Chess Notes

Edward Winter

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10721. Capablanca in San Francisco, 1916

Gerard Killoran (Ilkley, England) has provided this game from page 1 of the Sunday Oregonian, 18 June 1916, section two:

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 O-O Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 Na5 9 Bc2 O-O 10 d4 Nc6 11 Nbd2 Bg4 12 h3 Bh5 13 d5 Nb8 14 Qe2 c6 15 dxc6 Nxc6 16 a4 b4 17 Bd3 a5 18 Bb5 bxc3 19 bxc3 Qc7 20 Nb3 Bd8 21 Ba3 Ne8 22 Qd3 Bf6 23 Nfd2 Na7 24 Nc4 Nc8 25 Ne3 Nb6 26 c4 Be7 27 Nf5 Nc8 28 Nxe7+ Qxe7 29 g4 Bg6 30 Rad1 Qg5 31 Kg2 h5 32 f3

32...Kh8 33 Qd2 Qd8 34 c5 Qf6 35 cxd6 Nexd6 36 Bxd6 Rd8

37 Bc7 Rxd2+ 38 Rxd2 Ne7 39 Red1 h4 40 Rd8+ Rxd8 41 Rxd8+ Kh7 42 Bxa5 Qg5 43 Bd2 Qf6 44 Bb4 Nc6 45 Rd6 Qf4 46 Be1 Ne7 47 Bxh4

47...Bxe4 48 Nd2 Bd5 49 Bd3+ g6 50 Ne4 Bxe4 51 Bxe4 f5 52 Bg3 Qc1 53 Rd7 fxe4 54 Rxe7+ Kg8 55 fxe4 Qb2+ 56 Bf2 Qb4 57 Rxe5 Qxa4 58 h4 Qa1 59 Rg5 Qf6 60 Be3 Kh7 61 h5 gxh5 62 Rxh5+ Resigns.

To begin at the end, an immediate question is why Black resigned after 62 Rxh5+. We note that, strange to say, the game had already appeared in the Sunday Oregonian the previous month, i.e. on page 1 of section two of the 21 May 1916 edition, and that according to that earlier publication the game finished with the blunder 62...Kg6:

As regards the concluding reference to the Palo Alto Times, California, is it possible to find the game in that publication?

Concerning the first Sunday Oregonian cutting, it is unclear what the heading meant by ‘From the Bulletin’. (The game was not published in the American Chess Bulletin.)

The first 32 moves were given in the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Room Newsletter of 21 November 2014:

This is at variance with the information in the second cutting above (ostensibly the same column, although all 62 moves were given there), and there is a discrepancy over Simkins/Simpkins.

Chess sources of the time had ‘Simkins’, and Mr Killoran has found on page 2 of the Daily Palo Alto, 15 April 1914 a chess news item which mentions ‘H.W. Simkins, editor of the Palo Alto Times’. Our correspondent also reports that the 1891-92 register of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Palo Alto has an entry for a student named Henry Walter Simkins.

Further information from ancestry.com: California, San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records, 1895-1985 (online database).

10722. A miniature (C.N. 10706)

Mate in three

This problem was given in P.H. Williams’ column in the Chess Amateur, January 1908, page 122. On behalf of Edward Wallis, who was preparing a book of miniature three-movers, Williams requested information about this ‘beauty described as anonymous’. He added:

‘It did my heart good to see some of the big guns at the City of London Club poring over this little morsel. I ran into 20 minutes before I found it out.’

In time for publication of Wallis’ book later that year, the composer was identified: A.W. Daniel. See page 57 of 777 “Chess Miniatures in Three”; the solution, 1 Qb3, was on page 262 of Wallis’ book.

Where exactly was the problem first published? At present our sole information, thanks to Michael McDowell (Westcliff-on-sea, England), is that when given on page 291 of the October 1953 BCM the composition had the heading ‘Daily Telegraph, 1903’. It was one of nine compositions by Daniel in an article by S. Sedgwick (pages 289-291) to mark Daniel’s 75th birthday. From page 290:

Arthur William Daniel

10723. A mysterious book (C.N.s 3087, 4991, 5004 & 8722)

A copy of Vers L’Exil by Margareth Sothern (Paris, 1939), translated by Juliette Bertrand, was allegedly found beside Alekhine’s body in Estoril in 1946, and a number of C.N. items have discussed the book and its English edition, Chosen Races (New York, 1939). In the latter volume, a translation by Maisie Ward, the author’s forename was spelled ‘Margaret’.

The first page of each edition:

Bizarrely, the novelist has been labelled a sixteenth-century figure. From page 206 of Alekhine’s Odessa Secrets: Chess, War and Revolution by Sergei Tkachenko (Moscow, 2018):

The relevant passage on page 244 of the original Russian edition, Odesskie tayny Aleksandra Alekhina (Moscow, 2016/17):

10724. Emanuel Lasker in 1886-88

Further to C.N. 10715, Michael Negele (Wuppertal, Germany) seeks more information about Lasker’s chess activities in 1886-88. He reports that his current knowledge may be summarized as follows:

• From early 1886 until Easter 1888 Lasker attended the Realgymnasium in Landsberg (now Gorzów Wielkopolski in Poland). An account by his teacher Georg Kewitsch, which also mentions games played between the two, was reprinted in the Wiener Schachzeitung, September-October 1908, pages 278–279, and in several other sources, including Hannak’s monograph on Lasker.


• Emanuel Lasker’s first games with Siegbert Tarrasch appear to have been played in spring 1887. In Dreihundert Schachpartien (page 98 of the 1895 edition, page 92 of the 1909 edition and page 93 of the 1925 edition) Tarrasch wrote of a visit to Berlin in March-April 1887 during which he defeated the city’s best players. He did not mention Lasker, but in an interview with Dr Max Hauser (Berliner Schachzeitung, 1 and 16 April 1896, pages 3-7 and 18-21) Lasker himself recalled meeting Tarrasch in Berlin around that time. He acknowledged that Tarrasch was far stronger then, and that of two games at knight odds one was drawn and the other was won by Tarrasch after Lasker blundered a rook. However, two subsequent games played on even terms ended with one victory each. Lasker lost the first game, but in the second ‘Tarrasch offered me a Muzio Gambit, which I accepted, and I won.’ These games took place at the Theehalle (Tea Hall) in Berlin, a favourite location of both Lasker brothers, along with the Café Royal and the Café Kaiserhof. As the visit to Berlin in early 1887 was Tarrasch’s only recorded stay there in the period 1887-89, this was almost certainly the occasion to which Lasker was referring. Although Lasker himself was not based in Berlin at that time (he did not return from Landsberg until spring 1888), it seems very plausible that he spent the 1887 Easter break in the German capital.


• The earliest known reference to Lasker with regard to chess is in the Südwestdeutsche Schachzeitung, 28 August 1887, pages 138-139, when Oskar Cordel was reporting on the jubilee tournament of the Berliner Schachgesellschaft, which was won by Max Harmonist. Describing the result of Berthold Lasker, who scored 4½/8 points, Cordel mentioned in passing that ‘his younger brother also plays very well already’. ‘Dr. [Berthold] Lasker, der hier im Rufe eines sehr starken Spielers steht (auch sein jüngerer Bruder spielt schon vorzüglich), machte im Anfange des Turniers [...] schlechte Geschäfte.’

Berthold Lasker (Source: Niemeijer scrapbooks, Royal Dutch Library, The Hague)

• In spring 1888, after finishing school and moving to Berlin, Lasker joined the Berliner Schachklub. He participated in two consultation games against the more famous Berliner Schachgesellschaft, one played on 29 May and 1 June and the other on 26 and 29 June 1888, and the scores were given in the Deutsche Schachzeitung, September 1888, pages 270-272. Emanuel Lasker was identified as a player in these two games in Brüderschaft, 2 June 1888, pages 177-178 (‘Lasker II, soon replaced by W. Cohn’) and 7 July 1888, pages 223-224.

Michael Negele, who has provided the above illustrations, concludes:

‘Is it possible to trace further corroboration of Lasker’s encounter with Tarrasch and, in particular, first-hand evidence which helps to date their two games? What is known of Lasker’s membership of the relatively obscure Berliner Schachklub and, more generally, can further information about the period 1885-88 be found in the local chess press or in later reminiscences by contemporaries? A search of the 1885-88 chess column of the Berlin Tägliche Rundschau (which Cordel appears to have edited from 27 May 1886 onwards) has produced no results.’

10725. A study by Wolfgang Heidenfeld

From page 546 of the December 1938 BCM, in T.R. Dawson’s ‘Endings’ column:

That BCM issue was misdated ‘November 1938’ in its masthead (page 529).

The solution to the composition, from page 22 of the January 1939 edition:

10726. Capablanca and Lasker, Moscow, 1925

Eduardo Bauzá Mercére (New York, NY, USA) has provided a fine copy of a well-known photograph (reference: AR_AGN_DDF/Consulta_INV: 259945) from Argentina’s Archivo General de la Nación, courtesy of the Ministerio del Interior, Obras Públicas y Vivienda:

Our correspondent comments that the board position shows a slight variation from their game in the first round of the 1925 Moscow tournament: 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 e3 e6 5 Nf3 Nbd7 6 Bd3 dxc4 7 Bxc4 c5 8 O-O a6 9 dxc5 Nxc5 10 Qxd8+ Kxd8 11 Rd1+ Ke8 12 Be2 Be7 13 b3 Bd7 14 Bb2 Rd8 15 Rd4 Bc6 16 Rxd8+ Kxd8 17 Rd1+ Bd7 (instead of 17...Kc7, as played by Lasker) 18 Ne5:

Further information is in C.N.s 3513 (included in a feature article) and 7658.

10727. Emanuel Lasker in 1886-88 (C.N. 10724)

From Peter Anderberg (Harmstorf, Germany):

‘An earlier reference to Emanuel Lasker with regard to chess is in the chess column of Tägliche Rundschau (Unterhaltungsbeilage), 30 March 1887, page 300, shortly before Easter 1887 (Easter Sunday that year fell on 10 April). Emanuel Lasker was called “Lasker II” as in Brüderschaft in 1888.

See also issue 35 of Kaissiber (December 2009), page 47.’

10728. Judy/Stella (C.N.s 9793 & 9798)

Jerry Spinrad (Nashville, TN, USA) has found on page 6 of the Globe (Toronto), 12 July 1879 a five-move problem with this heading:

‘Dedicated to the Gentlemen of Toronto.
By R.D. Mercer, of London, England.
Author of the “Judy” and “Stella” Problems and games.
“Stella”.’

Mate in five.

10729. Chess in Argentina

Following on from the reference in C.N. 10718 to El Ajedrez en la Argentina by José Pérez Mendoza (Buenos Aires, 1920), the present item begins a short series of photographs from the book (pages 28, 58, 66 and 76 respectively):

Our copy of the book, Albert Becker’s, has his bookplate (see C.N. 4258) and an inscription to him:

10730. Vienna, 1898

Below is a familiar photograph in a high-quality version reproduced from opposite page 64 of Hundert Jahre Schachturniere by P. Feenstra Kuiper (Amsterdam, 1964):

Larger version

Jan Kalendovský (Brno, Czech Republic) notes that another picture taken at the same location was published on page 4 of Das interessante Blatt, 16 June 1898:

Larger version

10731. St Petersburg, 1895-96

Jan Kalendovský also provides this illustration from Das interessante Blatt, 5 March 1896, page 2:

Larger version

10732. Fischer and Kasparov

Richard Reich (Fitchburg, WI, USA) has commented on the omission of any Kindle productions from our article Books about Fischer and Kasparov, and particularly the works on Fischer by John Donaldson and Eric Tangborn. We have therefore added a section comprising the following titles, which are available in Kindle format only:

• The Chess Writings of Bobby Fischer – title on the front cover: Collected Annotations and Articles by Bobby Fischer (2016)
• Bobby Fischer in Action Simultaneous Exhibitions and Blitz Games (2016)
• Bobby Fischer: The Early Years (1943-1962) (2017)
• Bobby Fischer: The Later Years (1963-2008) (2017).

Another Kindle work (2015) is John Donaldson’s A Legend on the Road: Bobby Fischer’s 1964 Simultaneous Tour. It is roughly twice as large as the second edition of the hard-copy book (Milford, 2005).

Kindle books will not be added systematically to our bibliographical articles (the others being Capablanca/Alekhine, Keres/Tal, Korchnoi/Karpov and leading modern chessplayers), but proposals for especially worthwhile additions are always welcome.

However, such listings will try to remain exhaustive as regards hard-copy books, irrespective of quality, for the bibliographer’s task is to catalogue all relevant tomes, masterpieces and potboilers alike, without discrimination. Consequently, to the list of books on Fischer we must add, à notre corps défendant, an undated volume just acquired, Bobby Fischer World Champion for Political Reasons? by Julio Hidalgo.

Apart from the ISBN number, 9781537399676, on the (blank) back cover, the sole bibliographical information about the book, whose pages are unnumbered, is in the bottom corner of the last page:

An author’s name is mentioned only on the title page, and not on the cover, but even the word ‘author’ is an exaggeration, because the book is essentially an omnium gatherum of other people’s writings. The early part lifts chunks from, among other publications, the Everyman Chess edition of Russians versus Fischer by D. Plisetsky and S. Voronkov (London, 2005), and a small example shows the literary and presentational skills of Julio Hidalgo:

Later, it is Kasparov’s Predecessors work which dominates. Dozens of pages reproduce his text, with minimal linking material. For instance:

Another chapter, over half-a-dozen pages long, consists almost exclusively of text from Kasparov’s Child of Change. Euwe is a casualty too.

Towards the end of the book a chapter entitled ‘A Spassky Interview’ begins:

‘I have selected some paragraphs of [sic] an interview to [sic] Spassky, for Kingpin Magazine ...’

The ‘some paragraphs’ occupy six pages.

Garry Kasparov remains the chief victim of the Fischer book, but in any such case what chance of corrective action exists? How one longs for Kasparov to take a public stand, also supporting fellow victims of rapacity.

10733. Alekhine playing blindfold

The above photograph, from page 191 of The Graphic, 7 February 1925, was shown in C.N. 10302.

Arthur Larrue (Lisbon) informs us that the Gallica website has a different shot, of high quality, taken at the same locale.

10734. A tall problemist (C.N. 10708)

Michael McDowell (Westcliff-on-sea, England) notes an article about W.K. Wimsatt, Jr. by Robin Matthews on pages 156-157 of the Problemist, July 1999, and, as shown below, the entry on pages 85-87 of A.C. White’s A Sketchbook of American Chess Problematists, volume two (Stamford, 1942):

10735. Judy/Stella (C.N.s 9793, 9798 & 10728)

Regarding the mate-in-five-problem in C.N. 10728, Michael McDowell reports that the WinChloe database lists six occurrences of it in print between 1852 and 1867. Below is the first, from page 319 of the Chess Player’s Chronicle, 1852:

It will be noted that, compared to the diagram in C.N. 10728, all the units are one rank closer to White’s side of the board.

10736. Hippocrates

Another pre-chess chess quote comes from the entry on the ‘therapeutic use of chess’ on pages 204-205 of Dictionary of Modern Chess by Byrne J. Horton (New York, 1959):

10737. Two correspondence games (C.N.s 10687 & 10691)

Fabrizio Zavatarelli (Milan, Italy) reports that he has obtained a further 14 postcards addressed to Ferdinando Cassoli Lorenzotti and can offer new proposals for reconstruction of the two games:

Modena-Genova
Correspondence, November 1880-February 1881 or later

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 Castles (Kh1, Rf1) d6 5 c3 Nf6 6 d3 h6 7 h3 Bb6 8 Be3 Ne7 9 b4 Ng6 10 a4 c6 11 Bxb6 Qxb6 12 Ng1 Nf4 13 Qf3 Qd8 14 d4 g5 15 dxe5 dxe5 16 Rd1 Qe7 17 Qe3 g4 18 h4 g3 19 fxg3 Ng4 20 Qe1 Nh5 21 Nf3 Castles (Kh8, Rg8) 22 Nbd2 Ngf6 23 Nf1 Rg4 24 Qd2 Kg7 25 Qd8 Qxd8 26 Rxd8 Nxe4 27 Bxf7 Kxf7. If 28 Nxe5+ Ke7 (Cuniali).

Genova-Modena
Correspondence, November 1880-February 1881 or later

1 e4 e6 2 Nf3 c5 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nc6 5 Be3 Nf6 6 Bd3 Be7 7 O-O d5 8 exd5 exd5 9 Nc3 O-O 10 Nce2 Ne5 11 Ng3 Nxd3 12 Qxd3 Bd6 13 Ngf5 a6 14 Nb3 Ng4 15 Nxd6 Qxd6 16 g3 Qe5 17 Bf4 Qh5 18 h4 Bf5 19 Qd2 Nf6 20 f3 Qg6 21 Rf2 Rfe8 22 Nd4 h5 23 c3 Nd7 24 Kh2 Nc5 25 Rg1 Ne6 26 Nxf5. If 26...Qxf5 27 Be3 (Cunali).

Moves in italics are deductions by our correspondent, who has also provided another card:

10738. Judy/Stella (C.N.s 9793, 9798, 10728 & 10735)

From John Townsend (Wokingham, England):

‘Further to C.N. 10728, Robert David Mercer, sometimes referred to as R.D. Mercer, was for many years a silk merchant in the Spitalfields area of London. The indexes to death registrations, as shown on the website of the General Register Office, indicate that he died in the third quarter of 1883 in the registration district of Edmonton (volume 3a, page 149), his age being entered as 72. Census returns in the National Archives suggest that he was born in Dublin, and married twice, having several children. An insertion in the London Gazette of 15 July 1851 (page 1849) announced that Mercer had been declared bankrupt; he later obtained his discharge certificate.

A game appeared in the Chess Player (edited by Kling and Horwitz), 1853, page 83, in which R.D. Mercer (White) gave the odds of the queen’s knight to an amateur: 1 e4 e5 2 f4 exf4 3 Nf3 g5 4 h4 g4 5 Ng5 h6 6 Nxf7 Kxf7 7 Bc4+ d5 8 Bxd5+ Kg7 9 d4 Nf6 10 Bxf4 Nxd5 11 exd5 Qxd5 12 Be5+ Kg8 13 Qd3 Qe6 14 O-O Bg7 15 Rae1 Bxe5 16 Rxe5 Qd7 17 Qg6+ Qg7 18 Re8 mate.

The opening, the Allgaier Gambit, is the same as was employed by Stella in a game which Rod Edwards, in his Chess Café article ‘Judy, a Forgotten Genius of the 1850s (Part Two)’, noted as having appeared in the April 1853 issue of the Chess Player’s Chronicle, page 107.

In another game, also published in the Chess Player, 1853, page 7, White was identified only as “Mr Mercer”, his opponent being “Mr Brooks”. It seems likely that this was R.D. Mercer. If so, the Bird’s Opening (1 f4) used by Mercer calls to mind the same opening choice of Stella in a correspondence game against Staunton which was mentioned by Chris Ravilious on page 42 of CHESS, January 2003. The game had appeared in the Illustrated London News of 26 January 1856, page 19.

In the chess column of the Illustrated London News there are a number of references to a correspondent known as “R.D.M.” or “R D M”, who can perhaps be identified as R.D. Mercer. Sometimes he is a solver. The column of 4 January 1851, page 11 has lists of correspondents credited for their correct “Solutions of Problem No. 362” and “Solutions of Enigmas”, and they include both “Judy” and "R D M”. Both appear again on 7 February 1852 (page 11) in the list of “Solutions of Problem No. 419”. These lists give the impression that “Judy” and “R D M” were different people.

Can it be conclusively shown whether R.D. Mercer was the author of the “Judy” and “Stella” problems and games, as claimed in the Globe?’

10739. Capablanca v Morse

This cutting from page 18 of the New York Tribune, 18 April 1915 has been submitted by Gerard Killoran (Ilkley, England):

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 b5 5 Bb3 Na5

6 Bxf7+ Kxf7 7 Nxe5+ Ke7 8 d4 d6 9 Bg5+ Nf6 10 Nc3 Bb7 11 Nd5+ Bxd5 12 exd5 Ke8 13 O-O dxe5 14 dxe5 Qxd5 15 exf6 Qxd1 16 Raxd1 gxf6 17 Bxf6 Rg8 18 Rfe1+ Kf7 19 Bc3 b4 20 Rd7+ Kg6 21 Re6+ Kf5 22 Rf6+ Kg5 23 Rd5+ Kh4 24 Rf4+ Rg4 25 Bf6 mate.

Establishing the exact date of the game is not straightforward, and particularly since New Orleans chess columns of the time are elusive. An obvious first port of call is the chart of Capablanca’s simultaneous displays in The Unknown Capablanca by David Hooper and Dale Brandreth (London, 1975). Pages 186-187 list three exhibitions in New Orleans at that time:

1 April 1915: +15 –0 =0
3 April 1915: +16 –1 =2
6 April 1915: +16 –0 =0.

None of these corresponds to the score given in the New York Tribune (+19 –0 =0), but when the results of Capablanca’s US tour were published on page 114 of the May-June 1915 American Chess Bulletin the list (which included no dates) had the following for New Orleans:

a) +16 –0 =0
b) +16 –1 =2
c) +19 –0 =0.

Of the two 19-board displays, only c) appears feasible for the Capablanca v Morse game, and not solely because the Cuban made a clean sweep. Regarding b), the American Chess Bulletin stated that Capablanca played all the games with the black pieces.

Corroboration of the American Chess Bulletin tallies comes from these reports:

Page 2 of the Picture and Sporting section of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 2 April 1915

Page 3 of the Picture and Sporting section of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 7 April 1915

It remains to be discovered what information New Orleans newspapers may have contained.

On the subject of Capablanca’s visit to New Orleans, see too the discussion in C.N. 6943 related to his brilliancy against Leon L. Labatt in the third display.

10740. Eliot Hearst (1932-2018)

John Donaldson’s Mechanics’ Institute Chess Room Newsletter of 16 February 2018 reports the death of Eliot Hearst on 30 January 2018, at the age of 85.

Firstly here, we show three photographs of Professor Hearst from his early chess career:

From page 34:

‘Captains Eliot Hearst of Columbia and Maurice Ginsberg (left) of Syracuse meet in the critical last round of the Intercollegiate Team Championship. Onlooker Louis J. Wolff is an old blue, captained winning Lion team when Capablanca played on it.’

Chess Review, October 1951, page 293

Chess Life, June 1963, page 145

In later life Eliot Hearst’s main contribution to chess was the fine book which he co-authored with John Knott, Blindfold Chess (Jefferson, 2009). The back cover of the subsequent paperback edition:

The co-authors documented updates on their Blindfold Chess website.

Professor Hearst began work on the blindfold chess project in the mid-1980s, though slowly in view of other commitments. From a letter to us dated 12 February 1986:

He made a number of valuable contributions to C.N., the last being in September 2017 (C.N. 10584), and his hallmarks were kindness and intellectual rigour.

Below, finally, is the front cover of a non-chess work, The First Century of Experimental Psychology (Hillsdale, 1979), of which he generously gave us an inscribed copy:

10741. An antidote to scaccocentricity

The benefits of playing chess are often extolled, but similar arguments are found for draughts/checkers. A random example, written by Morris Steinberg, is on page 3 of Morris-Systems Scientific Checkers edited by Newell Williams Banks (Detroit, 1923):

10742. Chess in Argentina (C.N. 10729)

Javier Asturiano Molina (Murcia, Spain) provides this transcription of the handwritten text at the bottom of C.N. 10729:

‘Mi estimado maestro Becker!
Aunque el libro no está en muy perfecto estado, es el que puedo ofrecerle, con el afecto de amigo.
C.M. Portela
3 de Mayo 1949.
(ver p. 334 - 343.)
lo que hablamos en Mar del Plata’

Pages 334-343 of the book, El Ajedrez en la Argentina, had two games won by Portela, against B.H. Villegas and L. Molina Carranza.

Some further photographs, from pages 202, 252, 264 and 268:

10743. Vienna, 1908

This group photograph comes from Jan Kalendovský (Brno, Czech Republic):

Larger version

It was published on page 9 of Das interessante Blatt, 16 April 1908. The magazine, which had some rich chess material, can be viewed online at the ANNO website.

10744. Capablanca in New Orleans (C.N. 10739)

Eduardo Bauzá Mercére (New York, NY, USA) notes that the figures given in the American Chess Bulletin, as opposed to those in The Unknown Capablanca, are corroborated by a report on page 6 of section two of the New York Tribune, 11 April 1915:

Our correspondent provides three more cuttings which add complications:

New Orleans Times-Picayune, 2 April 1915, page 8

New Orleans Times-Picayune, 5 April 1915, page 8

New Orleans Times-Picayune, 7 April 1915, page 8

The report on the first display, held on Thursday, 1 April 1915, referred to 15, and not 16, boards, ‘at most of which there were groups of players consulting’. The figure 15 (which was given by The Unknown Capablanca) was repeated by the newspaper in its 5 April edition. Regarding the second display, in which Capablanca played Black throughout, the Times-Picayune reported that there were 19 boards, but with 30 players consulting on them. Nineteen players were named, and they included Percy H. Moise. The third cutting above did not name Capablanca’s opponents in the display on 6 April 1915, in which the Ruy López game in C.N. 10739 seems to have been played.

Mr Bauzá Mercére wonders whether the New York Tribune of 18 April 1915 misprinted Moise’s name as ‘Morse’. Moise was a prominent figure in New Orleans chess, and had other encounters with Capablanca. See, for instance, pages 69-70 of The Unknown Capablanca. Our correspondent also refers to page 98 of the May-June 1916 American Chess Bulletin, which reported that in late April that year Capablanca won two simultaneous consultation games in New Orleans and that one of his opponents was P.S. [sic] Moise.

10745. Endgame studies

Further to C.N. 10700 (the famous endgame study by David Joseph), below is a second gleaning from page 104 of Test Tube Chess by A.J. Roycroft (London, 1972):

See too pages 144 and 188 of Endgame Magic by John Beasley and Timothy Whitworth (London, 1996).

T.R. Dawson’s ‘Endings’ column on page 52 of the November 1923 Chess Amateur gave this position:

White to move

The solutions on page 120 of the January 1924 Chess Amateur:

And from page 150 of the February 1924 issue:

Regarding that second composition, see C.N.s 9508 and 9512. Below we add the relevant parts, on pages 32 and 105, of Kubbel’s second anthology of studies (Moscow and Leningrad, 1938):

10746. Capablanca in New Orleans (C.N.s 10739 & 10744)

The above cutting from page 4 of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, 28 January 1919 has been supplied by Eduardo Bauzá Mercére (New York, NY, USA), who adds this game from page 7 of the 16 February 1919 edition:

José Raúl Capablanca (simultaneous) – Charles Edward Pattison
New Orleans, 30 January 1919
Ruy López

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 d6 4 d4 exd4 5 Nxd4 Bd7 6 Nc3 Nf6 7 O-O h6 8 Nde2 a6 9 Ba4 b5 10 Bb3 Na5 11 Ng3 Nxb3 12 axb3 Be7 13 Nf5 Bxf5 14 exf5 O-O 15 Re1 Qd7 16 Qf3 d5 17 Bf4 Rfe8 18 Be5 c6

19 g4 Nh7 20 Qg3 f6 21 Bf4 Bc5 22 Qd3 Rxe1+ 23 Rxe1 Ng5 24 Bxg5 hxg5 25 Kg2 Bb4 26 Re6 Re8 27 Qe2 Rxe6 28 fxe6 Qe7 29 h4 gxh4 30 f4 Bxc3 31 bxc3

31...g5 32 fxg5 fxg5 33 Qe5 a5 34 Qb8+ Kg7 35 Qe5+ Kg8 36 Qb8+ Drawn.

The report in the Times-Picayune, whose game heading had the misspelling ‘Patterson’, stated:

‘Mr Capablanca, subsequently commenting on the play, remarked that his adversary had played a good game.’

10747. Stormy petrels (C.N. 8191)

Another player, in addition to Aron Nimzowitsch and Philip Richardson, who was given the name ‘stormy petrel’ is noted by Avital Pilpel (Haifa, Israel): Israel Barav (Rabinovich) in the Palestine Post, 25 April 1945, page 2.

10748. Lasker v Janowsky (C.N.s 10713 & 10717)

Richard Forster (Zurich) reports that in the B.Z. am Mittag, 29 October 1909 Emanuel Lasker gave the same move order as in his other publications, i.e. 20...f6 21 g4 Re7 22 Bf4 Rhe8 23 Re3 Nc6 24 g5:

10749. Chess in Argentina (C.N.s 10729 & 10742)

A further set of photographs from El Ajedrez en la Argentina by José Pérez Mendoza (on pages 272, 278, 282, 400 and 416 respectively):