<37th ACF Congress
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
August 15-30, 1936>

The American Chess Federation staked its claim in the East this year, and drew a record turnout of fifty players who braved a Philadelphia heat wave to beat their brains out twice a day for two weeks. They were seeded into four preliminary sections, from which the first three qualified for the Championship, the next three for the Consolation Masters, the next three for a Class A tournament.

Even without four-time champion Reuben Fine, who was goofing around at Nottingham with fellow contender Samuel Reshevsky and some other random players, the field was quite possibly the strongest to date.

In the preliminary section only the final scores are avaialable, not full crosstables. A number of players retired from the tournament rather than play in the final sections. In particular, George Treysman qualified for the Championship from Section 3, but retired due to illness and was replaced by Milton Hanauer. And, yes, this is the tournament where Hanauer won that five move game.

Here is the original planned schedule, as printed in <Chess Review>, August 1936, p.177)>. It was not adhered to exactly for various reasons, such as the preliminary sections being of different size and thus requiring different schedules. However, the exact dates could not be determined, so this is presented as a guide to the researcher. The dates of the Championship Final are available, and are indicated where different.

Saturday, August 15th
3:00 PN Registration closes
6:00 PM Dinner
8:00 PM 1st Round, Qualifications

Sunday, August 16th
3:00 PM 2nd Round, Qualifications
8:00 PM 3rd Round, Qualifications

Monday, August 17th
8:00 PM 4th Round, Qualifications

Tuesday, August 18th
3:00 PM 5th Round, Qualifications
8:00 PM 6th Round, Qualifications

Wednesday, August 19th
8:00 PM 7th Round, Qualifications

Thursday, August 20th
3:00 PM 8th Round, Qualifications
8:00 PM 9th Round, Qualifications

Friday, August 21st
8:00 PM 10th Round, Qualifications

Saturday, August 22nd
3:00 PM Final Round, Qualifications
8:00 PM Rapid Transit Tourney

Sunday, August 23rd
10:00 AM Annual Meeting
3:00 PM 1st round Finals
8:00 PM 2nd round Finals (Championship: 8/24)

Monday, August 24th
3:00 PM 3rd round Finals
8:00 PM 4th round Finals (Championship: 8/25)

Tuesday, August 25th
8:00 PM 5th round Finals

Wednesday, August 26th
3:00 PM 6th round Finals
8:00 PM 7th round Finals (Championship: 8/27)

Thursday, August 27th
8:00 PM 8th round Finals

Friday, August 28th
8:00 PM 9th round Finals (Championship: 8/29)

Saturday, August 29th
3:00 PM 10th round Finals
8:00 PM 11th round Finals (Championship, 8/30)

Sunday, August 30th
3:00 PM Problem solving contest
8:00 PM Closing banquet--distribution of prizes

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QUALIFYING SECTIONS

Due to incomplete and sometime contradictory information, I have been able to reconstruct crosstables only for the first two sections, and even these are uncertain. Any corrections are welcomed.

Preliminary 1

                           I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2	
1  Isaac Kashdan           X 1 = = 1 = 1 1 1 1 1 1 9.5
2  Arnold Denker           0 X = 1 1 1 1 = 1 1 1 1 9.0
3  Abraham Kupchik         = = X 1 = 1 1 1 1 = 1 1 9.0
4  Fred Reinfeld           = 0 0 X 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8.5
5  Harry R Morris          0 0 = 0 X = = 1 1 1 1 1 6.5
6  Nathan Grossman         = 0 0 0 = X 0 1 1 1 1 1 6.0
7  Arpad Elo               0 0 0 0 = 1 X = = 1 = 1 5.0
8  Ira C Isenberg          0 = 0 0 0 0 = X 1 1 1 = 4.5 
9  Kirk DHolland           0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 X = 1 1 3.0 
10 E Raymond Glover        0 0 = 0 0 0 0 0 = X = 1 2.5
11 Edward S Jackson        0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 = X 1 2.0
12 Irving Rivise           0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 0 X 0.5

Preliminary Section 2

1  Arthur William Dake     10.0
2  Maurice Fox              9.0
3  Sidney Norman Bernstein  8.0
4  Leon Stolzenberg         7.5
5  S S Cohen                7.0
6  Adolph Regen             6.0
7  Harry Kline              5.5
8  Walter Bradford Suesman  5.5
9  Redpath Drummond         3.5
10 Lyman B Cook             2.0
11 Edmund Nash              2.0
12 Theodore Barron          0.0

Preliminary Section 3

1  David S Polland         10.0
2  Donald Henry Mugridge    9.5
3  George Nelson Treysman   9.5
4  Milton Loeb Hanauer      9.0
5  Robert Willman           8.0
6  Martin Charles Stark     6.0
7  Barnie Winkelman         6.0
8  Attilo Di Camillo        4.5
9  Stasch Mlotkowski        4.5
10 M M Leysens              3.5
11 H D Bolden               3.0
12 George John Weimar       3.0
13 Frederick Baldwin Arnold 1.5

Preliminary Section 4

1  Israel Albert Horowitz 10.0
2  Harold Morton           9.5
3  Anthony Santasiere      9.5
4  Charles Jaffe           9.0
5  Jack Levin              8.5
6  David G Weiner          6.5
7  Walter Patrick McHale   5.0
8  Mark Surgies            5.0
9  J Wilkinson             5.0
10 Henry M Woods           4.0
11 N S Janke               3.0
12 Byron B Price           1.5
13 Ervin Teplinsky         1.5

Championship Final

This turned into an exciting three-way race. Horowitz and Denker took the lead early, with Dake at their heels the whole way. Horowitz finally took sole possession of first place after round 7. However, Dake defeated Horowitz in round 8 and tied Denker for first. Denker then promptly lost to Horowitz in round 9, and the latter remained tied with Dake going into the last round.

The last round dawned with Horowitz and Dake a half-point ahead of Denker. The leaders were paired with two outsiders in Hanauer and Mugridge, while Denker had a much harder task against Kupchik. Not surprisingly, Denker - Kupchik was drawn. More surprisingly, so was Horowitz - Hanauer. Most surprisingly, Dake suffered his first defeat at the hands of Mugridge, and Horowitz walked away with the title.

                           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
1  Israel Albert Horowitz  * 0 1 = 1 1 1 1 = = = 1 8.0
2  Arthur William Dake     1 * = = = 1 0 1 = 1 1 = 7.5
3  Arnold Denker           0 = * = = = 1 1 1 = 1 1 7.5
4  Abraham Kupchik         = = = * 0 = 1 = 1 1 = 1 7.0
5  Isaac Kashdan           0 = = 1 * 0 = 1 = 1 1 1 7.0
6  David S Polland         0 0 = = 1 * 1 0 1 = 1 1 6.5
7  Donald Henry Mugridge   0 1 0 0 = 0 * 1 = 1 = 0 4.5
8  Anthony Santasiere      0 0 0 = 0 1 0 * = 1 = 1 4.5
9 Harold Morton            = = 0 0 = 0 = = * = = 0 3.5
10 Maurice Fox             = 0 = 0 0 = 0 0 = * = 1 3.5
11 Milton Loeb Hanauer     = 0 0 = 0 0 = = = = * = 3.5
12 Sidney Norman Bernstein 0 = 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 = * 3.0

               1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11
1  Horowitz   1.0 2.0 2.5 3.5 4.0 5.0 6.0 6.0 7.0 7.5 8.0
2  Dake       0.5 1.5 2.0 3.0 3.5 4.5 5.5 6.5 7.0 7.5 7.5
3  Denker     1.0 2.0 2.5 3.5 4.0 5.0 5.5 6.5 6.5 7.0 7.5
4  Kashdan    1.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.0 5.0 5.5 6.0 7.0
5  Kupchik    1.0 1.5 2.0 2.0 2.5 3.5 4.5 5.0 6.0 6.5 7.0
6  Polland    1.0 1.0 1.5 2.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 4.5 5.5 6.5 6.5
7  Mugridge   0.0 1.0 1.5 1.5 2.0 2.0 3.0 3.5 3.5 3.5 4.5
8  Santasiere 0.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.5 1.5 1.5 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.5
9  Morton     0.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 2.5 3.0 3.5 3.5 3.5
10 Fox        0.0 0.0 0.5 1.0 2.0 2.0 2.5 2.5 3.0 3.5 3.5
12 Hanauer    0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 1.5 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
12 Bernstein  0.0 0.0 0.5 0.5 0.5 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 3.0

Consolation Tournament

1  Robert Willman         X = 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 = 1 1 9.0
2  Jack Levin             = X = = 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8.5
3  Adolph Regen           0 = X = 1 1 = 1 1 1 1 1 8.5
4  Harry R Morris         0 = = X = = = 1 1 = 1 1 7.0
5  David G Weiner         0 1 0 = X = = 1 1 = = 1 6.5
6  Barnie Winkelman       1 0 0 = = X 0 0 = 1 1 1 5.5
7  Mark Surgies           0 0 = = = 1 X = = = = = 5.0
8  Martin Charles Stark   0 0 0 0 0 1 = X = 1 = 1 4.5
9  Arpad Elo              0 0 0 0 0 = = = X = 1 = 3.5
10 Walter Patrick McHale  = 0 0 = = 0 = 0 = X = = 3.5
11 Walter B Suesman       0 0 0 0 = 0 = = 0 = X = 2.5
12 Ira C Isenberg         0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 = = = X 2.0

Class A Tournament

1  Stasch Mlotkowski  10.5
2  George John Weimar 10.5
3  Attilo Di Camillo   9.5
4  Redpath Drummond    9.5
5  Edmund Nash         9.5
6  H D Bolden          7.5
7  Henry M Woods       7.0
8  Edward S Jackson    6.5
9  E Raymond Glover    4.5
10 Irving Rivise       4.5
11 N S Janke           4.0
12 Byron B Price       4.0
13 Lyman B Cook        2.0
14 Ervin Teplinsky     1.5

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Al Horowitz, with prop: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JswhPQyNq...

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Sources:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 20, 1936.

Chess Results 1936-1940 / Gino di Felice, p.50-52.

Chess Review, September 1936, p.206-210; October 1936, p.240-241;

New York times, daily reports, August 16-31.

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Thanks for <Zanzibar. for information helpful in the assembling of this collection.

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NEXT: Game Collection: US Open 1937, Chicago = 38th ACF Congress

SEE ALSO: Game Collection: US Open Tournament Index

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