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The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia Archive #10 Submit your trivia to the Mad Aussie!
Championship Excellence: USSR correspondence chess GM Vladimir Zagorovsky holds the record for the most appearances in the final of the ICCF World Correspondence Chess Championship. He played in 6 finals between 1962 and 1989, winning the 4th championship in 1965. His other results were 2 seconds, a third, a fourth and a fifth placing. Timeless Excellence: In 1987, German CC player Hermann Heemsoth became the oldest player to achieve the ICCF Grandmaster title, at the age of 77. A postcard, from a friend, that I thought you all might like to see:
Who Am I? #1: I was one of the world's leading players in the middle of the 19th century. I learnt to play chess while studying in both Milan and Vienna. I became the personal assistant to a financier, who was also the president of the St Petersburg Chess Club. Through his support, I was able to travel across Europe and England, playing against opponents such as Harrwitz, Horwitz, Barnes, Anderssen and Paulsen. One of my matches against Anderssen was one of the first to be played with a time limit for the whole game, rather than for individual moves. A match between myself and Paul Morphy was planned, but it never took place. My tournament results were more erratic than my match play. My greatest tournament success was a 1st place ahead of Steinitz, Winawer and Neumann. Outside of chess, I moved in very influential circles, and built my wealth on property speculation. At the peak of my career, I gave up chess to follow a career in banking, with the assistance of Baron Albert Rothschild. I became a patron of the game, and sponsored several major tournaments in the latter part of the 19th century. I had the title of Baron of the Austrian Empire bestowed upon me. Who am I? Who Am I? #2: For approximately 20 years I was considered one of the best players in my country, although I won my national championship only twice in 13 appearances. I also played in 6 Olympiads over this period. My best tournament result was an =1st with David Bronstein, whom I defeated in a marathon 120 move game. The game was published in the national newspapers of my country. I took up Correspondence Chess after retiring from OTB play. I wrote chess columns for several large newspapers, and wrote books as well. Away from chess, I was one of the people who was involved in breaking the German "Enigma" code during World War Two, and I received an OBE for my work. Due to my war service, I was not allowed to travel to play in tournaments that were held on Soviet-controlled countries after WW2. Who am I? Who Am I #3: I grew up in the USSR republic of Armenia, and won the republic's chess championship 10 times. I also played in 4 USSR championship finals as well. I preferred to live in Yerevan when a move to a major chess centre like Moscow or Leningrad might have advanced my career. I am a railway engineer by profession. As well as playing, I had always been interested in problems and studies, having composed my first problem at age 15. It is in the area of studies and compositions where I have achieved success. Many people still consider me the greatest Soviet endgame study composer of all time. I won 6 of the first 10 USSR study composing championships, and I was the first composer to receive the FIDE Grandmaster of Chess Composition title. Who am I? Who Am I #4: I was a comparatively late starter in international chess, not having any success till my early 20's. I played in 40 tournaments over a 30 year period, winning or sharing 18 first and 10 second prizes. I also finished first in 3 successive national championships. I was also one of the top 10 players in the world for nearly a decade, and competed in 3 candidates matches. I am also well known as an authoer, and have received praise for the care and time that I spend researching and writing the books that are published under my name. I am also a openings theorist, and introduced into tournament play a very double-edged opening variation that now bears my name. Who am I? A Model of Consistency: The Belgian master Count Alberic O'Kelly de Galway competed in the 1957, 1958 and 1959 Beverwijk international tournaments. His score over the 3 tournaments was an amazing +1, =25, -1. A Model of Futility: Paul Keres holds the unfortunate record for the most second place finishes in a Candidates tournament, with four (1953, 1956, 1959 and 1962). Only the winner of the tournament faced the defending world champion in a match for the title. Blindfold: Here is the evolution of the record for playing the most games of chess simultaneously blindfold:
The emphasis now is on the quality of the players, rather than the number of games played. It is for this reason that the displays given by Pillsbury and Alekhine in 1902 and 1924 are considered the "best" as they both played against master strength opposition. Brothers: While former Czech and German GM Ludek Pachman (1924-2002) is well known for his OTB career, his brother Vladimir Pachman (1918-84) is well known in the composing field. He created over 900 problems. He was awarded the titles of International Judge of Chess Compositions in 1956, and International Grandmaster for Chess Compositions in 1975. Keres Memorial: The last tournament that Paul Keres played was the 1975 Vancouver Open in Canada. He died on the way back to the USSR. To honour his contribution to chess, the organisers of the Vancouver Open changed the name of the tournament to the Keres Memorial, with the tournament still being held every year in Vancouver. This year's event was won by IM Georgi Orlov. Preo "Memorial": US Correspondence Chess IM Nicolas Preo had a long CC career, playing from the late 1940's up to 2002. However, it was discovered that Nicolas A Preo had died in January 1988. His son, Nicolas N Preo "assumed" his father's identity and continued his games after his father's death. Here is some more information on the Preo father and son CC players, taking from the Chessmail magazine 3/2002:
It seems that in the early 1980's Preo Sr developed eyesight problems, and his son would help him with the clerical duties needed for CC. He then moved on to actually deciding the moves when his father died. In regard to playing strength and style of Preo Jr, here is a quotes from the article: "Yet if he could get out of the opening and reach an unclear middle game, Preo Junior became a wily tactician and could score points against quite strong opponents - just like his father...A tentative conclusion seems to be that the son was strong in the same kind of positions where the father was strong (especially the long games) but lacked the opening knowledge and the technique." Lessons Learned: Jose Capablanca's book "Chess Fundamentals" features the scores of 14 games played by Capablanca. Interestingly enough, 6 of the 14 games are Capablanca's losses to Marshall, Rubinstein, Janowski, Znosk-Borowski, Lasker and Chajes. More Lessons Learned: Bobby Fischer's "60 Memorable Games", considered one of the best ever game collections published, includes the scores of 3 games that Fischer lost. See even more Lessons Learned from some of today's top players! Time To Burn: Jose Capablanca lost only one tournament or match game in his entire career by exceeding the time limit, which was against Nikolai Riumin at the 1935 Moscow tournament. Time Well Spent: Prior to the 1948 World Championship tournament, Mikhail Botvinnik did extensive analysis on the endgame which featured Rook + Bishop pawn + Rook pawn v Rook. He did this analysis on the grounds that he didn't deserve to become World Champion if he didn't fully understand this tricky endgame. J'adoubovic: At the 1967 Sousse Interzonal tournament, Yugoslav GM Milan Matulovic made a move that would immediately lose a piece. He withdrew the move, and made another, claiming that he was merely adjusting the pieces on the board (J'adoube). His opponent, Hungarian GM Istvan Bilek complained to the tournament director, but no action was taken. The game ended in a draw. After this incident, Matulovic was given the unflattering nickname of "J'adoubovic".
J'adoubovic Reprise: This wasn't the only example of Matulovic "cheating". At the 1970 Interzonal at Palma de Mallorca, Matulovic was to play Mark Taimanov in the final round, with the Russian GM needing to win the game to advance to the 1971 Candidates matches. Playing Black, Matulovic arrived 20 minutes late, and then read the tournament bulletin before making his first move. He moved slowly in the opening, but then played at "blitz" pace before resigning on the 42nd move. He had used only 64 minutes on the clock. Apparently he received $400 for this dubious display. Chess Sacrifices: Viennese master Rudolf Spielmann wrote a whole book devoted to sacrifices, which was not surprisingly called The Art of Sacrifice in Chess. He stated that there were two main types of sacrifices: 1) Sham - involve losses of material only for a definable amount of time; and 2) Real - amount of time required for recovering the material is not clear. Spielmann then divided real sacrifices into the following 8 categories:
Human Sacrifices: Here is a list of very quick defeats suffered by some of the best players in the history of the game: 6 moves Zapata-Anand, Biel
1988, 1-0 Who Am I? #1: Ignac Kolisch (1837-1884)
Trivia Archives Return to the Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia Index
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