Rare and Ruthless Reshevsky

By Marek Soszynski

Sammy Reshevsky was a child prodigy who became a World Chess Championship contender. In this book, Correspondence Chess Master Marek Soszynski discusses Reshevsky's playing style, annotates 20 of his games (9 of them not in Gordon's Compendium) and adds contemporary newspaper accounts and other reports to give a full and frank picture of the ruthless American Grandmaster.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marek Soszynski
• Release date: Dec 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223380665

Book preview

cover.jpg

Rare and Ruthless

Reshevsky

CCM Marek Soszynski MPHIL

MarekMedia

2023

Table Of Contents

Signs & Symbols, etc.

About the Author

Author’s Chess Publications

Preface

Biography

Playing Style

Religion

Quotes & Cuttings

Games

Blunders & Disasters

Bibliography

Compendium Errata

Games

1: Rzeszewski-Faktor, Łódź 1917

2: Rzeszewski-Traube, Hannover 1920

3: Rzeszewski-Degraeve, Paris 1920

4: Tartakower-Reshevsky, Stockholm 1937

5: Goglidze-Reshevsky, Leningrad/Moscow 1939

6: Green-Reshevsky, New York 1939

7: Reshevsky-Jaffe, New York 1939

8: Reshevsky-Ulvestad, New York 1946

9: Reshevsky-Nickel, Germantown 1950

10: Reshevsky-Pilkington, Vancouver 1954

11: Wexler-Reshevsky, Buenos Aires 1960

12: Reshevsky-Bisguier, New York 1963

13: Steinmeyer-Reshevsky, New York 1964

14: Reshevsky-Beliavsky, Vilnius 1978

15: Miles-Reshevsky, Lone Pine 1979

16: Super Greenblatt-Reshevsky, corr 1980

17: Thesing-Reshevsky, Lugano 1985

18: Short-Reshevsky, Lugano 1985

19: Jonasson-Reshevsky, Reykjavik 1986

20: Reshevsky-Dominguez, Florida 1991

+- White is winning

+/- White is clearly better

+/= White is slightly better

= Equal position

=/+ Black is slightly better

-/+ Black is clearly better

-+ Black is winning

~ Unclear position

~/= With compensation

# Checkmate (when suffixed to a move)

!! Excellent move

! Good move

!? Interesting move

?! Dubious or misguided move

? Poor or mistaken move

?? Bad move or blunder

corr Correspondence game

ICCF International Correspondence Chess Federation www.iccf.com

FIDE International Chess Federation (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) www.fide.com

NN Player not known or anonymised

The author is a self-styled Doublemaster — a Master of Philosophy (MPHIL awarded 2004 by the University of Birmingham) and a Correspondence Chess Master (CCM awarded 2020 by the ICCF as recognised by FIDE). He has an ICCF rating of over 2300. His chess publications are listed below; he also writes on philosophy and aesthetics. He lives in the city where he was born, Birmingham, in the United Kingdom.

Konikowski, Jerzy, and Marek Soszynski. 2005. The Fearsome Four Pawns Attack (Milford: Russell Enterprises) ISBN: 1888690275

Konikowski, Jerzy, and Marek Soszynski. 2009. 1.b4 Theory & Practice of the Sokolsky Opening (Milford: Russell Enterprises) ISBN: 9781888690651

Konikowski, Jerzy, and Marek Soszynski. 2018. Sabotaging the Sicilian, French & Caro-Kann with 2.b3 (Milford: Russell Enterprises) ISBN: 9781941270837, 9781941270844

Konikowski, Jerzy, and Marek Soszynski. 2022. The Polish Defense: Systems for Black Based on ...b5 (Portsmouth: Russell Enterprises) ISBN: 9781949859546, 9781949859539

Przewoznik, Jan, and Marek Soszynski. 2001. How to Think in Chess (Milford: Russell Enterprises) ISBN: 1888690100

Przewoznik, Jan, and Marek Soszynski, trans. by Nadine Sickermann. 2004. Como pensar em xadrez (Rio de Janeiro: Ciencia Moderna) ISBN: 857393302X

Soszynski, Marek. 2018. The Great Reshevsky: Chess Prodigy and Old Warrior (Forward Chess)

Soszynski, Marek. 2020. The Centre Game Re-examined: 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4 (MarekMedia) ISBN: 9781393536963

Soszynski, Marek. 2022. The Scandinavian Defence: Winning with 2...Nf6: A Chess Repertoire for Black (MarekMedia) ISBN: 9798201257972

Soszynski, Marek. 2022. The Scandinavian Defence: Winning with Qd6 and g6 (MarekMedia) ISBN: 9798215268452

Soszynski, Marek. 2023. The Scandinavian Defence: Winning with 2...Nf6: A Chess Repertoire for Black (Revised Edition) (MarekMedia) ISBN: 9798215711675

Soszynski, Marek. 2023. Scotch the Scotch: Lolli Variation (MarekMedia) ISBN: 9798223615316

Soszynski, Marek. 2023. Bird’s Defence Against the Ruy Lopez (MarekMedia) ISBN: 9798223886365

Soszynski, Marek. 2024 (Forthcoming). Double Trouble Scandinavian Style: Two Repertoires for Black (Portsmouth: Russell Enterprises) ISBN: 9781949859812, 9781949859829

My first book on Sammy Reshevsky, The Great Reshevsky: Chess Prodigy and Old Warrior, was mainly historical/biographical and available only on the Forward Chess platform.

Five years later, this follow-up volume revisits the subject, drawing extensively from the initial book while also revising, updating, and expanding on certain aspects. Additionally, it incorporates far more pure chess content. So, although there is overlap, there remains significant material unique to The Great Reshevsky and a great deal of different and new material unique to this larger book, Rare and Ruthless Reshevsky.

In the case of both books, I am grateful to many correspondents for directly supplying me with Reshevsky games, information and reminiscences or for rendering other assistance down the years in connection with my research into him.

I thank Stephen Ball (Canada), Frank K. Berry (USA), Gunnar Bjornsson (Iceland), Hugh Brodie (Canada), Charles Covington (USA), Karl Dehmelt (USA), John Donaldson (USA), Mike Donnelly (UK), Jim Gardner (USA), Mark Ginsburg (USA), Joop de Groot (Netherlands), Richard Hartley (USA), Wayne Hoffman (USA), Patricia Higo (USA), Uvencio Blanco Hernández (Venezuela), Taylor Kingston (USA), Peter Loach (UK), Daniel Lucas (USA), James Massie (USA), Rory Jude Melough (UK), John Mingos (USA), Steven Mitlitzky (USA), Bruce Monson (USA), Avital Pilpel (Israel), Bill Price (USA), Stephen Wright (Canada), and others including Stephen W. Gordon (USA) himself, the author of the excellent Compendium of Reshevsky’s games.

Marek Soszynski

Birmingham, UK

December 2023

The subject of our book is the chess prodigy, and later a World Championship contender, Sammy Reshevsky (d. 1992). It’s important to emphasise just how strong he was. In the course of his extremely long career, he beat the following sometime World Champions: Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Max Euwe (6 times), Mikhail Botvinnik (twice), Vasily Smyslov, Bobby Fischer (4 times). And he drew with the following: Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian (8 times), Boris Spassky (twice), and Anatoly Karpov. He represented the USA in 8 Chess Olympiads from 1937 to 1974, playing 100 games altogether and scoring 63.5%. That magnificent record alone makes him worthy of honour and study.

He was born Szmul Rzeszewski in Łęczyca, Poland (then under Russian control) in 1909 — yes, 1909 not 1911 — into a strict Orthodox Jewish family. He showed such a remarkable early aptitude for chess that his bankrupted father, head of a large family, was to have him perform in fee-paying exhibitions and simultaneous displays first in Poland and then across Europe.

Because of Sammy’s very small stature, he was able to pass as younger, making his performances appear all the more astonishing as his fame spread. Gradually, the pretence that he was really born in 1911 stuck, and that became his official birthdate by the time he and his family arrived in America, for more lucrative chess tours, in November 1920. There, he caused a nationwide sensation, often attracting hundreds of spectators. He played Congressmen, military officers, and Hollywood stars...

However, in October 1922 he was detained in New York by child protection authorities to prevent further exploitation of the boy for the financial gain of his father, mother, and manager. There had already been concerns for Sammy’s welfare in Europe and offers of patronage that his father had turned down. Now, those increasing public concerns could no longer be ignored, and anyway, Sammy’s period of peak earnings was passing.

A wealthy Jewish sponsor agreed to take care of his full-time education (he’d had no formal schooling and was barely literate) on condition that there was to be no more chess (certainly not in term time anyway) and no public exposure in the meantime. His name was simplified to Samuel Reshevsky; he was sent