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Samuel Reshevsky

SAMUEL RESHEVSKY (born Nov-26-1911, died Apr-04-1992, 80 years old) Poland (federation/nationality United States of America) [what is this?] Samuel Herman Reshevsky (Szmul Rzeszewski) was born in Ozorkow, Poland. He learned to play chess at the age of four. At eight years old he was giving simultaneous exhibitions and defeating some of the country's most prominent players. Following the events of World War 1, Reshevsky immigrated to the United States (1920). As a 9-year-old, his first American simultaneous exhibition was with 20 officers and cadets at the Military Academy at West Point. He won 19 games and drew one. He toured the country and played over 1,500 games as a 9-year old in simultaneous exhibitions and only lost 8 games. In his early years he did not go to school and his parents ended up in Manhattan Children's Court on charges of improper guardianship. His benefactor was Julius Rosenwald, founder of Sears & Roebuck, who agreed to provide for Reshevsky's future if he devoted himself to completing his education. Reshevsky then largely abandoned chess for 10 years to pursue a vocation as an accountant, receiving an accounting degree from the University of Chicago in 1933 which he put to use in New York City. After obtaining his college degree, he devoted himself to tournament chess. Several subsequent successes in international events led to his invitations to both AVRO 1938 and the World Championship Tournament ten years later. Between 1936 and 1942, he had a streak of 75 games without a loss in U.S. Championship competition. He won the US Open in 1931, 1934 (tied with Reuben Fine), 1944, and 1955 (on tiebreak over Nicolas Rossolimo). Pan-American Champion at Hollywood 1945. He played in 21 U.S. Championships, from 1936 to 1981. Over the course of a long international career that continued until he was almost 80, he qualified for the Candidates five times. He won the U.S. Championship eight times (1936, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1946, and 1969), a record he shares with Bobby Fischer. He tied for first in 1972 but lost the playoff in 1973 to Robert Byrne. He played 11 World Champions, from Emanuel Lasker to Anatoly Karpov. He won matches against several notable Western players, including Svetozar Gligoric, Miguel Najdorf and Robert James Fischer (after Fischer was forfeited while the match was tied). However, he was never able to secure the right to a World Championship match. In 1981, at the age of 70, he tied for 3rd place in the U.S. Championship. In 1984, at the age of 72, he took first place in the powerful Reykjavik Open, which featured many grandmasters. (1) Wikipedia article: Samuel Reshevsky; (1) http://www.365chess.com/tournaments... Last updated: 2023-12-31 22:30:50

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page 1 of 66; games 1-25 of 1,634  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Reshevsky vs Rubinstein 0-1 24 1917 Blindfold game C50 Giuoco Piano 2. Reshevsky vs S Factor 0-1 26 1917 Lodz C22 Center Game 3. C Jaffe vs Reshevsky 0-1 17 1920 New York blindfold C30 King's Gambit Declined 4. Reshevsky vs Traube 1-0 17 1920 Hanover A02 Bird's Opening 5. Reshevsky vs R Griffith 1-0 30 1920 Blindfold game C67 Ruy Lopez 6. Reshevsky vs J Zabludowski 1-0 29 1920 Simul, 20b C62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense 7. Reshevsky vs K Romeikat   ½-½ 38 1920 Berlin (simul) B01 Scandinavian 8. Reshevsky vs L von Dory 1-0 16 1920 Simul C35 King's Gambit Accepted, Cunningham 9. Reshevsky vs Saemisch 0-1 38 1920 Berlin E50 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3 O-O 5.Nf3, without ...d5 10. P Krueger vs Reshevsky ½-½ 39 1920 Blindfold game C48 Four Knights 11. Reshevsky vs Euwe 0-1 15 1920 Simul, 20b C83 Ruy Lopez, Open 12. Reshevsky vs M Gency 1-0 37 1920 Simul, 20b C30 King's Gambit Declined 13. Reshevsky vs M Herzfeld 1-0 52 1920 Simul, 20b C66 Ruy Lopez 14. Reshevsky vs L Schwarz 1-0 65 1920 Simul, 20b C00 French Defense 15. Reshevsky vs G W Beaumont 1-0 30 1920 Simul, 15b C34 King's Gambit Accepted 16. Reshevsky vs M J Clurman ½-½ 23 1920 Simul, 20b B15 Caro-Kann 17. Reshevsky vs A Simchow   0-1 34 1920 Simul, 20b D05 Queen's Pawn Game 18. Reshevsky vs F Knoller 1-0 40 1920 Simul, 20b C79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred 19. Reshevsky vs S Katz ½-½ 29 1920 Simul, 20b B21 Sicilian, 2.f4 and 2.d4 20. Reshevsky vs L S Stillman 1-0 20 1920 Simul, 20b B21 Sicilian, 2.f4 and 2.d4 21. M A Schapiro vs Reshevsky 0-1 40 1920 Exhibition game C14 French, Classical 22. Reshevsky vs E B Hilliard 1-0 27 1920 Blindfold game C30 King's Gambit Declined 23. Reshevsky vs J H Longacre ½-½ 25 1921 Simul, 20b C68 Ruy Lopez, Exchange 24. Reshevsky vs S Sharp ½-½ 27 1921 Simul, 20b C31 King's Gambit Declined, Falkbeer Counter Gambit 25. Reshevsky vs A Beckman 1-0 20 1921 Simul, 20b D46 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav  page 1 of 66; games 1-25 of 1,634

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 46 OF 65 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jun-18-10    HeMateMe: Sammy was a Chicago boy, early days. Maybe he was the bookkeeper for Al Capone? Did Reshevsky ever play in any Senior tournaments? Jun-19-10    Petrosianic: Don't think so, but he didn't need to. He won the US Championship twice in his 60's. Jun-19-10    HeMateMe: Yeah, he wasn't really 'old', didn't have to play the old guys. Same with Korchnoi, I guess. Jul-31-10    GrahamClayton: 1921 photo: http://memory.loc.gov/ndlpcoop/ichi... Sep-29-10    Phony Benoni: In <Chess Results> 1936-1940 by Gino Di Felice, p. 68, this match is mentioned: USA - 1936 Vidmar sr., Milan +3 -2 =1 Reshevsky, Samuel Herman No source is given, though I imagine that if such a match took place <Chess Review> would have covered it. But I certainly never heard of this match before. Does anybody have more information? Sep-29-10    TheFocus: I recently got the book on Reshevsky by Gordon, and I must say that I was very disappointed. Although Reshevsky annotated a lot of his games, the author included very few of them. This book could have been much better. A true flop. I am not a fan of Reshevsky, but he deserved a better book than this. Oct-01-10    GrahamClayton: 1919 photo of Reshevsky: http://www.peterspioneers.com/Reshe... Nov-21-10    AnalyzeThis: <"Fischer was very unobjective about such things, and that was back in the days when he liked the US."> If that's the case, chessmetrics was unobjective too, when they listed Reshevsky as the #1 player in the world numerous times during this same time period. Botvinnik was working hard at being an engineer at various times during this interval, it's perfectly reasonable to think that a Reshevsky in practice beats a Botvinnik out of practice. By the way, Reshevsky and Botvinnik did play a 4 game set-to in 1955, which Reshevsky won. Dec-01-10    GrahamClayton: Excellent article (in French) of Reshevsky's visit to Paris in 1920: http://heritageechecsfra.free.fr/19... Mar-08-11    drik: I've just been speaking with someone who claims to have met Reshevsky & some of his opponents in tournaments in the sixties. He made a controversial statement & I was wondering if anyone had heard the rumour. The claim is that Reshevsky was actually older than his official age, & that his parents used this (& his small stature)to make his feats as a prodigy even more marketable. Furthermore he said that the reason Reshevsky disappeared from chess at the age of '11' was that he had already reached puberty and his managers feared censure for lying about his age. Incidentally, good nutrition means that puberty is not unheard of in 11 year old boys today - but it would have been very unusual in the first quarter of the 20th century. Mar-08-11    TheFocus: <drik>< I've just been speaking with someone who claims to have met Reshevsky & some of his opponents in tournaments in the sixties. He made a controversial statement & I was wondering if anyone had heard the rumour. The claim is that Reshevsky was actually older than his official age, & that his parents used this (& his small stature)to make his feats as a prodigy even more marketable.> This is not a rumor. Reshevsky was actually two years older than was originally claimed when he arrived in America. The only reason that I know of for Reshevsky leaving chess was that his wealthy benefactor requested that Sammy concentrate on his education. Mar-09-11    drik: <TheFocus: This is not a rumor. Reshevsky was actually two years older than was originally claimed when he arrived in America.> Thanks for the response. I got into that conversation as a result of stating that Reshevsky's results as 7-10 year old were decisively better than any prodigy in chess history. He just laughed and said that Reshevsky was already a teenager in 1922. This now makes sense & makes Reshevsky's performances as a prodigy comparable to Capablanca's, rather than outclassing them. Is there a website with proof of this? Mar-09-11    TheFocus: Here is an interesting article about Sammy and the Rebbe Schneerson, of Chabad. http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/arti... Mar-19-11    Tigranny: Why is the Swindle Of The Century game thought as one of Reshevsky's best games? It was only a good game by Larry Evans. Mar-19-11    BobCrisp: <Why is the Swindle Of The Century game thought as one of Reshevsky's best games?> It isn't. See Chessgames Help Mar-19-11    Tigranny: Sorry BobCrisp. I just saw it in Notable Games. Mar-19-11    BobCrisp: You are forgiven. May-21-11    jessicafischerqueen: Live film footage of the USA vs. RUSSIA match held in Moscow, 1946. Included are <Mikhail Botvinnik>, <Vassily Smslov>, <Samuel Reshevsky>, <Arnold Denker>, and <Arthur Dake>: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZrl... May-25-11    wordfunph: Samuel Reshevsky by Stephen Gordon, grab your copies now.. http://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Reshev... May-29-11    ketchuplover: "Sammy attacked with such ferocity that the far larger Najdorf turned and ran for his life" -Pal Benko on a fistfight-from Benko's autobiography Jun-27-11    Caissanist: Regarding Reshevsky's age--I do remember reading in one of Andy Soltis' old columns that Reshevsky began telling people towards the end of his life that he was in fact born in 1909, rather than 1911. Edward Winter seems rather dismissive however, mentioning in passing "... pages 258-259 of Chess Explorations, which also referred to the claims seen in the 1990s, though seldom since, that Reshevsky was born not in 1911 but in 1909." http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... Jul-24-11    Phony Benoni: "That a boy!" http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%... So how heavily was this ghost written? The Janowski game referred to is Janowski vs Reshevsky, 1922, and Reshevsky's account is quite different from the traditional story which has Janowski snarkily commenting something like "This boy understands less about chess than I do about rope dancing!" Perhaps people were kind to Sammy and didn't tell him the unvarnished truth. Aug-08-11    Phony Benoni: A group shot from Kalamazoo, 1927, including Reshevsky (see #4782): http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... And another from the First Piatigorsky Cup in 1963, just below the crosstable: http://www.rookhouse.com/events/pia... Was it characteristic of Reshevsky to try to appear taller than he actually was? Aug-09-11    Antiochus: 1454 games of Reshevsky are here: http://www.gambitchess.com/antiques... Aug-10-11    Capcom: Forgive me if this is in previous kibitzing, but to bring up another Reshevsky-related rumour, is it true that he ever would as "Are you playing for a draw?", then pretend to go through the process of agreeing to the draw, while his opponent's clock was running down, and at the last moment say "I never actually asked for a draw." Im not trying to accuse him, but this is something I've heard. Jump to page #    (enter # from 1 to 65) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 46 OF 65 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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