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Samuel Reshevsky

SAMUEL RESHEVSKY (born Nov-26-1911, died Apr-04-1992, 80 years old) Poland (federation/nationality United States of America) [what is this?] Samuel Herman Reshevsky (Szmul Rzeszewski) was born in Ozorkow, Poland. He learned to play chess at the age of four. At eight years old he was giving simultaneous exhibitions and defeating some of the country's most prominent players. Following the events of World War 1, Reshevsky immigrated to the United States (1920). As a 9-year-old, his first American simultaneous exhibition was with 20 officers and cadets at the Military Academy at West Point. He won 19 games and drew one. He toured the country and played over 1,500 games as a 9-year old in simultaneous exhibitions and only lost 8 games. In his early years he did not go to school and his parents ended up in Manhattan Children's Court on charges of improper guardianship. His benefactor was Julius Rosenwald, founder of Sears & Roebuck, who agreed to provide for Reshevsky's future if he devoted himself to completing his education. Reshevsky then largely abandoned chess for 10 years to pursue a vocation as an accountant, receiving an accounting degree from the University of Chicago in 1933 which he put to use in New York City. After obtaining his college degree, he devoted himself to tournament chess. Several subsequent successes in international events led to his invitations to both AVRO 1938 and the World Championship Tournament ten years later. Between 1936 and 1942, he had a streak of 75 games without a loss in U.S. Championship competition. He won the US Open in 1931, 1934 (tied with Reuben Fine), 1944, and 1955 (on tiebreak over Nicolas Rossolimo). Pan-American Champion at Hollywood 1945. He played in 21 U.S. Championships, from 1936 to 1981. Over the course of a long international career that continued until he was almost 80, he qualified for the Candidates five times. He won the U.S. Championship eight times (1936, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1946, and 1969), a record he shares with Bobby Fischer. He tied for first in 1972 but lost the playoff in 1973 to Robert Byrne. He played 11 World Champions, from Emanuel Lasker to Anatoly Karpov. He won matches against several notable Western players, including Svetozar Gligoric, Miguel Najdorf and Robert James Fischer (after Fischer was forfeited while the match was tied). However, he was never able to secure the right to a World Championship match. In 1981, at the age of 70, he tied for 3rd place in the U.S. Championship. In 1984, at the age of 72, he took first place in the powerful Reykjavik Open, which featured many grandmasters. (1) Wikipedia article: Samuel Reshevsky; (1) http://www.365chess.com/tournaments... Last updated: 2023-12-31 22:30:50

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page 1 of 65; games 1-25 of 1,625  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Reshevsky vs Rubinstein 0-1 24 1917 Blindfold game C50 Giuoco Piano 2. Reshevsky vs S Factor 0-1 26 1917 Lodz C22 Center Game 3. Reshevsky vs Traube 1-0 17 1920 Hanover A02 Bird's Opening 4. C Jaffe vs Reshevsky 0-1 17 1920 New York blindfold C30 King's Gambit Declined 5. Reshevsky vs R Griffith 1-0 30 1920 Blindfold game C67 Ruy Lopez 6. Reshevsky vs K Romeikat   ½-½ 38 1920 Berlin (simul) B01 Scandinavian 7. Reshevsky vs J Zabludowski 1-0 29 1920 Simul, 20b C62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense 8. Reshevsky vs L von Dory 1-0 16 1920 Simul C35 King's Gambit Accepted, Cunningham 9. Reshevsky vs Saemisch 0-1 38 1920 Berlin E50 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3 O-O 5.Nf3, without ...d5 10. P Krueger vs Reshevsky ½-½ 39 1920 Blindfold game C48 Four Knights 11. Reshevsky vs Euwe 0-1 15 1920 Simul, 20b C83 Ruy Lopez, Open 12. Reshevsky vs M Herzfeld 1-0 52 1920 Simul, 20b C66 Ruy Lopez 13. Reshevsky vs M Gency 1-0 37 1920 Simul, 20b C30 King's Gambit Declined 14. Reshevsky vs L Schwarz 1-0 65 1920 Simul, 20b C00 French Defense 15. Reshevsky vs G W Beaumont 1-0 30 1920 Simul, 15b C34 King's Gambit Accepted 16. Reshevsky vs F Knoller 1-0 40 1920 Simul, 20b C79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred 17. Reshevsky vs S Katz ½-½ 29 1920 Simul, 20b B21 Sicilian, 2.f4 and 2.d4 18. Reshevsky vs A Simchow   0-1 34 1920 Simul, 20b D05 Queen's Pawn Game 19. Reshevsky vs M J Clurman ½-½ 23 1920 Simul, 20b B15 Caro-Kann 20. Reshevsky vs L S Stillman 1-0 20 1920 Simul, 20b B21 Sicilian, 2.f4 and 2.d4 21. M A Schapiro vs Reshevsky 0-1 40 1920 Exhibition game C14 French, Classical 22. Reshevsky vs E B Hilliard 1-0 27 1920 Blindfold game C30 King's Gambit Declined 23. Reshevsky vs J H Longacre ½-½ 25 1921 Simul, 20b C68 Ruy Lopez, Exchange 24. Reshevsky vs C More   ½-½ 21 1921 Simul, 20b D37 Queen's Gambit Declined 25. Reshevsky vs S Sharp ½-½ 27 1921 Simul, 20b C31 King's Gambit Declined, Falkbeer Counter Gambit  page 1 of 65; games 1-25 of 1,625

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 3 OF 65 ·  Later Kibitzing> May-13-04    iron maiden: For Reshevsky, I don't think the issue was experience; he was just stronger in match play than in tournaments, which is why he was a bit of a disappointment in 1948. May-14-04    ruylopez900: Iron maiden. Ahh, a bit like Bent Larsen, winner of several tournaments, even though he got thrashed in Denver. May-14-04    iron maiden: Well, the reverse of Larsen, basically. If we could have somehow transplanted Larsen's tournament play into Reshevsky, we'd have a World Champion for sure. May-14-04    ruylopez900: <iron maiden> Right, same idea that they were a bit 1-D, but different aspects at which they excelled. May-14-04    ancienregime: Oh, I think we have to put Reshevsky's 1948 disappointment in perspective. He probably knew he was only heading for a slight positive score at best; remember that America had been thrashed in the 1946 radio match with the USSR when everyone expected the Olympiad-winning-monster to do otherwise. May-15-04    Gypsy: <ruylopez900: <Chessical> Cool, but wasn't he already experienced enough? (having played 30 years)> There is a maxim in sports: "you can only rise certain ammount over your competition". Thus, when Soviets realized that their chess jumped forward most during the WWII induced chess isolation, they figured Reshevsky was probably temporarily not at the top level. He just had not have enough opportunity to play enough of the new-level oponents.... But Soviets also knew Reshevsky had the tallent to eventually catch up, given quality oponents and time. May-15-04    iron maiden: Granted, Botvinnik was probably the clear favorite to win the WC tournament, but I'm sure Reshevsky was expected to give him a run for his money. May-15-04    WhoKeres: If you look at Reshevsky's games from the 1948 World Championship Match Tournament I think it's clear that Reshevsky was somewhat unlucky. He had the better of the five games with Botvinnik, but blundered one dominating white position away in time trouble. Keres only beat him in a game where Keres blundered a pawn in the opening and swindled Sammy after the adjournment. Reshevsky totally dominated Euwe. Only Smyslov really consistently outplayed Reshevsky in my opinion. Smyslov was a very difficult opponent for Reshevsky throughout the remainder of his career. From 1948 on, Reshevsky had a plus score against Botvinnik and Keres. If Reshevsky had captured the title in 1948 he may have held it for a while because he was a terrific match player. May-15-04    ruylopez900: How long was the 1948 WC tournament? It was my impression that it was a DRR. May-15-04    Resignation Trap: The 1948 World Championship was a quintuple round robin. http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/48$... May-17-04    ruylopez900: Does anyone think it would be interesting to unify the chess world like this? Kasparov, Anand, Ponomariov, Leko, Kramnik and Shirov playing a quintuple round robin. Winner takes all. =D It would take a while, but I doubt the players would want to draw every game, especially in the last few cycles where you gotta catch up or pull into a real lead (not just 1/2 pt on second place!) May-17-04    Mr.Rooks: "Does anyone think it would be interesting to unify the chess world like this?" I'd like them to bring back something like St.Petersburg 1914 or Moscow 1936 double round tournament with the top ten Players in the world getting there shot I wouldn't like any event where the challenger has to go through hell only to face a rested Kasparov who eat the winner. May-17-04    Mr.Rooks: Can you imagine someone else winning the title like Morozevitch in such a tournament :) Yes folks let's bring back fighting Chess. May-17-04    ruylopez900: <Mr.Rooks> That's the beauty of the QuinRR, you have to prove your the best of a bunch of players, not just one piddly player to be champion. (or one piddly little player at a time =D). I like the quintuple version simply because it is more in depth and more likely to yield a true winner, but a DRR is also acceptable. Jul-10-04    refutor: i'm trying my best to muddle through reshevsky's "the art of positional play" and the notation errors by burt hoichberg are absolutely horrifying. Rh4s instead of Ra4s, Bf8s instead of Bc8s etc. etc. etc. that's understandable when translating from descriptive to algebraic but at least play the game out over a board while you're translating...sheesh! Jul-16-04    Lawrence: Spirited defence of Reshevsky by John Watson in his critique of Garry K.'s OMGP "we find that Reshevsky was in the top 10 for no less than 24 years. He ended the year in ranked 1st in the world twice, was ranked 2nd three times, was 3rd-highest ranked in the world in 11 different years, and held 4th place five times! He spent 13 years at 2700 or above. Nor can his record be denigrated as a product of less important tournaments. In the second half of the 1930s alone (the period covered most by the two Predecessors volumes put together), Reshevsky took clear first in Margate 1935 ahead of Capablanca, won strong U.S. Championships in 1936 and 1938 (and of course many of them later), finished equal 3rd in the famous Nottingham 1936 tournament, shared first place at Kemeri 1937, and won Hastings 1937-8." If the last 3 paragraphs of the article are correct, Raymond Keene has recently managed to get Garry to include Reshevsky in a forthcoming volume of OMGP. Thanks to <acirce> for the link on the Kasparov page. Jul-16-04    Lawrence: John Watson's article is at http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/jwa... Jul-31-04    madlydeeply: According to Silman's Bio of Pal Benko, (quoted Benko), Reshevsky had a horrible memory and never studied openings. He couldn't remember anything, and that is why he took so much time in the opening. If that is true, it is a strike against the "unlucky Reshevsky" theory. Of course he was in perpetual time trouble. And there must be a limit to achievement if one can't prepare for a match. If this is true, the bad memory, then it is a miracle that Reshevsky played at the highest level at all. There was a little story in the book, someone showed Reshevsky a game, and Reshevsky said that the players "weren't very good" and the game was uninteresting...it was one of Reshevsky's own games! Forgotten! Apparently Reshevsky, a little guy, attacked Najdorf once, a big guy, and Najdorf ran away. HA! Aug-20-04    iron maiden: Reshevsky defeated seven twentieth-century World Champions at least once in tournament play: Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov, and Fischer. That has to be a record. Aug-20-04    Benzol: <iron maiden> Reshevsky's record is good but Keres might have him beat by one World champion. He has victories against Aleykhin, Botvinnik, Euwe, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky and Fischer. :) Aug-20-04    henrilin: But then Kortschnoj has the same record as Keres. He also beated as many as 8 WC-s. Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov. I think Geller also beated 8 World champions; Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer and Karpov. Is it perhaps Keres, Kortschnoi and Geller who share the record of beating World Champions without ever being WC-s (sorry Kortschnoi) themselves? And by the way - Has any of the WC-s beated more than 7 other WC-s? Aug-20-04    iron maiden: <Benzol> and <henrilin> Thanks, I completely forgot about Korchnoi and Keres for some reason, and I didn't know that Geller ever beat Karpov. <Has any of the WC-s beated more than 7 other WC-s?> No, so it's Korchnoi, Keres and Geller who appear to be the overall record-holders. But there's one record I think Reshevsky does hold. He played eleven WC's during his professional career: Lasker, Capablanca, Euwe, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer and Karpov. Aug-20-04    Chessical: <Ironmaiden> Unfortunately if the disintegration of world championship continues, it will soon be possible to play eleven "world champions" in a single tournament. Aug-20-04    Joshka: <Chessical> LOLOL....oh...your so right!!:-) Aug-23-04    Benzol: <henrilin> <iron maiden> Botvinnik has victories over Lasker, Capablanca, Alyekhin, Euwe, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian and Spassky. That's eight by my count so I guess he was a great player who was born at the right historical moment. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 65) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 3 OF 65 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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