Marshall Chess Club
The Marshall Chess Club in New York is one of the leading chess clubs in the United States . It was traditionally in competition with the older Manhattan Chess Club , which has not existed since 2002.
The founding of the Marshall Chess Club goes back to a circle of players around Frank Marshall . In 1915 the merger took place under the initial name "Marshall's Chess Divan", and in 1922 the association was officially registered.
Its best-known members included Marshall Edward Lasker , Hans Kmoch , Anthony Santasiere , Fred Reinfeld , Arthur Dake , Gisela Gresser , Reuben Fine , Larry Evans and Edmar Mednis . In the early 1950s, Stanley Kubrick was also a brief member. Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura is one of its current members .
In the early years, the club initially had changing rooms. In 1921 the association bought a house at 127 West 12th Street, but ran into financial difficulties during the Great Depression and had to sell it again. In 1931, thanks to the support of the patron Gustavus Adolphus Pfeiffer, he found his permanent residence at 23 West 10th Street. The inauguration of the premises took place on December 19, 1931 in the presence of the ex-world champion José Raúl Capablanca . The Marshall Chess Club owns the building on which two floors are used for the chess club. Marshall lived in a small apartment on the ground floor and ran the club until his death in November 1944, after which his widow Caroline († 1971) took over the management of the club. The chess journalist Frank Brady has been chairman since 2007 .
Numerous chess events took place on the premises of the club, including several times the American chess championship . From here, Bobby Fischer , who was unable to travel to Cuba for political reasons , took part in the Capablanca memorial tournament in Havana by telex in 1965 .
literature
- Aristea D. Mengarini: The Marshall Chess Club in the early 1950s. In: John Hilbert: Essays in American chess history . Caissa Editions, Yorklyn 2002. ISBN 0-939433-59-1 . Pp. 117-127.