CHESS LIFE

Volume 6, Number 22, July 20, 1952

Form Federation in California

Winner of the coveted Oscar in the current Academy Awards, tough guy Humphrey Bogart lost a close one to International Master George Koltanowski in San Francisco - in chess, not acting. But it took the Belgian-born expert forty-one moves to punch his way to victory.

Playing blindfolded against the movie bad-man, in an exhibition staged by the San Francisco Chronicle during Bogart's appearance in San Francisco for the premier of "The African Queen," Koltanowski was frequently in hot water during the course of the game, and was heard to murmur: "This guy is dangerous and I'm not kidding."

Bogart, who confessed that he had learned chess "in those old shooting galleries, when I was a kid in New York," played a solid French Defense. For a time he seemed more than dangerous, but at the end he began to tire, and the superior experience of the chess expert made itself felt.

Humphrey Bogart is one of a number of Hollywood stars who relax with chess. It may be remembered that they turned out in force to kibitz the Pan-American Tournament in 1945 in which Mitzi Mayfair played in the women's event under her married name of Mrs. Charles Henderson, while Carmen Miranda, Barbara Hale, Linda Darnell, Rosanne Murray, Gregory Ratoff and Bill Williams participated in the various social functions of the Tournament, such as the living game of chess pageant and the prize-award ceremonies.