Reshevsky Made Brilliance Look Easy

Samuel Reshevsky was born in Russian ruled Poland Nov. 26, 1911 and died in New York April 4, 1992. After learning to play at age four, Reshevsky was a celebrated prodigy who gave simultaneous exhibitions at the age of eight. His family came to the United States in 1920. He was not able to be a full time chess professional without having to repeatedly quit chess to make a living. Yet, he was still one of the best players of his time. He won the U.S. championship seven times. He was one of the world championship contenders from the 1930s to the 1960s. During that time he had to face collusion by Soviet players against his success. In match play he was undefeated and untied until losing a candidates match to Viktor Korchnoi in 1968. Those he defeated in matches were Horowitz, Kashdan, Gligoric, Najdorf (twice), Lombardy, Bisguier, D. Byrne, and Benko. To this can be added his plus score in four games with Botvinnik in the US-USSR team match in 1955. Arthur Bisguier told me that the American players his age expected to surpass Reshevsky as he aged, but that they themselves aged waiting for Reshevsky to become weaker. Then Bobby Fischer came along reducing their chances to replace Reshevsky at the top of American chess. With Fischer leaving chess in 1972, Reshevsky was still playing and there was a generation younger than Bisguier's, led by Walter Browne, that kept winning the U.S. championship. In the game shown below, Reshevsky earned the Brilliancy Prize. His opponent was Albert Simonson (Dec. 26, 1914-Nov. 16, 1965), who was one of America's top players from the 1930s to the early 1950s.