Chess Notes

Two fine photographs of Nimzowitsch and Réti which we have occasionally reproduced from pages 159 and 82 of Alt om Skak by B. Nielsen (Odense, 1943) prompt a question from Maurice Carter (Fairborn, OH, USA): bearing in mind that the chess sets and boards appear to be identical, on what occasion were the photographs taken?

Page 17 of our book on Capablanca gave a chart of the time consumed by the players in their 23-game match in 1909:

Our source was the June, July and August 1909 issues of the American Chess Bulletin, which omitted the timings only for game 16 (a draw at the Brooklyn Chess Club on 21 May). Information for that game was also absent from the table on page 6 of Imre König’s book on the match (San Francisco, 1955). The match book published in Stockholm in 1916 gave no clock times.

Is there any hope of finding the missing details for game 16?

Fabrizio Zavatarelli (Milan, Italy) notes on page 456 of Carlo Salvioli’s Il Giuoco degli Scacchi (third edition, Livorno, 1921) a ‘Blackburne-Mackenzie’ game which he has not seen elsewhere:

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Bc5 5 Be3 Qf6 6 c3 Nge7 7 Nd2 Nxd4 8 e5 Qb6 9 Nc4 Qe6 10 cxd4 d5 11 Nd2 Bb6 12 Bd3 Bd7 13 O-O O-O-O 14 Qb3 f6 15 exf6 gxf6 16 a4 Rdg8 17 g3 c6 18 Qc2 h5 19 a5

19...h4 20 Rfe1 hxg3 21 fxg3 Rxh2 and wins.

What is known about the game? It was still being given, in unchanged format, in much later editions of Salvioli’s book. See, for instance, page 546 of the eighth edition (Florence, 1961).

Mark N. Taylor (Mt Berry, GA, USA) draws attention to a passage in the chapter about Fred Reinfeld on pages 61-67 of The Fascination of Book Publishing by David A. Boehm (New York, 1994):

‘Fred had what he thought was a headache, which turned into an earache. On Saturday [sic] night, he fell asleep. He never woke up.

Death had been caused by an aneurysm.

Webster: “Aneurysm. A permanent abnormal blood-filled dilating of an artery, resulting from a disease of a vessel wall.”

Fred had been born with it and at 54 years of age, it had burst and flooded his brain.’

The reliability of the information is an open question, since the chapter has such dubious statements as the following on page 61:

‘Before Fred Reinfeld was six, he had mastered the chessboard ...’

Page 27 of The Even More Complete Chess Addict by M. Fox and R. James (London, 1993) stated that John Reginald Halliday Christie (who lived at 10 Rillington Place) ‘was a goodish chessplayer’ and that ‘Whilst awaiting the ultimate punishment in Brixton, he passed the time thrashing his warders at chess (Chris the chess champion, they nicknamed him).’ The grounds for these assertions remain to be discovered, since much of the book is a source-free zone.

On a documented basis we can add that two other British serial murderers regularly played chess against each other. On page 132 of The Gates of Janus (Los Angeles, 2001) Ian Brady described playing chess against Graham Young in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight:

‘An inveterate but excitable chessplayer, he rather foolishly favoured the black pieces, likening their potency to the Nazi SS. His daily opponent on the board for years was the author of this book, against whom Young always failed to win a match.’

Philip Walsingham Sergeant (frontispiece of his book A Century of British Chess)

C.N. 3190, an item no longer online, listed the non-chess books by P.W. Sergeant in our collection. One title acquired since then has been added below, and we believe that the list is now complete.

• The Cathedral Church of Winchester (George Bell & Sons, London, 1899 and 1903)
• The Burlesque Napoleon (T. Werner Laurie, London, 1905)
• The Courtships of Catherine The Great (T. Werner Laurie, London, 1905)
• The Burlesque Napoleon, being the story of the life and the kingship of Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte (T. Werner Laurie, London, 1905)
• The Last Empress of the French (T. Werner Laurie, London, circa 1907)
• The Empress Josephine, volumes 1 and 2 (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1908)
• The Empress Josephine (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1908 - ‘Standard Lives’ edition)
• Cleopatra of Egypt (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1909)
• The Real Francis Joseph (John Long, London, 1909)
• The Great Empress Dowager of China (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1910)
• Behind the Scenes at the Court of Vienna (John Long, London, circa 1910) – an English version of a work by H. de Weindel
• My Lady Castlemaine (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1912)
• Mrs Jordan: Child of Nature (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1913)
• Little Jennings and Fighting Dick Talbot, volumes 1 and 2 (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1913)
• The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte (Stanley Paul & Co., London, circa 1920)
• The Life of Anne Boleyn (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1923)
• Rogues and Scoundrels (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1924)
• Liars and Fakers (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1925)
• The Ruler of Baroda (John Murray, London, 1928)
• Dominant Women (Hutchinson & Co., London, circa 1930)
• Gamblers All (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1931)
• George, Prince and Regent (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1935)
• Historic British Ghosts (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1936)
• Witches and Warlocks (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1936).

The list does not include recent reprints; the most common of these is Witches and Warlocks, of which a paperback edition was published by Senate, London in 1996.

Yasser Seirawan (Amsterdam) asks, following on from C.N. 5932, which future world champions played previous title-holders in simultaneous displays.

Readers’ help in drawing up full details will be welcome. A familiar case is Botvinnik’s defeat of Capablanca in Leningrad in November 1925. As mentioned on page 105 of our book on Capablanca, it has also been claimed that in 1920, when not yet world champion, the Cuban drew with Euwe. See page 95 of volume two of Around The Chess World in 80 Years by N.J. Divinsky (St Leonards on Sea, 1965).

Eduardo Bauzá Mercére (New York, NY, USA) sends this game from page 112 of The Globe (Buffalo), November 1876:

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Bc4 Nxe4 4 Nc3 Nxc3 5 dxc3 d6 6 Nxe5 Qe7 7 Bxf7+ Kd8 8 O-O Qxe5 9 Re1 Qf6 ‘and White announced mate in 11 moves’.

However, this is not an instance of an announced mate which is longer than the game itself (see page 164 of Chess Explorations, pages 8-10 of Kings, Commoners and Knaves and page 50 of A Chess Omnibus), because from the diagrammed position there is a mate in nine.

Into which of our feature articles will this set of photographs be incorporated shortly?

Regarding instances of an announced mate which is longer than the game itself, the following encounters have been discussed in C.N.:

• Taylor v Amateur, London, 1862 (five moves played, and White announced mate in eight);
• Potter v Amateur, London, 1870 (six moves played, and White announced mate in nine);
• Barker v Owen, correspondence, 1907 (24 moves played, and Black announced mate in 25);
• Daniel v Grant, correspondence, 1911-12 (14 moves played, and White announced mate in 21).

The accuracy of the last two cases has yet to be demonstrated.

In C.N. 5946 we remarked concerning Barnes v F.W., New York, circa 1876:

‘However, this is not an instance of an announced mate which is longer than the game itself (see page 164 of Chess Explorations, pages 8-10 of Kings, Commoners and Knaves and page 50 of A Chess Omnibus), because from the diagrammed position there is a mate in nine.’

In the light of a comment received from Stephan Bird (Caernarfon, Wales) we clarify that in this topic ‘announced mate’ refers to a correct announcement of the shortest possible forced mate.

Henry Ernest Atkins (BCM, October 1924, page 406)

From an article by G.H. Diggle in the October 1976 Newsflash and reproduced on page 16 of Chess Characters (Geneva, 1984):

‘... we well remember his giving a “simultaneous” at the Lincoln Chess Club in 1924, winning 17 and drawing two. One of his more elderly opponents (a notorious non-resigner) who for 30 moves had been wobbling along with a piece down until “time” had to be called, then proceeded to “demonstrate a draw” by concocting a continuation so optimistic that even clubmates with lifelong experience of his powers stood aghast. Atkins, with his greatcoat on ready to go home, made no attempt to refute this analytical masterpiece but merely remarked with great deference: “I don’t think we can play it quite like that!” and then beat a craven retreat “escorted by Club Officials”.

An unobtrusive man, we last saw him as a spectator at “Nottingham, 1936” wandering about as if he was nobody.’

Marc Hébert (Charny, Canada) notes on page 192 of the 14/2007 Quarterly for Chess History a reference to ‘Aleksander (actually – Avrohom) Flamberg’ and asks for further information on the forename.

The writer of the article, Tomasz Lissowski (Warsaw), tells us:

‘Flamberg used the “modern” form of his forename, Aleksander, but the inscription on his grave at the Jewish Cemetery, Okopowa Str., Warsaw states that his first name was Avrohom.’

A photograph has been supplied by Mr Lissowski:

As regards games played by future world champions against previous title-holders in simultaneous displays, our list now stands as follows:

• Capablanca v Botvinnik, Leningrad, 1925;
• Karpov v Botvinnik, Moscow, 1964 (after Botvinnik lost the world title);
• Karpov v Spassky, Vladimir, 1965 (before Spassky won the world title);
• Karpov v Kasparov, Leningrad, 1975.

Acknowledgements: Javier Asturiano Molina (Murcia, Spain), Eduardo Bauzá Mercére (New York, NY, USA) and Hassan Roger Sadeghi (Lausanne, Switzerland).

This position occurred after 21 Rfe1 in Tartakower v Réti, New York, 1924. Black played a rook to d8, but which rook?

The question has been put to us by Charles Sullivan (Davis, CA, USA), who comments that although various sources, including databases, give the next move as 21...Rad8, The Book of the New York International Chess Tournament 1924 by A. Alekhine (New York and London, 1925) put ‘KR-Q’ on page 191 and appended this note on the next page:

‘The queen’s rook stays at its own square in order eventually to make a demonstration on the queen’s side (P-QR4).’

We note, though, that page 267 of the German edition of Alekhine’s tournament book (Berlin and Leipzig, 1925) stated that the move played was 21...Rad8. Alekhine wrote that moving the king’s rook to d8 would have been an improvement:

Tartakower annotated the game, which he lost, on pages 220-222 of the August 1924 Wiener Schachzeitung. 21...Rad8 was the move given, with an exclamation mark. It may therefore be strongly suspected that 21...Red8 in the English edition of the New York, 1924 book was wrong, possibly owing to a misunderstanding and/or translation error, but the matter has yet to be put beyond doubt.

Notwithstanding the quality of Alekhine’s annotations, the book was a lax production. C.N. 2131 (see page 283 of Kings, Commoners and Knaves) mentioned that W.H. Watts added a nine-page errata supplement (to the British edition, of which he was the publisher). The list sheds no light on the ‘Which rook?’ puzzle but is, of course, indispensable in connection with any English-language edition of Alekhine’s book.

Eduardo Bauzá Mercére (New York, NY, USA) quotes from page 143 of The Globe (Buffalo), January 1877:

‘Mr Bird, the celebrated English chessplayer, has been spending a few days in our city during the past month, and has been contesting with our players, but few of whom have had any degree of success with him. Mr Richmond has been most successful, although Mr Bird has won a large majority of games contested with him.’

A game was given on page 160 of the February 1877 issue:

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 d3 Nf6 5 Be3 d6 6 h3 a6 7 Nc3 h6 8 O-O O-O 9 Bxc5 dxc5 10 a3 Qd6 11 Ne2 Ne7 12 Ng3 Ng6 13 Kh2 Kh7 14 Nf5 Bxf5 15 exf5 Ne7 16 Nh4 b5 17 Bb3 Qd4 18 g4 Qxb2 19 Nf3 Rad8 20 g5 hxg5 21 Nxg5+ Kg8 22 Qf3 Qd4 23 Ne4 Nxe4 24 dxe4 c4

25 Rg1 Qd2 26 Rxg7+ Kh8 27 f6 Qf4+ 28 Qxf4 exf4 29 fxe7 Kxg7 30 exf8(Q)+ Kxf8 31 Ba2 Rd2 32 Rc1 Rxf2+ 33 Kg1 Re2 34 Bb1 Rxe4 35 c3 Re3 36 Bf5 c5 37 Bc8 a5 38 Ba6 b4 39 axb4 axb4 40 cxb4 cxb4 41 Bxc4 Rc3 42 Rxc3 bxc3 Drawn.

C.N. 5647 gave an extract from The Pleasures of Chess by Assiac (New York, 1952):

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 Nd7 4 Bc4 h6 5 dxe5 dxe5 6 Bxf7+ Kxf7 7 Nxe5+ Kf6 8 Qf3+ Kxe5 9 Qf7 Ngf6 10 Nd2 Qe8 11 Nc4+ Kxe4 12 f3+

12...Kf5+ 13 Ne3+ Ke5 14 Nc4+ Kf5+ Drawn.

We have still found no other games which finished with, in Assiac’s term, ‘double-perpetual’.

Frederick S. Rhine (Park Ridge, IL, USA) recalls a passage from page 153 of Pollock Memories by F.F. Rowland (Dublin, 1899). The writer is Pollock.

‘But I should like to see a position which Mr Loyd told me he had constructed some years ago – or, at least, was constructing. It was a sort of problem in which both kings were in perpetual check, and neither could escape, nor could either side either win or lose the game. He called it “The Whirlpool”.’

Our correspondent asks whether more is known about Loyd’s construction.

Michael McDowell (Westcliff-on-sea, England) points out to us that the Pollock passage was quoted at the start of an article ‘Consecutive Checks Task’ by John Roycroft on pages 56-57 of the July-September 1976 issue of The Problemist. It seems that no information about a Loyd ‘whirlpool’ composition has been found, but on a similar theme we pick from Mr Roycroft’s rich article a study by E.B. Cook published in the Illustrated London News of 7 June 1856:

White to move and draw.

Solution: 1 Bf7+ Kg4 2 Be6+ Kf4 3 Rf5+ Kg4+ 4 Re5+ Kf4 5 Rf5+.

From Gene Gnandt (Houston, TX, USA):

‘Pillsbury was the first master to realize that combinations directed at the opponent’s king were affected by conditions outside of that immediate area. Control of the center was an important factor, while possession of the square B5 on the queen side (remarkable concept!) could be decisive in effecting mate on the king side. Pillsbury’s combinations were often large-scale productions, involving operations on the whole board.’

Source: Combinations The Heart of Chess by I. Chernev (New York, 1960), page 124.

From Avital Pilpel (Haifa, Israel):

‘Flamberg, like many European Jews, had two forenames – one “Jewish” (Avrohom) and one “Gentile” (Aleksander). The point of such double names (usually beginning with the same letter) was to make assimilation easier. One would use the Jewish name within the Jewish community, especially for religious purposes, and the Gentile one within the larger, Gentile world.

The Hebrew on the gravestone says:

“Here is buried
The bachelor Avrohom Alexander
Son of David Flamberg
Died on the tenth of the month of Shvat 5686
Aged 45 years
[mourned by] His parents and sisters.”

Avrohom, Avraham, Abraham, etc. are all variant spellings (or pronunciations) of the same Hebrew name אברהם – i.e. the name of the biblical patriarch.’

This photograph of Olga and Vera Menchik in Hastings was published on page 3 of the January 1930 American Chess Bulletin:

One of T.H. Tylor’s very rare forays into chess writing was ‘The Grand Masters’ on pages 26-29 of the anthology Home and Away (London, 1948). Directed at a mainstream audience, the article contained little that is quotable, although on page 28 he described Alekhine as ‘perhaps the greatest chess genius of them all’.

Some years ago (see pages 230-232 of Kings, Commoners and Knaves) we discussed chess connections involving Viveca Lindfors and Errol Flynn, who co-starred in the 1948 film Adventures of Don Juan. In passing we described Viveca Lindfors as ‘the only screen goddess lucky enough to marry a FIDE President’ (i.e. Folke Rogard). This 1946 photograph of the couple appeared in her autobiography Viveka ... Viveca (New York, 1981):

She was later married to the actor and writer George Tabori, and her book also has the following shot, ‘the first picture of the Tabori-Lindfors family in the house on 95th Street’:

Calle Erlandsson (Lund, Sweden) has sent us a 20-page booklet, Till Folke Rogard på 60-Årsdagen (Örebro, 1959), which marked the then FIDE President’s 60th birthday. Pages 14-15 gave this game:

1 e4 Nf6 2 e5 Nd5 3 d4 d6 4 Nf3 c5 5 c4 Nb4 6 a3 Qa5 7 Bd2 Bf5 8 Nh4 Bg6 9 Nxg6 hxg6 10 exd6 exd6 11 Nc3 N4c6 12 d5 Nd4 13 Nb5 Qb6 14 Nxd4 cxd4 15 Bd3 Be7 16 O-O Nd7 17 b4 Kf8 18 f4 Bf6 19 Kh1 Re8 20 g4 a5 21 g5 Bd8 22 Qg4 Qc7 23 Rae1 Rxe1 24 Rxe1 Nb6 25 Qe2 Be7 26 Qe4 Qd7 27 Bf1 Nc8 28 Qxd4 Qg4 29 Qe3 f6

30 c5 Qd7 31 Bg2 axb4 32 c6 bxc6 33 dxc6 Qc7 34 axb4 and White won.

The booklet’s illustrations included, on page 6, a shot of Rogard playing lightning chess against Smyslov:

The following game, ‘played recently at Simpson’s Divan’ was published on pages 353-354 of the July 1891 BCM:

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Bc5 5 Be3 Qf6 6 c3 Nge7 7 Qd2 O-O 8 Be2 Nxd4 9 Bxd4 Bxd4 10 cxd4 d5 11 e5 Qg6 12 O-O Bh3 13 Bf3 f6 14 exf6 Rxf6 15 Qe3 Raf8 16 Bxd5+ Nxd5 17 Qxh3 Rf3 18 Qd7

18...Ne3 and wins.

S. Tinsley’s concluding note was:

‘This is gem, well worthy of presentation. Mr Grundy deserves a hearty word of thanks for a game of the first order.’

The score was also given on pages 207-208 of the Chess Player’s Chronicle, 17 July 1895 under the heading ‘A masterpiece by the late headmaster of Malvern Grammar School’. A note at the end read:

‘A very charming and clever series of moves, showing Mr Grundy’s natural genius for the game.’

The way three black pieces arrive on the third rank is certainly attractive, but such a game would hardly be praised so highly nowadays.

O.C. Müller published his memoirs in the BCM in 1932 (October, pages 438-439; November, pages 481-486; December, pages 533-535). Some quotes:

• ‘Another of my clients at Purcell’s [sic – Purssell’s] was a wealthy City merchant, Mr Pizzi, an Italian by birth but naturalized in England. His English was worse than mine, and when a third party interfered in his game, making remarks on a certain move, Mr Pizzi would say, very indignantly: “Sir, you must not talk into the chess.”’ (page 439)


• ‘The question whether chess was exhaustible, or even near exhaustion, was often discussed at Simpson’s when Steinitz remarked on more than one occasion: “The game itself, I think, is fairly inexhaustible, but the players, of course, are easily exhausted.” He also said, frequently: “Slow chess is good chess.” In recent years I have often been told that Steinitz was rather irritable and morose. I always found him, on the contrary, very amiable, but of a rather quiet and retiring disposition.’ (page 483)


• [On Zukertort]: ‘On a certain occasion he told me: “You always make the best moves – one or two moves too late.” This criticism was well deserved, and also is applicable to a good many other players.’ (page 484)


• [On Mason]: ‘I was not long at Simpson’s when one day he confided in me, in an undertone: “Steinitz has invented chess altogether, and Zukertort has invented P-K4.”’ (page 485)

CHESS, 15 July 1964, pages 338-339, reproduced two photographs (dated, it was suggested, circa 1890) submitted by Miss E.G. Bell of Worthing:

She believed that the above photograph was taken in the garden of a chess club in Nightingale Lane, Balham, the man in the Bath-chair being identified as H.E. Bird.

CHESS stated that the other photograph (below) ‘was taken at a presentation to Mr W.T. Marshall, Hon. Sec. of the Nightingale Club, a cousin of Miss Bell, who still holds the set and board which were the subject of the presentation. Swinford Ward is in this picture.’ (We take that to be a reference to H. Swinburn Ward, whose photograph appeared on page 56 of the February 1901 BCM.)

On page 360 of the 20 August 1964 CHESS a reader, Alfred Milner, suggested that in the first photograph J.H. Blackburne was ‘the gentleman in a white trilby watching the games’, and he noted that the man on the extreme left in the first photograph seems to be seated second from the right in the other shot.

Assistance with identifying any figures will be appreciated. The CHESS item was apparently wrong regarding the estimated date, for we note the following on page 251 of the June 1908 BCM, in Bird’s obituary:

‘The last public appearance of Mr Bird was on 22 June 1901, when he was present, in a Bath-chair, at a garden party given by Doctor and Mrs Dunstan to the members of the Nightingale Lane Chess Club on the occasion of the presentation of a testimonial to Mr W.T. Marshall, the club’s secretary.’

Tom Brown (Baltimore, MD, USA) asks about the origins of the chess terms ‘rank’ and ‘file’ and how their dating compares with that of the military phrase ‘rank and file’.

The Oxford English Dictionary has the following entries:

‘1598 R. Barret Theorike & Pract. Mod. Warres III. 34: “To learne to keepe his ranke and file orderly.”

1597 G. B. Damiano da Odemira’s Ludus Scacchiæ: Chesse-play sig. Diij^v: “Moouing a Pawne from left hand side, which on the fourth ranke stood.”

1614 A. Saul Chesse-play i. 3: “Imagine that the blacke King for his first draught playeth his owne Pawne into the third house in his owne file.”’

Further to C.N. 5777, regarding the ‘balcony shots’ of the Latvian, United States and British teams at the 1933 Olympiad in Folkestone, we add a photograph of the Hungarian team, from volume four of Magyar Sakktörténet (Budapest, 1996):

A report which is slightly older than the one quoted in C.N. 3735:

‘The Pope is a remarkably good chessplayer, says “Pearson’s”. In fact, it is only on rare occasions that he is defeated at the game. There is one priest in Rome who is usually the Pope’s adversary. This priest – Father Giella [sic] – has played chess with his Holiness for 32 years past. When Cardinal Pecci was raised to the Papal throne Father Guilla [sic], who was then residing in Florence, received an invitation to proceed to Rome and take up his quarters in the Vatican. He is a magnificent player, but so hot-tempered that the Pope often improves the occasion by a little homily on the virtues of resignation and meekness.’

Source: Chess Player’s Chronicle, 21 August 1895, page 243.

Mr Clapham also raises the subject of the oldest chess photograph of any kind (i.e. depicting non-masters), and he mentions an illustration on page 163 of Chess A celebration of 2000 years by R. Finkenzeller, W. Ziehr and E. Bührer (London, 1990):

The caption on the previous page stated:

‘In 1840, Fox Talbot photographed two chessplayers and left to posterity one of the first daguerreotypes produced in England. Talbot was one of the pioneers of photographic art and here he has brilliantly captured the tension that prevails during a chess game.’

Page 207 credited the photograph to the ‘Archive Motovun Verlagsgesellschaft, Lucerne’.

We note, though, that a photograph ostensibly taken on the same occasion was dated 1846 on page 8 of Chess The Records by K. Whyld (Enfield, 1986):

Antoine Claudet (1797-1867) was a French photographer.

From Mark N. Taylor (Mt Berry, GA, USA):

‘On page 287 of Means Davis’s novel The Chess Murders (New York, 1937) a character remarked regarding H.J.R. Murray’s work: “I wouldn’t take that book too seriously”.

Davis also introduced two chessic phrases which never caught on: “playing chess on it” (page 263), i.e. thinking about a problem as a chessplayer thinks about a position, and “it wouldn’t be chess” (pages 300-301), i.e. it would not be fair or admit a logical response.’

Kevin Marchese (Canal Winchester, OH, USA) asks whether more is known about the projected Europe v America chess match mentioned in the New York Times and the Washington Post of 21 May 1904 (pages 9 and 8 respectively). The full item in the Washington Post was:

‘Cambridge Springs, Pa., 20 May. – At an informal dinner attended by the competitors in the international chess masters’ tournament, which closed yesterday, it was decided to hold a team match, Europe v America. The match will be played in New York Friday and Saturday next, and each team will be composed of six men. The Brooklyn and Manhattan chess clubs have been approached with a view to holding the contest at their rooms.’

Ernest Tomlinson (Seattle, WA, USA) wishes to know the source of a quote commonly attributed to Mikhail Tal. Concerning a campaign in the Soviet Union against alcoholism, he supposedly commented that if the State was against vodka, he was on the side of vodka.

Below is an inscription by Tal (Black against Fischer) on page 153 of our copy of Kandidatenturnier für Schachweltmeisterschaft by S. Gligorić and V. Ragozin (‘W. Ragosin’), published in Belgrade in 1960: