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Past Pawns
by
Robert T. TuoheyOne of
the delights of chess, indeed as with all the arts, is the discovery and
exploration of the forgotten or obscure work that is, despite its anonymity,
unquestionably beautiful. And then, as you ponder the intricacies of that
gem you have just stumbled upon, don’t you find yourself wondering about the
personality, the human being, that created it? And what of the times that
person lived in?
However,
ars longa vita brevis, and so, sadly, you set the matter aside, returning
your attention to memorizing the latest variation of the Najdorf Sicilian
(B94, 6. Bg5)…
In Past
Pawns, I’ll take the time for you: every two months, you’ll find one of
these coruscating treasures boxed and set with introduction.
However,
reader beware: if you should start spending more time on the beauty of chess
and less trying to figure out ways to beat the hell out of your club-mates,
you’ll only end up with a deeper appreciation of chess.
Robert T. Tuohey
Who is Robert T. Tuohey?
Robert T. Tuohey was born in 1961, Danbury,
Connecticut. He has studied psychology at the State University of New
York in Albany (1988), and California Coast University in Santa Ana (1993).
In the U.S. Bob worked in the field of mental health; for the past ten
years, he has lived abroad (in Japan and China) teaching English at the
tertiary level. His current position is Foreign Expert in the
Languages Department of Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, Shanxi,
PRC.
Bob’s published works include an introductory
textbook on English literature (From Beowulf to Joyce, Taiyuan University
Press, 2001), several short stories (try, for example,
Botkin's Resignation,
Top
Ten Tell-Tale Signs of Chess Addiction,
http://www.baja-blue.com/crypt/ or
szirine.com), and his home page at
http://jadedragon.250x.com/welcome.htm.
For over a
decade, Bob has played at master-level strength. Currently, having neither
time nor opportunity for OTB, he plays correspondence.
Besides chess, blues guitar and martial arts
take up a good deal of his time. Bob’s e-mail is
jadedragon61@hotmail.com.
Bob is pictured here,
on the left,
listening attentively to his spiritual dad.
Klaus Junge -
Forgotten Talent:
A biographical sketch and three early games analyzed, along with a free
downloadable pgn database of all 112 known Junge games. "Chess,
like any high cultural activity, will suffer during periods of social
upheaval. Human persistence and imagination being what they are,
however, true artistic talent has a way of shining even in the worst of
circumstances. Such is the case of the German chess player Klaus
Junge (1924 – 1945)."
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Aleister
Crowley…Chess Master ?!
"Let’s
get one thing straight: Aleister Crowley has been called a lot of things
by a lot of people. Infamously, the scandal sheets of his day
branded him “the wickedest man in the world”
...Finally,
usually somewhere near the bottom of the page, after a long and varied
list of attributes (e.g., world traveler, mountain climber, poet,
prophet, artist, womanizer, drug user, occultist, and so on) they also
toss in that he was a chess expert." |
"As alluded to in my
article
Aleister Crowley…Chess Master?! apocryphal Great Beast games are
“Legion, for their name is many” (to paraphrase a certain Good Book
which good old Uncle Al would have nothing to do with). In fact, as
soon as the piece was published the credulous and the crooked alike
began sending me their spurious “finds”. (Oh, that I might digress
and detail the marvelous Bela Lugosi – Crowley game, played out using
the Frankenstein-Dracula variation, and drawn in 66 moves…or the even
more gruesome Crowley- Bloodgood battles… but my tale is sufficiently
recondite already.) I thank my lucky stars, however, that I did
not bypass the pdf file sent to me by one Colin S. Mcleod (a faithful
visitor to
http://www.lashtal.com/nuke/). Herein, amidst a lot of other stuff,
I found..."
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The
Unfortunate Fate of Salo Flohr: "Contemporary chess finds
its threshold in the 1930s. The “modernism” of the immortal Morphy,
via Steinitz, found full expression in Lasker and Capablanca. In
oblique opposition, the hyper-modern school, lead by Nimzowitsch and
Reti, developed. Harmonizing these theoretical extremes were such
monumental players as Botvinnik, Keres, and, most notably, Alekhine.
Indeed, a veritable cauldron of chess evolution boiled and rolled!
And one of the most feared players of the time was Salo Flohr..." |
Reinfeld in da house: The
life and chess of one of the most famous American chess authors of the
20th Century. "If you’re interested in chess books at all, you’re
familiar with the name Fred Reinfeld. You’ve seen Reinfeld-titles
everywhere from the mega-chains to the paperback-exchanges, and any
public library has a few as well. In fact, if you’re any kind of a
chess player at all, he’s probably on your own bookshelf too..."
Read more, including reminiscences from his son, Don. See
"Professor Bob's" list of the top-10 all-time Reinfeld "pot-boilers",
and download a selection of 54 of his best games. And yes, learn a
bit about this life of this fascinating, multi-talented Past Pawn.
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| Greco the Great:
"Gioachimo Greco (1600 – 1634) was the most important player and
analyst of the period known as the Renaissance, which dates from the
mid-fourteenth to the mid-seventeenth centuries. It was here, with
the tremendous excitement attending upon the rebirth, and subsequent
development, of the long-latent Greco-Roman arts and sciences, that the
platform for modern times, the eighteenth century Enlightenment, was
constructed. Succinctly stated, every area of European culture was
advanced during the Renaissance. And chess was included..." |
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Of the very limited number of original Greco manuscripts that survive,
most are dated from this period (1626-1633). Here is one of the
survivors. Also included: 73 surviving games by this Renaissance
Master.
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Claude Bloodgood Part I:
"Claude
Bloodgood, I dare say, was something of an enigma to all who knew him.
This very singular individual wove about himself such a web of fact and
fiction that no researcher to date has been able to untangle, to
penetrate its weave. Finally, most just wind up caught in it.
In this two-part article (the second installment coming in about two
months) I’ll take a different tack. Here, I’ll present what we
know to be true, and in the next Past Pawns, in all it’s romantic
detail, Mr. Bloodgood’s version..." |
“Confusion now hath
made his masterpiece.”
(Macbeth, scene III) |
The Life and Legend of Claude Bloodgood
Part II: Robert Tuohey's interview with Bloodgood's friend, CC
opponent, and executor of his estate, Don Wedding. "Don Wedding
was a long-time friend and CC opponent of Claude Bloodgood; in fact, when
Bloodgood passed away in August 2001, it was Don Wedding who wrote the
obituary article... Here then, for the first time giving a detailed
interview, Don Wedding provides us with some recollections into that
fascinating enigma that was his friend, Claude Bloodgood..."
The Life and Legend of Claude Bloodgood Part Three - The Legend:
Robert Tuohey concludes his three-part look at this infamous chess
character with an examination of the various legends surrounding his
subject. Included is a look at his birth & upbringing, his
indoctrination as a Nazi spy, love and romance with a Hollywood starlet,
games with Bogart and other Hollywood celebrities, and more. Also
included is an updated PGN file of Bloodgood's games, with 47 additional
games, courtesy of Rick Kennedy.
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