Another well thought out and informative post, thank you!
Chess Angels
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Mar 13, 2017
0
#3
Your articles are always a pleasure to read, including the superb photographs. Kudos and thanks!
I enjoyed it very much too. don't be stingy with more chess history !!
I enjoyed it very much too. don't be stingy with more chess history !!
Bonsai_Dragon wrote:
Another well thought out and informative post, thank you!
+1 Thanks for the history batgirl!
Mar 13, 2017
0
#9
Wonderful Chess History Batgirl! Little Paul Morphy Bisno meets Jim Cross pic is priceless 
! They both are just apparently so happy to be there! Thank you for the fun read & history!
man I thought it was going to be about chess chicks 
Mar 14, 2017
0
#11
sanjayrame wrote:
bat girl you are spoiling us!! too much interesting stuff
love you work
Ditto!
Chess angels or benefactors have played a major role throughout the history of the game. Without the people willing to part with often exorbitant funds, many tournaments would have never happened and many great players would have had truncated careers.
The names of many of these angels are known, but unrecognizable to most chess enthusiasts. We could go back to the 16th century with Prince Bisignano, the Duke d'Ossuna, King Sebastian of Portugal, Giacomo Buoncompagno (the Duke of Sora and father of Francesco Buoncompagno) Philip II of Spain and Senor Giorgio, a patron of Gio. Leonardo da Cutri, Greco's patrons such as Monsr. Francesco Buoncompagno and Monsr. Corsini of Casa Minutoli Trgrimi in the 17th century. Even in Russia we see men such as Count Alexander Grigorievich Kushelev-Bezborodko at the beginning of the 19th century and Mikhail Nikolaevich Bostancioglo at the end. Then there's Prince Dadian, Isaac Leopold Rice, Léonardus Nardus, the Saburovs and Albert von Rothschilde. Later we find patrons like Louis Statham, the Piatigorskys and Joop van Oosterom.
Some of these benefactors were quite magnanimous; some very much into self-promotion as well.
One often-forgotten benefactor, though probably not to the degree as most of the above, was Al Bisno.
Alexander Bisno was a Los Angeles real estate developer/investment broker and chess nut. At one time or other he was president of the Manhattan Chess Club and an official of both the USCF and the American Chess Foundation. He was also an occasional chess angel who even collaborated with Jackie Piatigorsky to try to bring off the ill-fated Fischer-Reshevsky match. In 1955, along with Louis Rubin and Alf Childs, Bisno built and owned 21% of the Moulin Rouge, the first integrated casino in Las Vegas. The boxer Joe Louis is thought to have been a silent partner.
Al Bisno, 1951
Bisno served as manager and captain of several American teams, accompanying one to the 1952 Olympiad in Helsinki where he also persuaded the Soviets to consider coming to the U.S. for a match. When the Soviets came in 1954, he served as captain for the American team . He also went with the U.S. team to Moscow for a return match in 1955.
Bisno in Moscow 1955:
l-r: former Premier, Geori Malenkov, Chairman Nikolai Bulganin, Reshevsky,
First Secretary, Nikita Kruschev, Al Bisno (Alexander Kotov is behind Bisno)
NYC, 1954
Alexander Bisno (January 15, 1897 - July 13, 1987) married Sally Shulman (July 8, 1911 - August 1974). They had two children: a girl, Leslie and a boy Paul Morphy.
During the 1954 U.S.-U.S.S.R. match in N.Y, According to "Chess Review":
"When Al Bisno asked his young son, Paul Morphy Bisno, whom he want to win, he got an answer he least expected: 'My friend Kotov;' it seems the Russian grandmaster and the junior Bisno had become real pals during the course of the match! "
[as an aside: Jim Cross, opposite Paul Morphy Bisno in the above photo, was one of Herman Steiner's protegees. When Steiner died suddenly of a heart attack in 1955, Cross, a California State Champion, abandoned chess. ]
Bisno, who helped manage Reshevksy (and angered Fischer when he criticized him severely for pulling out of his match with Reshevsky) also staked Fischer in a proposed title match with Petrosian (winner=first to win 10 gamez) in 1964. Petrosian declined to play.
Al Bisno and Isaac Kashdan, 1954