Euwe and Kolty

Reading about the 4th annual Paul Masson tournament (1976) in Saratoga California, this side-piece caught my attention.

For the record, Walter Browne won the Masters Section with a perfect 4-0 score (prize:$2000);  David Strauss, then the California champ, came in second with a 3.5-.5 score (prize: $1000);  James Tarjan and Peter Cleghorn, each scoring 3-1, shared 3rd-4th (Prize: $375).

Two giants.....I was introduced to Max Euwe in 1974, when he came to witness the Spassky-Byrne Cabdidates' Match in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Did you converse in Dutch, Spanish or English?

I was so shy....I did not say anything....he was introduced to me in English.

The following is a true story:

In the late 1980s, my wife and I traveled to San Francisco for a conference.  Before leaving home, I had forgotten to research places to play chess in San Fran.  We soon found ourselves in a hotel room, before the age of Google, with no ability to find someone to ask.  I believe I already had looked through the Yellow Pages under “chess,” to no avail.

I eventually remembered that George Koltanowski lived in San Fran, so I looked him up in the white pages and found a listing for G. Koltanowski.  I called his house, and when an elderly woman answered the phone, I asked if I could speak with Mr. Koltanowski.

When asked who I was and why I was calling, I apologized for bothering them, stating that I was calling just to try to get a lead on a place to play chess.  She was very polite as she told me about the Mechanic’s Institute.    

My wife and I ended up having a very nice visit to the Mechanic’s Institute, thanks to Mrs. Koltanowski.

So you found your way to that legendary chess club (the oldest in the USA) via the legendary wife, Leah, of the legendary chess master.  

Kolty was known for his blindfold demonstrations. It's rather ironic that he met Leah in 1944 on a blind date.  

Nice story... thank you.

Too bad, dear Kamal. You minimalized your meeting with the Max.

ǝǝǝǝǝǝǝǝɯ dlǝɥ ǝsɐǝld lɹᴉƃʇɐq uʍop ǝpᴉsdn sᴉ ɹǝʇndɯoɔ ʎɯ dlǝɥ

An old member on this site, can't remember his name now, said once that he visited Spain and asked about chess places at the hotel. The lady attending gave him the address of a jazz club. Only later he learned the horrible name the game has in Spanish. Well, to be honest, "chess" doesn't sound like a serious game to me.

ɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɥɐ

hi

An obiturary written by Steve Rubenstein and published on December 27, 2005 :

   "Leah Koltanowski, the sharp-witted and untiring wife of legendary chess grandmaster and Chronicle chess columnist George Koltanowski, has died.
   Mrs. Koltanowski, 99, who helped her husband run chess tournaments and compose his chess column for more than five decades, died Friday in her San Francisco apartment after a long illness.
   A small woman with a keen sense of humor and a remarkable memory, Mrs. Koltanowski not only did not know how to play chess, but refused every attempt by her husband and his friends to teach her the game.
   "If I learned to play," she often said with a smile, "I'd just be another chess player."
   Mrs. Koltanowski was a native of Massachusetts who met her husband, then the chess champion of his native Belgium, on a blind date in New York City in 1944. The couple married a year later and moved to San Francisco in 1947. The following year, Mr. Koltanowski began writing his daily chess column in The Chronicle, continuing without interruption until his death in 2000 at the age of 96. It was the longest-running chess column in newspaper history.
   At chess tournaments, club meetings or exhibitions, Mrs. Koltanowski was invariably at her husband's side. She took it upon herself to make sure that chessboards were set up properly and that players competed fairly. She often checked phone booths and lounges to make sure that players were not receiving illicit advice between moves.
   Mrs. Koltanowski also helped her husband conduct his record-setting public exhibitions of "blindfold" chess, in which he would play dozens of opponents, often simultaneously, without looking at the chessboards.
   She helped her husband answer mail from around the world and gather material for his column. When he would offer readers free reprints of the games from world championship matches and thousands of readers would write in to request them, it was Mrs. Koltanowski who patiently folded the leaflets, stuffed the envelopes and licked the flaps.
   While Koltanowski was known for his remarkable memory at the chessboard, he often joked that he was unable to remember more mundane information, such as what to bring home from the supermarket. Mrs. Koltanowski, whose memory complemented her husband's, never forgot shopping lists, birthdays, gossip, phone numbers or the names of their friends' grandchildren.
   For decades, the couple shared a Cathedral Hill apartment that was filled with chessboards, chess plaques, chess books, chess paintings, chess clocks, chess mosaics, chess awards and chess posters. The Koltanowskis turned their lights on and off using switch-plates that were decorated with chess diagrams.
   Mrs. Koltanowski is survived by three nieces, Rachelle Knapp and Caroline Fainberg of New York City and Harriet Goler of Cleveland, and a nephew, William Zellen of Wayland, Mass. Services will be held Friday in Queens, N.Y., where she will be buried alongside her husband.

hello

LOL

If only there was a chess jeopardy! You'd kick butt.

. . .not to mention, beat Alekhine.

As many times as Browne won the event, they probably took their name from him. 

Seriously, didn't Browne Vintners handle the promotional side of Paul Masson Vineyards?

As for me, I was personally night manager in a fleabag hotel,   that was many years ago as a student.

The grateful dead made no song about that one specifically so I'm not sure if the memory is  relevant....