the white king is on its own color. (At least the board itself is set up correctly, with a white square in the near right corner).

Non-players typically assume that the king, being the tallest and most important piece, should go on the same color square as it (he?) is.

Prime Ministers and Chess, Once More

Left to right: Boris Gelfand, Nathan Sharansky, and Benjamin Netanyahu.

A new item, from Israel Ha'Yom [Israel Today], 10.3.2010, p. 5 (my translation from Hebrew):

A Draw for Netanyahu and Sharansky against the World Chess Champion [sic]

By Shlomo Chezna

The prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a little time off and played chess with the new holder of the world chess champion title [sic, actually the winner of the chess world cup tournament -- A.P.] Boris Gelfand. Next to Netanyahu sat his helper, the head of the Jewish Agency Nathan Sharansky. The two could not defeat the champion but the game ended in a draw. Netanyahu said the previous game he played was against Sharansky himself, and was also a draw.

This is interesting since the photograph above (credit: Israel Hayom) clearly shows two boards, not one. It is not likely Gelfand played a "simul" against only two people, so perhaps Gelfand allowed them to move pieces on the second board? In any case, to draw against Sharansky (a serious player who, for example, defeated Kasparov twice in simultaneous exhibitions) or to draw against Gelfand, even in a consultation game, is an significant achievement for any chess player, let alone someone as busy as the Prime Minister.

The First (?) Mention of Fischer in the Israeli Chess Press

Robert "Bobby" Fischer in the 1957/8 US championship. La'Merhav, 1958.

The first mention of Robert "Bobby" Fischer is probably from La'Merhav, 2/5/1958, column no. 164, by Eliyahu Fascher. It mentions -- of course -- that Fischer is a 'young Jew', and that his 'sensational' victory in the 57/58 US championship gave him a right to join the candidates' tournament.

It also gives the conclusion of the famous game Fischer vs. Sherwin from the championship (Fischer's rook sacrifice, 30. Rxf7), and prints what is (again, probably) the first photograph of the then-unknown (in Israel) Fischer, given above.

Caricatures

In the 1958 Chess tournament in Israel, the caricaturist Buchwald drew caricatures of the foreign players -- as could have been expected, they raised great interest, this being the first international tournament in the young state's history.

We have already seen Samuel "Sammy" Reshevsky's caricature. Below are those of (in order) Arthur Dunkelblum, Robert Wade, Ignacy Branicki, Carel van der Berg, Sylvain Burstein (later Michael Inbar), and Laszlo Szabo. The originals are hanging in Beit Ha'Sachmat in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Chess Federation's headquarters. 

Najdorf's Pocket Chess Set

Photo Credit: A. P. ; courtesy of Beit Ha'Sachmat, Tel Aviv.

As the Hebrew text in the picture says, the above leather mobile chess set had been given by Miguel Najdorf to Eliezer Pe'er in 1961, presumably during Najdorf's visit to Israel. It now hangs in Beit Ha'Sachmat (the "Chess House") the Israeli Chess Federation's headquarters in 26 Tagor St., Tel Aviv. (Link in Hebrew).

Naturally, the position on the board is the opening position of the Sicilian Defense, Najdorf Variation (5. ... a6).

...but APART from THAT, Mr. Jungreisz, how was the chess tournament?

The above is a short article by Zvi Bar-Shira about Nathan Jungreisz's 75th birthday, praising him as the man 'justly identified for over a generation with the Kibbutzim's chess -- as player, organizer, and arbiter'. The article adds:

A few years ago -- in the middle of the traditional Natanya tournament -- his wife passed away. She was the mother of his four children, and, like him, a founding member of kibbutz Ha'Ogen. Despite his deep sorrow -- Nathan didn't relinquish the direction of the tournament, and continued to make the 'Swiss pairings', considered the subject the international arbiter had specialized in, by remote control.

'Remote control' here means, presumably, by phone from home. And they say chess players have odd priorities.

Dubai and Israel -- in Chess

This is by no means a political blog, but it is worth noting that Dubai being up against Israel in the international arena is nothing new. FIDE, despite FIDE's official claim that Gens Una Sumus, had allowed Dubai in 1986 to host the Olympiad, despite the exclusion of Israel.

The history of this event -- how it happened, what Israel tried to do to stop it, what repercussions it had both to FIDE and to the Israeli Chess Federation, how the debacle was used for internal political fights, etc. -- is interesting, and the ICF's archives tell the tale. For starters, see above (from Eliyahu Fasher's archives) the official letter of protest from the ICF to FIDE. It speaks for itself.

(Click on the picture for a higher-resolution version).

Chess and Stamps, part VI

In the same letters noted in the previous post, Mandelbaum writes to Persitz that he made sure the envelope (see picture in the previous post) of one of the letters has the stamp from the Olympiad:

My friend, I take the opportunity (as you will see on the cover) to send you the only chess Olympiad stamp (more weren't issued), with a day-of-issue cancellation stamp, on the Olympiad's envelope.

As can be seen in the picture of the envelope in the previous post, the Olympiad stamp is the black-and-white one in the top right, the Olympiad's symbol is printed on the bottom left, and it features two day-of-issue special 'chess Olympiad' cancellation stamps (gray, with a rook-and-knight logo).

Chess players love their stamps!