AThe Miami News Miami, Florida Thursday, August 31, 1961 - Page 14 — Chess Champions Yell 'Foul' Over Cats and C****s by Bill Pugh
San Francisco—Playing the game to win seems to be the motto in some sports where large sums of money depend on the outcome.
Could this be true of chess?
The monetary rewards from the thinking man's game are so low that most of the so-called professionals have to have outside jobs.
And yet—perhaps because it is a thinking man's game chess is the scene of some of the fanciest gamesmanship in the whole field of sports.
“We have fortunately had a minimum of monkeyshines here,” said George Koltanowski, tournament director for the National Open Chess Championships, held here recently.
Nevertheless, a quick tour around the gold ballroom at the Sheraton-Palace Hotel, where the tournament is taking place, revealed a high quota of pencil tappers, eyebrow twitchers, leg shakers, link pickers, watch winders, coffee slurpers, itch scratchers, chair bouncers and others gifted in the arts of destroying an opponent's powers of concentration.
“Things aren't like they used to be,” Koltanowski said. “The former world champion, Alexander Alekhine, brought a black cat with him to a Warsaw tournament in 1935.
“When his opponents objected to his sitting there and stroking the cat, Alekhine was told to leave the animal home. The next day, he showed up in a sweater with a cat embroidered on it. He continued to stroke the sweater.”
Koltanowski said his own worst assault by a gamesman occurred in an English tournament where his opponent, a curate, s**ked a pipe containing sulfur all through the contest.
“The man was trying to gas me,” the world's blindfold chess champion said.
According to former open champion Arthur Bisguier of New York City, “the use of devices to destroy an opponent's concentration increases as the games get on and the players feel the pressure of the clock.”
(In the open championships, a player is limited to 50 moves in 2½ hours.)
“You get kicked on the shins under the table. A losing opponent will offer you a draw by suddenly shouting out ‘draw!’ in a loud, unpleasant voice, or start knocking over the pieces.
Tournament rules dictate that players cannot whistle, spit or swear. “But,” Koltanowski said, “no good gamesman would do those things anyway.”
“I remember a German, Karl Carls, always opened with a Queen's Bishop's pawn. He was completely shattered at the opening of one tournament when this pawn would not move. His opponent had nailed it to the board from the underside.”
Charles Bagby, noncompeting former state champion, recalled grand master Aaron Minzowitsch, who wouldn't enter a tournament unless no sm***ing was the rule.
“His opponent took out a c***r and just put it, unlighted, on the table. Minzowitsch cracked, screaming that the man was “threatening to s***e.”
“Anything can become a fatal weapon,” Koltanowski said. “A c***r, a nailfile, even a distinctive or unusual article of clothing can turn into offensive amour.”
“But there wasn't much of that at this tournament,” Bagby said. He smilingly added that he was “too old and too dumb” to continue in competition.
“Chess demands absolute concentration for as long as five hours,” Bagby said. “One slip and you are down. All your concentration must be devoted to the game, and gamesmanship is self-defeating.”
“You should have seen Bagby in competition,” Koltanowski said, pulling at his mustache. That was one of the best-known gestures in the game. I don't know how many opponents he ruined with that mustache.”
Chess Champions Yell 'Foul' Over Cats and Cigars 31 Aug 1961, Thu The Miami News (Miami, Florida) Newspapers.com
