The chess games of Albert Simonson

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Albert Simonson

A Simonson

1933 Folkestone Chess Ol. Dake, Mrs.Kashdan, Kashdan, Simonson, Marshall and Fine.

Number of games in database: 87
Years covered: 1932 to 1951

Overall record: +32 -31 =24 (50.6%)*
* Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games in the database.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS

With the White pieces:

English (8)
    A14 A13 A15
Semi-Slav (5)
    D45 D46 D47
Reti System (4)
    A04 A06

With the Black pieces:

Queen's Gambit Declined (7)
    D31 D37 D35
Slav (6)
    D15 D13 D10 D18 D11
French Defense (4)
    C18 C14 C11 C17

Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   W Adams vs A Simonson, 1940 0-1
   A Simonson vs S Bernstein, 1936 1-0
   H Morton vs A Simonson, 1936 0-1
   A Simonson vs Kashdan, 1935 1/2-1/2
   Kashdan vs A Simonson, 1938 1/2-1/2
   L Abramavicius vs A Simonson, 1933 0-1

NOTABLE TOURNAMENTS: [what is this?]
   US Championship (1936)
   United States Championship (1940)
   Folkestone Olympiad (1933)

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   1936 US Championship by crawfb5
   1938 US Championship by crawfb5

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ALBERT SIMONSON
(born Dec-26-1914, died Nov-16-1965, 50 years old) United States of America

[what is this?]

Simonson was born into a wealthy family. His father Leo was a successful wigmaker to the Manhattan rich and the theatre and movie businesses. His mother Irene was from the family that owned the Illinois Watch Case Co. in Elgin, Illinois.

He was one of the strongest American players of the 1930s, and was part of the American team which won the gold medals at the 1933 Chess Olympiad. Simonson was certainly at least of International Master strength, based on his limited playing career. Simonson showed precocious skill with chess, soon after learning the game. At New York 1933, he scored 7/10 to tie for 2nd-3rd places, behind only winner Reuben Fine. This earned him selection to the United States chess Olympiad team at age 18. In the Olympiad, at Folkestone 1933, he played on the first reserve board and scored 3/6, as the Americans won the team gold medals. Simonson's teammates were Fine, Isaac Kashdan, Arthur William Dake, and Frank Marshall, who all eventually became Grandmasters.

In the first modern U.S. Chess Championship, New York City 1936, Simonson placed second with 11/15, behind only winner Samuel Reshevsky. In the same year he tied with Alexander Kevitz for 1st place in the 1936 Manhattan Chess Club championship, but lost on tiebreak. He tied with Isaac Kashdan in the 1937 Manhattan Chess Club championship, but lost the playoff. He scored 11/16 in the 1938 United States Championship at New York, to finish third, behind Reshevsky and Fine. In the United States Championship of 1940, again at New York, he tied for 4th-5th places, with 10/16, behind Reshevsky, Fine, and Isaac Kashdan. Simonson defeated Reshevsky in a Metropolitan League team match in 1950, at a time when Reshevsky was among the world's top five players. Simonson was ranked sixth in the country on the very first official rating list, issued in 1950, from the United States Chess Federation.

According to his close friend, Grandmaster Arnold Denker, from the acclaimed book by Denker and Larry Parr -- The Bobby Fischer I Knew And Other Stories—Simonson was very skilled at indoor card and board games, but had a serious gambling problem. He was married three times, and fathered three children.

He died in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Wikipedia article: Albert Simonson

Last updated: 2022-04-05 03:16:22

page 1 of 4; games 1-25 of 87

Game		Result	Moves	Year	Event/Locale	Opening
1. A Kevitz vs A Simonson		1-0	33	1932	Marshall Chess Club Championship	A16 English
2. Fine vs A Simonson		1-0	22	1932	Marshall CC ch	A00 Uncommon Opening
3. F Reinfeld vs A Simonson		1-0	33	1933	Marshall CC Championship	D94 Grunfeld
4. Dake vs A Simonson		1-0	32	1933	Olympic Selection Tournament	D26 Queen's Gambit Accepted
5. A Simonson vs I A Horowitz		½-½	53	1933	Olympic Selection Tournament	D45 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
6. A Simonson vs Fine		0-1	37	1933	Olympic Selection Tournament	E43 Nimzo-Indian, Fischer Variation
7. A Simonson vs R F Combe		½-½	47	1933	Folkestone Olympiad	A47 Queen's Indian
8. P Devos vs A Simonson		0-1	43	1933	Folkestone Olympiad	A47 Queen's Indian
9. W Hasenfuss vs A Simonson		1-0	48	1933	Folkestone Olympiad	C14 French, Classical
10. L Abramavicius vs A Simonson		0-1	37	1933	Folkestone Olympiad	E62 King's Indian, Fianchetto
11. A Simonson vs K Opocensky		0-1	38	1933	Folkestone Olympiad	D08 Queen's Gambit Declined, Albin Counter Gambit
12. A Simonson vs Kupchik		½-½	64	1934	Manhattan Chess Club-ch	D26 Queen's Gambit Accepted
13. Kashdan vs A Simonson		1-0	46	1934	Manhattan CC-ch	D15 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav
14. B Price vs A Simonson		1-0	27	1935	36th ACF Congress. Prelim C	A52 Budapest Gambit
15. T Barron vs A Simonson		0-1	27	1935	36th ACF Congress. Prelim C	D37 Queen's Gambit Declined
16. A Simonson vs Dake		0-1	36	1935	36th ACF Congress. Prelim C	A04 Reti Opening
17. F Chevalier vs A Simonson		1-0	32	1935	36th ACF Congress. Prelim C	A40 Queen's Pawn Game
18. A Simonson vs F Chevalier		1-0	57	1935	36th ACF Congress. Championship FInal	A14 English
19. A Elo vs A Simonson		0-1	37	1935	36th ACF Congress. Championship FInal	C11 French
20. A Simonson vs Dake		½-½	33	1935	36th ACF Congress. Championship FInal	D45 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
21. Fine vs A Simonson		1-0	32	1935	36th ACF Congress. Championship FInal	D31 Queen's Gambit Declined
22. J Belson vs A Simonson		½-½	30	1935	36th ACF Congress. Championship FInal	D31 Queen's Gambit Declined
23. A Simonson vs W A Ruth		1-0	49	1935	36th ACF Congress. Championship FInal	A06 Reti Opening
24. A Simonson vs S Factor		0-1	31	1935	36th ACF Congress. Championship FInal	C37 King's Gambit Accepted
25. A Simonson vs Kashdan		½-½	60	1935	36th ACF Congress. Championship FInal	D85 Grunfeld


page 1 of 4; games 1-25 of 87

REFINE SEARCH: White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Simonson wins | Simonson loses

Jun-26-06		Phony Benoni: Does anybody know where Simonson was born?

Jun-26-06		Resignation Trap: Albert C Simonson was born in New York City on December 26, 1914. He died in San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 16, 1965. He was a member of the victorious US Team at the Olympiad at Folkestone in 1933.

Jun-26-06		Resignation Trap: Simonson and Reshevsky were in a dead heat for the last four rounds of the 1936 US Championship. In the last round, Simonson unexpectedly lost to Factor: A Simonson vs Factor, 1936 . Seeing that Simonson was in a losing endgame, Reshevsky drew his game with Kupchik: Kupchik vs Reshevsky, 1936 . Reshevsky thus became the new US Champion and Simonson finished half a point back. At no other point in his career did Simonson have such a fine result.

Jun-26-06		Phony Benoni: Thanks. That makes it official--the 1933 U.S. Olympic Team (Kashdan, Marshall, Fine, Dake, Simonson) is the only one so far where all team members were born in the United States.

Jun-26-06		Resignation Trap: Here's a photo of the American team at Folkestone, along with with Mrs. Kashdan: http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/... . Simonson (standing, middle) and Fine (standing, far right) were both only 18 years old at this event.

Aug-05-06		brankat: The first game by Mr. Simonson listed here took place in 1914. The same year he was born. Talking about a prodigy!!

Aug-05-06		OhioChessFan: LOL <brankat> I was just getting ready to point that out.

Aug-05-06		WannaBe: <brankat:The first game by Mr. Simonson listed here...> That'll put the other prodigies to shame. =)

Aug-06-06		Caissanist: Awww, Chessgames deleted it. No fair!

Apr-26-12		King Death: < Phony Benoni: ...the 1933 U.S. Olympic Team (Kashdan, Marshall, Fine, Dake, Simonson) is the only one so far where all team members were born in the United States.> And it won't be any different for a long time to come with Nakamura and Kamsky giving our Olympic hopes a boost. Simonson was a no pushover and I bet he'd have gotten the IM title if he'd played most of his chess a few years later.

Dec-26-16		TheFocus: Happy birthday, Albert Simonson.

Oct-29-19		ughaibu: Why'd he die so young?

Nov-02-19		Pawn and Two: <ughaibu> In, 'The Bobby Fischer I Knew', Denker devoted a chapter about his friend, Albert C. "Buddy" Simonson. Denker noted that Simonson's family was very well off even during the Great Depression. His mother was of the Elgin timepiece fame, and his father was the Simonson's of Fifth Avenue, which sold toupees to the movie industry and to the very wealthy. When Simonson turned 19 in 1933, he received the first of several $25,000 annual inheritance payments left to him by his grandfather Elgin. Unfortunately these annual payments were never enough to cover Simonson's never ending gambling debts. Denker noted that Simonson served in WW2, spending at least some of that time in England, and that he had been married three times and had three children. After WW2 Denker lost track of Simonson for many years. Finally, some months before Simonson passed he called Denker, and they met for lunch. Denker noted that Simonson had been a chain smoker years before, and when they met that last time he was still smoking in chains, looking pale and was coughing constantly. Sadly, a few months later, Denker received a call informing him that Simonson had passed away from an emphysema related cause.

Nov-03-19		ughaibu: Pawn and Two: Thanks for that wonderfully detailed reply.

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