Chess Chats 20 Sep 1959, Sun The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California) Newspapers.com
Chess Chats by George Koltanowski
International Chess Master
The Press Democrat Chess Chats by George Koltanowski, Sunday, September 20, 1959, Santa Rosa, California Problem No....
Posted by Bobby Fischer's True History on Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Problem No. 198
White to play and mate in two moves.
FEN 8/8/2Q5/1p1p4/1B6/nN1k1P2/5K2/1n6 w - - 0 1
Solution: Q-B1 1. Qc1 Nd2 2. Qc3#
MANY-SPLENDORED
The last time I was in London I bought an elegant ivory French chess set of the design sometimes known as “the little Dieppe.” The men were white and brown, tall and slender, and the royals had a detail of delicate lacery. It cost a modest ten pounds and was certified to be “circa 1780.”
In the quiet of the evening, when the day's work is done, I bring out the set and weave dreams of its history; of the players of a bygone age who used it; of the settings wherein it rested, of the elegant hands that lifted and replaced the pieces; the joys and sorrows which surrounded it; how it fared during the successive wars, and who could have taken it from France to England.
All I was able to find out about such sets was that they were custom made for the more leisured classes of pre-Revolutionary France, by stud and button makers. For this reason, no two sets were exactly alike.
Historical Facets
Did the Du Barry and Louis XV while away some of their time with these pieces? Did Lafayette ever play with them? Undoubtedly the first users discussed the troubles England was having with her rebellious colonists in America.
Of one thing, however, we can be absolutely certain that many of the chess players who first handled these delicate ivory carvings later lost their heads on the guillotine in 1789 and maybe many hours of waiting for the journey on the tumbril were pleasantly whiled away playing with this set.
Robespierre was a chess player. Did he ever play with this set? Did Marat, the revolting Marat, play from his bath before receiving the final and deciding “pin” of Charlotte Corday? Or, instead, did the little set find its way to England in the baggage of an aristocrat or possibly in that of the “Scarlet Pimpernel” himself?
In Perfect Shape
Did Napoleon ever use the set? Dreams, dreams, dreams! Now the little pieces, still, in perfect condition, are in California. Where will they be tomorrow? On the moon?
Herbert Seidman at the age of 16 knocked off a seasoned master in the Manhattan Club championship, New York, of 1939. Today he is recognized as one of America's top group.
Herbert Seidman vs Anthony Santasiere
New York (1939)
Sicilian Defense: Nimzowitsch. Exchange Variation (B29) 1-0
14. Black innocently provokes a sacrifice.
