HOW KOLTY INVIGORATED NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CHESS

George Koltanowski, a strong international player, claimed the title of 'World Blindfold Champion' after playing 34 games simultaneously without sight of the board in Edinburgh, Scotland (a teller relayed the moves to him with chess notation.) He scored 24 wins and 10 draws!

Kolty was incredibly lucky to be on a chess exhibition tour through Guatemala when the war broke out in 1940. His relatives back in Antwerp weren't so lucky, many died in the Holocaust. Later that same year, his exhibition tour took him to Havana, where he met the United States Consul who decided to grant him a U.S. visa. Once in the U.S., he crisscrossed the country, giving blindfold exhibitions, simultaneous exhibitions and lectures. Settling into New York, the chess capital of the U.S., he met his wife Leah on a blind date in 1944. Before 1947, most tournaments in the U.S. used the round-robin pairing system; everyone plays everyone. In 1947, he directed the U.S. Open, in Corpus Christi, Texas, using the Swiss system which allowed a much larger group of players to play; winners play winners, losers play other losers, creating smaller more manageable pairing groups. He was the first to introduce this pairing system into the U.S.!

He had given many exhibitions in Northern California and evidently liked the area; so in 1947, he and his wife, Leah, settled down in Santa Rosa, California. But, he had a problem; being a chess professional didn't pay very much, and only a few of the world's top players earned their living solely through chess. The area just didn't have enough players and clubs to support a professional player. The smaller chess clubs were decimated by World War II, leaving only the larger clubs like the Sacramento, Oakland, San Jose and the San Francisco Mechanics' Institute in a healthy state. So, he decided on a two-prong solution: start chess columns and magazines to advertise himself and give lots of exhibitions to promote goodwill and increase the number of chess players and clubs.

Kolty gave numerous exhibitions and lectures to chess clubs and other groups; frequently at no charge. He was never stingy with encouragement or advice to club or tournament organizers. The column, 'Chess Chats', was started in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat in 1947; like most chess columns it contained general interest anecdotes, current news, a chess problem and a chess game. The interest generated by his presence, undoubtedly helped create the Redwood Area Chess League in July; composed of chess clubs, old and new, from Santa Rosa, San Rafael, Petaluma, Ukiah and many others. The first issue of his magazine, 'California Chess News', came out on November 1947. His long-running column, 'Chess', in the San Francisco Chronicle first came out in May 9, 1948. The First California Open, which he directed in September of 1948, made his magazine the official organ of the new state organization, the California State Chess Association

Teaching juniors at the SF YMCA in 1949; sponsored by the SF Chronicle.

The Annual North-South Match, in July of 1949, saw Kolty playing on first board on the Northern team against United States Champion, Herman Steiner; it was a draw. In September of 1949, Kolty organized and directed the first Valley of the Moon Chess Festival, held at the historic Sonoma Plaza, located in the heart of Sonoma Valley, California; the first major outdoor tournament in Northern California. The tournament was a family affair for both him and the participants; without his wife, Leah, he couldn't have pulled it off. Besides the main B and C tournament sections, there were just too many events happening at once: Leah organized activities for non-chess playing wives and their children, including picnicking and sight-seeing. Kolty gave lectures, blindfold and simultaneous exhibitions. There was even a chess problem solving contest. Prizes included chess books signed by the former World Chess Champion, Emanuel Lasker (Kolty had undoubtedly obtained a small number of signed copies of 'Community of the Future' directly from Lasker when he first arrived in New York in 1940), and trophies to the winners of the B and C Sections. During this period, he was asked to direct more and more chess tournaments.

The need to be more centrally located might have prompted his move to SF. In the Fall of 1949, Kolty was the first, and to my knowledge, only, world-class chess columnist to offer his readers the chance to play correspondence games with him through the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and San Francisco Chronicle for free! The November 14, 1949 Chronicle chess column showed he was playing 112 correspondence games simultaneously. Another thing that Kolty did was to acknowledge his readers by putting their name and the city in which they lived in his columns; be it for games they had won or good results they had obtained.

On December 5, 1949, Kolty outdid himself! At the Chronicle Chess Festival held at the San Francisco Marines Memorial Club he played 271 games continuously over 12 hours, on 37 boards simultaneously. As one player left, another took their place. Breaking previous records, he won 252, lost 3 and drew 16. The event was broadcast over TV and radio; over 2,000 people attended. Ever the showman, he had previously hired a wheelchair which he had someone wheel him around during mid-exhibition; presumably to show how tiring it was to continuously walk from board to board. After a while he jumped up and started walking again. According to the newspaper articles, he relaxed instead by chain smoking and drinking water during the entire 12 hours; only eating one sandwich the whole time.

SF Marines Memorial Club 271 game simultaneous exhibition on December 5, 1949.

After the SF Marines Memorial Club 271 game simultaneous exhibition on December 5, 1949.

The year ended with a book reprinting Kolty's 'Chess Chats' columns from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

In January 1950, his magazine change its name from 'California Chess News' to 'Chess Digest'; presumably to assure out-of-state readers that it would contain relevant articles for them as well. 1950 Was the year that the World Chess Federation or FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) first awarded world-class players the titles we so take for granted today. George was in the first group to be awarded the International Master or IM title; based on his results in international competition almost two decades earlier. On April 22nd, Kolty attempted to break the world record of 105 simultaneous games set in Budapest by Count Aboyni. The event was held in the San Francisco Emporium Auditorium, but unfortunately, while 110 players signed up, only 95 played. Later, Kolty gave another simultaneous exhibition at the SF Emporium against 267 total players; when one player lost, another took their place.

267-Game simultaneous exhibition played at the SF Emporium in 1950.

Of course, Kolty gave numerous exhibitions, at various chess clubs and meeting halls, for the rest of the year.

Simultaneous exhibition at San Quentin Prison in 1950.

In 1951, besides lectures and exhibitions, he began to expand his chess columns into other forms of media such as over-the-counter magazines and in-house company newsletters and magazines. In February, he started a chess column in 'Fortnight, The Magazine Of California'. The cover had a photo of Kolty with a banner saying, "Koltanowski Checkmates Again". The magazine came out every two weeks. The same month saw an article in the San Francisco 'Fireman's Fund Record', entitled 'The Walking Brain', about Kolty and his famous Knight's Tour Exhibition. (In chess, the knight's tour is a sequence of moves by the knight on the 64-squares of a chessboard where the knight visits every square just once. Kolty's audience would suggest names, numbers or any combination to fill each square. Then Kolty would look at the board, memorize it in a couple of minutes and proceed to perform the tour while naming the contents of each square as it was visited.) The 'Fireman's Fund Record' was an in-house publication put out by the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company. They were obviously thinking of having Kolty write a chess column for their publication (the first 'Fireman's Fund Record' Kolty chess column came out in January of 1952.) On December 2, 1951, Kolty set another record by playing 50 Blindfold games, one after another, at 10 seconds a move in 8 hours and 45 minutes. The Blindfold Speed Chess Exhibition was held during the San Francisco Chess Festival at the Marines Memorial Club.

In March of 1952, Humphrey Bogart was in San Francisco for the premier of "The African Queen". The SF Chronicle staged a Exhibition in which Kolty played Bogie while blindfolded; Kolty won in 41 moves. Playing to the crowd, Kolty was heard to mutter, "This guy is dangerous and I'm not kidding." Bogie was identified with San Francisco since his role as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon 1941, where he played a tough talking detective. Dark Passage, 1947 was set in the City- on Telegraph hill, not too far from Kolty and Leah's apartment on Gough Street in the Cathedral Hill area. Bogie was also known as one of Hollywood's finest chess players; during the depression he had made ends meet by hustling chess games for small change in New York and Coney Island. June, saw Radio Station KPFA of Berkeley put a chess program on the air, each Friday night at 9:00 p.m. Koltanowski would play a game against the listeners and analyze it, as it was being played. This allowed the listener's to test their chess intuition, insight and imagination with his during the course of the game.

Near the end of 1952, Kolty organize a new chess organization called 'Chess Friends of Northern California', with their own magazine called 'Chess in Action'. CFNC was an organization for everyone; not just for serious tournament players. Casual chess club players or even his chess column readers could form teams to compete just for the fun of getting together. This new organization brought Northern California players together like never before. Soon, volunteers stepped up to create a smoothly running organization. They quickly enticed local chess clubs to enter seasonal chess league competition. By August CFNC had over 600 members. The first tournament of the Chess Friends of Northern California, held on March 5, 1953, resulted in a turnout of 85 players from all parts of the state. Leah Koltanowski assisted in directing the tournament. Other features included a blindfold exhibition, a simultaneous exhibition, both by Koltanowski, and a problem solving contest. The event, of course, received considerable publicity in the San Francisco Chronicle.

This was just one part of his lasting legacy. In the decades to come, he would publish columns all over the world, write books, break more chess records, be awarded an honorary Grandmaster title, and receive accolades to numerous to mention. He was the greatest showman since P. T. Barnum. There had been great blindfold chess exhibitioners before him; Philidor, Paulsen, Morphy, Blackburne Zukertort, Pillsbury and Alekhine, but none who claimed the title of World Blindfold Champion. He made that title up and used it the rest of his life to earn a living; playing, writing and teaching. He wrote more chess columns than anyone else, before or since. He was the 'Dean of American Chess'; there will never be anyone like him again.