In the winter of 1936/1937, Newell Williams Banks toured the Southern United States, giving checkers and chess exhibitions, before reaching Los Angeles. That's where Herman Steiner, was living and promoting chess, and a match was arranged. A little extra publicity for their respective purposes certainly did no harm.

The <Los Angles Times>, to which Steiner contributed a weekly column, reported on February 20, 1937:

Chess Experts Play Today

Ten-Game Match to Be Started Here by Cahmpions

"At 2 p.m. today, two internationally known chess players will face each other across a board at the Los Angeles Chess and Checkers Club, 810 West Sixth street, to begin the first game of a ten-game individual match which is open to the public.

FRIENDLY ENEMIES

The friendly rivals will be Newell W. Banks of Detroit, who in addition to being a chess expert is blindfold checkers champion of the world, and herman Steiner, chess editor of the Times, Pacific Coast champion, and member of the American Olympic chess team which won the world's championship three consecutive times.

"Each game in the match will to borth moves during a two-hour period for each player. Referees will be E. P. Elliott, secretary-manager of the club, and Dr. R. b. Griffith, former Southern California chess champion.

EXHIBTION GAMES

"While in Los Angeles, Banks, who held the American match checkers championship for twenty-four consecutive years, and has been giving exhibitions over a thirty-three year period, plans to appear in a series of local exhibitions.

"In his theater appearances he plays simultaneous checkers and chess games, together with blindfold checkers."

(As an aside: E. P . Elliott was indeed Edward Elliott, winter of the Western Chess Association tournaments of 1908 and 1912. Several of the "Good Ol' Boys from Excelsior" had settled in the Los Angeles area around this time, including Edward Friederich Schrader (1905 winner) and John Winter.)

Steiner was certainly one of the top players in the country, thought his move to California following the Pasadena 1932 tournament had limited his chances for strong practice. Even so, what chance did Banks have?

Probably not much of one. He had played in at least three national level tournaments: Rice Memorial (1916), Game Collection: US Open 1924, Detroit = 25th Western Champ., and Game Collection: Chicago Masters Tournament, 1926, He had done relatively well at the Western tournament held in his hometown of Detroit, but poorly in the stronger events. He was capable of defeating both Marshall and Kashdan at the Chicago tournament, but in general seemed satisfy to draw with the stronger players.

A promotional article under Banks' byline appeared in Steiner's column for Sunday, February 21. The first results were not mentioned until February 28:

"The Chess and Checkers Club of Los Angeles, at 810 West Sixth street, were sponsors of a very interesting match between N. W. Banks from Detroit and the editor. So far thee games have been played. The first game was won by the editor, who took advantage of the open King Rook file, and a well posted Kt on K5. To avoid immediate loss Banks sacrificed his Rook for the Kt on his 33rd move and this enabled him to exchange the Queens but later he was not able to avoid the loss of a piece and resigned.

Herman Steiner - Newell Williams Banks (Game 1, Saturday, February 20, 1937): 1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 Nbd7 8.Qc2 0-0 9.Rd1 Ne8 10.Bg3 f5 11.a3 Nd6 12.cxd5 exd5 13.Bd3 Ne4 14.0-0 Ndf6 15.Ne5 Nh5 16.Ne2 Nhxg3 17.hxg3 Bg5 18.Nf4 Bxf4 19.gxf4 Be6 20.g3 Rf6 21.Kg2 Rc8 22.f3 Nd6 23.Rh1 Rc7 24.Rh5 b6 25.g4 fxg4 26.fxg4 Ne4 27.Bxe4 dxe4 28.Kg3 Bd5 29.b4 Qe8 30.Rdh1 Qe6 31.g5 Rf5 32.Qh2 Kh7 33.Qh3 Rxe5 34.dxe5 Qxh3+ 35.R5xh3 c5 36.f5 Rc6 37.b5 Rc8 38.gxh6 g6 39.Rd1 Rd8 40.fxg6+ Source: Los Angeles Times, February 28, 1937. 1-0

"The second game resulted in a draw. It was an irregular QP game, and after Banks opened the QB file, the major pieces were exchanged on the same. On the 23rd move there were two Knights and seve Pawns for Banks and a Kt and a B and seven pawns for the writer. After much maneuver Black gained a slight advantage but not enough to win the game. In the end each was left with a Kt and three pawns. After 68 moves it was called a draw.

Newell Williams Banks - Herman Steiner ((Game 2, played between February 20 and February 28, 1937): 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 c6 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nbd7 5.e3 g6 6.cxd5 cxd5 7.Qb3 e6 8.Bd3 a6 9.Bd2 Bd6 10.Rc1 0-0 11.0-0 b5 12.a3 Bb7 13.Ne2 Ne4 14.Bb4 Nb6 15.Bxd6 Qxd6 16.Bxe4 dxe4 17.Nd2 Rac8 18.Rxc8 Rxc8 19.Rc1 Rxc1+ 20.Nxc1 Qc7 21.Ne2 Bd5 22.Qc3 Qxc3 23.Nxc3 f5 24.b3 Kf7 25.Kf1 Ke7 26.Ke2 Kd6 27.Kd1 g5 28.Kc2 Bc6 29.Kb2 Nd7 30.Kc2 Nf6 31.h3 e5 32.dxe5+ Kxe5 33.Kd1 Nd7 34.Ke2 Nc5 35.b4 Nb7 36.Nb3 Bd5 37.Nxd5 Kxd5 38.Kd2 f4 39.Kc3 Nd6 40.Nd2 h5 41.g3 fxg3 42.fxg3 Nf5 43.Nf1 h4 44.gxh4 gxh4 45.Kc2 Ng3 46.Nh2 Kc4 47.Ng4 Nf5 48.Ne5+ Kd5 49.Ng4 Nd6 50.Kb3 Nc4 51.a4 Nd2+ 52.Kc2 Nf3 53.axb5 axb5 54.Kc3 Ng1 55.Nf2 Ke5 56.Ng4+ Kf5 57.Nf2 Ne2+ 58.Kd2 Ng1 59.Kc3 Ke5 60.Ng4+ Kd5 61.Nf2 Ne2+ 62.Kd2 Ng3 63.Kc3 Ne2+ 64.Kb3 Ke5 65.Kc2 Ng1 66.Kd2 Nf3+ 67.Kc3 Ng5 68.Ng4+ Source: Los Angeles Times, February 28, 1937. 1/2-1/2

"The third game was won by the writer again. It started the same as the first up to the eighth move, where Banks tried to change his idea by moving Kt to KR4., thereby allowing White to advance KRP which later came in handy to open the KR file. This strategy called for castling on the Queen's side , which brought in the R on the KKt file and made short order of Black's K side. There followed a Q sacrifice on White's 20th move which netter a B, causing Black to resign on the 24th move."

Herman Steiner - Newell Williams Banks((Game 3, played between February 20 and February 28, 1937): 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Nf3 0-0 7.a3 c6 8.Qc2 Nh5 9.h4 f5 10.Bd3 Ndf6 11.Ne5 Bd7 12.0-0-0 Rb8 13.Rdg1 Be8 14.g4 fxg4 15.Nxg4 g6 16.Bh6 Ng7 17.Nxf6+ Rxf6 18.h5 Nf5 19.Bf4 Nxd4 20.hxg6 Bxg6 21.exd4 Rxf4 22.Bxg6 Bg5 23.Bxh7+ Kf8 24.Qg6 SourceL Los Angeles Times, February 28, 1937. 1-0

at some point, for reasons not explained in the Times, a decision was made to shorten the match to six game. This mean Steiner needed only one more point to win, and he wasted no time in getting it as described in his column of March 7:

"The fourth and the final game in the projected six-game match was played Monday, March 1, in the Pasadena Club at the Hotel Green. The plaeyrs were enthusiastically received, and after an introductory speech by Dr. Sawyer and A. F. Taylor, the contested resumed play. The game proceeded along the usual line of the Nimzowitch Defense to the Queen's Pawn Opening. White's fourth move was weak in allowing doubling of his Queen's Bishop pawn. On his thirteenth move he made a fatal blunder which resulted in lost sic of a rook and the game.

Newell Williams Banks - Herman Steiner ((Game 4, played Monday, March 1 1937): 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 b6 6.Nf3 Bb7 7.e3 0-0 8.Bd3 c5 9.0-0 Nc6 10.Bb2 Rc8 11.Re1 Na5 12.Rc1 Ne4 13.Nd2 Nxd2 14.Qxd2 Nb3 15.Bxh7+ Kh8 16.Qc2 Nxc1 17.Bxc1 f5 18.e4 Kxh7 19.exf5 exf5 20.d5 Qh4 21.Re5 g6 22.Qe2 Rf7 23.g3 Qf6 24.h4 Ba6 25.Bg5 Bxc4 26.Qe3 Qg7 27.f4 d6 28.Re6 Bxd5 29.Rxd6 Rd7 30.Bf6 Qf7 31.Rxd7 Qxd7 32.Qe2 Re8 33.Be5 Be4 Source: Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1937. 0-1

                      1 2 3 4
Herman Steiner        1 = 1 1 3.5
Newell Williams Banks 0 = 0 0 0.5

Steiner had White in the odd-numbered games.

Source
"Los Angeles Times", February 20, 21, 27, March 1, 1937