December 06, 1959 Los Angeles Times Chess by Isaac Kashdan

< Prev Index Next >

Chess by Isaac Kashdan 06 Dec 1959, Sun The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com

Chess By Isaac Kashdan
International Grandmaster

WEINBERGER WINS STATE CHESS TITLE
Tibor Weinberger of Glendale, winner earlier this year of the California Open Chess Tournament and the Southern California chess championship, has added the California state chess championship to his string of successes.
Weinberger scored six wins and two losses to take the title in the tournament completed last week at the Herman Steiner Chess Club, 108 N. Formosa Ave. His defeats were at the hands of Zoltan Kovacs of Los Angeles and J. H. Loftsson of El Cerrito.
Kovacs tied for second at 5½-2½ with James Cross of Los Angeles, highest rated player in the event. They had identical scores, five wins, one draw and two losses. Loftsson, who recently came to California from Iceland, finished in fourth place with 5-3. He played very enterprisingly, defeating two of the players ahead of him.
Northern California was represented by four youngsters, relatively unknown, although Arthur Wang of Berkeley has shown promise in previous tournaments. Charles Bagby of San Francisco, last year's California champion, was unable to participate.
Ralph Hagedorn directed the tournament. A complete score table is at the bottom of the column. The following games are from the event:

James Cross vs Tibor Weinberger
California State Ch (Closed) (1959), Los Angeles, Nov-??
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense. King's Indian Formation (A15) 0-1

James Cross (white) vs. Leonard Frankenstein (black)
Slav Defense: Czech Variation, Classical System, Main Line

Descriptive 1. P-Q4 P-Q4 2. N-KB3 N-KB3 3. P-B4 P-B3 4. N-B3 PxP 5. P-QR4 B-B4 6. P-K3 P-K3 7. BxP B-QN5 8. O-O O-O 9. Q-K2 QN-Q2 10. R-Q Q-K2 11. P-K4 B-N3 12. B-KN5 P-K4 13. P-Q5 N-N3 14. PxP PxP 15. B-N3 QN-Q2 16. QR-B P-KR3 17. RxN QxR 18. NxP Q-Q3 19. NxB BxN 20. RxB KR-K 21. BxN QxB 22. Q-N4 QR-Q 23. P-R3 K-R2 24. P-K5 Resigns

Algebraic 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. e3 e6 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8. 0-0 0-0 9. Qe2 Nd7 10. Rd1 Qe7 11. e4 Bg6 12. Bg5 e5 13. d5 Nb6 14. dxc6 bxc6 15. Bb3 Nd7 16. Rc1 h6 17. Rxd7 Qxd7 18. Nxe5 Qd6 19. Nxg6 Bxc3 20. Rxc3 Rfe8 21. Bxf6 Qxf6 22. Qg4 Red8 23. h3 Kh7 24. e5 1-0

U.S. CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
The tournament for the U.S. chess championship and the Lessing J. Rosenwald Trophy will be held in New York from Dec. 18 to Jan. 3. A round robin will be contested among 12 of the leading American masters.
Bobby Fischer, 16-year-old Brooklyn schoolboy who has held the title for the last two years, will be favored to retain the championship. He recently returned from Yugoslavia, where he tied with Svetozar Gligoric for fifth place in the powerful Challengers Tournament.
Former U.S. champions Arthur B. Bisguier, Arnold Denker and Samuel Reshevsky will furnish major competition. Also on the list are Paul Benko, Sidney Bernstein, Robert Byrne, Edmar Mednis, Herbert Seidman, James T. Sherwin, Raymond Weinstein and U.S. Junior champion Robin Ault.

GOLOMBEK ON OPENINGS
Harry Golombek of London, several times British chess champion and well-known writer, editor and tournament director, has written a most useful book, published by Pitman Publishing Corp.
MODERN CHESS OPENING STRATEGY ($5.50) is an il1uminating compendium of the openings most frequently played by masters today. It makes no attempt at a complete listing of variations, an impossible task in any case, but concentrates on information that the average player needs to improve his game.
Golombek recommends for the White side the Ruy Lopez, one of the oldest and soundest methods of attack, and the English Opening. For Black he advocates the Sicilian Defense against P-K4 and the Nimzovitch Defense and the Queen's Indian Defense against queen pawn play.
There is naturally much more analysis on these openings than on others, but every reasonable opening gets an explanation. Motives and ideas behind the openings are thoroughly explored, with the aid of dozens of illustrative games, all capably annotated.
There are diagrams at all important points and an index of openings and games. All told the 304 pages have much of value for all classes of players.

SIMULTANEOUS DISPLAYS
Your editor will play simultaneously against 40 opponents starting at 2 p.m. today at the newly opened Valley Cities Jewish Community Center. 13161 Burbank Blvd., Van Nuys. The event is sponsored by the Van Nuys Chess Club. The charge for playing will he $2. Harry Borochow, former California chess champion, will referee.
Borochow will take on a group on Thursday evening Dec. 17, at the Coffee House Positano, 19453 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. Players will pay $2.50 a board, which will go toward a year's membership in the U.S. Chess Federation.
In a previous exhibition in the same place, which features chess as a regular activity, Borochow played 10 games, winning nine and drawing against Gene Rubin, president of the Herman Sterner Chess Club.

Pal Benko vs Vasily Smyslov
Bled-Zagreb-Belgrade Candidates (1959), Bled, Zagreb & Belgrade YUG, rd 11, Sep-24
Sicilian Defense: Kan. Maroczy Bind Reti Variation (B41) 1-0

The Los Angeles Times, Chess by Isaac Kashdan, Sunday, December 06, 1959, Los Angeles, California Times Problem 3125 By...

Posted by Bobby Fischer's True History on Sunday, June 12, 2022

Times Problem 3125 By B. Gaspar
Black 5
White 7
White mates in two.
FEN 8/4Q3/6Bq/3pPR2/1K2k3/2Bp4/3P4/3b4 w - - 0 1
Solution: Q-B8; 1. Qf8 Qxf8+ 2. Rxf8#

The Los Angeles Times, Chess by Isaac Kashdan, Sunday, December 06, 1959, Los Angeles, California Times Problem 3126 By...

Posted by Bobby Fischer's True History on Sunday, June 12, 2022

Times Problem 3126 By E. Plesnivy
Black 8
White 10
White mates in three.
FEN 4N3/pKPp4/1p1Bk2P/3r3B/8/1Q1p2N1/r3PP2/2b5 w - - 0 1
Solution: P-K3; 1. e3 Ra4 2. Qxd5+ Kxd5 3. Bf7#
Threat, 2. QxRch; if RxP, 2. P-K4; if BxP, 2. N-B5; if R-R4, 2. P-B4.

Several moves nearly work in 3125, but only one key meets all requirements. The first essential in 3126 is to find the threat. A couple of variations are quite difficult.

SOLVERS' LIST
Five points— W. S. Aaron, F. Aks, Dr. B. R. Berglund, M. Chutorian, C. Cresswell, J. Gotta, N. J. Lomax, M. Rosen, A. A. Rothstein, C. E. Stern.
Three points— J. F. Brown, H. Guadarrama, J. Kaufman.
Two points— R. O. Burns, A. E. Byler, C. L. Lund, E. E. Penter, Maj. H. Triwush.
One point— J. O. Bulpit, P. C. Carton, J. P. Foley, A. E. Hampel, F. Leek, N. Lesser, S. Schwarz.
Send solutions to problems to Chess Editor, Los Angeles Times. Answers to today's problems must be postmarked by Dec. 19. The list of solvers will be published Dec. 27.
Last week's problems were not numbered in proper sequence. They should have been 3123 and 3124. Please note when sending solutions.

Chess Expert Takes on 40 06 Dec 1959, Sun The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com

Chess Expert Takes on 40
VAN NUYS—Chess expert Isaac Kashdan will play a simultaneous match against 40 competitors at 2.30 p.m. this afternoon in the Kesselman Auditorium of the Valley Cities Jewish Community Center, 13164 Burbank Blvd.
Kashdan, an international grand master of chess, will meet all comers in the event, which is co-sponsored by the Van Nuys Chess Club. The appearance is one of a series of Dedication Month programs at the newly, completed center facility.

Audience May Watch
Players interested in meeting Southern California's highest ranked chess expert may register at the center by telephoning the center. Entries will be accepted on a first-come first-served basis, according to Charles H. Neisler of the Van Nuys Chess Club.
The auditorium will accommodate a large audience to observe the match, according to Mortimer Vogel, president of the center.

Things Of Beauty - Renaissance Chessmen, Copies of Rare Originals 07 Dec 1959, Mon The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com A Game Holiday 08 Dec 1959, Tue The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com Fun and Games 10 Dec 1959, Thu The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com Alabaster Chessmen From Italy 16 Dec 1959, Wed The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com