AJanuary 03 1909
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Sunday, January 03, 1909
Three Brooklyn Boys Prominent in College Chess
L. Walter Stephens, Captain Princeton team. Louis Tolins, Captain Cornell team. Henry Blumberg, Columbia's star player.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Sunday, January 03, 1909
Brooklyn Boys Lead In College Chess
Have Been Tournament Leaders During the Past Two Years.
STEPHENS WON FOR TIGERS.
Blumberg Prominent at Columbia. Tolins, Promising Cornell Player. Russell at N.Y.U.
Wherever the Brooklyn student chess player goes when entering upon the broader sphere of college life, he naturally assumes the lead just as though it were his due by right of inheritance. At least, this summary of the actual situation today is applicable to the past two years and it would appear that the local training is most conducive to pre-eminence in the world of Caissa. As to what contributes most to this state of affairs, it is not necessary at this time to dwell upon at length, except to say that it is largely due to the activity of the school teams, their constant participation in the interscholastic series with schools in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, and to the generous encouragement of the older clubs and players of Brooklyn. But the fact is that, at this writing, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton and the New York University acknowledge as leaders young men who owe their talents for the game to education and development derived from association with the very active chess element in this borough. Yale, too, has honored with leadership young chess players nurtured on Long Island.
Last year, Columbia, through the efforts of Louis J. Wolff and H. Blumberg, both of Brooklyn, and Cornell, thanks to the good work of Roy T. Black and Ernest H. Riedel, won the championships for their respective universities in the annual tournaments of the two intercollegiate leagues. This year, champion-chip honors in the major league were transferred to Princeton, and upon L. Walter Stephens, bred and born in Brooklyn, fell the distinction, not alone of captaining the victorious team, but winning all his games against the best players of Columbia, Harvard and Yale. Stephens also played for Princeton in 1906 and 1907, but it was not until he assumed the helm that Old Nassau scored her first triumph at chess in seventeen years. In Brooklyn, the Tiger skipper was well known as the captain and champion of the Boys High School, an institution which has contributed most of the players from this borough who have made their mark in intercollegiate chess.
Blumberg of Columbia was a member of the champion Blue and White teams for 1906 and 1907, and this year was placed at the top board, but lost his game to Stephens. He is another product of the chess at Boys' High. His game in the last cable chess match with Oxford and Cambridge holds the record for the time required to arrive at a satisfactory adjudication of the unfinished position. It was finally declared a draw by Referee Shipley of Philadelphia, his opponent being H. Lob of Oxford.
Louis Tolins appears in intercollegiate chess for the first time this year. He was born twenty-three years ago In Alliance, Salem County, N. J., and attended the public schools of Philadelphia and Brooklyn. He prepared for college at Heffley School in this borough and is now attending the State Agricultural College at Cornell University. Tolins has played chess for about eight years. At one time he held the Junior championship of the Kings and Queens Chess League, and subsequently joined the Brooklyn Chess Club, where he was rated as 1A. The benefit of his experience has been placed at the disposal of the Brooklyn Boys' High School teams as coach, and this year be is the captain of the Cornell varsity team.
There is probably no finer chess player attending college to-day than F. F. Russell, former champion of Boys' High and now studying at the New York University. While his strength is recognized, his talents have been hid under a bushel as it were, because the N. Y. U. team does not belong to either of the big leagues. He would add strength to the student cable team, did the “C. H. Y. P.” committee in control see fit to avail itself of his services.
Yale has had the support for the past four years of E. B. Burgess, a son of Bishop Frederick Burgess of Long Island. This year he is the captain. His brother, G. Burgess, has also been a member of the Yale team in the tournaments of 1907 and 1908.
