AFebruary 08, 1942
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Sunday, February 08, 1942
Propaganda on Chess Board
One of the liveliest games, despite all carping critics, is chess. It is a little warfare, fought in comfort, generally from armchairs upon a squared board. Each of the gay pieces, often exquisitely carved from ivory, observes the amenities. Talk about protocol. Every horse knows his limits; every rook, his; even the king knows he can't go here, he can't go there.
Surprised was Trend, then, to learn that Nazi propaganda was making hay out of the ancient game. Claiming that Alexander Alekhine, one of the grand masters, had written a series of German-printed articles upon the subject, expostulated Berlin: Aryan players were bold, adventuresome, even inventive. Jewish players, on the other hand, were timid, defensive, inclined to wear their opponents down by sheer boredom. If the Franco-Russian master really meant what he said, if he wrote it, let Mr. Trend recall a famous meeting of the grand masters some years ago, in a hotel on Central Park West, N. Y. C.
Then, complained opponents of Dr. Alekhine: He smoked cheap cigars, puffed the fumes into his opponents' faces, practically stupefied them into submission. Great was the ado in sports pages and even on the editorial pages, too. COuld this be Aryanism with a slightly, biliously Japanese slant?
