Old Chess Photographs

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

Old Chess Photographs

November 12, 2015

Two film clips.

The first is of Austrian Chess Champion Hans Müller playing a 100-opponent simul in a small German town. Could it be the fabled Ströbeck? The date is May, 1936.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/ca...e-camera-no-85

Hans Müller (1896-1971) played in several grandmaster tournaments in the 20s and '30s (e.g. Kecskemet, 1927) and won a correspondence tournament in 1932, ahead of Dr. Dyckhoff.

He wrote several books, Botvinnik lehrt Schach (1949) and Schachgenie Aljechin: Mensch und Werk (1953) among them.

The second clip, from June, 1957, has this description:

Various shots of World Chess Champion Vasily Smyslov at home singing and playing piano. Audience watching chess competition. Various shots of Smyslov competing in chess tournaments during his life, his opponent is mainly Mikhail Botvinnik. He ends playing a match against his son Vladimir at home.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/wo...ampion-smyslov

Smyslov (1921 – 2010), at parties and informal gatherings, was known to suddenly start singing. He had a powerful voice, having tried out (and almost been accepted) at the Bolshoi Opera. There is a YouTube video, which is a recording of Smyslov singing Stenka Razin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbDkuI3p3JI#t=23

- Smyslov was one of the last representatives of a long-gone era of good taste, elegance and love for the game, for beauty and for life.
________

For the story of Stenka Razin see also:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/the-singer-vasily-smyslov

[Dan Scoones]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

I may be an unqualified judge, and I don't mean to be disrespectful, but having watched the Smyslov clip a number of times I think it is perfectly obvious why he was not accepted into the Bolshoi.

[John Coleman]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

Smyslov's song reminds me very much of the Seekers' song "The Carnival is Over". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nze8B39OB0k

Edit: According to wiki, the fount of all knowledge, the Russian song was the source.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

Old Chess Photographs

November 14, 2015

John, because of your note, I watched the youtube clip. Judith Durham has a lovely, crystal-clear voice. Bought The Very Best of The Seekers from iTunes.

[Ken Kurkowski]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

Old Chess Photographs

October 20, 2015

When I was studying in England 1969-1973 the majority of houses did not have central heating nor double-glazed windows. I was once then in a London hotel, where the heat in my room was supplied by a small radiant heater, which used electricity like crazy. Suddenly there was a “clunk” and I was sure that the heater had blown the fuse. In fact, what happened was that the electric meter had stopped and a coin had to be put in it to start the power again!

I played in a tournament at a suburb of Manchester, in a school gym, that was so cold at Easter that I shivered all through the first round and wore a sweater and coat for the other rounds.

I thought that many improvements had been made with the heating problem since but recently read this on-line:

Theodopouos Pherecydes (December 10, 2003) - I lived in Hastings (well, St. Leonards, ac-tu-ally) for about a decade and played the Hastings Christmas tournament twice: Dummy Division. It was so cold that both times I played in gloves.

http://www.samizdata.net/2003/12/has...-and-all-that/

I can well believe that after the War, fuel was in short supply and Paul Schmidt was not the only one to play in a heavy coat!

And there is this story: In 1932, Dutch Master Daniel Noteboom attended the Hastings Chess Congress, held in December-January. The weather was so cold that he caught pneumonia at Hastings and then died, January 12, 1932, a few days after the event.

Thanks for the interesting history! I can tell you that England was not alone in having climate control issues at chess tournaments. At the old Toronto Chess Club on Vaughan Road in the late 1970s, the heating system did not always work too well. I remember times when several players didn't bother to remove their coats during tournaments. In summer it was the opposite problem- windows had to be ripped open and several fans installed for the Saturday afternoon blitz tournaments.

[Ken Kurkowski]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

I think you are right, but according to wiki, "Serbo-Croatian thus generally goes by the ethnic names Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and sometimes Montenegrin and Bunjevac."

My favourite online translator says Croatian.

That is correct- the websites have the extension '.hr' which is 'Hrvatska', or Croatia to us.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

Toronto Public Library has a Digital Archive with several chess pictures mostly from Toronto Star. Pictures can be viewed in high resolution format.
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/s...hess&view=grid
(hope the link will work, otherwise make your own search for chess and digital archive)

This picture mentioned V.Dobrich.
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/d...-TSPA_0008023F

Swooping down on a Knight. David Plaxton; 12; of St. Andrew's Junior High School gleefully sees a chance to capture a knight from Danny Gottlieb; 11; of Don Valley Junior High yesterday in a warm-up session at the CKFM-Hudson's Bay Co. junior chess tournament at the Four Seasons Sheraton Hotel. More than 500 players competed; according to tournament director; chess master Walter Dobrich; who writes on chess for The Star.

Francis needs to work more to reach these numbers in Toronto LOL


Nava Star with kids (and probably chess set brought from Soviets) in 1977
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/d...-TSPA_0008016F

Peter Biyiasas
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/d...-TSPA_0008010F
"Peter Biyiasas; 21; a student at the University of British Columbia; studies a move before winning the Canadian Closed Chess Championship last night."

How long will take to get this pic on the Kevin's blog LOL
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/d...-TSPA_0008012F

[Hans Jung]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

and the David Plaxton referred to sure looks like the longtime expert who often plays in Hal's tournaments. Could it be the same?

[Gordon Ritchie]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

If Muller wins only 48/100 he should perhaps stick to propaganda films.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

Old Chess Photographs

January 26, 2016

There is a photo online of a page of the Russian newspaper Smena with pictures of five of the participants in the Moscow 1925 Tournament:

Emanuel Lasker
Jose Raoul Capablanca
Carlos Torre
Efim Bogoljubov
Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky

See:

pic.twitter.com/fbjLD68qbx

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

Old Chess Photographs

February 27, 2016

The Icelandic Chess Federation has a number of photos of the Fischer-Spassky Match, 1972 at:

http://skakmyndir.com/photos.php?cat...nv%EDgi%201972

Besides the principals, there were Spassky’s seconds Geller, Krogius and Nei, Lombardy for Fischer and Robert Byrne reporting for the New York Times. Chester Fox had the rights to photographing the Match. I also see Al Horowitz (Chess Review) there, and Harold Schonberg (music critic for the NY Times).

Dimitrije Bjelica was part of the circus. He has claimed playing one of the largest simuls ever, 312 boards in 1997, also a 57-board blindfold against nurses, who could barely play chess, and is the author of over 80 chess books.

Looking at the photos now, one has forgotten how much hair everyone had in 1972. Men with thick, full heads of hair – Larsen, Fischer, Spassky, and Schmid, especially.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

Old Chess Photographs

April 8, 2016

There is a lovely hand-coloured (?) photograph of Alekhine and Capablanca at:

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=8297

The colorist, Klimbim, has some absolutely stunning photographs at:

https://klimbim2014.wordpress.com

If you scan down the above, you can see another Capablanca, a young Tolstoy and a young Richard Wagner. Outstanding. You unfortunately get Stalin and Trotsky but also Audrey Hepburn and Baron Von Richthofen!

Anyway, at the EC Forum they are wondering why Alekhine is wearing a uniform if he is in law school.

Roger de Coverly gives the quote:

Alekhine came in the dark green uniform worn by students of law

Chessgames.com seems to have pinpointed the event:

Savorin Cup (1913)

In 1913, Jose Raul Capablanca visited Russia to play a series of exhibition knock-out matches against his three adversaries. The conditions to win the gold cup presented by Monsieur Savorin were that Capablanca would win it if he did not lose any game of a match against each of the three others. Otherwise, the trophy would be awarded to the opponent with the best score against him.

Eugene Aleksandrovich Znosko-Borovsky was declared the winner after he tied his match 1-1 and also won the stakes' side-pot.) The matches lasted between December 12th-23rd, but it doesn't seem to be certain in the stipulations whether any of the matches may have been extended past 2-0, should Capablanca have won each game that would been preceded by Christmas. Perhaps the stakes may have increased if the cup-winner or winner of the side-stakes did have to be decided beyond 6 games, but there does not seem to be any indication of how long the rounds of the cup might have been scheduled for.

The other player at the left may be either Znosko-Borovsky or Dus Chotimirsky.

The game that they have just played is on the demonstration board:

Savorin Cup
St. Petersburg
December 14, 1913
Capablanca, Jose Raoul – Alekhine, Alexander
D30 QGD Slav

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.Nbd2 Nbd7 6.Bd3 Be7 7.O-O O-O 8.Qc2 dxc4 9.Nxc4 c5 10.Nce5 cxd4 11.exd4 Nb6 12.Ng5 g6 13.Ngf3 Kg7 14.Bg5 Nbd5 15.Rac1 Bd7 16.Qd2 Ng8 17.Bxe7 Qxe7 18.Be4 Bb5 19.Rfe1 Qd6 20.Bxd5 exd5 21.Qa5 a6 22.Qc7 Qxc7 23.Rxc7 h6 24.Rxb7 Rac8 25.b3 Rc2 26.a4 Be2 27.Nh4 h5 28.Nhxg6 Re8 29.Rxf7+ Kh6 30.f4 a5 31.Nh4 Rxe5 32.fxe5 Kg5 33.g3 Kg4 34.Rg7+ Kh3 35.Ng2 1-0

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1011878

[Hans Jung]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

WoW! The photos just go on and on fascinating! - you could spend endless hours on research.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

Old Chess Photographs

April 12, 2016

The 16th Olympiad, Tel Aviv 1964

There are about 400 photos from the Tel Aviv Olympiad in the archives at Harvard.

The can be accessed through the Hollis+ search engine:

http://hollis.harvard.edu/primo_libr...dvancedSearch&

In the section Keywords anywhere put: tel aviv chess and in the space at the right Material Type, scroll down to Image and then push the Search button.

There will be three sections on the Tel Aviv Olympiad. I checked the box and when I clicked on the View Online got a series of photos which enlarged on slow double-clicking and then using the navigate buttons to go through the whole 155.

There are beautifully clear black and white photos of all the leading masters of the day. I recognize Portisch, Petrosian, Kotov, Smyslov, Spassky, Gligorich, Keres, Stahlberg, Ivkov, Reshevsky, Saidy, Bisguier, Don Byrne, Pal Benko, Botvinnik, Unzicker, Stein and so on. The photos are uncaptioned so you have to figure out who is who yourself.

It isn’t until photo 65 of the third lot that we see Abe Yanofsky and Zvonko Vranesic. The Canadian team had those two and Anderson, Macskasy, Suttles and Witt. In fact, two of the more interesting games of the 1820 played were these by Canadians:

a) The most unusual and creative game of the Olympiad-Mora-Suttles.

b) White’s major pieces broke through the pawn cordon and shot the black King dead from the back – Macskasy-Fuchs.
______

Tel Aviv Olympiad 1964
Nov. 10, 1964, Final A, Round 1
Mora, Frederico (Spain) – Suttles, Duncan (Canada)
B00 King’s Pawn Opening

1.e4 g6 2.h4 Bg7 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.h5 d6 5.Bc4 Nd4 6.d3 Nh6 7.Bxh6 Bxh6 8.Nge2 Bg4 9.hxg6 hxg6 10.Qc1 Bh5 11.f4 e5 12.Nxd4 Bxf4 13.O-O Bxc1 14.Bxf7+ Kd7 15.Be6+ Ke8 16.Bf7+ 1/2-1/2

Nov. 3, 1964, Qualifier, Group 6, Round 1
Macskasy, Elod (Canada) – Fuchs, Reinhart (GDR)
D14 QGD Slav, Exchange, Wuss Attack

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bf4 Bf5 7. e3 e6 8. Bd3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 Bd6 10. Bxd6 Qxd6 11. O-O O-O 12. Rac1 Rac8 13. a3 g6 14. Rc2 Nd7 15. Rfc1 Ne7 16. e4 dxe4 17. Qxe4 Nd5 18. Nxd5 exd5 19. Qh4 Rxc2 20. Rxc2 Re8 21. Qg3 Qb6 22. h3 Nb8 23. Qf4 Nc6 24. b4 Kg7 25. Rc5 Re4 26. Qd2 Qd8 27. b5 Na5 28. Qc2 b6 29. Rc8 Qe7 30. Rc7 Qxa3 31. Rxa7 Re7 32. Ra8 h6 33. Qc8 Kf6 34. Qh8 Kf5 35. Qxh6 Ke4 36. Qd2 f6 37. Qe2 Kf4 38. g3 Kf5 39. Nh4 1-0
_______

The Soviet team was the only one to have 6 grandmasters at their disposal and Petrosian was on top board. The USA was missing Fischer, Lombardy and Evans but Reshevsky was there. The top grandmasters of Argentina refused to take part in the Olympiad due to a disagreement with their officials.

The Final A Standings were:

1. Soviet Union 36.5 out of 52
2. Yugoslavia 32
3. West Germany 30.5
4. Hungary 30
5. Czechoslovakia 28.5
6. USA 27.5
7. Bulgaria 27
8. Romania 27
9. Argentina 26
10. Poland 24
11. Netherlands 21
12. Canada 19
13. Spain 17.5
14. Israel 17.5

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Old Chess Photographs

Old Chess Photographs

May 2, 2016

There are numerous old chess photographs posted on the twitter account of Douglas Griffin – Scottish chess player and collector/translator.

https://twitter.com/dgriffinchess

Ones that caught my eye:

1) Dreev and Bareev as boys
2) The eyebrows of Alexander Kotov
3) RIP Viktor Gavrikov
4) Stein and Geller 1964
5) Seirawan-Karpov 1982
6) Timman and Reshevsky 1977
7) Eugenio Torre 1982
8) Bobby Fischer in a sweater-vest 1972
9) Karpov and Balashov as young boys 1965
10) Korchnoi, Moscow 1952

Griffin evidently won one of the quiz prizes offered during the recent Candidates Tournament in Moscow. There is a photograph of it there too.

I count nine signatures and not one of them identifiable. Can you do better?