BCM - QUOTES AND QUERIES by Ken Whyld:

No. 5595 - In The Holocaust by Martin Gilbert, p. 161, David Picken found an ac­count of the treatment of Jews in Bialystok in June 1941. Some were herded into a syna­ gogue, which was set on fire, and burnt to death. Amongst them was Zabludowski 'a celebrated chess player'. David adds 'I have never heard of him, who was he?'

Somebody said that there are no difficult questions, only difficult answers. There was a J. Zabludowski who played in the 1st Baltic tournament at Riga, 1899. This is the first game in 'Reshevsky on Chess'.

The Polish ches historian, Tomasz Lissowski, comments 'The summer 1941 was a terrible time in northern parts of Po­land, in many places Jews were massacred. It is a job for profesional historians to state if those cruel acts were (at all) stimulated by Gestapo/SS, and if so, to what degree.

The history of chess in Bialystok is hardly known. That part of the country produced several stars: Rosenthal (Suwalki), Janowski (Wolkowysk), Rubinstein (Stawiski), Perlis (Bialystok). The name Zabludowski was not common, but its formation was popular among Polish Jews - Zabludowski - a man from Zabludow - a small town 40 km from Bialystok. Nobody can say, with full scien­ tific impartiality, if the man mentioned by Gilbert, the opponent of Reshevsky, and the player at Riga 1899 were the same person.'

The game played on a 20 board simul at the Kerkaupalast, Reshevsky scored +16 =4, his opponent was J Zabludowski

Source: http://szachowavistula.pl/vistula/r...

Henryk Konaszczuk about the young Reshevsky:

'What was the secret of his incredible talent? At the age of seven he was subjected to a series of psychological tests. The Swiss psychologists studied him quite thoroughly. With the recognition of photographs with different animals (lions, monkeys, tigers, camels) his results were simply mediocre - he had no formal education at all. With other sets of tests, when he was tested for his ability for abstract thinking, Reshevsky solved problems that most adults would have some difficulty with. When his memory was tested, the results were fantastic. He was given a sheet of paper on which 40 figures were drawn, and allowed to look at them for 4 minutes, after which he was taken away. Reshevsky was able to correctly recall the figures from memory. Reshevsky's successes in Polish clubs have prompted his parents to think that the boy's talent could make a difference. From this moment begins a great journey of small Shmulka in the larger cities of Europe and USA.

Simultaneous, blind showings, social parties with masters. In 1919 he visited Vienna and at the same time met the members of the Viennese chess club, winning the majority of the party. He played the party on normal conditions with Vidmar himself. He lost, but the level of his game showed that he already played with the strength of the master. His simultaneous diplay in Berlin (Kerkaupalast, + 16 = 4) in 1920 caused both flattering and critical comments.'

(translation by google)