Karpova: From Hans Ree's "The Great Davidson", April 1998: http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hans2...Excerpt:
<Most of this I learned from an interview that Jacques Davidson gave in
1962 to the Dutch newspaper 'Het Parool.' The title that journalist Willem Witkamp gave to his wonderful article was 'The Great Davidson.' This
was somewhat ironic, because Davidson was a strong chessplayer, an
international master, but he was not what most people would call a great
chessplayer. But it was not completely ironic. Davidson was the first
Dutchman who succeeded in being a professional chessplayer, and that in
a time when only the very best of the world could live on chess.Sometimes Davidson had to take little jobs on the side. For a while he
was a traveling salesman for a publisher of encyclopedias. But to the end of his life, he was above all a professional chessplayer. And because of this, in a sense he was really a great man.
Around 1920 he was one of the strongest Dutch chessplayers, but not
much notice was taken because Euwe was so much stronger. Davidson played in tournaments, the strongest being that in Semmering, 1926. But most of his income came from simultaneous displays, lectures, newspaper articles and the selling of chess books, often going from door to door. The income was small. In the interview mentioned he said: "Nevertheless I have raised four children decently. You shouldn?t do that. Raise children, yes. But not from chess.">
<Davidson died in 1969, 78 years old. On his gravestone there is a chess
problem, white to play and mate in one. His life was ten times harder than
we modern Dutch professionals have it now, but he managed gracefully.
The game that follows is from a quadrangular tournament in Amsterdam,
1925. The result was 1. Davidson, 3; 2. Euwe, 2; 3-4 Saemisch and Weenink, ½. I am not sure, but this might be the one that should have won the brilliancy prize.>
