Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

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  • Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

    My project for the last year has been researching Toronto 100 years ago when the Beaches Chess Club won the Toronto Chess League. Since there is no longer the Toronto Chess News I have no place to publish local chess articles. So I'm presenting a slide show at the Beaches Historical Society at the Beaches Library on Tuesday Feb. 13, 7:15pm.

    I've had to resist putting the games into the computer's blunder check as I won't be giving any analysis of the few games I copied out of the newspapers. The show is mainly about the key organizer/players, where they played and some photos of the beach back then. The Toronto archives only has one photo of chess from that era. The centrepiece photo is of a living chess game played at the Scarboro Beach Amusement Park.

    http://tbeths.com/

    Another library event next Tuesday is a simult by local master Robert Morrison. CMA has a class nearby on Thursdays.

  • #2
    Re: Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

    Originally posted by Erik Malmsten View Post
    My project for the last year has been researching Toronto 100 years ago when the Beaches Chess Club won the Toronto Chess League. Since there is no longer the Toronto Chess News I have no place to publish local chess articles. So I'm presenting a slide show at the Beaches Historical Society at the Beaches Library on Tuesday Feb. 13, 7:15pm.

    I've had to resist putting the games into the computer's blunder check as I won't be giving any analysis of the few games I copied out of the newspapers. The show is mainly about the key organizer/players, where they played and some photos of the beach back then. The Toronto archives only has one photo of chess from that era. The centrepiece photo is of a living chess game played at the Scarboro Beach Amusement Park.

    http://tbeths.com/

    Another library event next Tuesday is a simult by local master Robert Morrison. CMA has a class nearby on Thursdays.
    Erik, you always can write for the GTCL website or send materials to be published. Let me know your thoughts.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

      Tonight, 7 pm, Robert Morrison simult at the Beaches Library, Queen and Lee. My lecture next Tuesday.

      When the Toronto Chess League was activated in 1915, the organizers didn’t want the big Toronto Chess Club to easily crush the new neighbourhood teams so the top couple of players sat out. Turns out that many players preferred to play on the teams closer to home and the downtown TCC didn’t win. Beaches won three times, and another new club, the Judeans also won three times.

      I would say that there were three local masters at the time: Canadian Champion Stuart Morrison, Courier columnist Malcolm Sims, and Sydney Gale. A fourth Toronto Champion, Percy Beynon, went to New York to be a chess professional, returned to enlist and died overseas. My article on him is in this month’s The Maple Leaf.

      Gale, from British Guiana, in 1920 was the first Black person to win a Canadian Championship. He won the first brilliancy prize for this game:

      Harvey,John B - Gale,Sydney E [B07]
      CAN-ch Toronto CAN, 1920
      1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Bd3 Nbd7 4.Ne2 c6 5.f3 e5 6.c3 Be7 7.Be3 Qc7 8.Nd2 Nf8 9.0–0 Bd7 10.h3 g5 11.Kh2 h5 12.Rg1 g4 13.f4 h4 14.f5 d5 15.Qc2 Nh5 16.Kh1 Ng3+ 17.Nxg3 hxg3 18.dxe5 gxh3 19.Bf4 Bc5 20.Rgf1 Bf2 21.Nf3 Ng6! 22.Qd2 [22.fxg6? hxg2+ 23.Kxg2 Bh3+] 22...0–0–0 23.Bg5 Nxe5 24.Bxd8 Nxf3 25.Bxc7 Nxd2 26.Rxf2 gxf2 27.Bf4 Nxe4 28.g4 Rh4 29.Be2 Bxf5 30.gxf5 Rxf4 31.Bd3 f1Q+ 32.Bxf1 Rxf1+ 33.Rxf1 Ng3+ 34.Kg1 h2+ 0–1

      21 Nf3 ...

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      • #4
        Re: Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

        fen didn't work:

        R3KN1R/PPQB1P2/2P5/3Ppp2/4pb2/2pb1nPP/ppq2Bp1/r4r1k
        Last edited by Erik Malmsten; Tuesday, 6th February, 2018, 12:58 PM.

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        • #5
          Re: Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

          Can someone post a decent photo of Gale? The only one I've seen is so blurry that you can't tell what skin colour he has.

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          • #6
            Re: Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

            Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

            February 6, 2018

            Harvey-Gale 1920
            Position after 21.Nf3

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

              Thanks Wayne.

              Hugh, the newspaper photo I have isn't fantastic.

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              • #8
                Re: Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

                Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

                February 8, 2018

                Robert Morrison, whom Erik mentions in the above post, has a one-page article on him in the Beach Metro Community News:

                http://www.beachmetro.com/2018/02/07...aches-library/

                The first few paragraphs:

                Beach-based chess master Robert Morrison says he's done something no other Canadian player of the game has.

                "I do have one particular distinction-it's not a great distinction-but I am the only Canadian ever to play Kasparov in a one-on-one tournament," he said.

                The game between Morrison and Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion many believe to be the best to ever sit at the board, took place in 1981 in Austria at a world youth championship.

                These days, Morrison can be found in a more casual setting: at the Beaches Library, where he is taking on challengers and providing some free chess instruction as part of the Queen Street branch's programming this winter.
                ________

                Robert reported the World Youth Team, Graz, Austria, August 17-29 in Chess Canada Echecs #51, 1981.

                In Round 3 the result of USSR-Canada was 3.5-0.5 on these boards:

                Kasparov-Morrison 1-0
                Psahis-Buchholz 1-0
                Yusupov-Morenz 1-0
                Kochiev-Hergott 0.5-0.5

                The report gives the games of Yusupov-Morenz and Hergott-Kochiev but alas, not Kasparov-Morrison.

                Fortunately, chess games.com does have it:

                World U26 Team-ch (1981) Graz, Austria
                Kasparov, Garry - Morrison, Robert
                E92 King's Indian Defense, Orthodox Variation

                1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Be2 e5 7.Be3 Qe7 8.d5 Ng4 9.Bg5 f6 10.Bh4 h5 11.Nd2 c5 12.dxc6 bxc6 13.b4 Be6 14.O-O Nd7 15.Nb3 Nxh2 16.Kxh2 g5 17.Na5 Nb8 18.Bg3 h4 19.Bg4 Bxg4 20.Qxg4 hxg3+ 21.fxg3 a6 22.Nd1 d5 23.Ne3 Ra7 24.cxd5 Qxb4 25.Qe6+ Raf7 26.Nac4 Qe7 27.Nf5 1-0

                This note appended in 2010:

                I believe this game was from Round 3 in the World Youth Olympiad, USSR vs. Canada, Board 1. At the time, Garry was 18 years old and ranked 6th in the world, but everyone pretty much knew that he was going to be world champion.

                A TV station crew was there (on Garry's right) and maybe a minute after the game started someone turned on a bright light to illuminate the scene for the camera. I recall Garry made his displeasure clear and uttered a kind of rough "Nicht! Nicht!" When the light wasn't immediately turned off he then turned in his seat to the left so that his back was facing the camera and it was clear that he wasn't going to change his position until the light was turned off. Within a few seconds all was back to normal.

                I was deliberately following the game Kasparov-Maia Chiburdanidze (Baku 1980) and I believe I had an improvement in mind for black (I don't recall now what it was) but Garry varied and so never gave me a chance and then he wiped me out. One might ask why I would follow one of Garry's own games. The reality is I had no idea what to do. I admit I was thoroughly intimidated by the whole scene.

                I think Garry used about 45 minutes and I lost on time in a lost position. I had good company. Garry's score in that tournament was 10 wins and 2 draws. During our game I suppose Garry was polite enough though it was obvious that he thought he was playing against an irrelevant patzer from some piddly country. Given what happened in the game I suppose I couldn't argue too much with that.

                I met Garry again many years later at a function in Toronto hosted by a Canadian company. This would have been 2006 or 2007--25 years later. When I mentioned the game to him he immediately remembered it and referred to his crushing knight on f5.

                Rob Morrison
                Toronto, Canada
                August 2010

                _________

                One other tidbit. In the conversation in 2006 or 2007 I told Garry that, to the best of my knowledge, I was the only Canadian who had ever played him in a one-on-one tournament game. He said that he thought that was correct. The Canadian who he was most aware of was Spraggett and he noted that he had never played against him.

                Yeah, it was amazing that, right out of the blue, he could remember this minor game 25 years later.

                My pleasure passing this stuff on. Anyone who played a sure-to-be-famous-forever player like Garry (or, say, Fischer) in the past should consider doing the same if they think there's really anything to tell. People will find it to be of interest even 100 years from now.
                Last edited by Wayne Komer; Thursday, 8th February, 2018, 01:40 AM.

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                • #9
                  Re: Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

                  My article was published on the same page:
                  http://www.beachmetro.com/2018/02/08...100-years-ago/

                  A couple of years back I did write a bio of Robert Morrison in the Toronto Chess News and I mentioned his opening inno (Sicilian, Qb6 instead of b or dxc6) in the Informant which Tal gave an ! to.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

                    Question for Hugh:

                    The person who got the ball rolling to start the Beaches Chess CLub was Hector Henri De Mers from Montreal. He returned to Montreal circa 1927 and an esteemed colleague has passed on a Jan 13, 1951 Montreal Daily Star photo of Mary De Mers (who, according to her granddaughter, is stronger than Hector) playing in the "Canadian Women's Chess Championship" won by Miss Feida Bono(sp?)

                    Do you have records of women tournaments back then in Montreal?

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                    • #11
                      Re: Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

                      Re: women in chess in Montreal:

                      I have no record of a "Canadian" women's championship held in Montreal in 1951, so the article may have been referring to the "Montreal Ladies' Championship" held in the same (or previous) year. I may be able to find crosstables for any of the events I describe, if you want them.

                      1937: November: An all-woman club - the Cercle Femina, started. It was mentioned in newspaper columns in 1937, 1938, 1946, and 1947. The 1945-46 club champion was G. Archarngelo; the 1946-47 club champion was Anna Cosgrove.
                      1945: Gisela Gresser (US women's champion) simul (18 boards) at Montreal CC. Won 12; drew 0; lost 1 (J.E. Patenaude).
                      1949, June: the Montreal Ladies' Championship was won by Firda Bone. (Was Fieda Bono a typo, or an alternate name?)
                      1950, June: The 8-player Ladies' championship was won by Firda Bone (6-1), I. Steven (5-2).
                      1951, July: the Ladies Championship (5 players) was won by Firda Bone (4-0), for the third year in a row.
                      1952, May: The 5-player Ladies' championship was won by Doris Robertson (4-0).
                      1953: Ladies Championship proposed, but never held.
                      1957: Ladies Championship proposed, but never held.
                      1958: 5 of the 80 entries in the Montreal Championship Open were women.
                      1959: 4 of the 104 entries in the Montreal Championship Open were women.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago

                        Tomorrow night 7 to 8 pm, Robert Morrison will again be giving a simult at the Beaches Library, Queen and Lee.

                        I now have a couple of photos of Gale and have sent a bio article to the CFC. Perhaps I'll start to recover my series of articles on other Toronto Champions.

                        I'm almost finished an article to put up on the Beaches Historical Society website but shortening it by removing photos and chess diagrams.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Finally posted an article on my research into the Beaches Chess Club 100 years ago. Had to balance chess with Beaches community history. A subtheme was the YMCA's involvement with chess. I do have a database of the few local games collected from the newspapers.

                          http://tbeths.com/pdf/beacheschess100.pdf

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                          • #14
                            Very interesting article! I seem to remember playing in a Toronto club on Adelaide St. sometime in the late 60's or early 70's. Does anyone have any details? I also remember the YMCA on College St. and the club upstairs on Vaughn Rd. I think I had a Toronto blitz rating of around 2200 at some time. Beaches related - I stayed with at a friend's aunt's place on Hammersmith during the 1968 Canadian Open.

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                            • #15
                              The 1968 Toronto Canadian Open was just my 2nd Canadian Open (1st was in Kingston in 1966).

                              I had only started playing serious chess in Sept., 1964 at Western University (Then University of Western Ontario).

                              I loved the Great Hall at Hart House in U of T, and still love to play there. I will play in the upcoming Hart House Holidays Open in Dec. - 54 years after my first tournament there!

                              Bob A

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