25.01.2010 – We have heard many excuses before: illness, missed flight, or Oscar Wilde's classy "I have to decline due to a subsequent engagement". But this one is new: I cannot attend the Gibtel Masters because I am taking part in the opera Tannhäuser (by Richard Wagner). Still, even without the singing, dancing, soccer-playing GM the event has a great field. Preview.
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Yasser Seirawan:
My best games Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan began playing chess in the summer of 1972 and by 1979 he had won the World Junior Championship and in January of 1980 earned his final Grandmaster norm. What had he learned in seven and a half years that propelled him so far so quickly?
2010 Gibtelecom Masters: A Knight at the Opera
By John Saunders
The list
of players at the 2010 Gibtelecom Masters in Gibraltar is quite illustrious.
Unfortunately, we have lost a few prospective participants. Sadly, ex-women's
world champion Zhu Chen and her husband Mohamad Al-Modiahki won't be coming
after all due to a family illness. Three Russian GMs, Vitiugov, Romanov and
Andreikin, have run into off-board time trouble – their visa applications
have not been processed in time for them to appear.
But
the most intriguing withdrawal is Simen
Agdestein's, who has the most original reason for not being in Gibraltar:
he is going to be taking part in an opera!
Is there no end to the talents of the Norwegian grandmaster? It is well known
that he was a soccer international (photo left) and that he took part in Dancing
with the Stars (see photo, right) on Norwegian TV.
But is he now an all-singing, all-dancing grandmaster? Well, very nearly.
Here is Simen himself on his off-board career after Dancing with the Stars:
"I must admit it was enormous fun taking part in that program and very
inspirational. Afterwards I started on amateur theatricals and also became interested
in singing and such things. But I’m not going to sing [in the opera],
just play a very minor role in the background."
The opera is Richard Wagner's Tannhauser and it is being performed at the Norwegian
Opera in Oslo. As usual, Simen believes in starting at the top. Next stop Bayreuth?
Trivia question: the children of which strong, active grandmaster actually
sing in Tannhäuser?
You can listen to the famous Pilgrim's Chorus from Tannhäuser. Set your
loudspeaker volume at the beginning and then try not to change it during the
entire piece. The good bit comes when the strings go pom-pom-pom-pom at around
two minutes. If you are hooked you can listen to the overture .
Same loudspeaker volume strategy as above. Listen to the strings in the background
– it will send shivers down your back. And if you still haven't had enough
here's an amazing piano
version of the overture
by Wagner's father-in-law Franz Liszt.
With Kasparov and Carlsen in Marrakech
by Alice Mascarenhas, Gibraltar Chronicle
As the 2010 Gibtelecom Chess Festival opens next week, Brian Callaghan, organizer
of the Gibtelecom Chess Festival met up with two of the most famous world chess
players in Marrakech, Morocco, this past week, former World Chess Champion Russian
Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian grandmaster and chess prodigy currently
ranked number one in the world. These two world chess stars being together provided
an opportunity to brief them on the development of chess in Gibraltar.
In the picture with Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov are representatives
from the local tournament sponsors; Tim Bristow, Gibtelecom, James Humphreys,
Tradewise, and Pepe Canilla, Canillas.
The next Gibraltar Gibtelecom International Chess Festival starts on Tuesday
26th January for ten days and will see some 40 countries presented with some
of the world’s leading chess players, including Etienne Bacrot from France,
Sergei Movsesian Czech Republic, leading Spanish player Francisco Vallejo Pons,
Gata Kamsky from the USA, with the British challenge led by Michael Adams. The
current top women world players include World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk from
Russia, and the highest rated woman player Humpy Koneru.
The in Gibraltar
again plays host to the Gibtelecom International Chess Festival which offers
a friendly gathering to this series of tournaments which run simultaneously:
the Masters, the Challengers and the Amateurs.
The Festival is now the leading tournament of its type in the world, with a
prize fund of over £100,000 and is sponsored by the Gibraltar Government
Sports and Leisure Authority, Gibtelecom, Anglo Hispano Co. Ltd., Bentley Property
Services Ltd., Canillas, Casais, Gibmaroc Ltd., Deloitte, Gibro Group, Isolas,
Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, Party Gaming, Saccone & Speed, The Caleta
Hotel and Tradewise Insurance Company Ltd.
A selection of games will be broadcast live on the official web site
and on the chess server .
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!
24.01.2010 – Four white wins, one a fateful victory by Vladimir Kramnik over Hikaru Nakamura, left the former in equal 2nd/3rd place and demoted the latter to fourth. Alexei Shirov drew Magnus Carlsen to remain in the lead, by just half a point. Sergey Karjakin, Peter Leko and Fabiano Caruana won. In Group B Anish Giri scored again to lead the field by 1½ points. Big illustrated report from snow-covered Wijk.
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Yasser Seirawan:
My best games Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan began playing chess in the summer of 1972 and by 1979 he had won the World Junior Championship and in January of 1980 earned his final Grandmaster norm. What had he learned in seven and a half years that propelled him so far so quickly?
Round eight of Wijk aan Zee 2010 looked, on paper, to be the most exciting
so far, featuring as it did three clashes among the faourites. However, two
of these proved rather disappointing. The World Champion, Vishy Anand, has failed
to get going at all in this year's tournament, and he got nowhere against Ivanchuk's
Accelerated Dragon.
The board, the pieces, the clocks, the flags – everything in place?
Vassily Ivanchuk
The start of the game between these two veterans ended in a 25-move draw
World Champion Vishy Anand in ninth place with 4.0/8 and a 2727 performance
Shirov-Carlsen was full of fascinating complications, but with the board still
full of pieces and the position as unclear as ever, the players repeated moves.
22...Bc3. The same position arose in the same players' game at the M-Tel
tournament of 2008, which 22...Be5 was played and the game was won by White.
Carlsen subsequently offered the repeat the line, against Topalov at Nanjing
2009, so it was clear that he had an improvement ready, although we never got
to see it, since Topalov deviated first with 21.Rc1. Now we finally get to see
Carlsen's (or was it Kasparov's?) idea. 23.Qh3 Qf6 24.Be2 d4 25.Bc4 Rg8 26.g3
Rbe8 27.Rd1 e3 28.fxe3 dxe3 29.Be2 Re4 30.Qg2 Re7 31.Qh3 Re4 32.Qg2 Re7 33.Qh3
½½. []
Leading: Spanish GM Alexei Shirov, with 6.0/8 and a 2889 performance
Top seed Magnus Carlsen, 19, in second place with 5.5/8 and a 2840 performance
The third big clash lived up to expectations, and saw Kramnik inflict Nakamura's
first defeat of the event.
Vladimir Kramnik now in second-third place, with 5.5/8 and a 2823 performance
Hikaru Nakamura has slipped to fourth place, with 5.0/8 and a 2820 performance
22...Qf6? Black's creative opening play looked a little risky, but
the position would remain unclear after 22...fxg3 23.Rxd5 Qf6 24.hxg3 Be6. As
Yasser Seirawan pointed out in his live commentary on Playchess, Nakamura was
probably reluctant on principle to exchange on g3, preferring to keep the g2
bishop imprisoned. However, he must have overlooked, or miscalculated the consequences
of, White's 24th.
23.Rxd5 Be6 24.Nxf4! gxf4. 24...Bxd5 25.Ng6+ is no better. 25.R5xd4
fxg3 26.hxg3 White has two extra pawns and the remainder presents no particular
technical difficulties. 26...Rg8 27.Rf4 Qg5 28.Rh4 Rg6 29.Qc3+ Kh7 30.f4
Qxg3 31.Qxg3 Rxg3 32.Bxb7 Rb8 33.Be4+ Kg7 34.Kh2 Re3 35.Rg1+ Kf7 36.Bg6+ Ke7
37.Bd3 Rb2 38.Rg2 Rxa2 39.Rxh6 Bf7 40.Rh7 Kf6 41.c5 Ra4 42.c6 Rxf4 43.c7 Re8
44.Rxf7+ 1-0. []
Leko beat Smeets, after the latter suffered a tactical accident in the middlegame.
18...fxe5. When entering this variation, Smeets had presumably missed
the blow 18...dxe5 19.Bxa6! He now thought for a long time, but the damage to
his position is already fairly serious, and he eventually succumbed after a
time-scramble. 19.Qa7 Qf7 20.Qa8+ Kd7 21.Qxb7 Rb8 22.Qxa6 Qxf2 23.Bc4 Bf5
24.Bd3 Be6 25.Bc4 Bf5 26.Bb3 Qb6 27.Qxb6 Rxb6 28.Rhf1 g6 29.Bd5 c6 30.Bf3 Ra8
31.Kc1 Ke7 32.h5 d5 33.hxg6 Bxg6 34.Rh1 Rh8 35.b4 e4 36.Be2 Ke6 37.Rh3 Rb7 38.Rdh1
Rbh7 39.a4 Bf5 40.Rh4 Ke5 41.Rh5 Kf4 42.Rf1+ Ke3 43.Rhxf5 Kxe2 44.R5f2+ Ke3
45.Kd1 1-0. []
Kariakin opened his winning account at the expense of Nigel Short, who once
again had cause to curse the fickle finger of fate. Some creative play saw the
Englishman trade his queen for assorted wood, but the position was far too tactically
difficult for any carbon-based organism to handle accurately, and he went fatally
astray.
35.Bd1. Fritz 12 gives as its main line here the extraordinary move
35.Re4!? after which it continues 35...R8xe4 36.Bxe4 Re2 37.Qf4 fxe4 38.Qb8
Rxg2+ 39.Kh1 Nd6 40.Qxd6 Bxh3, with a position that it assesses as dead equal!
35...cxd4? Once again, it is easy if one is armed with Fritz. One simply
plays the "obvious" 35...R1e2 and draws after 36.Bxe2 fxe2 37.Nf6+
gxf6 38.Qxh6 cxd4 39.Qg6+ Kf8 40.Qxf6+ Kg8 41.Qg6+ Kf8. What could be simpler? 36.Bxf3 Nd6 37.Qxd4 R1e7 38.Qb6 Ne4 39.Nf4 Rb7 40.Qc6 Nf6
Now the smoke has cleared, it becomes clear that White's queen and passed d-pawn
are too strong for the black rooks. 41.Nh5 Rf8 42.Nxf6+ gxf6 43.Qxa6 Kg7
44.d6 Rd7 45.Qxb5 Rxd6 46.a4 Kg6 47.a5 Rfd8 48.b4 Ba6 49.Bh5+ Kg5 50.h4+ Kf4
51.Qc5 Bd3 52.b5 Rd5 53.Qc7+ Ke3 54.b6 Be4 55.b7 Rg8 56.b8Q Rxg2+ 57.Kh3 Rd3
58.Qc4 Rg1 59.Qxd3+ Kxd3 60.Qb3+ Kd2 61.Qb2+ 1-0. [Click
to replay]
Dominguez and van Wely battled to a draw in a rook and opposite-coloured
bishops ending
Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez Perez, with 4.5/8 points and a 2752 performance
Dutch GM Loek van Wely, cheerful in spite of his dismal 2.0/8 score
The day's longest game was Caruana-Tiviakov. When the latter gave up the bishop
pair in the opening, he doubtless anticipated the possibility of a certain amount
of subsequent torture, but, like Monty Python before him, I am sure he didn't
expect the Spanish Inquisition. However, Caruana turned the screws with an efficiency
that would have done credit to Torquemada himself, and was eventually rewarded
with his first victory of the tournament.
17.dxe6!N This novelty may well bury the entire variation. Instead,
17.Qxe4 fxe4 18.dxe6 Bxe6 19.Nd2 eventually led to a draw in Moiseenko-Petrosian
Ohrid 2009. 17...Bxe6 18.Ng5 Qxe2+ 19.Kxe2 Bxa2 20.Ra1. At this point,
Fritz 12 was already announcing a near-decisive advantage for White, as Black
cannot avoid serious trouble on the a2-g8 diagonal. An additional irony was
that Giri's clock showed 1:44 at this point, some four minutes more than he
started the game with!20...Bf7 21.Rhd1 Rc8 22.Nxf7 Kxf7 23.Bc4+ Ke8
24.Be6 Nc6 25.Ra6 Ne7 26.Bd7+ Kf8 27.Bxc8 Rxc8 28.Rxa7 Bxc3 29.Bg5 Nc6 30.Rxh7
Be5
It is clear that White is winning comfortably. 31.Rdd7 c4 32.Bf4 Bb2 33.Rc7
Nd4+ 34.Kd2 Rxc7 35.Rxc7 c3+ 36.Kd3 Ne6 37.Bd6+ Kg8 38.Rc8+ Kf7 39.Be5 Ba3 40.Kxc3
1-0. []
British Champion David Howell with 4.5/8 points and a 2680 performance
US GM Ray Robson, 15, leads Group C with 6.0/8 points and a 2578 performance
Snow in Wijk
Remember the Hotel-Restaurant Zeeduin, from Friday's round six report?
This is what the hotel, where all the top players stay, looked like on Sunday
... and this the village of Wijk, covered in snow at sub-zero (Centigrade) temperatures
The beach, where in summer the bikini-clad beauties romp
It's a tough life for Wijk kids, who have to climb the steep snow-covered
inclines...
...forced to drag sleds up the dunes, and then race down at break-neck speed
Curiously their cruel life on the slopes is accompanied by laughter and merriment
Standings
Group A
Group B
Group C
Video reports by Europe Echecs
video
report by GM Robert Fontaine
Live commentary on Playchess by Yasser Seirawan
Today on the server Playchess.com GM Yasser Seirawan entertained the visitors
with three hours of live commentary. He will doing live commentary again on
Tuesday, January 26 and then for the last two rounds (Jan. 30 and 31). Yasser
begins his lectures approximately 45 minutes after play has started. For a charge
of ten Ducats (about one Euro) a visitor gets a twelve hour pass to listen to
the live commentary.
Playchess commentator GM Yasser Seirawan
Ducats are the currency used on Playchess.com. You can purchase Ducats .
The amount will be credited to your playchess.com account. You need to allow at
least one working day for processing. If you want your Ducats immediately you
can order them using our
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also purchase Ducats directly from Fritz or the Playchess client using the menu
"Edit Payments Fill up account". This takes you to a special purchase
page with your account name automatically passed on, to simplify the process.
24.01.2010 – ...in the Marshall Attack was unleashed by Peter Leko in the 4th round in Wijk aan Zee versus Lenier Dominguez. Playing black, here he was facing the question of whether it would be advisable to immediately occupy the long diagonal with
23...Bc6 despite the riposte 24.d5, blocking it with tempo. What do you think?
A) this wins for White;
B) Black prevails;
C) the position eventually remains balanced.
The solution is
but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.
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Yasser Seirawan:
My best games Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan began playing chess in the summer of 1972 and by 1979 he had won the World Junior Championship and in January of 1980 earned his final Grandmaster norm. What had he learned in seven and a half years that propelled him so far so quickly?
23.01.2010 – Detractors had pointed out that Alexei Shirov's blistering 5.0/5 start was achieved without playing any of the tournament favourites. Today the Latvian GM encountered one, Hikaru Nakamura and dropped the full point. Magnus Carlsen scored his third win, against Vassily Ivanchuk, who self-destructed on move eight. Nigel Short came tantalizing close to beating Vladimir Kramnik. Full report.
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Yasser Seirawan:
My best games Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan began playing chess in the summer of 1972 and by 1979 he had won the World Junior Championship and in January of 1980 earned his final Grandmaster norm. What had he learned in seven and a half years that propelled him so far so quickly?
As the tournament passed its halfway point, the big story of the day was the
defeat of the leader, Alexey Shirov, at the hands of Hikaru Nakamura. The Latvian's
detractors had already pointed out that his blistering 5/5 start had been achieved
without playing any of the tournament favourites, and today was his first encounter
with one such. The opening, an old-style Pelikan, seemed satisfactory enough,
but once his early initiative was extinguished, he was left with a permanently
exposed king, which eventually proved his undoing.
Alexei Shirov with a first defeat, now at 5.5/7 points with a 2908 performance
One of the "big boys" Shirov had to face: Hikaru Nakamura, 5.0/7,
2882 performance
Explaining his fine win against Shirov to the journalists in the press center
The other main clash of the day was Carlsen-Ivanchuk, which the former won
with unexpected ease. Ivanchuk had one of those notorious off-days, with which
his career has been punctuated.
Magnus Carlsen, top seed in Wijk aan Zee, at the start of his game against...
Vassily Ivanchuk, who today self-destructed on move eight
Carlsen,M (2810) - Ivanchuk,V (2749) [D10]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (7), 23.01.2010 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 a6 5.Qc2 g6 6.Bd3 Be6 7.b3 Bg7 8.Nge2
8...c5? In the light of what follows, this has to be condemned as inadequate.
9.cxd5 Nxd5 10.Nxd5 Bxd5 11.e4 Be6 12.Qxc5 Nc6 13.Be3 Rc8 14.Qa3 00. It
looks as though Black should be able to regain his pawn. But the tactics are
all against him, one example being 14...Nxd4?? 15.Bxd4 Bxd4 16.Qa4+. 15.Rd1
Nxd4? This walks into a fatal pin, but other moves just leave Black a pawn
down. 16.Bxd4 Bxd4 17.Bb1 Bc5 18.b4
18...Qxd1+? 18...Bxf2+ 19.Kxf2 Qb6+ offers slightly better chances,
although it is still insifficient. 19.Kxd1 Bxf2. White only has to find
a couple of accurate moves to defuse the black initiative, and Magnus duly "tiptoes
through the tulips" without undue trouble. 20.Nf4 Bc4 21.Bd3 Rfd8 22.Ke2
Bxd3+ 23.Kxf2 Rc2+ 24.Kf3 Bc4 25.Rc1 Rxa2 26.Qc3 b5 27.Ra1 Rdd2 28.Rxa2 Rxa2
29.h4 h5 30.g4 hxg4+ 31.Kxg4 f6 32.e5 Kf7 33.exf6 exf6 34.Qe3 Rc2 35.Qa7+ 1-0.
[]
Some of the day's best entertainment was provided by Smeets-Dominguez, even
though it was a draw in 30 moves, 20 of which had been seen before!
21.Qxe3 Amazingly, this is the first new move. A 2008 blitz game Fier-Aveskulov
saw White acquiesce in the perpetual check after 21.Ke1. 21...Qxa1+ 22.Kd2
Qxh1 23.Bxd6 Rxh2+ 24.Be2 Qb1 25.Nf6+ Kd8 26.Qd4 c5 27.Bxc5+ Kc7 28.Qd6+ Kb7
29.Qe7+ Kc6 30.Qd6+ ½½. [Click
to replay]
The games Caruana-Anand and Tiviakov-Leko were both fairly uneventful draws
–
for the World Champion, his seventh draw in succession.
Van Wely-Kariakin had the unenviable distinction of being the shortest
draw of the tournament so far, just 16 moves of theory, and barely 20 minutes'
play. But for the Dutchman, it did at least break a five-game losing streak.
Sergey Karjakin, like World Champion Anand, has drawn all seven games so far
Finally, in the day's longest game, Nigel Short was agonisingly close to inflicting
a rare defeat on Kramnik's Petroff, but the win slipped through his fingers
in a long ending.
Short,N (2696) - Kramnik,V (2788) [C43]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (7), 23.01.2010 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 d5 5.Nbd2. For more on this slightly
unusual method of combatting the Petroff, see the article by Alexey Kuzmin in Chessbase
Magazine 132. 5...Nc5 6.a3 a5 7.Be2 Be7 8.00 00 9.Re1 Nc6 10.Nf1 Bf5
11.Ng3 Bg6 12.Be3 a4 13.Bb5 Na5 14.Nd4 c6 15.Bf1 f6 16.exf6 Bxf6 17.Nxc6 bxc6
18.Bxc5 Re8 19.Qd2 Rxe1 20.Rxe1 Nc4
61...g6+ 62.Ke5 Qg5+ 63.fxg5 stalemate: ½½. Tiago Sizenando of Belo
Horizonte, Brazil, pointed out that Black had a another option in the diagram
position: 61...Qxf4 62.Kxf4 g5+ and stalemate. Cute. [Click
to replay]
Nigel Short, 44, oldest player in the A Group, came within a hair's breadth
of beating Kramnik
The youthful leaders of the B and C Groups both suffered partial setbacks today,
but retain their overall lead. Giri salvaged a draw a pawn down in a rook ending
against L'Ami, whilst Ray Robson was defeated by Vocaturo.
Today on the server Playchess.com GM Yasser Seirawan entertained the visitors
with three hours of live commentary. He will doing live commentary again tomorrow,
Sunday, January 24, on Tuesday, January 26 and then for the last two rounds
(Jan. 30 and 31). Yasser begins his lectures approximately 45 minutes after
play has started. For a charge of ten Ducats (about one Euro) a visitor gets
a twelve hour pass to listen to the live commentary.
Playchess commentator GM Yasser Seirawan
Ducats are the currency used on Playchess.com. You can purchase Ducats .
The amount will be credited to your playchess.com account. You need to allow at
least one working day for processing. If you want your Ducats immediately you
can order them using our
service. Ducats can also be used to buy ChessBase products. Note that you can
also purchase Ducats directly from Fritz or the Playchess client using the menu
"Edit Payments Fill up account". This takes you to a special purchase
page with your account name automatically passed on, to simplify the process.
23.01.2010 – Just occasionally, the worlds of chess and murder have intersected: players
of our game have become either killers or victims. In addition to links to his
detailed coverage of the Wallace Murder Case and the fatal shooting of a Hastings
stalwart, the Editor of Chess
Notes provides citations regarding such figures as the Lipstick Killer,
Moors Murderer and St Albans Poisoner.
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Yasser Seirawan:
My best games Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan began playing chess in the summer of 1972 and by 1979 he had won the World Junior Championship and in January of 1980 earned his final Grandmaster norm. What had he learned in seven and a half years that propelled him so far so quickly?
Chess Explorations (35)
By Edward Winter
Our article relates a famous, particularly
baffling mystery, and occasional Chess Notes items have mentioned other connections
between chess and killing. Often, though, the information available is scant.
C.N. 3670 referred to the lethally charming Neville George Clevely Heath (born
1917), quoting a passage from page 189 of Portrait of a Sadist by Paull
Hill (London, 1960) which describes the killer’s last days, at Pentonville
Prison, London:
‘He spent a lot of time reading, made copious notes for his legal advisers,
played a certain amount of chess with the warders, two of whom were in his
cell day and night, and wrote a lot of letters to friends and his family.’
Neville George Clevely Heath
Neville Heath was hanged on 16 October 1946, the same day as, in Nuremberg,
suffered the identical fate.
William George Heirens (see C.N. 3707) was a 17-year-old student at the University
of Chicago when, in 1946, he confessed to three murders. He became known as the
‘Lipstick Killer’ because on a wall in one of the victims’ homes
a message was found written in lipstick: ‘For heavens sake catch me before
I kill more. I cannot control myself.’ Although the evidence against Heirens
has been fiercely disputed, he is still in prison.
William Heirens
Page 102 of “Before I Kill More...” by Lucy Freeman (New
York, 1955) relates that at university Heirens had taken up chess, and on page
128 he is quoting as telling her:
‘Later I learned the psychiatrists that examined me were of the type
which only consider abnormalities that had a physical relationship, like tumors
on the brain, epilepsy and related diseases. They probably couldn’t
tell a person was possessed with a dual personality unless they examined a
Siamese twin.
There wasn’t a thing I could do about it. My counsel were running the
show. I was just a pawn to be pushed around the chess board and sacrificed
when it suited their whims.’
The case of the chess master Raymond Weinstein will be recalled.
Left to right: Jerry Spann (captain), Raymond Weinstein and
William Lombardy (world student team championship in Leningrad)
As recorded on page 127 of Chess Explorations (C.N. 1311), the late
Sidney Bernstein informed us in the 1980s:
‘I have it on most reliable authority (the author John Collins,
who was a close friend of Raymond Weinstein) that Weinstein (an extremely
strong and promising young player who finished third in the 1960-61 US Championship)
had been confined to a mental institution. While on temporary leave, he was
rooming with an older man who made derogatory remarks about Weinstein’s
mother. Raymond slit the man’s throat with a razor, and was, of course,
incarcerated permanently. Raymond’s mother is also in an asylum.’
Collins discussed Weinstein’s chess career on pages 195-235 of his book My Seven Chess Prodigies (New York, 1974).
Another case in the United States has been extensively covered by other writers:
Claude Bloodgood.
As regards chessplaying victims, there are numerous accounts of the killing of the French master
Gilles Andruet in 1995. Abe Turner was murdered on the premises of Chess
Review in 1962. C.N.
6423 gave a photograph of Turner in play against Bobby Fischer in the final
round of the 1957-58 US Championship in New York.
C.N. 5441 mentioned that on 5 December 1924 Norman Thorne (1900-1925) of Crowborough,
England dismembered his fiancée Elsie Cameron. Earlier that day he had
bought ‘a game of chess’ in Tunbridge Wells. Source: page 114 of The Trial of Norman Thorne by Helena Normanton (London, circa
1929). Much has been written about that famous murder case, but we recall no
other reference to chess in connection with the life of Thorne, who was hanged
on 22 April 1925.
John Norman Holmes Thorne giving evidence at his trial, Lewes, 13 March 1925
A fine account of the case appeared on pages 88-126 of Verdict in Dispute
by Edgar Lustgarten (London, 1949). From page 108:
‘Spilsbury [the pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury, who was the prosecution’s
expert witness] had indeed done what few can hope to do; he had become a legend
in his own lifetime. To the man in the street he stood for pathology as Hobbs
stood for cricket or Dempsey for boxing or Capablanca for chess.’
As mentioned in C.N. 5939, 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, London) ‘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 added in that C.N. item 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 (‘the St Albans Poisoner’) 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.’
Postscript: For a nineteenth-century case, see ‘Death of a Chessman: The Sad, Brutal Murder of Major William Cheever Wilson’ on pages 1-18 of Essays in American Chess History by John Hilbert (Yorklyn, 2002). In recent times, as mentioned to us by Hans Jørgen Lassen (Grenaa, Denmark), there has been the case of
Simon Webb (1949-2005).
Chess Notes is well known for its historical research, and anyone browsing
in its
will find a wealth of unknown games, accounts of historical mysteries, quotes
and quips, and other material of every kind imaginable. Correspondents from
around the world contribute items, and they include not only "ordinary readers"
but also some eminent historians and, indeed, some eminent masters. Chess
Notes is located at the Chess
History Center.Signed copies of Edward Winter's publications are
.
The
But
Edward