Frank
James Marshall
U.S. Champion, 1909-1936
(August 10, 1877-November 9, 1944)
Marshall
was 47 years old in 1924 and at the height of his powers.
At the major New York International Tournament in the
Spring of 1924, he finished a solid fourth, behind only
the three world champion contenders of the period: Em.
Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine. He had also successfully
defended his long-held U.S. title the year before against
Edward Lasker, who finished much lower among the field
at the New York International. There is no question, then,
that he was the best American player of his time and among
the strongest players in the world. An indication of his
energy and love of the game is the fact that, while competing
in the Dimock tourney, he gave a 26 board simultaneous
exhibition at the Brooklyn Institute on Saturday, October
25, scoring a perfect 26-0. He then returned to finish
the second half of the Dimock event, outpacing the young
Carlos Torre by a full point and a half. In 1986, Marshall
was among the first inductees into the American
Chess Hall of Fame. His excellent autobiography My
Fifty Years of Chess is, unfortunately, currently
out of print. But Andy Soltis has written a recent biography
and game collection titled Frank
Marshall, United States Chess Champion: A Biography with
220 Games. And Hans Kmoch has written a nice remembrance
of Marshall in his Grandmasters
I Have Known. You can find more information about
Marshall at my web site, The
Frank James Marshall Electronic Archive and Museum,
which features a near complete tournament and match record
and game record and collection. You can also download
a file of his games in PGN
format from the Pitt Archives.
Carlos
Torre (Repetto)
U.S. Open Champion, 1924
(November 23, 1905-March 19, 1978)
Torre
was barely 19 years old at the time of the Dimock tournament,
but he had already proven himself in several important
national events in the United States. He was working hard
at becoming a professional chess player in 1924, and he
had great success that year, winning the New York championship
in Rochester and the Western Open in Detroit (equivalent
to today's U.S. Open), defeating several Grandmasters.
Such a streak of victories in major national events would
not be duplicated again until the arrival of Bobby Fischer.
Playing in tournaments at the Marshall Chess Club in the
months between 1924 and 1925 helped Torre sustain himself
as a professional and make the connections that would
help him on the international circuit. He was especially
grateful for the friendship of Frank Marshall, who accompanied
him on his European tours. In 1925, both Marshall and
Torre played in Baden-Baden,
Moscow,
and Marienbad,
where Torre had excellent tournament performances for
such a young man. After only a short time competing he
had already made a mark upon the game, establishing a
plus score against the three competitors for the world
championship at the time: Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine.
What no one could know then, however, was that his professional
career would span only three short years....
Like
Capablanca, with whom he was naturally compared during
his rise, Torre learned chess as a young child and began
competing as a teenager. His parents emigrated from Mexico
to New Orleans when he was quite young (during a time
of few restrictions on emigration), and there, in the
home of that other great prodigy, Paul Morphy, he developed
into a master player, winning the Louisiana championship
in 1923. Four short years later, after great success in
the United States and abroad, Torre suffered a nervous
breakdown, returned to his native Mexico, and disappeared
into obscurity at the age of 22. The subject of an excellent
recent biography, The Life and Times of Carlos Torre
(see image above) by Gabriel Valasco, Torre remains
one of the mysterious "lost talents" of chess.
Valasco
helped secure the aged Torre the title of grandmaster
in 1977 (only a year before his death) based on his excellent
results during the years 1924-1926. Torre thus became
Mexico's first Grandmaster, and he remains one of its
best and most fondly remembered. There is even a memorial
tournament in his name. But we must all wonder what
great success he might have had if he had been able to
compete during the last half century of his life.
Torre's performance at the Dimock event demonstrates
his talent and shows him at his speculative best. His
game as White against Satasiere is arguably the most
exciting of the tournament and it continues to be an important
game in terms of the theory of the Urusov Gambit. You
can download a file with some of his best games from the
Pitt Archives in PGN
format.
Anthony
Edward Santasiere
(December 9, 1904-January 13, 1977)
A
well known participant in New York tournaments of the
20s through the 60s, Santasiere became something of an
opening theorist and authored several books, including
monographs on the King's Gambit and Vienna Game. Later
in his life he played 1.b4 (or 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.b4) almost
exclusively as White, leading some to call the opening
"Santasiere's Folly" (though "the Orangutan"
has proven more popular). Santasiere was New York State
Champion in 1928, 1930, 1946, and 1956, and U.S. Open
Champion in 1945. He played some very good games, including
his pretty queen
sacrifice against E.B. Adams. You can download 150
of his games in PGN format (compiled by Dave Oppedal)
from the Pitt Archives. Santasiere's books on the King's
Gambit (The Romantic King's Gambit - still in print)
and on Tchigorin (My Love Affair with Tchigorin)
show that he remained a true romantic in his approach
to the game. It is therefore quite fitting that he would
play in a theme tournament to test the romantic Urusov
Gambit.
Erling
Tholfsen
Marshall Chess Club Champion,
1924
(January 12, 1904-December 6, 1996)
Tholfsen
was the reigning Marshall Chess Club champion at the time
of the Dimock event, but he is perhaps best remembered
today for his famous statement: "Do whatever you
can to discourage him, Mrs. Fischer." He was playing
captain of the U.S. Olympiad chess team in 1928 at The
Hague, where he played fourth board and held his own with
4 wins, 5 draws, and 4 losses. He also finished very well
at several New York tournaments during the 20s and 30s.
In his old age, Tholfsen remained a fixture of the New
York chess scene, though he had given up playing competitively
after the 1930s. According to an obituary by Jason Luchan,
Tholfsen worked as a Spanish teacher in the New York City
public schools and was very active in the labor movement
for most of his life. His most memorable game was his
win over Arnold Denker in the U.S. Championship tournament
of 1934 (see Tholfsen-Denker,
Syracuse 1934).
Rudolph
Smirka
New York State Champion, 1923
and 1927
(February 12, 1887-?)
The
year before the tournament, Rudolph Smirka had won the
New York State Championship, a feat he would repeat in
1927. By special arrangment he was allowed to play his
games on the weekends, likely due to his work schedule
during the weekdays.
Horace
Ransom Bigelow
Oxford University Champion
(March 6, 1898-April 18, 1980)
Horace
Ransom Bigelow was described by The New York Times
of 1924 as "the Oxford University star." Whatever
his successes in college, however, he is best remembered
today for his occasional columns in the American Chess
Bulletin and for his introduction to Richard Reti's
posthumous book Masters of the Chessboard (available
from Dover Books). Few of his games from the Dimock event
have survived, though he is described by Hermann Helms
as playing "the most spectacular chess in this tournament,"
often sacrificing (or losing?) material early in the game
only to fight back valiantly through wild complications.
Bruno
Forsberg
(August 26, 1892 - February 10, 1961)
Forsberg
was a frequent competitor in New York area tournaments,
and he finished fifth in the New York State Championship
of 1930. Near the end of the Dimock tournament, he withdrew
due to illness, forfeiting three games against Torre,
Santasiere, and Tholfsen which were recorded as wins for
those players.
Harold
Edwin Dimock
(May 8, 1884 - April 1,
1967)
Dimock,
of New London, Connecticut, was a prominent chess philanthropist
of the 1920s and donated the prizes for the event. He
and other members of the Marshall Chess Club sponsored
several theme tourneys during this period, including one
on the Vienna, the Evans Gambit, and the wing gambit in
the Sicilian Defense.
