Wednesday, July 10

Rice Chess Club tournament, Round 3: Capablanca scores again, defeats Adair in 25 moves; Bernstein, Phillips also winners

Cuba's José R. Capablanca defeated George F. Adair in 25 moves to record yet another victory, his fourth in succession, during yesterday's third round of the Rice Chess Club Summer Masters' tournament.  Capablanca, who is being allowed to complete his tourney program weeks ahead of schedule by playing some of his latter-round games on free days, has as of this writing scored two points more than any other competitor, and the Cuban's opening sprint is beginning to evoke memories of the remarkable start he made earlier this year at the Second American National Tournament, also held in New York, when the young Master reeled off ten straight victories to begin that event.  Only time will tell whether he can replicate such a feat in the current contest.

Two other games were played to a finish during yesterday's session. with Jacob Bernstein defeating Jacques Grommer and Harold M. Phillips topping George Beihoff.  The games Tenenwurzel-Beynon and Black-Marder were adjourned, and will be completed in a few days' time.  Meanwhile, Oscar Chajes and Abraham Kupchik sat idle, the former having been paired against the yet-to-arrive Oldrich Duras, and the latter with the already-withdrawn J.H. Stapfer.

Only the score of the Capablanca-Adair encounter has come to hand, and is duly reproduced below.  Black's resignation when just one pawn in arrears may at first glance seem premature, but, in light of White's many threats (e.g. to capture on b5, to advance his f-pawn, to play Nf4 with a view to Qg6+, etc.) it is in fact quite well justified.

Current scores:

4 points: Capablanca (4)
2 points: Kupchik (2), Marder (2), Bernstein (4)
1 point:   Black (1), Tenenwurzel (1) Adair (3), Phillips (3)
1/2 point: Beynon (2), Beihoff (4)
0 points:  Duras (0), Chajes (1), Grommer (3)

The number in parentheses following a player's surname indicates the number of games he has played to date.  The adjourned games Tenenwurzel-Beynon and Black-Marder are not included in the above table.

No comments: