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Below: GM Hikaru Nakamura Defeats Former World Champion GM Vladimir Kramnik at the Olympiad; See Page 20 for the Full Report

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Below: GM Hikaru Nakamura Defeats Former World Champion GM Vladimir Kramnik at the Olympiad; See Page 20 for the Full Report 40TH OLYMPIAD: U.S. DEFEATS RUSSIA AND FINISHES FIFTH | USCF SALES HOLIDAY BUYING GUIDE ENCLOSED DECEMBER 2012 A USCF Publication $5.95 12 THE WORLD’S MOST WIDELY READ CHESS MAGAZINE 7 25274 64631 9 www.uschess.org Below: GM Hikaru Nakamura defeats former World Champion GM Vladimir Kramnik at the Olympiad; see page 20 for the full report. Bottom of page: The team celebrates their fifth place finish. From l-r: GM Gata Chess Life Kamsky, GM Ray Robson, KGM Varuzhan Akobian, Team Captain IM John Donaldson, GM Hikaru Nakamura. DECEMBER COLUMNS PHOTOS: TONY RICH TONY PHOTOS: 12 LOOKS AT BOOKS / HOW I BEAT FISCHER’S RECORD Goldilocks To Play and Win By Dr. Alexey Root, WIM 16 CHESS TO ENJOY / ENTERTAINMENT Trivia! By GM Andy Soltis 18 SOLITAIRE CHESS / INSTRUCTION Old McDonald Had a Chess Cow By Bruce Pandolfini 42 BACK TO BASICS / READER ANNOTATIONS An Unspectacular Upset By GM Lev Alburt 44 ENDGAME LAB / INSTRUCTION 20 International Events / 40th Olympiad Uneven Fights If Only ... By GM Pal Benko By FM Mike Klein For the fifth-seeded U.S. team at the 40th Chess DEPARTMENTS Olympiad in Istanbul, a satisfactory fifth-place finish will forever be dogged by “if only” scenarios that kept 3 DECEMBER PREVIEW / THIS MONTH IN them—barely—from medaling. CHESS LIFE AND CLO 6 COUNTERPLAY / READERS RESPOND 30 Cover Story / John G. White Collection The White Collection 8 FIRST MOVES / CHESS NEWS FROM Text and Photos By Mark N. Taylor AROUND THE U.S. Exploring the largest chess library in the world. 10 FACES ACROSS THE BOARD / BY AL LAWRENCE 36 Chess Journalists of America / Annual Awards 14 USCF AFFAIRS / NEWS FOR OUR MEMBERS 2012 CJA Awards By Joshua Anderson Celebrating the best in American chess journalism. 46 KNIGHT’S TOUR / TOURNAMENT TRAVEL 50 TOURNAMENT LIFE / DECEMBER 37 USCF National Event / U.S. Masters Stay on the Attack 69 SOLUTIONS / DECEMBER By FM Todd Andrews At this year’s U.S. Masters, one thing was clear: 69 CLASSIFIEDS / DECEMBER The player on the attack usually won. 70 INDEX / 2012 CHESS LIFE INDEX 72 MY BEST MOVE / PERSONALITIES ON THE COVER A page from the early eighteenth- century Italian manuscript, Il dilettevole, e giudizioso giuoco de scacchi (the pleasurable and most judicious game of chess). Courtesy of Cleveland Public Library, White Collection 4 December 2012 | Chess Life Cover Story / John G. White Collection The White Collection Exploring the largest chess library in the world Text and Photos By MARK N. TAYLOR hess dreams are a fairly common of chess, checkers, folklore, and Orien- to the humblest mimeographed local bul- motif in novels. Sometimes the talia: the largest chess library in the world. letins. It is not uncommon for a historian C dreamer is a pawn trapped in a John Griswold White (1845–1928) was of local chess history to have to travel to nightmarish world of greater forces; a prominent Cleveland attorney who Cleveland to consult these obscure publi- sometimes the dreams are more pleas- learned chess while a child and became cations. The White collection is the closest ant. Let me tell you about mine, which is proficient enough to play blindfold games thing the chess world has to an interna- of the latter sort. I was walking down the while walking with his father. He did not tional archive. White himself would blush street of some grey northern industrial begin collecting chess books until 1870 to read that. He maintained, “I would pre- city, surrounded by old Beaux Arts archi- and, although he donated some 50,000 fer not to have so much ado about the tecture. I was irresistibly drawn inside a books to the library, he kept his chess books which I may give the library.” large building and up a large marble stair- and checker library. Late CPL librarian H. J. R. Murray, author of the monu- case to the third floor where I saw two boys Alice N. Loranth, who has done much mental A History of Chess, was an early playing chess on a large floor chessboard research on White, indicated why he may beneficiary of White’s open use policy (see there in the high-ceilinged foyer. I passed have held onto them longest. White sidebar). “Mr. White’s generous and unfail- through ironwork doors down a hallway regarded chess books as an “educational ing courtesy in placing his library freely at with rare books displayed under glass on vehicle” and his collection allowed him to the service of any student of chess has either side and came into a large rectan- travel “in many centuries, through many been acknowledged over and over again,” gular room, the length of half a football countries and cultures.” The CPL received he wrote in his preface. “To me he has field. On one side the windows opened to the chess and checker books after he died given not only this, but far greater help. He the shore of Lake Erie. A voice spoke: at age 83 during his annual fishing trip in has repeatedly obtained copies of manu- “Can I help you?” Wyoming. A member of the library’s board scripts which it was important that I I sat down at a table and said, “I’d like of trustees and serving as president from should see, but which were inaccessible to to see some of Bobby Fischer’s score- 1884-1885 and again from 1913 until his me, and has placed these copies unre- sheets.” Immediately they appeared on death, White was instrumental in trans- servedly at my service.” White always the table in front of me. forming the fledgling city library into a maintained that his collection should Intrigued, I called out, “I’d like to see the five-star institution. remain accessible to anyone who wanted chess medals won by Emanuel Lasker.” The Orientalia collection began as an off- “to be able to use it like Murray used it.” These too appeared in front of me. shoot from White’s interest in the Persian If you’ve ever done serious research in After admiring them, I cried, “Show me history of chess. Since he had a working national archives in Europe or private Philidor’s manuscript with all his pawn knowledge of some 20 languages, he was libraries in America, you had probably secrets!” After a moment this too was laid not restricted to collecting only works in got the impression at some point that you in front of me. English: original manuscripts, early edi- were not exactly welcome. Not so in the My excitement grew fevered and I began tions, critical editions, translations, CPL’s Special Collections room. Fine Arts crying out in rapid succession, “I want to popular treatments, he collected them all. and Special Collections Manager Pamela see the most beautiful chess manuscript You can find works in nearly every Euro- Eyerdam and Special Collections Librar- in the world! Show me a Greco first edition! pean language and many Asian languages. ian Kelly Ross-Brown have taken White’s Persian problem collections! Medieval Presently, however, acquisition of Eng- attitude to heart and have created a wel- chess allegories!” I couldn’t stop. “I want lish-language books dominate the growth coming atmosphere most rare among the complete run of the British Chess Mag- of the collection. first-rate collections. It is hands down my azine! Every Fred Reinfeld book in every The John G. White chess and checkers favorite library for serious work. edition!” As if by magic, they all appeared collection has now grown beyond 32,500 You do not have to be a serious researcher on library carts rolling up to my table. volumes of books and serials, including to be touched here by the greatness of chess The best part about my dream is that it more than 6,300 volumes of bound period- history. You can pass a few pleasant hours wasn’t a dream at all. It’s all true—more icals. There is also much unique material browsing through many current chess peri- or less. There really is such a place where in manuscript, correspondence, and vari- odicals from around the world, consult this can happen. You see, I was in the ous ephemera. Its scope as well as its reference works, or take in as many techni- Cleveland Public Library (CPL), one of the depth is enormous, encompassing the his- cal treatises as you like. You do not even need largest public libraries in the nation, a tory, development, literature, and technical to open a book. The reading room has sev- first-class research facility. And it is here aspects of the game. The works range from eral glass cases full of interesting displays, you will find the John G. White collection the best-known and most influential books Continued on page 34 30 December 2012 | Chess Life GISELA KHAN GRESSER’S DEATH MASKS Among the most bizarre items in the collection are two plaster casts of the death mask of Gisela Khan Gresser, who won multiple U. S. women’s championships in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s. She died in 2000 and the casts were included when her papers were donated to the library. The physical objects in the collection were typically donated by individuals, even though the White collection is not a museum and does not keep such items on permanent display. (The other plaster cast is more Sphynxlike, its nose broken off.) www.uschess.org 31 Cover Story / John G. White Collection NOTEBOOKS AND SCRAPBOOKS The romance of holding a handwritten or hand-assembled book comes with knowing that there is no other text like it in the world— you are about to have a unique experience with a unique item.
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