December 01 1947
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Monday, December 01, 1947
Chess Speed Play Tourney Draws Many Youngsters
A hush hung over the grand ballroom of the Academy of Music yesterday, although there were about 200 people in it. Fifteen or 20 card tables had been set up with chess boards on them, at which players sat making deft shifts of pawns and queens and castles, while others clustered about or moved quietly from table to table.
The occasion was the annual tournament for the speed championship of the United States Chess Federation, being sponsored this year by the Brooklyn Chess Club. There were 40 entrants playing in five groups, ranging from a mere sprig of 14 years to gray-haired veterans of many contests.
A Veteran at 14
Karl Burger, 781 Linden Boulevard, yesterday's youngest contestant, moved his men like the veteran he is. Although only 14, Karl has been playing chess since he was four, although this was his first venture into a big-time tournament. Karl keeps in practice by playing at the Brooklyn Chess Club on Saturday nights.
Saul Wachs, another Brooklyn boy, who is making a name for himself in chess circles at the age of 15, first began to play at 7, when his father, an enthusiast, taught him the game. Two years ago he took part in the Pennsylvania Junior State Chess championship matches.
Other youthful contenders included Robert and Donald Byrne, Arthur Bisguier, Walter Shipman, Larry Evans and Eugene Shapiro, of the Marshall Club in Manhattan, all of them in their teens.
Youngsters Attracted
According to Dr. Edward Lasker, president of the Association of American Chess Masters and author of a number of books on chess strategy, who directed yesterday's tournament, more and more young people are being attracted to the game, and he finds many of them very good.
In playing speed chess, the players have 10 seconds in which to make a move. A bell sounds a warning at eight seconds and the move has to be completed at the next bell two seconds later.
Philip L. Gold is president of the Brooklyn Chess Club, which now has 70 members and meets Tuesday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons at the Academy of Music.
