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Chess Chats 11 Jan 1959, Sun The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California) Newspapers.com
Chess Chats By George Koltanowski
International Chess Master
Problem No. 162
White to play and mate in two moves.
FEN 7B/2K1p2N/B1nNp3/3kP1Q1/2RPr3/8/4P3/8 w - - 0 1
Solution: 1. Qd2 exd6 2. Nf6#
The Press Democrat Chess Chats by George Koltanowski, Sunday, January 11, 1959, Santa Rosa, California Problem No....
Posted by Bobby Fischer's True History on Thursday, March 10, 2022
THE DAY I BECAME A PROFESSIONAL
I was a young lad, still in the Belgian Army, when the first Chess Olympics were held in Paris, 1924, and I was called upon as Champion of Belgium, to participate, and on the semi-final day I was playing Hromadka, a general or something like that, in the Czechoslovakian Army.
Hungary and Czechoslovakia were leading neck-to-neck, and the Hungarians were watching all the Czechs very closely. That's how it was that they were even watching my game. The outcome of my game seemed as important to them, as it seemed to be to me.
I soon had a pawn down, and then a second, and things looked bad. Bad! It was that youthful instinct that made me fight it out, and a fight it was. Here's the game to prove it:
Hromodka (white) vs. George Koltanowski (black)
Caro-Kann Defense: Exchange Variation, Rubinstein Variation
What else is there?
Envelope Presented
The Hungarians were so delighted at my putting up such an up-hill fight, that their team captain gave me a sealed envelope. I was too exhausted to even look what was in the darned thing. It had been an Herculean battle and with Bastille day on us, everything was forgotten until the next round, the final day of combat.
There the Hungarians slipped up, and Czechoslovakia won by half point the first Olympic Team Crown. On my railway journey home, I remembered the envelope and curiously I opened it, and to my great delight I found a new 100 French franc note in it! Maybe I should have framed the note. I know I didn't. (It had the value of about ten dollars in those days). And that is how I became a Chess Professional…and really. I have never regretted becoming one, either!
CHESS QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“Skittle games are the social glasses of chess—indulged in too frequently they lead to inebriation, and weaken the consistent effort needed to build up a strong game.”—S. Boden.
