March 15 1936
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Sunday, March 15, 1936
A Queen at Gambits
Mary Bain at her chessboard.
Shunned Chess Fame To Raise Her Family
Mrs. Mary Bain Looks Like an Artist but Her Game Has Won Praise of Capablanca—Thinks All Should Play
The first time you see Mrs. Mary Bain you think you've come to the wrong place. She wraps her hair around her head in braid fashion, looks a little bit Bohemian—the Left Bank kind—and suggests some one who will say modern art is contemplative or something.
Then all of a sudden she gets around to chess and you discover the subject is as delightful to her as ice cream sliding down your throat when your head is on fire.
Except for a few trifling reasons, Mrs. Bain probably could run off with the female title; experts consider her one of the best chess players in the country.
Shunned Training
When Maroczy, internationally known chess player, wanted to train her for the women's chess title of the world, she said no because: One, Mr. Bain; two, Eva Bain, 6½; three, Mitchell Bain, 8½. She says she never has regretted her answer.
Still chess is her favorite subject. “There is so much beauty in it. I believe every one should know how to play chess. A nice position is just like a beautiful painting. You are locked out. You are in a different world.”
Learned in Hungary
Her introduction to the game came about when she was a child in Hungary. Her mother taught her the first moves. Coming to America when a young girl, she discovered that being a good chess player had excellent social advantages. Unable to speak the English language, she was left quite alone on deck. About the second day out Mary decided to set up her chess board.
Soon she had a partner. Several partners, in fact. And besides them, an audience but none with whom she could exchange a single common word. The captain heard about his chess-playing passenger and instructed the purser to arrange a match in the salon that evening. The master, according to Mary Bain, never quite recovered from his defeat.
Today she knows all the important chess players and can tell you that Hollywood's game isn't so good, generally speaking. She organized the town's chess club and got herself quite a reputation with the intellects of the West Coast. Her husband is an assistant director out there.
Held Borochow to Draw
When Borochow played a series of games in California the reported score in the newspapers read: “He won every game except a draw with Mrs. Bain.”
She has played with Capablanca, and though he liked her game Mrs. Main still insists “I am such a little nobody.”
If you stick to the technical side of chess, though, Mrs. Bain will go on for hours.
She happens to be a position player and doesn't believe in taking chances. Mrs. Bain prefers out-and-out counter attacking to defensive moving. She has a partiality for the queens gambit opening.
“I usually like that opening. It is the strongest and, of course, the most played.”
Mrs. Bain considers chess a very revealing game, for it demands a keen mind.
Easy to Learn, She Says
“It is,” she says, “a form of intellectual productiveness. Like Tarrasch, I believe that chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy.” The trouble with most people is that they have their minds set that the game is hard. It is not hard. You can learn in an hour—I have taught quite a few in that time. But to the ordinary person it is too much effort. That should not be. Everybody should know how to play chess.”
Mr. Bain believes that once a chess player, always a chess player. You can't help yourself.
