Chessville - Past Pawns - by Robert Tuohey

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Past Pawns
by Robert T. Tuohey

One 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 or so, 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 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 Shanxi University, 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.

Editor: Here is an actual photo of Robert Tuohey, working under pressure of a deadline:

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)."

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."

Crowley Versus Whitaker 1916: Rediscovered!

(with the generous research assistance of John S. Hilbert)

"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..."

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.

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..."

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.

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 three-part article 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.

Kotov Under Analysis - with contributions by Mr. Bernard Cafferty. "Analysis is the heart of chess. To analyze tactically is to analyze superficially. To calculate a combination is to find the proper line to the proper depth. To analyze strategically is to analyze generally, in the long-term. “Analyze! Analyze! Analyze!” proclaimed Alekhine. “Chess is the art of analysis,” wrote Botvinnik. Very well, the masters have granted us the “what”, but still we lack the “how.” However, sad to relate, neither the Divine Doctor nor the Iron Logician ever thought it necessary to give details. Indeed, why would they have done so? If chess is your “mother tongue”, it’s a matter of intuition. But what of lesser mortals? Wherefrom might come the Alexander to sever this Gordian Knot of chess: How to Analyze? That Alexander was named Kotov..."

Philidor Annotates: "Certainly, François-Andre Philidor (1726-1795) must be counted among the fathers of modern chess. Indeed, any contemporary introduction contains at least his eponymous defense, mate, and dictum (“Pawns are the soul of chess”), and probably a game or two by this early master. And yet, odd to say, Philidor’s own textbook, The Analysis of Chess, (first published in 1748, and then greatly expanded in a second edition in1790), is almost unknown today..."

The Soul unto itself
Is an imperial friend—
Or the most agonizing Spy—
An Enemy—could send.

Emily Dickinson

Nikolai Krylenko:
The Father of Soviet Chess

The chess playing public today, and indeed, even the general public, tend to regard Russian dominance in chess as some kind of natural given. On the surface, at least, there is certainly evidence in favor of this prejudice: of the 14 classical world champions, nine are Russian! Looking a bit more deeply, however, we find a clear division in world championship chess history...However, as the geo-political map had been redrawn as a result of the Second World War, so too had championship chess: of the nine world champions since 1948, eight have been Russian ( the sole exception being, in the words of Tal, “the greatest genius to descend from the chess heavens”, Bobby Fischer). To say simply that the Soviets were “interested in” or “promoted” chess is to beg the question. In the power politics of communism, the Big Man theory rules: every major movement is impelled into life via a single strong will.

The will that brought
Soviet chess to life was

Nikolai Krylenko

The Ninth Gate Problem: Usually this column is devoted to an examination of under-appreciated or lesser-known players of the past; in this particular installment, however, I’d like to shed some light on a completely ignored chess position from a relatively recent film. To wit: the chess position briefly seen in “The Ninth Gate” (1999).

Directed by Roman Polanski, starring Johnny Depp, the plot of “The Ninth Gate” revolves around the restoration of a medieval occult text, “The Nine Doors to the Kingdom of Shadows”, which, in its original form, is said to outline a ritual capable of summoning Satan. The heart of this ritual, however, is not stated directly, but rather alluded to in a kind of “Satanic riddle” which takes the form of nine engravings: these the occultist must correctly interpret in order to successfully perform the working.

It should be carefully noted, in view of what is to follow, that these engravings, although historically fictitious, are very far from mere mock-ups or props: the general style and the esoteric symbology shown are rather accurate (borrowing heavily from the Tarot cards, and the artists Dürer and Holbein). Before examining the seventh engraving, which specifically concerns us, for the reader’s general reference, here is the entire set... The Ninth Gate Problem

Alfred de Musset: Romantic Player: Tuohey looks at the life and games of the French writer, of whom Tuohey writes, "...he undoubtedly took chess as one of the intellectual arts, it must well have. Imagine, then, this as your chessic goal: the unrelenting fire of Anderssen’s attack combined with the crystal pure positioning of Capablanca. That would indeed be an ideal chess. Now, conceive of a man who strives to apply this philosophy to his very life…That would be an ideal man...

Lord Dunsany - Master of Pen and Sword. "Merely being christened Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, would seem, if not actually to augur, at least to foreshadow, a life of some importance. In the present case, however, Fate triple-guarded herself: the appellation rang with dignity, the family background was illustrious, and, most importantly, the child so-named

was possessed of many exceptional qualities (note 1). The father, John William Plunkett (17^th Lord of Dunsany), was a descendant of one of Ireland’s most distinguished families (first official record of this hereditary title is 1190). The 17^th Lord was, as his son was to be, a man of many parts: politician, mechanical engineer, scholar, and sportsman. The mother, Ernle Grosvenor, was from a well-established English family. The couple was married in 1877, and roughly one year later, July 24, 1878, were blessed with the aforementioned son..."

The Nabokovian Problem: "Any culturally-literate person today knows that Vladimir Nabokov was one of the preeminent prose-stylists of the twentieth century. On the other hand, to know that the man was also a composer of chess problems, you’d have to be a true aficionado of the Royal Game...If however you happen to be a beginner at chess, or an inveterate potzer, hunting down some of Nabokov’s chessic compositions can be about as tough as an undergrad trying to fathom why the Bard has so much Bacon (and that’s not the kind you fry). Ergo, this humble article..."

Chess Art, Fiction and History at Chessville