ADDICTS CORNER
Mike Fox and Richard James pay tribute to a great chess personality
Koltanowski
As we write this column we hear the sad news of the death of George (né Georges) Koltanowski, one of the greatest and best loved chess personalities of the 20th century, at the splendid age of 96 (17/9/1903-5/2/2000).
Kolty, as he was universally known, was born in Antwerp of East European parentage. He took up chess at the age of 14 and within three years was champion of Belgium. He won several minor events and was one of the first to be awarded the IM title in 1950. But he was best known as a writer, journalist and populariser of chess, specialising in blinldfold displays and Knight Tours.
In Edinburgh in 1937 he played 34 simultaneous blindfold games (+24 =10 in 13½ hours), a feat still considered by some to be a record. In San Francisco in 1960 he played 56 consecutive 10 second a move blindfold games (+50 =6 in 9 hours). His countless blindfold displays were legendary. As well as playing simuls he would ask the audience for names or phone numbers, which would be written on the squares of a giant chessboard. He would then perform a blindfold Knight Tour using this information. "I don't know how he does it", said his wife, Leah. "He can't even remember to bring home a loaf of bread from the supermarket."
He claimed that chess saved his life: while he was on a chess tour of Central America the Nazis overran Belgium and several of his family died in the Holocaust. He eimgrated to New York, where he met his future wife, appropriately on a blind date, and they settled in California in 1947.
His newspaper column in the San Francisco Chronicle appeared every day without interruption for 52 years, comprising more than 19000 articles. He was also the author of many books, renowned for their entertainment value more than their accuracy.
His opponents ranged from world champions to young children, from Humphrey Bogart to the prisoners in San Quentin, where he started a club in the wake of the Fischer-Spassky match.
Here's a short selection of games. First, the win against Bogie.
George Koltanowski - Humphrey Bogart
San Francisco 1952
French Defence Exchange Variation
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.Ne2 Bg4 6.00 Bd6 7.f3 Be6 8.Bf4 00 9.Nd2 Nc6 10.c3 Ne7 11.Bxd6 Qxd6 12.f4 c5 13.Nf3 Nf5 14.Qd2 Ne4 15.Qc1 Rac8 16.dxc5 Qxc5+ 17.Ned4 Nxd4 18.Nxd4 Rc7 19.f5 Bd7 20.Bxe4 dxe4 21.Qf4 Re8 22.Rae1 Re5 23.Rxe4 Rxe4 24.Qxe4 Bc6 25.Qe3 Re7 26.Qg3 Re8 27.f6 g6 28.Qh4 h5 29.Re1 Rxe1+ 30.Qxe1 Qd6 31.Nxc6 Qxc6 32.Qe7 Qc8 33.h3 Qc6 34.b4 Qxc3 35.Qe8+ Kh7 36.Qxf7+ Kh6 37.Qe7 Qc1+ 38.Kf2 Qf4+ 39.Ke2 Qc4+ 40.Kf3 Kg5 41.f7+ 10
Kolty uses his favourite opening to defeat one of the strongest players of the thirties.
George Koltanowski - Salo Flohr
Antwerp 1932
Colle System
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 c5 4.c3 b6 5.Bd3 Bb7 6.Nbd2 Nc6 7.00 Be7 8.Qe2 00 9.a3 Rc8 10.e4 cxd4 11.cxd4 d6 12.b4 Nh5 13.g3 g6 14.Bb2 d5 15.e5 Ng7 16.Nb3 a5 17.b5 Nb8 18.Rac1 Nd7 19.Rxc8 Qxc8 20.Rc1 Qb8 21.Qc2 Ne8 22.Qd2 Kg7 23.Rc2 h6 24.Bc1 Rh8 25.h4 Nf8 26.Qf4 Qd8 27.Rc3 Bc8 28.Na1 Bd7 29.Nc2 a4 30.Nb4 Bxb4 31.axb4 Kg8 32.Qd2 Nc7 33.Qe2 Be8 34.Nh2 Qd7 35.Ng4 Nh7 36.Bxh6 Qe7 37.Qc2 10
Four short & sweet games from his 56-game blindfold blitz performance in 1960.
George Koltanowski - George Rey
San Francisco 1960
Giuoco Piano
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.00 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.e5 Ng4 7.Bf4 00 8.h3 Nh6 9.Bxh6 gxh6 10.Qd2 Qe7 11.Qxh6 Nxe5 12.Ng5 10
George Koltanowski - James Day
San Francisco 1960
Italian Game
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nh6 4.00 Ng4 5.d4 exd4 6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Ng5+ Kg6 8.Qxg4 d5 9.Ne6+ Kf6 10.Qf5+ Ke7 11.Bg5+ Kd6 12.Qxd5#
George Koltanowski - Walter Nolan
San Francisco 1960
King's Pawn Game
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Qf6 3.Nc3 Bc5 4.Bc4 d6 5.d3 Ne7 6.h3 Ng6 7.Bg5 10
George Koltanowski - Kerry Richardson
San Francisco 1960
Two Knights' Defence
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.00 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bb5 Bd7 7.Bxc6 bxc6 8.Nxe5 f6 9.Qh5+ Ke7 10.Qf7+ Kd6 11.Bf4 g5 12.Nc4#
Long Story
Coincidentally, we've just heard of the passing of another nonagenarian board games player, Asa Long (20/8/1904-5/12/1999).
Long was rated among the top six draughts players in the world for more than 70 years, twice becoming world champion. He won his first US national title in 1922 and his last in 1984, and was world champion between 1934 (when he defeated Newell Banks, also a chess player) and 1948, and won the world title at something called the 11-man ballot style in 1975. He taught Dr Marion Tinsley, the strongest player of all time, and challenged him unsuccessfully for the world title in 1981 and 1985.
Help the Aged
Doubtless you recall the advertisement for the Distressed Gentlefolks' Aid Association. They've been running it since the year dot. You know, the one featuring a sad looking old gentleman (looking a lot like one of the authors of this column) in his lonely room, gloomily surveying a chess problem. It carries the caption 'I thought I'd have enough, but these days one has to have help'.
The reason we mention it (apart from asking you to send your donations to MF c/o this magazine) is that, according to the Telegraph's Peter Simple column, the DGAA is revamping its image. This will involve a name change, and, suggests P. Simple, should also involve a change of illustration. We heartily agree.
Thanks for this to Mabel, who is over here on a visit from Port Moresby.
Also from Mabel, a mysterious message urging us to watch Channel 4's 15 to 1 on February 14th for 'Chess's revenge on gameshows'. What can she mean? All will be revealed in our next.
Great Movie Moments
If you don't take The Observer, you missed their feature on the 100 greatest movie moments of all time (number one was the moment in The Usual Suspects when Kujan realises he's been conned; number two was you know what from Psycho). In 97th place was the scene from The Thomas Crown Affair (1967 version), where Steve McQueen plays a highly erotic game of chess with Faye Dunaway. It's probably the longest chess sequence in film history (excluding films specifically about chess) - from the first move to the point where he grabs her takes over six minutes.
We saw the 1999 remake with Pierce Brosnan recently; it wasn't as good - and, we are saddened to tell you, they cut out the chess scene. For the record, our two favourite movie moments featuring chess are: from Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (Death playing chess on the beach); and From Russia with Love - a SMERSH operative (GM Kronsteen) re-creates Spassky - Bronstein (Leningrad 1959). Our favourite film with a chess content is A Matter of Life and Death in which Voltaire (played, memorably, by Marius Goring) makes great play with the 1939 G. Bell edition of Alekhine's Best Games.
The most famous loo in Paris
Last month the column (well half of it) found itself in Paris; and en passant decided to visit the Pompidou Centre to pay homage to our favourite chess playing artist, Marcel Duchamp, progenitor of the Post-Modernist movement. As you know, a central idea of Duchamp's 'readymade' exhibits is that the public should involve themselves with them (so, for example, Duchamp encouraged spectators to spin the bicycle wheel in the piece of that name). Knowing this, we hurried along expectantly to L'Urinoir (1917), a gent's urinal (by Duchamp, but signed R. Mutt). Disappointingly, our plan to get involved was thwarted by the fact that the authorities have encased the work in a glass case. (RJ: 'Is this the kind of stuff our readers want to read?' MF: 'Well I thought
it was jolly interesting.')
Is this a record?
The Birmingham Post's chess column has the distinction of only having had three editors in nearly 104 years: AJ McKenzie (from August 1896 to 1949 (an even longer stint than Koltanowski); BH Wood (from 1949 to 1967); and Peter Gibbs (1967 to 2000, and still going strong).
Could it be that this is Britain's longest running column in a local paper? Over to you, readers.
Gibbs' lively column is a great source of information on Midlands chess and chessplayers. One of the things that gives it a special flavour is that Peter ( a former England player) often includes games by players from the lower ranks. Here's one for all you third team players. It's a well known trap in the Caro-Kann which you might find handy one day. It was sprung by Peter Price (Warley Quninborne), a blind player graded around 100, on Joseph D'Mello, another unsighted player, and was played in the Braille Chess Association's autumn tournament in Sheffield last year.
1. e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Ne5 Bh7 8. Qh5 g6 9.Bc4 and here Black incautiously took the queen with fatal results; but after ..e6 10. Qe2 White is better (eg Nd7? 11. Nxf7!).
As a pendant to the above game, here's another game featuring a blind player of master strength: Reg Bonham. The winner is Peter Gibbs himself, and as he says in his column, it was an unexpected 21st birthday present.
RW Bonham - PC Gibbs
British Championship Qualifier 1955
King's Indian Defence
1. d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d6 6.c4 c5 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.h3 Bd7 9. Kh2? (an uncharacterisic blunder by RWB, which he then compounds) cxd4 10. Nxd4?Nxd4 11.Qxd4? Ng4+ and it's Goodnight Vienna. To be fair, Bonham was capable of much better chess than that.
For two more Gibbs miniature, see the next item:
Short and Sweet
Back in 1955 the Levenfish Attack was keeping Dragon practitioners awake at night:
PC Gibbs - GO Feather
Bradford Championships 1955
Sicilian Defence Dragon Variation
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6. f4 Bg7 7. e5 dxe5 8. fxe5 Nd5 9. Bb5+ Kf8 10.Bc4 Nxc3 11. Ne6 resigns.
PCG again, much more recently:
PC Gibbs - P Harlow
Leicester League 1999
Ruy Lopez
1.e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Be7 7. d4 Nxd4 8.Nxd4 exd4 9. e5 Ne4 and Black resigned.
NB Jimmy - could you send Peter a copy of this issue please? His address is 11 Salisbury Road, Burbage, Hinkley, Leicestershire LE 10 2 AR. And, if you were to give him a year's subscription, I can guarantee he would give the mag a good plug in his column.
Mike
From the 27th Richmond Rapidplay, a clash between two RJCC members:
Lakshman Ruthirapathy - Jean-François Rupprecht
RRP27 Intermediate 1999
Sicilian Defence
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.00 a6 5.Bxd7+ Qxd7 6.c3 Nf6 7.Re1 b5 8.d4 Qc7 9.e5 dxe5 10.dxe5 Nd7 11.Bf4 Bb7 12.e6 Qxf4 13.Qxd7#
A contribution from the Vineyard School Chess Club in Richmond:
Oliver Banham-Godfrey - Callum Sims
Richmond 2000
Italian Game
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 d6 4.d3 Bg4 5.00 Nd4 6.Nc3 Qf6 7.Bg5? Nxf3+ (Callum jumps at the chance to win a pawn, but Bxf3 would have won a piece instead.) 8.gxf3 Qxf3 9.Bb5+ (This looks pretty futile - a queen exchange followed by Nb5 would have won the pawn back - but...) 9...c6 10.Qxf3 Bxf3 11.Bc4 b5? (Next time Callum will bring a piece out instead.) 12.Nxb5! cxb5? 13.Bxb5#
The following week, while in the middle of writing this column, RJ showed the game to the top division at Vineyard. "Well", thought Gabriel, "if Ollie can mate with two bishops, I can mate with two knights."
Gabriel Carter - Alex Hall
Richmond 2000
Four Knights Game
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bc4 Rb8? 5.Ng5 Qe7 6.Nxf7 Rg8 7.Nb5 Na5? 8.Nxc7#
Meanwhile, on an adjacent board, Henrik demonstrated how to mate on h7:
Henrik Webster - Noah Schlesinger
Richmond 2000
Giuoco Piano
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.00 Nf6 5.Ng5 00 6.Nc3 Nxe4? 7.Ncxe4 d6 8.Nxc5 dxc5 9.d4 exd4 10.Qd3 Ne5? 11.Qxh7#
These games were over so quickly they had time for another one:
Henrik Webster - Gabriel Carter
Richmond 2000
Two Knights Defence
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Bc5? 6.dxc6 00 7.d4 exd4 8.Qd3 Ng4? 9.Qxh7#
Lest you have any misconceptions about the overall strength of Primary School chess, these are among the eight best players in a large and successful school club in a very strong area.
Finally, a correction from our last Short & Sweet feature. According to Ron Pearce, in the Yudovich game Vygodchikov was the master playing Black. As we'd heard of Y but not V we'd assumed Y was the master. Y, who was born in 1911, became an IM in 1950. We can't find Vygodchikov in Gaige. Can anyone provide any information on him?
Bonar
The latest issue of Kingpin is always greeted with enthusiasm in these quarters. It's refreshing to read a magazine which is not afraid to publish realistic assessments of the state of chess in England, rather than the usual "We're the second best country in the world" nonsense endlessly repeated by certain columnists.
Edward Winter's Forum is, of course, essential reading for all Addicts' Corner fans. This time he's unearthed a game by Bonar Law (a future PM) we hadn't seen before. It was played in a match between the House of Commons and a combined Oxford/Cambridge team.
Andrew Bonar Law - R Lob
House of Commons v Oxford/Cambridge 1909
Ruy Lopez Schliemann Defence
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5 4.d4 fxe4 5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.Nxe5 Nf6 7.Bg5 Be6 8.00 c5 9.c3 cxd4 10.cxd4 Be7 11.Nc3 Bf5 12.Qb3 Bg6 13.Qxb7 00 14.Nxg6 hxg6 15.Nxe4 Nxe4 16.Bxe7 Qxe7 17.Rae1 Nd6 18.Qxa8 Qf6 19.Qxa7 Nb5 20.Qc5 Nxd4 21.Qxc7 Kh8 22.Re3 Nf5 23.Rh3+ Kg8 24.Qc4+ Rf7 25.Rc3 Kh7 26.Rf3 Re7 27.g4 Qg5 28.Kh1 Nh4 29.Rf8 Qe5 30.Qg8+ Kh6 31.Qh8+ Kg5 32.f4+ 10
The loser was Oxford's top board at the time but his play here didn't make a strong impression.
Chosen People
Perhaps the only two major countries where chess as we know it has yet to establish itself are Japan and Korea. So Richmond Junior Chess Club were especially pleased to take on a team of five youngsters - three boys and two girls - from the Korea Internet Baduk (Go) and Chess Club who were staying in New Malden for 10 days in January. (We had no idea that New Malden has a larger Korean population than anywhere outside Korea.) Their chess teacher, Jin Woo Song, is a former student at Imperial College, and was active on the London chess circuit a few years ago.
They took part in the Barnet Congress and the 27th Richmond Rapidplay, where one of their girl players, Han Bit Sul, won a prize We also arranged a match with three evenly matched Richmond Junior teams, and visits to Richmond Junior Chess Club and two local schools.
Our visitors generously presented RJ and David Heaton (who had organised the match against RJCC and many of the other arrangements) with Go sets and books in Korean. Richard doesn't (yet) play Go, although Mike does. Stand by for the Complete Go Addict!
7 Up
We recently bought the book of the TV series (7 Up, by Michael Apted (William Heinemann)). You know the story. Back in 1964 a group of 14 7-year-olds from contrasting backgrounds were filmed for a documentary. Every seven years the cameras returned to film them again, most recently for 42 Up.
What struck us most about the programmes was not so much the difference between rich and poor but the similarities in their lives and expectations. They got a job, got married, had children, tried to do the best for them. With two exceptions. Two who chose, or maybe were driven by some inner demon, to do something different with their lives. And, perhaps significantly, both were chess players.
Bruce was educated at prep school, St Pauls (where he would have been a contemporary of Jon Speelman) and Oxford, where, when asked about his weaknesses, he pinpointed his lack of responsibility. "I was secretary of the bridge society, chess society, cricket society, Scottish dancing society and I didn't do anything for any of them."
At the age of 7 he had said of his ambition: "Well, I'll go into Africa and try and teach people who are not civilized to be more or less good." And this altruism stayed with him, as he gave up a career in insurance to teach maths in the East End, at one time in the school which Tony, one of the other 7 Up children, had attended years before. He married only at the age of 40, to a fellow teacher.
At 14 Neil was pictured, wide-eyed but strangely expressionless, at a chess board. (It was even set up the right way round.) "I've been playing chess since I started at the comprehensive school, since the first year. I think it is a very good idea to have competition, or you relax really and not sort of try hard enough."
But there's no further record of chess in his life. He dropped out of University after a term, suffered from depression, moved to the North of Scotland, then to the Shetlands, living on Social Security.
If you saw the programme a year ago, you'll have witnessed one of the most moving pieces of television we've ever seen. Without giving away too much of the story (watch the repeat next time it's on - and buy the book as well), perhaps Bruce and Neil have had the opportunity to rekindle their interest in chess.