Samuel Reshevsky, the Polish-born chess prodigy and grand-master who astounded the world with his feats as a boy and dominated American chess for nearly four decades, died Saturday at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y. He was 80 years old and lived in Spring Valley, N.Y.
Sammy, known to many Utah chess players for his many simultaneous exhibits here, had been semiretired for several years but still appeared occasionally at tournaments and exhibitions. He died of a heart attack, said Rabbi Harvey Waxman of Congregations Beth Medrosh in Monsey, N.Y., who presided at a funeral on Sunday at Congregation Kehilath Israel in Spring Valley.From the moment he sailed into New York Harbor on Nov. 3, 1920, an 8-year-old prodigy in blond curls and a sailor suit, Sammy Reshevsky was the sensation of American chess.
From that time until he was eclipsed by the 14-year-old Bobby Fischer, he was the top name in American chess.
As a child, he first dazzled the capitals and courts of Europe, then amazed Americans with triumphant coast-to-coast tours, taking on and setting down 40 to 75 opponents at a time. He emerged as a celebrity of the 1920s, dallying in Hollywood with Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan and other stars and enchanting millionaires by defeating them in their living rooms.
Deseret News stories report that at the age of 9 or 10 he gave a simultaneous exhibition in the show windows of Auerbach's.
Through the years he played many exhibitions in Utah. Several times I picked him up at the train and immediately took him to Rabbi Cardon's home near Liberty Park to have something to eat - kosher. During some previous engagements in Wyoming, for example, before getting here, Sammy had little to eat (there was no kosher food available).
He was devout in his Hebrew family, church and culture. Sammy was a pretty fair singer and liked music, so I invited him to the LDS Tabernacle on Temple Square to hear an organ recital, and then later to sing with the organ and organist. Just before we reached the doors to the Tabernacle, he said excitedly, "I can't go into that church building." When he was told that it was also used for many public affairs, he said he could go in. One of his longtime friends was Sam Teitelbaum, a Salt Lake businessman and later marriage counselor.
At one appearance in a simultaneous exhibition, Teitelbaum said that if Reshevsky was going to play a blindfold exhibition against 10 players, then Reshevsky was really going to be blindfolded with a scarf. It was such an unusual "blind" exhibition that the press gave it national attention.
Sammy dropped chess and finished high school and then went on to the University of Chicago School of Business, where he studied accounting.
He re-entered the chess world and continued his amazing string of successes. He played for the world championship against a group of great Russian players. When they played each other, they drew their games, but when they played Sammy they played to win. Most observers always felt that they put Sammy at a terrible disadvantage. He came in fourth.
He then announced his retirement from active play but was soon drawn back. In a series of matches he defeated Miguel Najdorf, the Polish-born Argentine grandmaster, and was acclaimed champion of the free world.
In 1955, in one of his most impressive victories, he defeated Mikhail Botvinnik, three times world champion. The victory made him a hero in the Soviet Union; he was mobbed by autograph seekers in Moscow and was presented to Nikita Krushchev, the Soviet leader.
Three years later, Fischer won the U.S. championship and became the new hero. In 1961, Sammy and Bobby squared off for a 16-game match, but after 11 games - with the score tied at 51/2-51/2 and the players increasingly irritated with one another's quirks and mannerisms - Fischer walked out, and the match was awarded to Sammy by default.
He played less as the years went by, devoting himself to his religion, classical music and his family in Spring Valley, where he settled in 1950.
He is survived by his wife, the former Norma Mindick, a son, Joel, and two daughters, Sylvia and Malki, all of Spring Valley.
- CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SOLVERS!! - Jack Crandall, George L. Cavanaugh, Farrell Clark, William De-Vroom, Ken Frost, Gordon Greene, David Higley, Hal Harmon, Alison Hermance, Brian Harrow, Steven Jensen, Nathan Kennard, Raeburn Kennard, Frank Knight, Hal Knight, Kay Lundstrom, Jim Low, Lincoln McClellen, Dr. Kim James Michelson, Gary Neumann, Roger Neumann, Elsa Oldroyd, Ted Pathakis, Knute Petersen, Hans Rubner, Jim Reed, Vern Smith, Edwin O. Smith, Jeff Thelin, Eugene Wagstaff, Ardean Watts, Steven Anderson, Russell Anderson, Loile Bailey, Craig Bryson, Alan E. Brown, Ramon E. Bassett, Kim Barney, Daniel Barlow and Kathleen R. Barlow.