The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Brooklyn, New York Sunday, August 22, 1920 - Page 48 — School Principal Wins McClure Chess Prize — By decision of the committee of judges appointed by the New York State Chess Association, the award of the special prize for the best played game in the recent tournaments at the annual midsummer State meeting at Albany, offered by Archibald J. McClure of Lakewood, N.J., president of the Eighth American Chess Congress, was announced yesterday in favor of Plowden Stevens Jr., principal of P.S. 44 of the Bronx and a member of the State Island Chess Club, for the fine game he won from Bruno Forsberg, had he won, would have tied Jacob Bernstein, the new State champion, for first place. The game in question was a center counter Gambit, adopted by Stevens as second player.
After a most satisfactory development of the opening, the prize winner made an energetic attack against the center, as a direct result of which he won a piece at the 35th turn. The game lasted 57 moves. Three other games from the same tournament, including two by Forsberg and one by Bernstein, were submitted for the McClure prize, but the committee selected Principal Stevens' victory as the best. The judges were F. J. Marshall, United States champion, and H. Helms, editor of the American Chess Bulletin.
Principal Stevens, who is in charge of over 3,000 boys at his school in the Bronx, and is justly proud of their athletic achievements, became interested in chess at the time of the world's championship match between Steinitz and Dr. Zukertort in this country in 1886, as the result of reading about one of their games, annotated by the late Capt. MacKenzie. This led him to look up the subject in Chambers' Encyclopedia, with the result that in due course he became a member of the Manhattan Chess Club. Subsequently he retired from chess to give full attention to his school duties. Later on, through the instrumentality of another educator, William T. Ryan, erstwhile president of the Metropolitan Chess League, he affiliated himself with the Staten Island Chess Club, for which, during the past few seasons, he has played at the second board in league matches.
School Principal Wins McClure Chess Prize 22 Aug 1920, Sun The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York) Newspapers.com
