Chess history trivia

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:27 pm

Tim Harding wrote:
Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:55 pm
Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:11 pm
What links the encounter Foerder (also known as Porath) v Alekhine at the 1935 Warsaw Olympiad, and the correspondence game Simagin v Sokolsky from circa 1965/66? The dates might just be a clue here to the initiated......
Was the Alekhine game the first to be published by B.H. Wood in his Chess magazine? (I see from the Skinner and Verhoeven magnum opus that it was on pages 7-8 of volume 1).

SImagin v Sokolsky (one of at least three they played by post) was the first game in volume 1 of Sahovski Informator.

Incidentally White played b2-b3 early in both games.
Yes, you are correct - the first ever games in each publication :)

(though what is the "magnum opus" you refer to?)
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Tim Harding
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Tim Harding » Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:36 pm

Alexander Alekhine's Chess Games, 1902-1946 eds Leonard M. Skinner and Robert G. P. Verhoeven (McFarland 1998), Over 800 pages, 2543 games, surely this is THE book on Alekhine.
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John Townsend
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Townsend » Tue Jun 08, 2021 11:03 am

Which player in an important match was described by a French commentator as an athlete in the prime of life? Who was the commentator?

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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Townsend » Thu Jun 10, 2021 6:15 pm

I'm surprised no-one has guessed this.
C'est un athlète dans la force de l'âge


wrote Alphonse Delannoy of Howard Staunton (Le Palamède, 1843, page 541).

John Townsend
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Townsend » Thu Dec 23, 2021 3:54 pm

Which famous player had underwear confiscated by customs on arrival in France?

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Dec 23, 2021 4:15 pm

Savielly Tartakower?

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John Upham
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Upham » Thu Dec 23, 2021 4:24 pm

John Townsend wrote:
Thu Dec 23, 2021 3:54 pm
Which famous player had underwear confiscated by customs on arrival in France?
I'd like to think it was William Winter although I would delegate the task to someone else.
Last edited by John Upham on Thu Dec 23, 2021 4:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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John Townsend
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Townsend » Thu Dec 23, 2021 4:45 pm

Not Tartakower, not William Winter.

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MJMcCready
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by MJMcCready » Fri Dec 24, 2021 5:49 am

Botvinnik?

John Townsend
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Townsend » Fri Dec 24, 2021 9:41 am

Sorry, it wasn't Botvinnik.

His companion on the journey later wrote a book, in which he said they were told that was customary.

David McAlister
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by David McAlister » Fri Dec 24, 2021 10:07 am

John Townsend wrote:
Fri Dec 24, 2021 9:41 am
His companion on the journey later wrote a book, in which he said they were told that was customary.
I think we may be edging towards a solution.

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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Townsend » Fri Dec 24, 2021 10:57 am

Yes, very good, David. The answer is, of course, Paul Morphy. You can read about this incident in F. M. Edge's Paul Morphy: The Chess Champion, 1859, page 124 (viewable on Google Books).

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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Townsend » Tue Dec 28, 2021 2:10 pm

Which famous player and writer was buried in the London Road Cemetery, Reading, Berkshire, more than three years after the publication of his first obituary?

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John Upham
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Upham » Tue Dec 28, 2021 2:48 pm

John Townsend wrote:
Tue Dec 28, 2021 2:10 pm
Which famous player and writer was buried in the London Road Cemetery, Reading, Berkshire, more than three years after the publication of his first obituary?
Was it Hugh Alexander Kennedy?
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Re: Chess history trivia

Post by John Townsend » Tue Dec 28, 2021 3:23 pm

Yes, John, it was. Well done.

The episode was discussed as part of Edward Winter's article, Chess and Untimely Death Notices, which mentions other erroneous obituaries, including that of Steinitz:

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/ext ... aries.html

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