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| Aug-08-22 | | belgradegambit: Actual film of his famous 1920 simul when he was a prodigy: https://twitter.com/olimpiuurcan/st... |
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| Oct-05-22 | | Helios727: So why was Reshevsky not in the 1958 Interzonal? |
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| Oct-07-22 | | Petrosianic: <Helios727: So why was Reshevsky not in the 1958 Interzonal?> "Word comes from Yugoslavia of the financial arrangements for the forthcoming Interzonal Tournament scheduled for that country in August of this year. The Yugoslavian Chess Federation will meet all the internal expenses for the two participants to which the U. S. is entitled, but will not pay traveling expenses incurred in crossing the Atlantic. This news is a sharp blow for the unsubsidized U. S. Chessmasters, Fischer and Sherwin (Reshevsky has vowed never to play in another Interzonal) now may be unable to take part in the event. It would be more than grotesque, as has been suggested, to allow two other players, more financially independent, to go in their stead .. . Place your bets on Botvinnik to recapture his World Championship crown - so advises Fischer anyway." -- <Chess Life, March 5, 1958, page 9> Reshevsky did play several more interzonals later, and even qualified for the 1968 Candidates, but perhaps this situation had changed by then. |
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| Oct-07-22 | | Petrosianic: <FLASH NEWS RECEIVED TOO LATE FOR FRONT PAGE ...
RESHEVSKY TELLS CHESS LIFE: "I HAVE
DECIDED NOT TO PLAY IN THE INTERZONAL IN YUGOSLAVIA.">June 20, 1958. So I guess it wasn't official until later. |
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Oct-22-22
 | | FSR: "Almost every time I laid eyes on Reshevsky - at several large American Swisses - he was antagonizing someone. He seemed to enjoy it. At the U.S. Open one year, I saw him use every dirty trick to try to bother his opponent, who was in time pressure: Reshevsky rocked his body back and forth very distractingly; he adjusted pieces on his opponent's time; and he kept one hand perpetually over the clock, moving the pieces and hitting the clock with different hands. All this he did, and his opponent was only 14 or 15 years old. He should have been forfeited." Stuart Rachels, The Best I Saw in Chess, pp. 205-06. In a footnote, Rachels relates that Reshevsky's opponent was probably Robby Adamson. He says that Adamson told him, "At one point, Reshevsky picked up the clock when it was my turn to move." |
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Oct-22-22
 | | perfidious: <....(Reshevsky has vowed never to play in another Interzonal)....> This bit, at least, lasted longer than many a New Year's resolution. |
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| Oct-22-22 | | Z free or die: <The child prodigy as a global celebrity: the chess
wonder Samuel Reshevsky -- Andrea Graus (2021)> https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf... Get it while ya can. |
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Oct-22-22
 | | HeMateMe: I have a friend who had heard, second hand, that Bill Lombardy was a real dik at weekend swisses, very rude to TDs, some of the other players. This if after he was no longer a big star. |
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Oct-23-22
| | FSR: <HeMateMe> Lombardy was known to do things like sealing a "move" that, when the envelope was opened, turned out to be "F#$% you." |
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| Oct-23-22 | | Chessius the Messius: The good old days :) |
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Oct-23-22
| | perfidious: Met Lombardy during the 1984 New York Open, then at the board two years later in the New England championship; found him quite reasonable actually. |
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Oct-24-22
| | HeMateMe: I bumped into BL several times in the Village in NYC. He was often in chess clubs, trolling for students, to pay the bills. Watched him play backgammon at $1/point at the Chess Forum for half an hour. He quickly cleaned out some kid. I didn't see anything mean, but he seemed agitated, difficult to have a conversation with. It was a certainly a sad business, how he got way behind on his rent in Stuyvesant city in Manhattan, the whole legal mess. |
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| Dec-20-22 | | pazzed paun: The Fischer quote about Reshevsky
Is worded in a way too make Fischer look much better ,much sooner than he actually earned his place at the topThe best reshevsky quote is one made by. Botvinnik Reshevsky the most talented player of my generation ,but in the end it did not matter I worked harder |
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Dec-20-22
| | HeMateMe: Didn't smyslov have a winning head to head record against reshevsky? Maybe that's why he was never world champion. Of course having to work a day job probably hurt Sammy's chances. |
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| Mar-13-23 | | Mike75018: Smyslov beat Reshevsky 5-3, Botvinnik beat him 5-2, and Bronstein beat him 3-0. I love Reshevsky, but as a part-time player he just couldn't prevail against the top Soviets. |
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| Mar-17-23 | | Baxer: Hi all, I have a question regarding Samuel Reshevsky that I hope some of the people on this site can further enlighten me on regarding the man himself. I have heard that Samuel Reshevsky was not a nice person and was in some ways worse than Robert Fischer (an achievement) and would like some evidence/general information on the topic if available. Thanks, |
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| Mar-17-23 | | SChesshevsky: <Baxer> Well, when it comes to chess, Sammy was more in the "nice guys finish last" camp. The number of stories/controversies about him are very likely true. Guessing there are at least a couple concrete reasons for this ultra strong desire to win. Main ones being money and ego. Built in from youth. Reshevsky had a very unusual childhood. Seems he was basically supporting his family at a young age. Chess being the bread and butter. No school but playing exhibitions was his life. Also being this young chess prodigy generated some fame and made him a celebrity. Not hard to see how chess became a major part of his personality and winning at chess became vitally important. But, outside the importance of chess victory, there's a big difference between Reshevsky and Fischer. Reshevsky abided to fairly strict religious belief, sacrificed somewhat for career and family and also had outside interests. Heard he was quite a music fan and a pretty good cook. Hard to tell if he was a nice person without actually being around him for an extended period of time. But he certainly was a combative chess opponent with winning as the ultimate goal. |
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| Mar-17-23 | | Baxer: <SChesshevsky> Nice username, but I definitely know what you mean - and I can't necessarily fault him for that. However, I have also heard he was nasty to kids as well. The more of what you say I agree with, you must know reshevsky well. Being a child star but not in broadway but Chess. From what I have read about reshevsky he was a bit of a god warrior, placing his faith above almost everything. I have the Samuel Reshevsky book by McFarland, does any have that? |
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| Mar-17-23 | | SChesshevsky: <...placing his faith above almost everything.> This is true. In 1973 there was an interzonal in Brazil. A prelim on the path to face Fischer in the next WC match. Reshevsky's faith mandated eating only certain kosher foods. Since it wasn't common in Brazil to have such foods available, he had the chore of driving a couple of hours to get his grocery or meals. Certainly a pain in any circumstance but probably more than an inconvenience for 60+ year old Reshevsky with unknown Brazilian roads. Plus, believe, the climate and/or altitude bothered him as well. Think all together did have some effect on his play. If I remember correctly, dropped a very poor game v. Portisch and hung his Q v. Savon. |
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Mar-17-23
 | | monopole2313: He found them at a yeshiva, if I remember correctly. |
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Mar-17-23
 | | chancho: <I have the Samuel Reshevsky book by McFarland> I have the green hardcover with gold lettering... https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~2gA... |
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| Mar-19-23 | | Baxer: <chancho> I have the green hardcover too. The hardcover of the Capablanca book by Edward Winter and the Hardcover Alekhine's Chess Games book by Skinner & Verhoeven. |
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Feb-04-24
 | | gezafan: <brankat: As a young man V.I.Lenin was very much interested in Chess. According to those who knew him at the time in Russia and later in Switzerland, he was quite a talented player, which should not be surprising. It was in the early 1890s that Lenin gave up on Chess. His own explanation was: "It takes up way too much time to study Chess." By that time, of course, he had other matters to spend his time on.> Yes, like his plans to mass murder people once he and his cronies got in power. The world would have been better off if he had stuck to chess. |
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Oct-06-24
 | | MissScarlett: C.N. 12035 <The matter is discussed by Bruce Monson in an article about Reshevsky on pages 46-55 of the 1/2019 New in Chess. Here, we quote the start of Monson’s investigation of the birth-date matter (page 51): ‘But in the 1990s other information started percolating to the surface, no doubt in the wake of Sammy’s death on 4 April 1992. In the August 1992 Chess Life Andy Soltis revealed that Reshevsky had told a number of chessplayers that he was actually born in 1909 and not in 1911. Unfortunately, Soltis did not identify these individuals. However, it is plausible. Reshevsky was known on occasion to inadvertently spill the beans about other “secrets” from his past, such as the assertion that he had never studied chess as a child, which is simply not true, only to later try to shove the genie back in the bottle.’ Difficult to summarize, Monson’s article is important and should be read in full. It contains both documentation and speculation, marked as such. One image is a Łódź registration card dated 1919 which indicates that Samuel Reshevsky was born in 1909 (with no exact date). Using this and other materials and inferences, Monson wrote on page 53 of the New in Chess article: ‘Conclusion: Reshevsky’s birthday should – at the bare minimum – be adjusted to 26 November 1909. And in all probability his actual date of birth was 26 May 1909, adding an additional six months to his age.’> |
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| Jan-29-25 | | Petrosianic: Who was the first player to suggest that ratings were more important than winning the Championship? Was it Carlsen? Was it Kasparov? No, even before those two, it was done by (or "on behalf of" more likely) Sammy Reshevsky. When Reshevsky failed to become world champion in 1948, the semi-official title of "Champion of the Western Hemisphere" was created. Reshevsky and Najdorf played two matches for it in the early 50's, with Reshevsky winning both. (Reshevsky was seen as the King of Match Play in those days, as he played a lot of people, including Fischer, in matches, and was never defeated in one until he played Korchnoi at the age of 59.) For several years after the 1953 Reshevsky-Najdorf match, Reshevsky was billed as "Champion of the Western Hemisphere" in Chess Life, even though Bisguier was US Champion for most of that time. Reshevsky hadn't been present when Bisguier won the title, so apparently the feeling was that he hadn't been bested. In fact, Reshevsky actually beat Bisguier in a non-title match while Bisguier was US Champion. But when Fischer won the US Championship in 1958, at a tournament where Reshevsky *was* present, the Western Hemisphere thing sort of lost its luster and was quietly forgotten. In its place there was a new billing: "America's Number One Player". Because even after Fischer won the US Championship, Reshevsky still had a higher USCF rating for a while afterwards (there were no FIDE ratings in those days). It wasn't even close. In the first rating list published after Fischer won the title, he was rated 2626 to Reshevsky's 2713. Fischer didn't come out ahead of Reshevsky on a rating list until August 1960. |
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