A Commemorative Rook

Since the advent of the Internet, the cable, radio, and telephone chess matches of yesteryear have been relegated to the domain of chess history, from which their souvenirs occasionally appear shortlisted for Top eBay Chess Items by Price. The item on the left, titled 'Antique Chess Piece Commons v US Representatives Telegraph Match Trophy 1897', received 32 bids from 14 bidders, with a winning bid of GBP 411.41 ('approximately US $664.34). The price doubled during the last five minutes of the auction.

The inscription on the Rook reads, 'Chess match by cable between House of Commons London and House of Representatives Washington played over the lines of the Anglo American Telegraph Co. London and Western Union Telegraph Co. New York 1897. Contractors The Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Co. London'.

The item description informed,

An extremely rare antique 19th century Victorian white metal souvenir chess piece in the form of a Rook commemorating the historic match between the British House of Commons & the US House of Representatives in 1897, the match being played over two days by cable transmission the result of which was a draw.

This souvenir Rook was made by the brothers Carlo & Alphonso Guilianio, sons of Carlo Guiliano (1832-1895), the acclaimed Victorian era Italian Jeweller and bears their hallmark to the base. The elder Guiliano moved to London in 1860 and set up his own workshop in 1861. In 1874 he established a retail business, where he was patronised by Queen Victoria. By the time the chess piece shown here was made, Guiliano's sons, Carlo Joseph and Arthur Alphonse had taken over the business, which continued to trade until 1914.

As several examples of this piece are known, it seems likely that one was presented to each participant as a memento of the match. The last one of these that we are aware of came up for sale in Christie's South Kensington a few years back selling for £4375.00 hammer excluding commission.

OVERALL CONDITION: Very Good - We would remind bidders that this item is antique & pre-owned with associated light surface wear, we have left as we found it with untouched or polished patina straight out of a private estate collection here in Scotland - as shown above. Size (approx.) 3" high

Two information links included in the description were History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications : Cable Chess Matches and Collecting: Bonhams Auctions Rare Collector Chess Sets.

The Game of Warriors

'Che Guevara playing chess?' Yup, Che Guevara playing chess.

Che Guevara playing chess? © Flickr user Julio Martinez under Creative Commons.

'Bocanegra, Benito Juarez, Harry Potter (or young Diego Rivera), Che Guevara (or Castro).' Nope, Che Guevara (not Castro). The same image of Che was used on a stamp / souvenir sheet issued by Turkmenistan in 1997.

TMTNW, My Version

In The Match That Never Was, I mentioned,

The Fischer - Karpov match brought back memories. I once constructed 24 unfinished games in an attempt to recreate the same match, which I called TMTNW.

A correspondent asked if I would make the games public. They were created around 1989-1990, I haven't looked at them since, and I'm afraid they wouldn't stand up to analysis. It would also be a pity to see them start showing up in databases as real games between the two players. No, it's better that the games remain unpublished. For the record, here are the first four moves in each imaginary game (I assigned White to Karpov in the first game):-

01 (AK-RF) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.Nc3 cxd4
02 (RF-AK) 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6
03 (AK-RF) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c5
04 (RF-AK) 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5
05 (AK-RF) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6
06 (RF-AK) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6
07 (AK-RF) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 O-O
08 (RF-AK) 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 b6 4.Nc3 Bb7
09 (AK-RF) 1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 g6 4.g3 Bg7
10 (RF-AK) 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6
11 (AK-RF) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6
12 (RF-AK) 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 d5 4.Nc3 Be7
13 (AK-RF) 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 Bg4
14 (RF-AK) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4
15 (AK-RF) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7
16 (RF-AK) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6
17 (AK-RF) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6
18 (RF-AK) 1.e4 c6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 g6 4.Ngf3 Bg7
19 (AK-RF) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c5
20 (RF-AK) 1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.g3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5
21 (AK-RF) 1.c4 g6 2.Nc3 Bg7 3.d4 Nf6 4.e4 O-O
22 (RF-AK) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6
23 (AK-RF) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6
24 (RF-AK) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6

At the time I worked on this I had both 'Bobby Fischer's Chess Games' by Robert Wade and Kevin O'Connell (Doubleday, 1972) and 'Karpov’s Collected Games' by David Levy (RHM Press, 1975), so it was easy to compare the repertoires of the two players. The job might be tougher today with the same collections available in electronic format.

83rd FIDE Congress

Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall at a FIDE General Assembly? How about at a FIDE Executive Board meeting? If you answered, 'Yes', to either of those questions, then don't miss the Youtube videos listed at 2012 FIDE Congress Meetings. The clips are the work of Sevan Muradian, last seen on this blog a year ago in 82nd FIDE Congress.

Depending on your specific interests in organized international chess, there are lots of subjects of potential interest in this footage. As for me, I'm curious about the CNC, which still holds a prominent place in the main banner on Fide.com, and which was last seen here, also a year ago, in No Nose for FIDE News. What is the relationship between CNC and Agon, the new standard bearer for the FIDE World Championship?

It turns out that the CNC presentation to the 83rd Congress was given by one Dmitry Levitansky and can be found at around 16:00 into Muradian's clip titled 'General Assembly Part 7'. Here's how he is introduced by FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos.

I'd like to explain that the beginning of the original contract with CNC was that CNC, among other things, had the right to organize events and find sponsorship. This part we gave later to Agon when we signed the contract with Agon. So the agreement with CNC has changed on this part and there is here Mr. Levitansky from CNC to inform the assembly about the project they are preparing at this moment.

To find out more about the 2012 General Assembly, see FIDE General Assembly (Fide.com) and Results of the General Assembly (Chessvibes.com).

Hobgoblins and Small Minds

'A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.'
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last week, while working on The Last Refuge, I discovered that the pages titled 'Years in Review' (see Chess History for links to the first article in each set of seven) were not structured like the other pages in my About.com material. This week, while working on those 'Review' pages, I discovered more inconsistencies. This problem of inconsistency is turning out to be the most time consuming bullet in Monday, Monday.

William W. Corasick

I'm under the weather today, so the post I intended to write will have to wait. Since I don't like skipping a day without writing, what to do? I finally decided to search my database of chess images to find one that had 'sick' in the description. Only four different images popped up, and the following is the only one that matched the way I'm feeling.

The description said,

CHESS PLAYER - MODERNIST PAINTING BY LISTED ARTIST WILLIAM W. CORASICK • William W. Corasick, born 1907, exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the National Academy. He had several one man exhibitions. Corasick also studied at The Barnes Foundation, where the influence of the modern masters is evident in his work.

Strange that the painting has nothing to do with being sick.

Brooklyn Castle

I could be the last chess blogger still standing who hasn't done a post on Brooklyn's I.S. 318, so it's high time I jumped on the bandwagon.

Brooklyn Castle Official Trailer #1 (2012) - Chess Documentary Movie HD (2:30) • 'Amidst financial crises and unprecedented public school budget cuts, Brooklyn Castle takes an intimate look at the challenges and triumphs facing members of a junior high school's champion chess team.'

On top of being featured in its own documentary, the school has been written up in major New York periodicals. • At a Brooklyn School, the Cool Crowd Pushes the King Around (nytimes.com) • I.S. 318's Crowning Achievement (wsj.com) • Mike checks IS 318 chess champs, tells them he is 'really impressed' (nydailynews.com); that's Mayor 'Mike' Bloomberg. • IS 318 Chess Team (is318chessteam.com); the official site?