Banks v Stewart 1922

[Richard Pask]

Running KingsRow's weather eye over every move of this great match, I find the following:

33 games were error-free: 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39 & 40.

Banks won Game 29
Stewart won games 4 & 18

Banks missed a win in Game 37
Stewart missed wins in Games 2, 3 & 32

Thus Stewart might have won by 5 games to 2 with 33 draws - a remarkably large number of games.

It seems incredible that, at 2-move, Banks might have lost 3 of the first 4 games. Nervous?

Also of note is the fact that, having missed the win in Game 2, Banks returned the compliment only for Stewart to miss the win again! From the diagrammed position in the book: Black: King on 19; men on 7, 11 and 22. White: King on 6; men on 12, 20 and 21. Continue: ... 21-17? (Stewart correctly notes 12-8! to win); 11-15 12-8;15-18 8-3; 7-11 6-10; 11-15? (22-25/22-26 draws) 3-7? (10-14! wins similarly to before); 22-26 10-14; 18-23. Drawn.

Overall, I believe it is fair to say that Stewart deserved to win this match. However, in the succeeding years it seems highly likely that he would have lost a match at 2-move both against Long and Gonotsky.