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Samuel Reshevsky vs Arnaldo Vasconcellos
"The Book of Samuel" (game of the day Jul-21-2008)
45th US Open (1944), Boston, MA USA, rd 17, Aug-10
French Defense: Advance Variation (C02)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 4 OF 4 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Mar-30-14  Shams: Games like this still happen. Play through first-round games from big swiss opens, in which GMs are paired with mere masters.
Mar-30-14  Jim Bartle: Sorry for being rude, but why wasn't a 33-year-old man in the military in 1944?
Mar-30-14  RookFile: The requirement was to register. Presumably Reshevsky did that. For whatever reason, they didn't draft him.
Mar-30-14  Shams: <RookFile> Did he not ask for an exemption as an Orthodox Jew? Or were those not granted at the time?
Mar-30-14  Jim Bartle: Could be, to both. I'm still surprised he was able to travel on a vacation.

Of course there was still major league baseball, though very diluted. So not all men were fighting.

Mar-30-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: <JB> Reshevsky was quite short, and may have met the minimum physical requirements. And I'm talking the fully grown Reshevsky, not the child prodigy.

To illustrate, Here's a picture from the 1948 World Championship:

http://texastechchess.blogspot.com/...

Mar-31-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: In that picture he is standing in front of Euwe and Smyslov, two very tall players.
Mar-31-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: <offramp> True, but even Keres and botvinnik are a head taller.

About halfway down this page is a picture from Zurich 1953. Again, he's between a couple of taller guys, but compare him with Bronstein on the far right. Reshevsky looks positively tiny.

http://schach-und-kultur.com/?p=6382

Mar-31-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Yes ; he does look about 10 cm shorter than Bronstein.
Mar-31-14  RookFile: Not sure what function Reshevsky would serve in the army, other than to make the enemy laugh.
Apr-01-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: So I got to wondering why the other players at Game Collection: US Open 1944, Boston weren't serving in the military. Turns out that Reshevesky, at age 33 (or 35 according to some sources), was actually one of the younger players.

Anthony Santasiere: 40

E. S. Jackson: 47

Robert Steinmeyer: 17

Sgt. Roger Johnson: 35, on leave from active dutys

Weaver Adams: 43

Walter Suesman: 26; physically disabled

Marcel Barzin: 53

Harlow Daly: 61

Morton Hamermesh: 29 researcj scientist (Ph.D. 1940)

Vasconcellos: 32; foreign diplomat

Milton Kagan: 26

L. W. Stephens: 61

W. M. P. Mitchell: 61

J. B. McCord: 74

In any event, I think the lesson is not to judge. Physical defects that might not be apparent could be enough to disqualify for military service.

Apr-01-14  RookFile: I don't know. I think Daly would have been terrifying with a bazooka.
Apr-01-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: L. Walter Stephens would have been good at sneaking up from behind.
Sep-19-14  Bezlitosci: I analysed the game with computer and in his opinion the sacrifice is unsound. The key moment is on 16th move


click for larger view

black in this position plays 16...Nb4 and is lost. Not only this move serves no defensive puposes at the moment, but it actually helps white be removing the defender of the e5 square, to which white knight can leap.

Instead both 16...Kg8 and 16... Kf8 should hold with some advantage for black (like +1.00). The point is that this prevents white from checking by Ne5, Ng5 or Qh5, thus if for example white plays Ne5 or Ng5 and then Qh5, black has time to make some move strenghtening it's defence.

Sep-19-14  Olavi: It was always considered unsound. In the old days 16...Be7 was recommended.
Sep-20-14  RookFile: But who would play 16....Kg8 in a game and say, please play 17. Bxf6 and fracture my kingside pawns with heavy pieces still left on the board?
Sep-20-14  Olavi: An interesting example of the art of annotating: In The World's a Chessboard (1948) Reuben Fine gave black's fifth, eight, tenth and eleventh moves question marks, and white's ninth, twelwth and fourteenth get exclams. Yet he says that after 14...fxe6 black probably stands better and that 16...Be7 leads to unclear complications. The inconsistency is not necessarily quite what it seems today; it was just the habit, with some annotators, that moves were given question marks just because they are too dangerous in a practical game. (And of course the exclam carries no objective meaning.)
Nov-03-14  rainingpieces: 21.Qh5 in an incredible move. Reshevsky had to check that it works in all 21..Bxb7, 21..Nxe1 and 21..Nxe5 variations. 21..Bxb7 seems to lead to forced mate and in other captures black will lose lots of material at least I think.
Jan-22-16  thegoodanarchist: The main reason I like the pun is because SR was not known for his book knowledge!
Jan-22-16  thegoodanarchist: Better chess players: Correct me if I am wrong, but the purpose of

20.Rxb7+ seems to be to deflect Black's LSB from defense of g4, so that White's queen can go to that square and deliver check.

Mar-26-16  Eduardo Bermudez: ¡¡ Amazing dynamic chess game by Samuel Reshevsky !!
Apr-07-16  Eduardo Bermudez: Good chess game!!
Apr-11-16  Eduardo Bermudez: Reshevsky in the same dynamic play of Tal and Wei Yi !!
Jun-09-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  Penguincw: Video analysis of this game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9C....
Oct-24-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: After 22 moves, all 4 of White's remaining pieces are en prise. Just one of those details from this flawed but enjoyable game.
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