samsloan
2012-11-30 23:15:41 UTC
California Chess Reporter 1961-1964
Introduction by Sam Sloan
1961-1964 was an exciting period for California Chess. This volume of
the California Chess Reporter starts with the 1961 US Open in San
Francisco won by Grandmaster Pal Benko with the overwhelming score of
11-1 by beating California State Champion Zoltan Kovacs in the last
round.
This volume concludes with the famous simultaneous exhibitions given
by Bobby Fischer in 1964.
Among the developments in 1961-1964 was the rise of William Addison as
California's strongest player. Although Addison had long been
recognized as a master, he was until 1962 just one of many.
Suddenly, in 1962 Addison just started winning everything, often with
Fischer-like clean sweeps, winning all the games with no draws and no
losses.
Soon thereafter came the rise of a great new talent. A strange young
boy named Duncan Suttles, with no formal chess training and unusual
ideas about the openings, started beating everybody by playing with
Black the following sequence of moves g6, Bg7, f6, Nh6, Nf7, O-O.
From this peculiar formation, Suttles would launch a powerful attack
and wipe out everybody. His picture is on the cover here.
As a result, the two best players in the state were Addison and
Suttles. Their showdown came in the May 1964 Stamer Memorial shown on
page 407 here. Their game is shown on page 417, where Suttles as White
played his Suttles System in reverse.
The result was that Addison won. We spent hours and hours going over
that game and were never able to solve it.
Another strong player, Anthony Saidy, moved from New York to Los
Angeles and started winning most of the tournaments in Southern
California. Dr. Saidy arrived in mid-1962 to be a medical
intern, winning the Pacific-SouthWest Open on the same day that
Marilyn Monroe died. This of course provided his alibi. Saidy later
won the Steiner Chess Club Championship, He was at that time the
highest-rated player between Novosibirsk and Indianapolis on the
Pacific Route.
The 1963 Piatigorsky Cup was held with eight of the strongest players
in the world competing. The result was a tie for first between Paul
Keres and Tigran Petrosian.
In 1962, the United States Chess Federation decided that for the sake
of diversity a California player would be allowed to play in the US
Championship. Many New Yorkers objected, saying that the California
players were too weak. Nevertheless, only for the sake of appearance,
they let one California player into the US Championship. Addison was
sent.
Everybody in New York thought this California guy would finish last.
The world was shocked when Addison beat World Championship Contender
Samuel Reshevsky in the very first round. That game is on page 221
here.
Addison finished the tournament tied for third place with Reshevsky
and Evans behind Bobby Fischer.
Most sensational of all however was the arrival of Sam Sloan for the
first time in California.
I came all the way from Virginia here because at that time the
University of California at Berkeley was officially ranked as the
number one university in America, ahead of even Harvard University. I
wanted to be with the brightest and the best, so I came here. As I had
no money, I hitchhiked all the way from the East Coast to Berkeley to
enroll in the University here.
On my first day on campus, I saw a sign pointing the way to the game
room, so I went there and found all the chess players there. (It is
now a book store in the Student Union Building.)
My first two tournaments in California were the breakthrough for me,
as I went from rated Class B to Expert in just two tournaments. The
cross tables are shown on pages 212 and 213 in reverse order.
As the 1962 Northern California Championship was a qualifier to the
state championship, I was on the verge of qualifying to the
prestigious state championship, so a game was thrown to keep me out on
tie-breaking points. (This was a circumstance similar to the alleged
thrown game or games at the conclusion of the 1955 US Open in Long
Beach.) As I lost the last round game that I was winning, I would not
have qualified anyway. Otherwise, the deciding difference would have
been a ½ tie-breaking point.
However, the 1962 Northern California Championship turned out to have
special long range significance, because that is where Mike Goodall,
Frank Thornally, Roy Hoppe and Sam Sloan all first met each other. You
can see us all in the tournament together in the tournament crosstable
on page 212. Now the four of us, including Mike Goodall's ghost, are
fighting a court case in 2012, exactly 60 years later, against Bank of
America who is trying to steal Mike's estate.
I am typing this while sitting in the Goodall Mansion on 461
Peachstone Terrace in San Rafael, California, while the wolves are
howling at the door, with the Bank of America trying unsuccessfully
thus far to steal the house and the Goodall Millions.
Kerry Lawless has been working for years and years, at least 25 years
that I know of and probably a lot longer than that, on compiling every
game he can, published and, where possible, unpublished that has ever
been played in the State of California.
The result of this great work is his website ChessDryad.com and his
database calgames.pgn that contains at present 37,598 games, all
played in the State of California from 1856 to the present.
Kerry Lawless has also been making great efforts to compile all chess
publications published in the State of California and, as much as
possible, all articles about California chess.
One result of these efforts is he has compiled every issue of the
California Chess Reporter during its 25 year run from 1951 to 1976. At
great personal expense to himself he has had all these volumes bound
by a professional binding service.
These bound volumes created by Kerry Lawless have been used to make
these reprints.
Sam Sloan
San Rafael California
USA
November 30, 2012
http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871875547
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871875547
Introduction by Sam Sloan
1961-1964 was an exciting period for California Chess. This volume of
the California Chess Reporter starts with the 1961 US Open in San
Francisco won by Grandmaster Pal Benko with the overwhelming score of
11-1 by beating California State Champion Zoltan Kovacs in the last
round.
This volume concludes with the famous simultaneous exhibitions given
by Bobby Fischer in 1964.
Among the developments in 1961-1964 was the rise of William Addison as
California's strongest player. Although Addison had long been
recognized as a master, he was until 1962 just one of many.
Suddenly, in 1962 Addison just started winning everything, often with
Fischer-like clean sweeps, winning all the games with no draws and no
losses.
Soon thereafter came the rise of a great new talent. A strange young
boy named Duncan Suttles, with no formal chess training and unusual
ideas about the openings, started beating everybody by playing with
Black the following sequence of moves g6, Bg7, f6, Nh6, Nf7, O-O.
From this peculiar formation, Suttles would launch a powerful attack
and wipe out everybody. His picture is on the cover here.
As a result, the two best players in the state were Addison and
Suttles. Their showdown came in the May 1964 Stamer Memorial shown on
page 407 here. Their game is shown on page 417, where Suttles as White
played his Suttles System in reverse.
The result was that Addison won. We spent hours and hours going over
that game and were never able to solve it.
Another strong player, Anthony Saidy, moved from New York to Los
Angeles and started winning most of the tournaments in Southern
California. Dr. Saidy arrived in mid-1962 to be a medical
intern, winning the Pacific-SouthWest Open on the same day that
Marilyn Monroe died. This of course provided his alibi. Saidy later
won the Steiner Chess Club Championship, He was at that time the
highest-rated player between Novosibirsk and Indianapolis on the
Pacific Route.
The 1963 Piatigorsky Cup was held with eight of the strongest players
in the world competing. The result was a tie for first between Paul
Keres and Tigran Petrosian.
In 1962, the United States Chess Federation decided that for the sake
of diversity a California player would be allowed to play in the US
Championship. Many New Yorkers objected, saying that the California
players were too weak. Nevertheless, only for the sake of appearance,
they let one California player into the US Championship. Addison was
sent.
Everybody in New York thought this California guy would finish last.
The world was shocked when Addison beat World Championship Contender
Samuel Reshevsky in the very first round. That game is on page 221
here.
Addison finished the tournament tied for third place with Reshevsky
and Evans behind Bobby Fischer.
Most sensational of all however was the arrival of Sam Sloan for the
first time in California.
I came all the way from Virginia here because at that time the
University of California at Berkeley was officially ranked as the
number one university in America, ahead of even Harvard University. I
wanted to be with the brightest and the best, so I came here. As I had
no money, I hitchhiked all the way from the East Coast to Berkeley to
enroll in the University here.
On my first day on campus, I saw a sign pointing the way to the game
room, so I went there and found all the chess players there. (It is
now a book store in the Student Union Building.)
My first two tournaments in California were the breakthrough for me,
as I went from rated Class B to Expert in just two tournaments. The
cross tables are shown on pages 212 and 213 in reverse order.
As the 1962 Northern California Championship was a qualifier to the
state championship, I was on the verge of qualifying to the
prestigious state championship, so a game was thrown to keep me out on
tie-breaking points. (This was a circumstance similar to the alleged
thrown game or games at the conclusion of the 1955 US Open in Long
Beach.) As I lost the last round game that I was winning, I would not
have qualified anyway. Otherwise, the deciding difference would have
been a ½ tie-breaking point.
However, the 1962 Northern California Championship turned out to have
special long range significance, because that is where Mike Goodall,
Frank Thornally, Roy Hoppe and Sam Sloan all first met each other. You
can see us all in the tournament together in the tournament crosstable
on page 212. Now the four of us, including Mike Goodall's ghost, are
fighting a court case in 2012, exactly 60 years later, against Bank of
America who is trying to steal Mike's estate.
I am typing this while sitting in the Goodall Mansion on 461
Peachstone Terrace in San Rafael, California, while the wolves are
howling at the door, with the Bank of America trying unsuccessfully
thus far to steal the house and the Goodall Millions.
Kerry Lawless has been working for years and years, at least 25 years
that I know of and probably a lot longer than that, on compiling every
game he can, published and, where possible, unpublished that has ever
been played in the State of California.
The result of this great work is his website ChessDryad.com and his
database calgames.pgn that contains at present 37,598 games, all
played in the State of California from 1856 to the present.
Kerry Lawless has also been making great efforts to compile all chess
publications published in the State of California and, as much as
possible, all articles about California chess.
One result of these efforts is he has compiled every issue of the
California Chess Reporter during its 25 year run from 1951 to 1976. At
great personal expense to himself he has had all these volumes bound
by a professional binding service.
These bound volumes created by Kerry Lawless have been used to make
these reprints.
Sam Sloan
San Rafael California
USA
November 30, 2012
http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871875547
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871875547