First of all, our version of the score may be incorrect. After <42.Re2>:

click for larger view

Both Fine and ACB gives Black's next move as 42...B-R3 (42..Bh6) rather than 42...Ba3 (42...B-R6).

Similarly, after <43.h4 Rc3 44.g4>, bot Fine and ACB give 44...B-B1 (44...Bf8) instead of 44...Bc1 (44...B-B8).

If <CG>'s source has an error, it's a common type: confusing ranks when translating between Descriptive and Algebraic.

Similar to the Saemisch-Nimzowitsch case we looked at before; a possibly incorrect score is imported from a database, without checking that it actually matches the quoted source.

The blindfold exhibition is said to have taken place at the Hungarian Chess Club in New York. Was this opening called the Hungarian Opening then, I wonder!

Fine (<Lessons from my games>, p. 30-35) mentions two blindfold simuls. The first, held "some years" after he first tried a blindfold game, was an impromptu affair. He was scheduled to give a regular exhibition at a small club (unnamed) at a hotel in a midtown New York. When only six players showed up, he offered to play them blindfold.

This seems to be the event mentioned in the chess column of the Allentown (PA) <Morning Call> of February 26, 1933:

<"Reuben Fine, champion of the Marshall Chess Club, gave a simultaneous blindfold exhibition against six opponents in the Hotel Shelton on February 9. Although this was his first attempt against so many opponents, he won all six of his games.">

Fine next describes his first formal blindfold simul, played in the spring of 1933 on eight boards at the Old Hungarian Chess Club. That's all the detals he offers. After some general remarkds on blindfold chess, he presents a game against "N Feldman". staing it was from the "New York exhibition (but not which one).

We have some information about this second simul from Helms. First, the <Brooklyn Daily Eagle>, March 16, 1933:

<"In his exhibition of blindfold play at the International Chess Club, Reuben Fine ... made a brilliant score at eight boards, winning six games and drawing the other two. Consulting teans nade up of Persin and Shainswit and of Rosenthal and Paul escaped defeat by the young master.">

Then, in <American Chess Bulletin>, March 1933, p. 54:

<"Conducing eight blindfold games simultaneously (for the first time) at the International Chess Club of New York, during March, Fine won six and drew the other two. Two fine specimens follow.">

Pun probably not intended. ACB then gives the scores of the game with Feldman (no first initial) and with a consulting pair ((J Hesterly and J Sandford), stating they were from the

I think this seeming contradiction can be explained by a short report in ACB, November 1933, p. 164, about the "Hunaria - International Chess club. This was a simul by Horowitz, played at the club headquarters in Kreutzer Hall.

Apparently the clubs had combined operations to some extent, and met at the old home of the Hungarians. However, they maintained their identities each supporting a team in the Metropolitan Chess League. The International team (see, for instance, BDE, February 23, 1933) includeed <Jack Feldman> and George Shainswit, both mentioned as having played in the Horowitz simul.

So I'm thinking that, despite Fine naming him as "N Feldman", Black in his game was actually Jack Feldman, whom I knew of a an elderly New York Expert at US Open in the 1970s and 1980s.

Why discount Fine? Since this was a blindfold simul, he would have had no written record of the game, and would have had to rely on memory or other sources. His book was written fifteen years after the game, so his memory could have been faulty. It could be, for instance, that he encountered nikolai Feldman during his time in Russia.