Early chess editors of the Chicago Tribune (Part One)

The Daily Chicago Tribune of Jan 26, 1913 quotes the American Chess Bulletin, who had printed an appreciation of the late chess editor of the Tribune Louis Uedemann, who had died the previous November:

" A few data concerning the chess department of The Chicago Tribune  will be in order at this time. It is one of the oldest in the country, though we have been unable to ascertain it's exact age. Henry F. Lee, the new editor, recalls that it appeared as early as 1880. From a scrapbook of Mr. Uedemann's it would appear that he began to edit the column on Jan. 6, 1901. retiring for awhile Mr. Uedemann was succeeded by the late Sidney P. Johnston also one of the strongest players Chicago has produced. Johnston's last column appeared on March 19, 1905 the very day he died. Emil Kemeny, who had removed from Philadelphia to Chicago, then conducted the department until November of that year. Serious illness compelled the Hungarian expert to relinquish the burden, which in turn assumed temporarily by Mrs Frank W. Lynn, who will be remembered as a participant in the first national women's tournament in New York.
   Mrs. Lynn occupied the editorial chair from Nov. 26, 1905, until Jan. 28 following, when Kemeny resumed for a short time. The latter went to Europe and on March 11, 1906, Uedemann was again called to the helm, which he held steadily until the time of his death. All of which merely goes to show that the management of the "Tribune" has been at pains to cater to wants of chess players among whom it is known to have a large following."

Was Mrs. Frank Lynn the earliest female editor of a chess column in a major metropolitan newspaper?

 

Louis Uedemann Photo 1904

SDN-002332, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum. 

 

Sidney P. Johnston Photo 1904
SDN-002426, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.  

Emil Kemeny 
Photo 1904
SDN-002694, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.  

 

Mrs. Frank W. Lynn 
Photo 1906
SDN-004627, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.

 

Harry F. Lee 
Photo 1906  
SDN-004610, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.  

John S. Hilbert: Writings in Chess History

 

From the fecund pen of John S. Hilbert comes Writings in Chess History a new collection of  essays and book reviews. Hilbert is the author of numerous books on the history of chess, with Walter Penn Shipley: Philadelphia's Friend of Chess and Shady side: The life and crimes of Norman Tweed Whitaker being two of his best received titles, which is sure to make any new book by Hilbert almost self recommending for those interested in the history of the game.

Writings in Chess History is Hilbert's second collection of essays, his first Essays in American chess history as it title implies was focused on American chess history and while the great majority of essays in this new collection are also on American subjects, this collection has a little wider focus, with essays on Howard Staunton and the English historian Henry Thomas Buckle as a chess player.

The charge of "minor master, minor work" has been leveled at the type of subjects Hilbert has largely chosen to research and write about; that these "minor masters"  are not worthy our attention, much less of a book or essay. Hilbert defends his views in a interview conducted by Neil Brennen included in the book, and while I may never had heard of or only had the vaguest idea of who Alexander Sellman or Jacob Elson were, each was to borrow a term from another recent chess book was eminent if not on a national level at least at the local level, and each has his story to tell. While most of us will never play against the likes Kasparov or Botvinnik , we will come across characters like J. Henry Smythe Jr. (a.k.a  " The Megaphone Man") or a scoundrel like Norman Tweed Whitaker.

A picture of Alexander Sellman graces the cover of  Writings in Chess History so it seems only fitting that we begin our review there; Sellman if he is remembered at  all it is for his forth place finish at the fifth American chess congress or for his participation in London chess tournament in1883 where he finished twelfth in a field of fourteen but won one of his two games against Johannes Zukertort the tournament winner.

Sellman who was deaf due to a childhood case of meningitis was a stalwart of the Baltimore chess scene; playing in various local events, giving numerous chess simultaneous exhibitions and as chess editor of the Sunday Herald. Hilbert has unearthed many new details of Sellman's chess career and over 130 games.

J. Henry Smythe Jr. (a.k.a  " The Megaphone Man") is the subject of another Hilbert essay; in a brief chess career Smythe was very active in the Philadelphia area at the turn of the last century but his nickname and main claim to fame was in the political arena.  Giving up chess after a breakdown after  succumbing to what in press was called "excessive chess playing". Smythe became something of a political gadfly, at the 1904 Republican National Convention in Chicago Smythe jumped onstage megaphone in hand starting the cheering for President Teddy Roosevelt. 'Smythe's audacity earned him the... sobriquet of " the Grand Old Party's Megaphone Man"'.

But don't think that all the essays are on "minor masters" there is a wealth of new material and games
 on Frank Marshall, William Steinitz, Johannes Zukertort,  and Emanuel Lasker.

The notorious Norman Tweed Whitaker makes an appearance with an essay on his connection to the state of Georgia . It is an older but a still feisty Whitaker  always seeming to play for the angle in life.

All told there are twenty five essays proper on subject as intriguing as correspondence chess in California 1858-59 to Zukertort in Canada, and Lasker at Haverford College.The collection is rounded out by fifteen book reviews. While this collection may not be for everyone, it reward those whose interest in chess history lies outside just biographies of world champions and are willing to explore. A perfect book for the bedside these essays and reviews will reward repeated reading. A minor complaint I would have liked to have known where and when these essays originally appeared, but this may be the fault of the publisher as Hilbert makes the same complaint in his review of Genna Sosonko's Russian Silhouettes.
 
Writings in Chess History  
John S. Hilbert 
 Publishing House Moravian Chess Olomouc(2012) 616 pages

Joseph Henry Blackburne research project

When I posted Some games from Tim Harding's Eminent Victorian Chess Players  I had the what I thought was a vain hope that someone would write a Blackburne biography, now comes the news that Tim Harding has a contract offer from McFarland for a biography of  Joseph Henry Blackburne.  All I can say  is that I can think of few authors better qualified to write a Blackburne biography.

More information on the Joseph Henry Blackburne research project can be found at: http://www.chessmail.com/research/blackburne.html

My review of Tim Harding's Eminent Victorian Chess Players can be found at
http://chessreader.blogspot.com/2012/07/tim-harding-eminent-victorian.html

Games from Шахматный бюллетень

For several years in the 1980's I subscribed to the Soviet chess magazine Шахматный бюллетень (Shakhmatny Bulletin). Before there was Chess Informant or New in Chess there was Шахматный бюллетень; if you wanted to see games from the Soviet Union there was nothing else like Шахматный бюллетень. I was cleaning out my nightstand the other day when I ran across my old issues and I thought that on occasion I would post some games from what was for it's time the premiere Soviet chess magazine.

The following games are taken from the the First League of the 51st USSR Championship in Tallinn which took place 2-28 xii 1983, the games were published in the March 1984 issue of Шахматный бюллетень. The Tallinn tournament was won by Josif Dorfman ahead of Lev Psakhis, Konstantin Lerner, Boris Gulko  and Andrei Kharitonov.

 
For more on Шахматный бюллетень there is a very informative article by Tim Harding over at Chess Cafe.

Link: http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz66.pdf

Manzano/ Segura Vila: Arturo Pomar Una vida dedicada al ajedrez

 

In the aftermath of the Spanish civil war and the second world war Franco's Spain was isolated, an international blockade had made Spain the poor man of Europe. One of the few contacts with the outside world was the chess prodigy Arturo Pomar who even in later years was known as "Arturito". Pomar first came into international attention when at the age of 13 he drew a game with world champion Alexander Alekhine at the Gijon international tournament in 1944. No mean achievement, even though Alekhine was not the player that he had been a decade prior.

Pomar was largely positional player, but could mount a tactical attack when so motivated.  A superb endgame player, Pomar had a very limited opening repertoire, his natural talent and the unavailability of much of the latest chess literature in Franco's Spain may have done much to keep his opening repertoire limited.

Pomar's was seven times the champion of Spain, and as far as international tournaments some of his best results were Madrid Zonal 1960 where tied for first with Portisch, Gligoric, and Donner. Torremolinos 1961 where he again shared first with Gligoric. Palma de Mallorca 1966 where he finished second behind Tal.

But for me most impressive was his showing in Stockholm Interzonal 1962 won by Fischer where he finished in 11th-12th place in a field of 23. No longer a young chess prodigy Pomar receives no support from his chess Federation, without a second or trainer to help him, Pomar had to stay up late to analyze adjourned games, while others could rely on their seconds and get a full nights rest.Pomar was among the leaders in the first five rounds but the effort proved to much and may have led to the breakdown he suffered a few years later.

Pomar had to support his family working for the Spanish postal service which led Bobby Fischer to quip that no matter how well Pomar played that he would have to go back to selling stamps, naming him "the poor Spanish postman".
After Stockholm Pomar was still a dangerous opponent but his play became less ambitious and after his breakdown his play became rather uneven.
As for the book at hand it is a good game collection with 117 games and there are numerous pictures throughout the spanish text. We catch glimpses of Pomar the family man and husband, but for me what was missing was more context on how the Franco regime had exploited Pomar's great talent for it's own ends, and how he benefited from regimes support. But this may have to wait til Pomar is no longer  with us.



ARTURO POMAR. Una vida dedicada al ajedrez 
Manzano/ Segura Vila
Paidotribo (2009), Paperback, 354 pages 

P.S. We wish Arturo Pomar a belated !Feliz cumpleaños! As his birthday was Sept. 1st (1931)

Wither the chess tournament book?

I have recently added a number of tournament books to my modest collection, and it has got me thinking on the fate of the tournament book in this age of game databases. There seems to be a scarcity of tournament books at the moment; there is always a new opening book coming off the press but a tournament book is a very rare bird indeed.

At their very best a tournament book gives the reader a sense of place and occasion which are is sorely lacking in a game database. A raw game score provides us with the result but not the circumstances of the game; whether one the players was in time trouble or ill. We lose something valuable, a part of our chess history without the tournament book.

 It then makes me doubly grateful for the efforts of Dale Brandreth (Caissa Editions), and Tony Gillam (The Chess Player) in many cases reconstructing tournaments of the past which never had a tournament book or publishing English translations of classic tournament books, but still this hardly makes up for the lack of  the contemporaneous tournament book.

Some games from Tim Harding's Eminent Victorian Chess Players

I wanted to post a few games from Tim Harding's Eminent Victorian Chess Players when I posted my review but didn't have a chance til now.


Gunsberg was awarded the prize for best game of the sixth American Chess Congress for this first round win over Mason.

Here is a fine win for Bird from a unfinished match with Steinitz.



I didn't know Zukertort's games very well or much of his biography outside his match with Steinitz, so I am glad to be able to replay some of his games.

I remember replaying this game many times from my long lost copy of Blackburne's Chess Games, I still hope against hope for a Blackburne biography much less a complete games collection.