Chess Notes

Edward Winter

The e-mail address is chessnotes@chesshistory.com. Correspondents are asked to include their name and full postal address and, when providing information, to quote exact book and magazine sources. The word ‘chess’ needs to appear in the subject-line or in the message itself.

4966. Bobby Fischer and Barbra Streisand

Milan Ninchich (Macquarie, ACT, Australia) sends an extract from page 41 of Barbra The Way She Is by Christopher Andersen (London, 2006):

The Erasmus connection is well known, but where did the quotes about ‘Fisher’ come from?

The photograph below, from page 114 of the April 1959 Chess Review, shows Fischer at the time he was a student at Erasmus Hall:

4967. Pawn-ending dupery

What is the provenance of the familiar anecdote about a master who, in a lost pawn ending, scored a trick win by moving his remaining pawn backwards?

This passage comes from page 350 of Schach-Echo, 23 November 1961:

An account in English was published on page 59 of the March 1962 Chess Life:

How much further back can the story be traced?

Hans Fahrni, from page 487 of the Barmen, 1905 tournament book

4968. Kester Svendsen (C.N.s 4941, 4945 & 4953)

Gordon Gribble (Gettysburg, PA, USA) points out that two photographs of Kester Svendsen are available at the webpage of the University of British Columbia Library: (1), (2).

4969. Knight tours (C.N. 4937)

Awani Kumar (Kanpur, India) writes:

‘An old problem has been solved, as I have constructed a magic tour by the knight in an 8x8x8 cube. The sum of all the rows, columns and pillars is 2,052. The squares can be arranged in alphabetical order over one another to visualize the cube in three dimensions. The tour has been verified by Günter Stertenbrink and George Jelliss, who are renowned experts in this field.’