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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 56 OF 65 ·  Later Kibitzing> May-05-14    Petrosianic: Probably more like 1935-1955. May-05-14    RedShield: 1917 to 1991. May-05-14    RookFile: I think Petrosianic is right on this one. It matches a comment Robert Byrne made one time. He noticed that Reshevsky took his game to a whole new level when he was in his 40's - most people are declining then, not Reshevsky. Jun-10-14    GumboGambit: Regardless of how Americans spell/pronounce it, his Polish surname (Rzeszewski) is very similar to Coach Ks. It is pronounced ' Zheshevski '. Jul-05-14    zanzibar: Looking at his bio in <Pan-American Chess Congress (1945)>, I see that he was living in Roxbury, MA (USA) at the time. Imagine that! See also: http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/19... (in French) where he signed a book with the location as well. Jul-05-14    zanzibar: I found refs to him being in Roxbury ~ 1942 (maybe earlier?) - 1950 <He played less as the years went by, increasingly devoting himself to his religion, classical music and his family in Spring Valley, where he had settled in 1950.> From his NYT obit: http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/07/n... Oct-13-14    sfm: <RookFile: ...a whole new level when he was in his 40's - most people are declining then, not Reshevsky.> Right, that is probably because most people would already have already developed their talent and topped. In Reshevsky there was still lots of undeveloped resources due to his absence. I hope he enjoyed being accountant, but I doubt it was better than what he would have been: world champion material. Fischer had the luck that nobody tore him away. Nov-13-14    TheFocus: I have been looking at Reshevsky's career and note that so many of his tournament and match games are missing from the database. Scandalous for such a fine player's career to be presented here. Nov-13-14    Petrosianic: Speaking of scandalous, calling Reshevsky a "Fine" player is a little impolitic too. Nov-13-14    zanzibar: <TheFocus> Really? <CG> has 1490 of his games. Here's some of the other db's I have: (Reshevsky search term) <MillBase> 1269 <Enormous> 1875 (Hyatt's db) <ICOfY> 1299 <Fritz 12> 1043 <CG> is actually doing fairly well in comparison. * * * * * PS - Does anybody know an easy way to get the number of filter games from Fritz without saving the games to a PGN and using emacs to count occurrences of Reshevsky? Ugh! Nov-13-14    TheFocus: <zanzibar> Gordon's bio has 1768 games. I don't submit games though. A biographer would have to do it. Nov-13-14    zanzibar: Ha. Well, I think Enormous must have most of them... and I am aware that it has duplicate entries. I've been working on software to compare two data sets and cull out non-overlaps. Might be a good acid test. Any glaring omissions thought? Like a favorite you think unforgivable not to have in the collection? Nov-13-14    TheFocus: Not searched far enough yet. Nov-17-14    thegoodanarchist: <sfm: ... Fischer had the luck that nobody tore him away.> Well, it wasn't luck, it was Fischer himself. For example, he cut his mother out of his life for a while so he could focus (even more) on chess. Feb-24-15    MissScarlett: Dale A Brandreth in <QCH>, Spring 1/1999: <As an example, I was very impressed by the account of Alekhine's visit to Hungary in 1927 on the eve of his titanic struggle with Capablanca. His games in the Kecskemet (1927) tournament are given together with a detailed report of the games he played in three simultaneous exhibitions in Budapest and Szenta. Hungary's chess fans idolized Alekhine. Alekhine sought to achieve a good score, but he also strove to give an impressive display of his mastery by the quality of his play. When I think of the contrast of Alekhine's scintillating performances there and a super-efficient but dull simul (against weaker players) by Reshevsky in the 1980's which I saw in West Chester, Pennsylvania (+25, 0, 0), it is easy to understand why there are so many books devoted to Alekhine and so few to Reshevsky. In fact, after the West Chester performance the consensus was that he would not be invited back, principally because of his dead-fish personality, unfriendly disposition, and total lack of any attempt to entertain.> Apr-18-15    Jim Bartle: Does Reshevsky have a Morphy number of 2? Apr-18-15    tamar: What would it be-Morphy-Bird-Janowski-Reshevsky? Apr-18-15    Phony Benoni: <JB> Doubtful. Morphy stopped playing about 60 years before Reshevsky showed up, so any mutual opponent would have been at least 80 years old. Not impossible, but one doesn't seem to have been unearthed as yet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphy... Apr-18-15    Jim Bartle: I'm trying to figure who's the youngest player with a Morphy number of 3, or of 4, and I figured it would likely go through Reshevsky. The youngest to play Reshevsky I found was Alex Sherzer, born 1971, but I didn't check every player. Apr-18-15    tamar: NN played both Morphy and Reshevsky... Apr-18-15    Jim Bartle: I thought of that! Apr-18-15    offramp: Bobby Fischer invented a kind of electronic nicotine-delivery system which he hoped would replace pipes and cigarettes. Reshevsky is using one in the picture at the top of this page. Apr-18-15    offramp: <Jim Bartle: I'm trying to figure who's the youngest player with a Morphy number of 3, or of 4, and I figured it would likely go through Reshevsky. The youngest to play Reshevsky I found was Alex Sherzer, born 1971, but I didn't check every player.> The person to ask, the expert on <Morphy Numbers>, is User: fsr. Two names that are worth remembering are Harriet Worrall (Walter Frere / Harriet Worrall although she is underrepresented at cg.com) and the great James Mortimer. Apr-18-15    perfidious: Hmmmm....I still have a Morphy number of 4 (Benko and Bisguier)..... Apr-18-15    MagnusVerMagnus: If Sammy was born this century he could have been an all time great IMHO. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 65) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 56 OF 65 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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