White to move and mate in two. Solution to Problem No. 2,907: N-K3 (Ne3). Congratulations to the solvers!
"The player who plays best in a tournament never wins first. He finishes second behind the guy with the most luck," quipped Tartakower."The Great Chess Tournaments and Their Stories" by Andy Soltis (Chilton, 1975) is a colorful blend of anecdotes and games transporting us back to 10 landmarks in the annuls of chess.
1. London, 1851: The first modern tournament. A series of knockout matches among 16 leading amateurs established German math professor Adolf Anderssen as the unofficial world champion.
2. London, 1883: Chess clocks brought a new element of drama into the game. Johannes Zukertort, the victor, lost the first official title match three years later to runner-up Wilhelm Steinitz.
3. Hastings, 1895: Harry Nelson Pillsbury, 22, an unknown American, startled the chess world by winning ahead of Chigorin, Lasker and Steinitz in a stellar field of 22. Before his untimely death 11 years later, Pillsbury set a record of 21 games at once played blindfolded.
4. St. Petersburg, 1914: Czar Nicholas organized this one to pit titleholder Emanuel Lasker against two rivals he was dodging - Capablanca and Rubinstein. But Lasker's triumph didn't deter his competitors from gloating over how this "gentleman farmer," tried for months to mate two pigeons so the offspring would take top honors at a Berlin poultry show - but both pigeons were male.
5. New York, 1924: Even at the age of 56, after dropping the title three years earlier, Lasker won this grueling double round robin against all the leading players of his day.
6. New York, 1927: The invincible Capablanca still dominated chess and was so far in the lead that he agreed in advance to draw with each of his last four opponents. The Cuban scribbled a note to Nimozovich during their game that said, "Please make better moves. I don't know how to avoid a win."
7. Nottingham, 1936: The crossroads of the old and new featured three past world champions (Alekhine, Capa, Lasker), plus the incumbent (Euwe) and rising Soviet star Botvinnik, who tied for first with Capablanca.
8. Hague-Moscow, 1948: A five-man duel designed to fill the crown left vacant by the death of Alekhine. The victory by Botvinnik launched a post-war Soviet supremacy over world chess, that virtually excluded outsiders from a shot at the title.
9. Bled, 1961: Tal's runner-up was America's Bobby Fischer, 18, who scored 31/2 out of 4 against the redoubtable Soviet contingent, the first crack in the wall leading to his ascent to the crown in 1972.
10. San Antonio, 1972: Sponsored by Church's Fried Chicken, a fast-food chain, witnessed the American debut of Anatoly Karpov, who took the title by default in 1975 to launch the post-Fischer era.
A strange omission is Avro, 1938, arguably the greatest tournament of all time - though today some events are routinely touted as the highest rated in history.
- ELECTION - At 3 p.m. Saturday during the annual meeting of the Utah Chess Association, the election of officers will be conducted. It will be held in Room 3423, Wilkinson Center on the BYU campus in Provo where the Utah Open Championship Tournament is being played.
David Lither, coach of the well-known Rowland Hall-St. Mark's chess program, has announced his candidacy for the UCA board.
As has been reported in this column many times, Lither had been the organizer of many academic chess clubs and tournaments during the past 20 years.
He is a past president of the University of California (Berkeley) Chess Club, president of the University of Utah Chess Club (1989-90), past president of the Utah Chess Association, member of the United States Chess Federation (USCF) and a member of its education committee. He has had a USCF rating of "expert" since 1980.
Philip Rodriguez, current president of the very active University of Utah Chess Club, is also running for membership on the UCA board of directors.
For their constant contributions to Utah chess, both Lither and Rodriguez should be part of the UCA's board. (A question frequently asked is why does Robert Tanner, who made a real contribution to Utah chess but who now lives in California, continue to be a board member of the Utah Chess Association?)