| Nov-16-12 | | thomastonk: The player is J.L. Kersten, as <Stonehenge> wrote here: M Kersten vs Euwe, 1923. NIC's database ("Not the Biggest but the Best ?!"), which is the source of the wrong first name "Martin", refers to the German player Martin Kersten from Berlin, who is still active. |
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| Nov-16-12 | | Calli: Primary sources are, of course, preferred. The games in the Chessgames database were originally copied from other online databases (Pittsburgh, Chessbase etc). While the quality of online sources has improved the last ten years, it's still a risk to trust the data. Was a name correction submitted? |
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| Nov-17-12 | | thomastonk: Whoever changed the name: thank you very much! However, in the game notations he still appears as "Martin Kersten". In 1912, Kersten co-founded the "Maastrichtsche Schaakvereeniging". He is a "Hoofdklasse" player in 1913, i.e. he belongs to the highest class of players in the Netherlands. After WWI he is in Amsterdam and plays for the V.A.S., where he is also secretary many years. He draws a game with Lasker in a simultaneous exhibition. At this time he plays "Eerste Klasse", i.e. the second highest class of players. The winter tournament 1922/23 of the V.A.S. is a big success: Euwe wins with 11.5 points from 13 games, and Kersten becomes second with 9.5. Now he is back in the "Hoofdklasse". The game with Euwe is drawn and it is played in 1922. So, either he has a second draw with Euwe or the year in J L Kersten vs Euwe, 1923 is wrong. In 1923 he was offered to play the tournament in Scheveningen as a replacement for Muffang, but he declined. In 1924 he finished 4th at the Dutch Championship (4.5 pts from 9 games, Euwe won). In 1926 he finished 12th and last (2.5 pts from 11 games, Euwe won). In the early 1930s he played less than before. His last game I could trace is a win and was played on October 22th, 1933. |
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Nov-17-12
 | | Stonehenge: Standing, third from the left, next to Max Euwe:
http://www.schaakclubutrecht.nl/his... |
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| Nov-17-12 | | thomastonk: This picture is from the same event, but it was taken in Amsterdam: http://www.pic-upload.de/view-16934... |
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| Nov-17-12 | | Calli: <thomastonk> Changed the year of the drawn game to 1922. Fiala (Quarterly for Chess History, Vol 2, p 252) gives it as one of six games under the banner "Amsterdam 1922". Not clear if that was the tournament name. Fiala also gives another game Euwe vs "Carsten" 1-0, a 45 move Sicilian from the 1921-1922 Winter V.A.S. |
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| Nov-17-12 | | thomastonk: <Calli> Thank you! Both big chess clubs from Amsterdam of that time, the A.S.C. and the V.A.S., organised so called winter tournaments ("winterwedstrijd"). These tournaments begun in autum and lasted often until early summer next year. So, "Amsterdam 1922" isn't wrong, but unprecise. "V.A.S. winter tournament 1922-23" is more precise. Carsten is another player of the V.A.S., who joined the club in 1921. |
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| Nov-17-12 | | Calli: <thomastonk> Very good to know that there really was a Carsten. Originally, the 1923 game was assigned to him and I was beginning to think "Carsten" was a misspelling for Kersten. Submitted a full name for Carsten. |
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Nov-17-12
| | Stonehenge: Problem by Kersten:
http://www.yacpdb.org/?id=126585 |
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Nov-17-12
| | Stonehenge: I got his year of birth from http://chesstempo.com/gamedb/player.... Now I found http://www.graftombe.nl/names/info/.... Perhaps this is him? |
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Nov-17-12
| | Stonehenge: http://genea.pedete.net/zand/6092.htm
This must be him! |
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| Nov-17-12 | | thomastonk: <Stonehenge> Great! Now the most important thing missing here is a win. I have at least 20 of his games, some even with comments, and I will suggest a nice one, tomorrow. |
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| Nov-17-12 | | sneaky pete: In 1922 Kersten made mincemeat of his arch-enemy:
http://www.dewilligedame.nl/SCHAAKB...Euwe has an excuse, he was playing 29 games simultaneously. |
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| Nov-19-12 | | thomastonk: I had promised a nice win of Kersten, and so far I've looked at 13 in detail. But none of them convinced me. However, I can add to <sneaky pete>'s simultaneous game another one, where he also smashed a prominent opponent: [Event "Simultaneous exhibition V.A.S."]
[Site "Amsterdam"]
[Date "1928.05.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Kersten"]
[Black "Bogoljubov"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D35"]
[PlyCount "47"]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5.Nf3 c6 6. cxd5 exd5 7. e3 Bd6 8. Bd3 O-O 9. O-O Re8 10. Qc2 Nf8 11. e4 dxe4 12. Nxe4 Be7 13. Rfe1 Nd5 14. Bc4 Be6 15. Qd2 h6 16. Bxe7 Rxe7 17. Nc5 Qd6 18. Re5 Nb6 19. Bxe6 Nxe6 20. Nh4 Nc4 21. Nf5 Qxe5 22. Nxe7+ Kf8 23. Qb4 Qd6 24. Nf5 1-0 So far as I can see, everything went fine for both sides, until Bogoljubov made one slight and two rather serious mistakes: 18.. Nb6?!, 21.. Nxe5? and 22.. Kf8? The position before the final hit gets a diagram because of the knights and queens: 
click for larger view |
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Kibitzing
