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| Feb-01-08 | | Benzol: <Phony Benoni> Dave I was just reading about a player from the Detroit area named Morrie Wiedenbaum and was wondering if you or Tony (Palmer) had ever run across or played him? He is/was a fairly strong player apparently. Do you know anything about him? |
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Feb-01-08
 | | Phony Benoni: <Benzol> I never met him, since he died just before I began playing in tournaments (and long before Tony Palmer's time). However, I do have the issue of <Michigan Chess> with his obituary (Feb. 1973). It's too long to quote in full here (unless you're <really> interested), but here's a summary. Throughout his name is spelled "Widenbaum", but I have seen it spelled several different ways. Morrie Widenbaum (1926-1972), died December 26th in Detroit of a cerebral hemorrage. He won the first Motor City Open <a strong Thanksgiving Day tournament in the Detroit area> in 1959, and was Michigan Champion in 1963. Perhaps his most celebrated single victory was his win in the Tartakower Memorial Tournament in Detroit in 1956 over Grandaster Arthur Bisguier. Here is a game from the obituary.
[Event "Michigan Open"]
[Site "Bay City, MI"]
[Date "1963.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Widenbaum, Morrie"]
[Black "Popel, Stephan A."]
[ECO "C02"]
[WhiteElo ""]
[BlackElo ""]
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Bd3 Bd7 7.0-0 cxd4 8.cxd4 Nxd4 9.Nxd4 Qxd4 10.Qe2 Ne7 11.Nd2 Nc6 12.Nf3 Qg4 13.h3 Qh5 14.Bd2 Be7 15.b4 f6 16.exf6 gxf6 17.Qe3 0-0 18.b5 Ne5 19.Nxe5 Qxe5 20.Bxh7+ Kf7 21.Qh6 Bd6 22.Bg6+ Ke7 23.Qg7+ Kd8 24.g3 f5 25.Bg5+ Kc7 26.Rac1+ Kb6 27.Qxd7 Rg8
click for larger view
28.Rc6+ bxc6 29.Qxc6+ Ka5 30.Bd2+ Ka4 31.Qa6# 1-0
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| Feb-02-08 | | Benzol: Thanks for the info Dave. As well as Bisguier and Popal I believe he also had victories over Poschel, Burgar, Finegold and Dreibergs to his credit. He also played Fischer at some stage too in 1964 in a number of five-minute games during Fischer's trans-american tour. |
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Feb-02-08
| | Phony Benoni: <Benzol> You seem to know more about Michigan chess players than I thought! Here's a bit more info from the obituary. From 1963 to 1970, Widenbaum operated a coffeehouse called the Chess-Mate, which sponsored a simul by Fischer in 1964 that was probably the occasion for the five-minute games you mentioned. There's no further information about the simul in the obituary. <The stories about his speed chess sessions have become legendary, and it may not be possible to sort out fact from fiction. The most famous sesssion was his marathon match in 1963 with Stephan Popel.... Since Poepl's passion for speed chess almost equaled Morrie's the two of them often played all night. On this particular occasion, they agreed that Popel would have White and 5 minutes in all games and Widenbaum would have Black and 7 minutes. Popel would pay 50¢ for each loss snd collect 25¢ for each win. Reportedly, they played continuously for forty hours--and just broke even.> |
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| Feb-03-08 | | Benzol: It's a pity there are no games of either of them in the DB. |
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Feb-03-08
| | Phony Benoni: <Benzol> We do have some from Stephan A Popel, but none from Widenbaum. I used to own a tournament book from the Tartakower Memorial, but it went away with most of the rest of my collection. If I had only known that something like chessgames.com would be in my future... |
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Feb-03-08
| | Phony Benoni: They're back, folks. Yes, it's time for:
<SILLY DATABASE STATISTICS> And the first category is: <The Hortense Wallflower Award for Least used Opening> 1. Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Main line with 8...dc and 9...cd (E57) (10 games) 2. Benoni, Classical, 9...a6, 10.a4 (A74) (18 games) 3. Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox, Rubinstein Attack, Main line (D65) (19 games) 4. King's Indian, Four Pawns Attack, with Be2 and Nf3 (E78) (22 games) 5. Benoni (A66) (33 games) 6. Benoni, Classical, 9...Re8 (A76) (38 games) 7. Benoni, Classical without 9.O-O (A72) (44 games) 8. Dutch, Ilyin-Genevsky Variation with Qc2 (A98) (47 games) 9. King's Indian, Samisch, Orthodox Main line (E89) (49 games) 10. Catalan, Open (E03) (50 games) 11. Nimzo-Indian, Samisch Variation (E27) (53 games) 12. Sicilian, Dragon, Yugoslav Attack, 12.h4 (B79) (57 games) 13. Dutch, Stonewall, Botvinnik Variation (A93) (58 games) 14. King's Indian, Four Pawns Attack, Main line (E79) (59 games) 15. Benoni, Classical with ...Re8 and ...Na6 (A78) (59 games) 16. Dutch, Stonewall with Ba3 (A94) (62 games) 17. Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense, Classical, 13.de (D69) (75 games) 18. Benoni, Fianchetto, 9...Nbd7 (A63) (75 games) 19. King's Indian, Orthodox, 7...Nbd7, Main line (E96) (76 games) 20. Nimzo-Indian, Samisch Variation (E28) (77 games) A repeat winner here. In fact, E57 was so seldon used that it actually lost three games from last yere. |
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| Feb-04-08 | | Benzol: <Phony Benoni> Thanks Dave. I looked up Stephan Popel's name incorrectly.
Good to see some games of his at least. |
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Feb-04-08
| | Phony Benoni: And the category for today's Silly Database Statistic is: <The Tchigorin-Bogolyubov "When I am White I Win Because I Am White" Award for the Line with the Best Winning Percentage for White>. 1. Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox, Rubinstein Attack, Main line (D65) (19 games, 81.55%) 2. Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Main line with 8...dc and 9...cd (E57) (10 games, 80.00%) 3. Benoni, Classical, 9...a6, 10.a4 (A74) (18 games, 75.05%) 4. Queen's Gambit Declined (D06) ((352 games, 71.05%) 5. Dutch, Stonewall with Ba3 (A94) (62 games, 70.10%) 6. Catalan, Closed (E08) (313 games, 68.65% 7. Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense, Classical (D68) (114 games, 68.40%) 8. Dutch, Ilyin-Genevsky Variation with Qc2 (A98) (47 games, 68.10%) 9. Queen's Gambit Declined, Anti-Neo-Orthodox Variation (D54) (94 ghames, 67.55%) 10. Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox, Rubinstein Attack (D64) (179 games, 66.50%) 11. Dutch, Ilyin-Genevsky Variation with b3 (A99) 82 games, 66.45%) 12. Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox, Rubinstein Attack (D61) (354 games, 65.95%) 13. Queen's Gambit Declined (D35) (1733 games, 65.55%) 14. Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense (C62) (337 games, 65.10% 15. Old Benoni Defense (A44) (441 games, 64.75%) 16. Dutch, Stonewall, Botvinnik Variation (A93) (58 games, 64.65% 17. Neo-Grunfeld, 6.cd Nxd5, 7.O-O (D74) (127 games, 64.55%) 18. Ruy Lopez (C66) (403 games, 64.40%) 19. King's Indian, Samisch, Orthodox (E87) (313 games, 64.40%) 20. French (C10) (1845 games, 63.95%) Once again we have a repeat winner--and since Black seems unwilling to repeat the line, it's liable to be on top for some time to come. Note that 17 of the 20 top finishers are 1.d4 openings, probably due to Fischer's premature retirement. Also, many of these percentages are based on an insignificant number of games; for comparison, the average ECO section in the database contains 911 games. |
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| Feb-04-08 | | Resignation Trap: 46 of the games from the 1956 Tartakover Memorial Open can be found on http://www.chesslive.de . Just do an advanced search with "Detroit" as the site and 1956 as the date. The site has some errors. It has "W Burger" instead of Wesley Burgar . And "Leroy Jackson", I believe, should be "Lawrence Jackson." Also, I can't determine if Morrie's last name was Wiedenbaum, Weidenbaum, or Widenbaum. I've seen it spelled all three ways! The tournament took place on Labor Day weekend and I believe that it was the alternate name for the Michigan Open that year. It could have been an ever stronger event had it not conflicted with the Canadian Open (Fischer, Lombardy, Evans...). |
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Feb-04-08
| | Phony Benoni: <Resignation Trap> I shuld check that site more often, but my computer has trouble accessing it for some reason; things generally freeze up after a couple of games. I've seen Widenbaum's name spelled those three ways as well: "Wiedenbaum" seems commonest, and "Weidenbaum" is on the MCA website (which I strongly suspect is an old Van spelling). "Widenbaum" was used by Don Thackeray in the <Michigan Chess> obituary, and I trust Thackeray. Besides, it's the spelling used in WIkipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues_...), so how can it possibly be wrong? |
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Feb-05-08
| | Phony Benoni: Today's Silly Database Statistic:
<The Andras Adorjan "Black is OK!" Award> These variations have the highest winning percentage for Black: 1. Sicilian, Boleslavsky Variation, 7.Nb3 (B59) (269 games, 65.20%) 2. Sicilian, Closed, 6.Be3 (B26) (616 games, 57.40%) 3. Benoni, Classical with ...Re8 and ...Na6 (A78) (59 games, 56.80%) 4. King's Indian, Four Pawns Attack, with Be2 and Nf3 (E78) (22 games, 56.80%) 5. Two Knights (C57) (714 games, 56.75%) 6. Sicilian, Najdorf, 6...e6 (B95) (344 games, 56.10%) 7. Benoni, Fianchetto, 9...Nbd7 (A63) (75 games, 55.95%) 8. Sicilian, Closed (B25) (902 games, 55.95%) 9. Sicilian, Fischer-Sozin Attack (B88) (512 games, 55.35%) 10. Bird's Opening (A03) (688 games, 55.20%) 11. Queen's Pawn Game (D04) (466 games, 54.85%) 12. Richter-Veresov Attack (D01) (584 games, 54.80%) 13. English, Symmetrical (A37) (786 games, 54.10%) 14. Sicilian, Canal-Sokolsky (Rossolimo) Attack (B51) (1286 games, 54.10%) 15. Benoni, Four Pawns Attack (A68) (161 games, 53.70%) 16. Sicilian, Kan (B41) (715 games, 53.55%) 17. Benoni Defense (A60) (150 games, 53.35%) 18. Sicilian, Closed (B24) (965 games, 53.15%) 19. Benoni, Fianchetto, 11...Re8 (A64) (209 games, 52.85%) 20. Bird's Opening (A02) (741 games, 52.70%) The Boleslavsky continues to impress, even adding to its lead from last years. Plenty of Sicilians again, and lovers of Bird's Opening will not be happy to see both of its ECO sections on the list. |
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Feb-09-08
| | Phony Benoni: Today's Silly Database Statistic:
<The Alfred, Lord Tennyson Half a Loaf, Half a Loaf, Half a Loaf Onward Award> These lines have the highest percentage of draws in the database: 1. Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Exchange Variation (D14) (71.2%, 560 games) 2. Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower (D59) (69.8%, 262 games) 3. Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense, Classical, 13.de (D69) (68.0%, 75 games) 4. Queen's Indian, Old Main line, 9.Qxc3 (E19) (64.8%, 636 games) 5. Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox, Rubinstein Attack (D62) (63.4%, 131 games) 6. Queen's Gambit Declined (D56) (62.1%, 356 games) 7. Neo-Grunfeld, 6.O-O, Main line (D79) (61.3%, 423 games) 8. Queen's Indian, Old Main line, 7.Nc3 (E18) (56.7%, 712 games) 9. Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower (Makagonov-Bondarevsky) Syst (D58) (56.4%, 1302 games) 10. Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Exchange Variation (D13) (55.9%, 929 games) 11. Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense, Bd3 line (D67) (55.8%, 199 games) 12. Ruy Lopez, Closed, Smyslov Defense (C93) 55.7%, 427 games) 13. Sicilian, Accelerated Fianchetto (B36) (55.4%, 663 games) 14. Catalan, Open, Classical line (E05) (54.9%, 912 games) 15. Neo-Grunfeld, 6.cd Nxd5, 7.O-O Nb6 (D76) (54.8%, 310 games) 16. Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Gligoric System, Bronstein Variation (E55) (54.7%, 369 games) 17. Catalan, Open, 5.Qa4 (E02) (53.9%, 180 games) 18. Queen's Gambit Accepted, Classical (D27) (53.8%, 1445 games) 19. Grunfeld, Spassky Variation, Main line, 10...cd, 11.cd (D88) (52.9%, 119 games) 20. Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Main line with 7...Nc6 (E56) (52.7%, 184 games) Once egain, the Exchange Slav inches its way to the top The preponderance of d-pawn openings is interesting. |
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| Feb-11-08 | | suenteus po 147: <Phony Benoni> Great job on all the stats! I love lists and statistics, so these were a joy to read over. Also, I just noticed this great collection you put together: Game Collection: Carlsbad 1907 Fantastic job! |
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| Feb-11-08 | | sneaky pete: I'm shocked to see the Sicilian, Fischer-Sozin Attack on the <Black is OK> list. Apparently 55,35% of the whites somehow, somewhere misplay this forced win. |
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Feb-11-08
| | Phony Benoni: <suenteus po 147> Thanks. I have a couple more up my sleeve, so stay tuned. <sneaky pete> Perhaps it merely shows that the opening is too difficult to play except for Fischer or some higher form of being.
Which gives me hope, by the way. Even if computers solve the game to their satisfaction, that won't affect me because neither I nor my opponents will be able to remember the analysis. After all, human grandmasters have been finding forced wins for years and that hasn't helped us. |
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Feb-12-08
| | Phony Benoni: Today's Silly Database Statistic:
<The John Paul Jones "I Have Not Yet Begun to Fight" Award>. These lines have the lowest percentage of draws in the database: 1. King's Gambit Accepted (C37) (8.9%, 406 games0 2. King's Knight Opening (C40) (11.6%, 438 games) 3. King's Gambit Accepted (C38) (11.8%, 442 games) 4. Two Knights (C57) (13.3%, 714 games) 5. Evans Gambit (C51) (14.1%, 803 games) 6. Bishop's Opening (C23) (14.2%, 239 games) 7. King's Gambit Accepted (C34) (15.0%, 1090 games) 8. Center Game (C21) (15.0%, 327 games) 9. King's Gambit Accepted (C39) (15.1%, 680 games) 10. Evans Gambit (C52) (15.4$, 521 games) 11. King's Gambit Accepted, Cunningham (C35) (15.8%, 455 games) 12. Benoni, Classical, 9...a6, 10.a4 (A74) (16.7%, 18 games) 13. Dutch, Staunton Gambit (A83) (16.8%, 167 games) 14. Dutch, Ilyin-Genevsky Variation with Qc2 (A98) (17.0%, 47 games) 15. King's Gambit Declined (C30) (17.3%, 1287 games) 16. King's Gambit Declined, Falkbeer Counter Gambit (C31) (17.4%, 793 games) 17. King's Gambit Accepted (C33) (18.1%, 1068 games) 18. Two Knights (C58) (18.5%, 362 games) 19. Dutch, Staunton Gambit (A82) (19.0%, 105 games) 20. Queen's Gambit Declined, Albin Counter Gambit, 5.g3 (D09) (19.2%, 308 games) Only five queen-pawn openings here, including three Dutch Defenses. Of the 10 ECO sections devoted to the King's Gambit (C30-C39) eight show up--and the missing ones are also high on the list (C32 at #22, C36 at #37). |
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Feb-13-08
 | | TheAlchemist: <Phony Benoni> Great job! <The preponderance of d-pawn openings is interesting.> <Only five queen-pawn openings here> I guess we all knew that, hehe. Although recently the Petrov, for example, seems very drawish, but I guess it wasn't so much in the past. |
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Feb-13-08
| | Phony Benoni: Today's Silly Database Statistic:
<The John von Neumann Win-Win Situation Award> These lines provide the most balanced chances for either side to win: 1. Nimzo-Indian, Samisch Variation (E27) (White wins 35.8%, Black wins 35.8%, difference 0.0%) 2. Nimzo-Indian, Samisch (E29) (33.1%, 33.1%, 0.0%) 3. Nimzo-Indian, Fischer Variation (E43) (33.5%, 33.5%, 0.0%) 4. Sicilian, Scheveningen (B80) (34.1%, 34.0%, 0.1%) 5. English, Symmetrical, Benoni Formation (A31) (32.3%, 32.1%, 0.2%) 6. Queen's Pawn Game (A46) (31.9%, 32.1%, 0.2%) 7. Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Exchange Variation (D13) (22.0%, 22.2%, 0.2%) 8. Sicilian, Kan, 5.Nc3 (B43) (33.9%, 33.5%, 0.4%) 9. King's Pawn Game (C20) (39.8%, 39.4%, 0.4%) 10. Nimzo-Indian, Samisch (E24) (36.3%, 35.9%, 0.4%) 11. Alekhine's Defense (B02) (34.0%, 33.5%, 0.5%) 12. Sicilian, Closed (B23) (35.3%, 35.8%, 0.5%) 13. Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin, Vienna Variation (D39) (34.9%, 34.4%, 0.5%) 14. Nimzo-Indian, Samisch (E26) (37.4%, 36.9%, 0.5%) 15. Queen's Pawn Game (A45) (34.7%. 35.3%, 0.6%) 16. Sicilian, Scheveningen (B84) (33.6%, 33.0%, 0.6%) 17. King's Indian (A48) (32.4%, 31.7%, 0.7%) 18. Sicilian, Najdorf (B96) (34.9%, 34.1%, 0.8%) 19. French, Exchange (C01) (29.2%, 28.4%, 0.8%) 20. Two Knights (C56) (3.50%, 35.5%, 0.9%) Quite a few Samisch Nimzo-Indians, for what it's worth. |
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Feb-14-08
 | | WannaBe: That's great <Phony Benoni>, but where are the draw percentages?!?! :-))) |
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Feb-14-08
| | Phony Benoni: <WannaBe> Draws? Draws?? We don't need no stinking draws! <The Alchemist> I've got one more SDS award to compile, then maybe I'll look into historical draw percentages for the Petrov. Might be interesting. |
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Feb-15-08
| | Phony Benoni: At last we have reached the end of the Silly Database Statistics. After all, with the writer's strike being over we have no more excuse for using them to fill up empty space. Today's category: <The Even Steven Trifecta> These lines have the most balanced chances for a win, a loss, or a draw.
For the sake of comparison, in the entire database White wins 36.8%, Black wins 26.7%, draws 36.5% = a difference of 10.1% between the highest and lowest of these numbers. 1. Nimzo-Indian, Fischer Variation (E43) (33.5%, 33.5%, 33.0% = 0.5%) 2. Sicilian, Scheveningen (B84) (33.6%, 33.0%, 33.4% = 0.6%) 3. Nimzo-Indian, Samisch (E29) (33.1%, 33.1%, 33.8% = 0.7%) 4. Nimzo-Indian, Leningrad (E30) (33.8%, 32.6%, 33.6% = 1.2%) 5. King's Indian (E77) (34.0%, 33.1%, 32.8% = 1.2%) 6. Sicilian, Kan, 5.Nc3 (B43) (33.9%, 33.5%, 32.6% = 1.3%) 7. Alekhine's Defense (B02) (34.0%, 33.5%, 32.5% = 1.5%) 8. Sicilian (B53) (32.0%, 33.8%, 34.1% = 2.1%) 9. Sicilian, Dragon, Classical (B74) (32.0%, 33.8%, 34.1% = 2.1%) 10. English (A10) (34.6%, 32.4%, 32.9% = 2.2%) 11. Sicilian, Scheveningen (B80) (34.1%, 34.0%, 31.9% = 2.2%) 12. Reti Opening (A06) (34.8%, 32.4%, 32.9% = 2.4%) 13. Torre Attack (Tartakower Variation) (D03) (31.4%, 34.0%, 34.6% = 3.2%) 14. English, Symmetrical, Benoni Formation (A31) (32.3%, 32.1%, 35.6% = 3.5%) 15. Sicilian (B56) (35.6%, 32.1%, 32.4% = 3.5%) 16. Sicilian, Najdorf (B96) (34.9%, 34.1%, 31.0% = 3.9%) 17. Nimzo-Indian, Spielmann Variation (E22) (32.9%, 35.5%, 31.6% = 3.9%) 18. Queen's Pawn Game (A46) (31.9%, 32.1%, 36.0% = 4.1%) 19. Sicilian (B58) (30.6%, 34,7%, 34.7% = 4.1%) 20. King's Indian (A48) (32.4%, 31.7%, 35.9% = 4.2%) I have absolutely no idea what this means.
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Feb-22-08
| | Phony Benoni: From time to time, I find possible mistakes in the database which need to be checked in outside sources. I'll usually write a kibitz on the appropriate game page, but I fear that a lot of these questions are never resolved and become forgotten because someone who could answer the question never sees the kibitz. So what I'm thiunking of doing is using this forum as a kind of a clearinghouse, where those interested in these matters can quickly scan through a list of new questions and find ones they might be able to answer. I'm not sure exactly how this will develop, but for now I'll summarize the problems I find here and provide a link to the game page where more detailed discussion can take place. From time to time, I'll check up on unresolved questions to see if any answers have been posted and a correction can be sent to Central Control. If you would like to participlate, feel free to summaraize problems you find here as well. I'll keep track of them and check up on them later as well. I can't help doing things like this; it's what I do for a living. Here's a possible schematic to follow.
Game: R Pirnack vs C Singleton, 1866
Problem: is the date correct?
Possible source to check: Bill Wall's <Sicilian Miniatures> books |
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| Feb-23-08 | | nescio: Are you aware of possible co-workers?
Game Collection: Calli's unresolved database corrections Game Collection: Believe it or not |
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Feb-24-08
| | Phony Benoni: <nescio> Ah, that's the idea I've been looking for; keeping track by means of collections. I have some time off work next week, and will get things set up then. For now, Short vs Igor Ivanov, 1984 is almost the same as Short vs Igor Ivanov, 1983, except that White's 35th move is variously given as 35.Nb1 or 35.Nd1. Which is correct? (The difference in year is due to it being played at Hastings over the New Year.) |
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