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1 JANUARY 2017 Chess News and Chess History for Oklahoma (From a Chess Silhouettes postcard collection) Welcome to the Chess New Year 2017 Chess and Changes Ahead In This Issue: • As the Beatles said, “You’ve got to admit it’s Lou Hays getting better … can’t get no worse.” Remembers “Oklahoma’s Official Chess 2016 was a year of difficult changes all over the Bulletin Covering Oklahoma Chess • world, and it seems to me this was also true for on a Regular Schedule Since 1982” The chess in our region. We saw the passing of two Stradivarius influential organizers, with the resulting http://ocfchess.org of Chess questions of how to carry on with traditional Oklahoma Chess • tournament chess events. What’s New in Foundation Register Online for Free Arkansas Chess Still, many volunteers have stepped up, and we • have a renewed effort with innovative events Editor: Tom Braunlich Plus coming for 2017 that should make for an active Asst. Editor: Rebecca Rutledge News Bites, chess scene for classical chess as well as rapid Game of the st and scholastic. This includes a rejuvenated Published the 1 of each month. Month, Puzzles, Arkansas calendar being spearheaded there by Send story submissions and Top 25 List, Karis Bellaserio who writes an article in this tournament reports, etc., by the Tournament issue for us about the resurgence of chess 15th of the previous month to Reports, events in that state and what they have mailto:[email protected] and more. brewing for 2017. The Kansas Open will once ©2016 All rights reserved. again be in nearby Wichita this July as well. 21 The tournament scene is looking pretty good and I hope you will support these events — without your support they tend to disappear. For this publication, I am very excited about what we have coming up. In this issue we begin a series of articles by veteran Oklahoma expert Lou Hays, chess publisher and author of the ultimate book on Bobby Fischer’s collected chess games. He will be showcasing remembrances about the grandmasters he has known. The first installment is on the great David Bronstein, and you won’t believe what is coming up in this series. Next month we debut also a new series by John Cope, exploring seldom-discussed issues of special interest all players, including scholastic coaches, players, and parents. There is much more ahead, but I want to mention something special for 2017… This is the 60th anniversary of Jerry Spann becoming USCF president in 1957, a turning point in the history of the USCF that unfortunately has been largely forgotten by modern players. I am researching a major article on this Oklahoman who changed U.S. chess that will appear later this year. The OCF is bringing back the Jerry Spann Memorial again – and I will show what the importance of that is with quotes from the many masters and national chess figures who clamored for that memorial following Spann’s untimely passing in 1968. I hope you enjoy all this interesting chess material! Please email me with your feedback on articles, your suggestions for new stories or features that we might consider, and your thoughts on chess in the Oklahoma region. This is your publication, so be part of it. Lou Hays Remembers… Grandmasters I Have Known: David Bronstein by Lou Hays When I lived in Dallas, I was fortunate to be able to meet many famous grandmasters. One of the most fascinating was the great David Bronstein, who stayed at my house for three days in 1993. The encounter was unforgettable, and at times even humilating! If you think he was just another Soviet super-grandmaster think again; he was a unique and magical character. Before I tell you my stories about him, some brief background on how this came to be: Although I began playing in chess tournaments in 1973, inspired by Bobby Fischer’s championship victory, I had learned to play in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1957 at the age of ten. But chess had faded into the background for me until that Summer of 1972 came and coverage of the upcoming Fischer-Spassky match was top of the news virtually every day. Bobby’s antics kept the match front page for weeks before the first move was played. I had met Dee Drake (one of the best players in the state at the time) and consulted with him on ways to get better. My first 23 tournament was in March of 1973 at age 25 About the Author… (it’s never too late). After a few more years on and off chess, in 1978 I achieved a rating of 1805. Business demands led me to Dallas in 1979 where I joined the Dallas Chess Club. Membership there opened enormous opportunities for improvement. I could walk in any Tuesday, Friday night, Saturday or Sunday, and nearly always have an expert or master to challenge to a blitz match, as long as I had a quarter to bet on each game. Such cheap and valuable lessons! I studied throughout the 80’s with NM John Jacobs, a former Lou Hays Texas state champion, and reached my Many Oklahoma players under age 50 may not peak rating of 2181 in 1986. be familiar with Lou. A native of Muskogee, in 1977-78 he organized two memorable Jerry Grandmasters came into my life by a happy Spann Memorials with prize funds large enough circumstance… During these years, I was to draw IMs from as far away as Minnesota, and president of the Dallas Chess Club several which drew TV sports coverage from Tulsa times, and I became acquainted with many channel 8. Soon after he moved to Dallas influential people in the chess world, where, among other things, in the 1990s he including Hal Bogner, a chess organizer and started a chess publishing house that printed 19 software developer from Half Moon Bay, books. Some were popular California. Hal would call to let me know reprints like Nimzovich’s My when top grandmasters were touring the System, (with a new forward country, and I would book them for a Dallas by Yasser Seirawan), plus he exhibition. Since I was always the “point worked with GMs on new man” organizing these events, on a books as well. He wrote two shoestring budget, the visiting masters all books on tactics, and he stayed at my house. I had a pretty good personally researched an sized home, a tolerant wife, no kids updated compilation of Bobby running around, and provided a peaceful Fischer’s games that is setting for these illsutrious visitors for a considered to be few days. This gave me a golden chance to definitive. He came to get to know them. We had many such know many famous players events, and I’ll have more stories about and hosted them at his these grandmasters in future articles. house, now the subject of this series of articles. GM David Bronstein Recently he moved back to Russian GM David Bronstein (1924 - 2006) Oklahoma, in Tahlequah. was one of the most brilliant and creative chess players of the 20th century. He was a chess fanatic and loved the commotion of He made computer-like moves decades before chess clubs, playing lightning chess every the first chess computer was invented. Svetozar evening even during his training days for Gligoric, a world famous grandmaster and the world championship. His fanaticism contemporary of Bronstein once commented on fueled a fiery imagination. He was once a postmortem analysis with him,“I regarded called The Priest of the Spirit of Chess. with disbelief the variations which Bronstein 3 45 Bronstein – E Geller, USSR Ch. 1961. White to move. White, out of the blue, announced a forced mate in three moves. 20.Qg6!! fxg6 21.Rxg7+ K moves 22.Ng6#. GM David Bronstein Bronstein - Korchnoi, 1962. White to move. Bronstein played 39.Rxh6+!! and Korchnoi resigned. a) 39... gxh6 40.Qg8+ Kf6 41.Qf8+; b) 39... Kxh6 40.Qh8+ Kg6 41.Qh5+ Kf6 42.g5+! wins white’s queen. c) 39... Kf7 40.Qc7+ Kg8 41.Qc8+ Kf7 considered during play. It was a 42.Qe6+ Kf8 43.Rh8#; d) 39... Kg5 40.Qe5+ Kxg4 41.Rg6+ fantastic world into which my cold Kh4 42.Qg5#; reason, even had I been able, would Bronstein claimed this was “one of the best combinations in never have entered.” my life, if not the best.” In 1951 Bronstein tied a match for the Bronstein in Dallas World Championship with reigning champion Mikhail Botvinnik. The tie GM Bronstein arrived in Dallas on June 7, 1993. He allowed Botvinnik to retain the title. GM was a short and portly man, 69 years of age. He Bronstein, who may have been under was in poor health, and wore a colostomy bag. orders from the Soviet bosses not to win, Bronstein was a perfect gentleman — courteous, claimed later that, “I just wanted to friendly, and effervescent in his zeal for chess. He prove that Botvinnik wasn’t a God.” He spoke English fluently. For the entire three days he either proved that point or perhaps spent at our home, he was constantly drawn to the proved that both players were chess big chess table in my living room, always exploring Gods. chess positions. I believe any chess player can make Due to his recalcitrance with the Soviet bosses, marked improvement by studying the Bronstein never had much opportunity to travel or games of Grandmaster Bronstein and make money and he was very sensitive on the reading his many books.