The Great S. Gonotsky

[Mac Banks]

For several years, I corresponded with both Murray Cash, the creator of Nemesis, and Bob Podoff, from Brooklyn, New York. Bob spent his entire checker life researching the games of the great Samuel Gonotsky. Bob sent me ever game that Gonotsky played and pointed out how great Gonotsky was in the end game. I would always go over Gonotsky's games and he was a brilliant master player who in Bob's opinion was the greatest checker player ever. Personally, I always thought that Marion Tinsley was the greatest ever but would have loved to witness a 40 game match between these two icons of the game.

In 2003, Murray Cash put together an archive of games on his web site and he came across a blunder made by the great S. Gonotsky in the 1929 U. S. National tourney held in Chicago, Illinois. Here is the game.

Black W. F. Ryan
White S. Gonotsky
Site US National (Chicago)
Date 1929
Result Drawn

1015 2419 1524 2819 6-10 2217 914 2522 1115 2724 5-9 1713 2-6 3025 7-11 2218 1522 2518 11-16 2622 1620 3228 2027 3124 3-7 2420 1-5 2217 7-11 1915 1026 17-1 2630 13-6 1116 2011 8-22 6-2 4-8 1-6 8-11 6-10 2226 1014 2631 1418 3127 2925 1116 2-7 1619 7-11 2732 1822 3227 1115 2724 1511 2427 1115 2724 1518 24-27? (loses, 24-20 is ok), 18-14!! (An incredible miss by Gonotsky as How could he miss the winning 2 for one shot by going 18-23 instead?) The game continued after 1814, 2732 2217 1923 1713 2327 2522 2731 2217 Drawn I know that everyone misses a move from time to time as I think Marion Tinsley went into a 3 for one shot against Derek Oldbury but we tend to forget that ever the greatest checker players of all time are human and not a machine. I was never able to discuss this game with Bob Podoff as he had a serious operation in 2001 and gave up checkers. Murray Cash thought the run up of the game had to be wrong as even a minor checker player could have seen this simple shot. I would appreciate if anyone has a better run up of this game than I have.
By the way, I will be in Los Angeles next week until Tuesday afternoon but I am looking forward to seeing all my checker friends in Las Vegas.

All the best,
Mac

[john reade]

There was a game in the 1992 match between Tinsley and Chinook in London where Tinsley appears to miss a 2 for 1. I challenged Tinsley about this at the time and he said there was an error in the record. I'm not sure whether it was ever corrected in the official version.

[tommyc]

Hi Mac ,ol warrior,its great to see yu post this particular game,not heard of you in a while and nothing of Bob Podoff how? s he doing these days . You say he gave up Mail play in 01 dint know that ,yu must tell him i was asking abt him!!.Last time i saw him all 3 of us was playing in a Bobs darkened room in the 4 Queens Hotel Vegas(Bobs headache if think).

Your going to Vegas ,unfort we wont make it this time but hopefully sometime soon .Shane appreciated the book you gave him last time....so ol buddy b hope yu n Marie are well till we meet again ol buddy b take care .....Tommy.

[Mac Banks]

Hello Tommy,

Yes, Bob and I had a great time with you in Las Vegas in 2001. No one has ever partied until he partys with the Irish. You guys sure know how to party. Tommy, after going to the Las Vegas tourney in 2001, Bob had a serious operaton and has never been the same. A couple of years ago, I talked to Bob on the phone but it was evident to me that even talking on the phone was a difficult chore for him. Gerry Lopez knows Bob better than anyone and I will talk to Gerry about Bob when I see him in Las Vegas next week and give you an update on his status. Take care old friend.

All the best,
Mac

[Mac Banks]

My good friend Al Darrow called me on the phone and told me of a few blunders that he has noticed over the years. Al is having a difficult time logging in to this site so he sent me the information below in an email.

All the best,
Mac Banks

Barker vs. Freeman, 1885 Title Match for $400 and the Championship of America, Game 26. (A transposition from the Second Double to the Bristol.) reached this position near the end: B: 5, 12, 18, 26; King 22. W: 10, 13, 20, 27, 32. White (Freeman) to play suffered an optical illusion and pitched 20-16. Then after Barker jumped 12-19, Freeman moved 27-23 (perhaps thinking that the two-for-one would simplify the ending!), missing the 15-24 jump. Barker was given the huff and the game was drawn. The annotator (James Hill?) had this to say: “A remarkable termination of a match game. We believe it never occurred before when a stroke was pending. Mr. Freeman had planned to take two for two some dozen move in advance, but overlooked the close proximity of the king.”
The 20-16 pitch drew, since Barker had a two for one after the correct 15-24 jump. In any case, Freeman won the match handily 6 to 3 with 39 draws.

Richard Jordan vs. Robert Stewart, 1897 Title Match for £100 and the Draughts Championship of the World, Game 33 after 37th move: B: 1, 6, 9, 12, 13, 27 ; W: 7, 19, 21, 25, 28, 30. Jordan, playing Black had moved 23-27. Then before Stewart had a chance to move, Jordan moved 27-31! George Crookston, close friend of Jordan and checker editor of the Falkirk Mail, made this comment on page 49 of the match book:
“It was now Stewart’s turn to play, but greatly to the astonishment of all around, Jordan (who was suffering severely as he had been all week from toothache) put out his hand and again played, placing the man on 27 on 31. Stewart immediately appealed to the referee for a decision on the point and the referee promptly awarded the game to Stewart, basing his decision on Rule 15, which states ‘Any player making a false or improper move shall instantly forfeit the game’. Jordan quietly accepted the decision.” Crookston paraphrased Lees’ Rule 15 on page 6 of the first edition of his famous “Guide”, 1892.
Jordan went on to win another game from Stewart and won the match and the title 4-2 with 33 draws.

Melvin Pomeroy vs. Alfred Jordan, 1913 50 Game Free-Style (GAYP) Match (purportedly for the World’s Championship.), Game 48 after 121st move (10-6):
B: Kings: 16, 17, 18, 19; W: Kings: 6, 9. 10. Black (Pomeroy) now moved 16-11? allowing a draw after the shot by 10-7, 11-2, 9-5, 2-9, 1-16. Jordan did not give up easily and would fight on to the bitter end. He got John F. Horr in a similar shot in game no. 329, page 259, ( Sixth American Tourney): B: 2, 27; Kings 26, 30; W. 9 Kings: 10, 15.
Horr had just moved 31-26 allowing Jordan a three for two by 9-6, 2-9, 10-14, 9-18, 15-24 and Jordan gave a model example of a cliché by grasping “Victory from the Jaws of Defeat.”
There was talk of Pomeroy’s bribing Jordan to lose this contest. I’ve often wondered why, if this was true, Jordan didn’t resign when Pomeroy had a clear win. He did lose game 50 — somewhat surprisingly, since they had the same Glasgow line in their first meeting in February. Jordan gave the proper draw in the February, 1913 issue of his American Checker Player . Had he forgotten his own analysis?

The Gonotsky blunder according to the record in the Chicago 1929 (Rump Tourney.),
could easily be explained by Gonotsky’s health at the time (shortly before his death.)
Richard Fortman once reported an observation by Jessie Hanson that Gonotsky was coughing and spitting up blood during the tournament.
Looking closely at the Chicago Daily News photo in the frontispiece of the tourney book, I see the portrait of a gravely sick man. (Perhaps knowing that he would soon die has affected my vision.)

In game 329 (9-13, 22-18, 6-9), Ninth American tourney book, Asa Long vs. Willie Ryan., two wins were missed: B: 2, 3 , 4, 5, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16; W: 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 31, 32. (Ryan had just played 24-20? missing the easy win by 10-15, 20-11, 14-18, etc. To practically everyone’s astonishment, Long played 3-8? Ryan missed a win later in the ending. Both players were unaware of these missed opportunities. Long gave this explanation in his notes to the game: “Overlooking one of those moves that the amateur cannot understand that the expert would make. … There are two reasons for such mistakes. First, between experts, mistakes common to the amateur are not expected, hence the expert is not looking for an opponent to commit such an error. Second, ideas become so predominant in the sequence and continuity of building, in the mind’s eye, a planned procedure, that often times the simple and obvious is side tracked. … Such errors, where no actual loss occurs in the score, are more amusing than tragic.”

Tinsley lost a winning position to Alex Cameron by falling into a shot that eliminated him from the 1950 Paxton National. Mac Banks has previously noted that Tinsley walked into a shot against Oldbury in their 1958 title match. (Perhaps jet lag was at least partially responsible her.)

Mac also noted in a phone conversion that Harold Freyer moved twice against Asa Lon in the 1974 Florida Open. No harm done this time. Freyer came in third behind Tinsley and Oldbury (first and second, respectively. Surprisingly, Long was eighth this time!)

Moral: Masters, on a rare occasion, holiday in Beginners Land.

Al Darrow

[Jay H]

Fantastic Post, Mac !!!



Thanx

Regards

Jay H