Dale Brandreth, Chess Archaeologist
1931-2019
By
Bruce Monson
Photo credit: US Chess Federation
It was with great sadness that I
learned of the passing of my friend and fellow chess historian, Dale Brandreth,
who died in 2019 at the age of 87. When
I say “fellow” chess historian, I mean it in reverence, like a greenhorn
apprentice in colonial
It just so happened that Dale’s and
mine interests intersected on a few occasions, notably the little known
So, it was an honor when Dale asked me to be a
contributor to the book, Pasadena 1932 International Chess Tournament
(Caissa Editions, 2011) which, like all of Dale’s work, was an excellent
production. Privately, however, Dale
expressed to me some regret about the final product since, despite all our
efforts, so much remained incomplete. He
was referring specifically to the “missing” game scores which have defied
extensive efforts to locate. In that
sense too I have some regrets. My
contribution was mostly original photos I had acquired in my research,
including from the personal archives of Herman Steiner, as well as numerous
anecdotes, newly ‘discovered’ games and game fragments. In fact, I had much more I could have shared
on Herman Steiner but withheld lest the book become more about Steiner than the
tournament itself. I also could have
contributed more on the Minor Tournament, the Team event, and even the original
chess problems created by Adolf Fink in honor of the event, all of which were
virtually forgotten by history, along with the Women’s tournament.
It was this latter aspect, the women’s
tournament, that really drew my focus, however, resulting in a comprehensive
biographical examination on the winner, LaVieve Mae Hines, her chief rival Mary
Bain, and the sad, tragic, downward spiral of the Los Angeles Times chess
editor, Clif Sherwood.
The Women’s tournament, while a minor
event by today’s standards, was nevertheless a hugely significant event in the
early history of women’s chess in the
While Kerry’s primary focus is on
Northern California chess history (in contrast to my focus on Southern Cal
during the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of
For the most part the article I’m
presenting here is identical to the 2010 version, though I have included
material that was left out of the original for space considerations, and also
corrected and updated a few other items.
In particular I have increased the content on Mary Bain whose
contributions to both women’s chess and social issues (issues that, incredibly,
are relevant today, over 80 years later!) have gone largely overlooked in my
opinion. I have also provided
additional, and in some cases better quality, photos that I have acquired over
the years.
The
Pasadena Congress Women’s Tournament—Catalyst to Women’s Chess in the Modern
Era
Bruce Monson
Copyright 2010, 2020
Sitting: LaVieve Mae Hines (champion)
Standing: L-R: L. Marie Hinchman, Marian Fox, Alma Wolff, Alex V. Taylor
(Tournament Director), Elizabeth “Betty” Hillman, Ruth Patterson (wife of
G.S.G. Patterson), Graziella Jacoby (famous artist), Mary Bain (not pictured)
(Monson Collection)
When the idea to hold an
international chess tournament on the heels of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics
was put into action, suggestions for a minor tournament and a team event
quickly followed. But there was no real
impetus, initially, for a women’s event and really wouldn’t be until the venue
was set for the Hotel Maryland in
Formed in 1928 with the help of
National Chess Federation president Maurice H. Kuhns[1],
then vacationing with his wife in Pasadena, the club promoted women’s chess
heavily and took pride in its policy of not segregating women from men, whether
in competitive events or in electing their club officers. This radical approach
not only gave women the opportunities they needed to improve their chess game
but also gave them a voice in how the club was run. “Women are seldom made welcome at chess
clubs,” wrote C.C.L.A. President Clara Cameron in a 1929 letter to the Los
Angeles Times, “and are too proud to go where they are not wanted, and the
The President of the
First American
Women’s Chess Congress
The tournament was billed as both
“The first major women’s chess tournament ever held [in the
Each of the players at the Pasadena
Congress had a minimum of five years experience playing competitive chess
against male opponents of all classes.
And unlike previous women’s events around the country, the Pasadena
Congress had the first true national—indeed international—representation among
the field, e.g.,
It should also come as no surprise
that of the six women who entered the tournament five were current or former
members of the Pasadena Chess Club.
The Players:
Miss LaVieve M.
Hines,
Mrs. Mary Bain,
Hollywood CC (
Miss Marian Fox,
Miss Alma Wolff,
Mrs. Laura Marie
Hinchman,
Mrs. Elizabeth
Hillman,
Pasadena Congress Women’s Tournament* |
|||||||||
PLAYERS |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Original |
Adjusted |
|
1 |
LaVieve Hines |
X |
1-1 |
1-1 |
U-1 |
1-1 |
1-U |
7-0 |
8-0 |
2 |
Alma Wolff |
0-0 |
X |
0-1 |
0-1 |
1-1 |
1-1 |
6-3 |
6-4 |
3 |
Mary Bain** |
0-0 |
1-0 |
X |
1-0 |
1-½ |
1-1 |
5½-4½ |
5½-4½ |
4 |
Marian Fox** |
U-0 |
1-0 |
0-1 |
X |
1-1 |
1-0 |
4-3 |
5-4 |
5 |
Elizabeth Hillman |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-½ |
0-0 |
X |
1-1 |
2½ -6½ |
2½ -7½ |
6 |
L. Marie Hinchman |
0-U |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
X |
1-7 |
1-8 |
U = Unplayed games
* Attempted
reconstruction based on available published data and forced result
conclusions. Adjusted final scores and
placement also added based on data.
**Mary Bain originally
listed in 4th place and Marian Fox in 3rd place.[4]
The tournament was to be double round
robin format, with the women’s games played on weekends and on the days
adjournments were played in the Master’s event.
From the start this caused scheduling problems that resulted in games
being postponed and in some cases never played, though this did not ultimately
affect the final result which was more or less expected. LaVieve Hines ran away with the championship
uncontested. What was a surprise was
the inconsistent performance of Mary Bain.
Mary Bain at the
Mary Bain
Possibly passport photo from late 1920s
(Monson Collection)
Although it would be her very first
tournament Mary was expected to do well.
“Mary Bain’s play,” noted one columnist just prior to the event, “will
be watched with great interest, as she has shown much strength against several
leading men experts around
It was Mary’s unfortunate luck that
she was paired against the tournament favorite, LaVieve Hines, in the very
first round.
We do not have the game score but
news accounts reported that Mary had the white pieces in a “King’s Pawn opus”
and the game was very hard fought. The
game was adjourned after four hours of play with LaVieve having the advantage
in an rook and pawn endgame that many thought Mary should be able to hold with
correct play. But on resumption LaVieve
managed to infiltrate Mary’s position with her rook and Mary resigned soon
after.
Day one of the women’s tournament
on August 18. LaVieve Hines and Mary Bain on board 1, Marion Fox and Alma Wolff
on board 2, Elizabeth Hillman and L. Marie Hinchman on board 3. Tournament Director, Alex Taylor looks on as
the adjournment time approaches. (Monson collection)
Throughout her chess career Mary
suffered from confidence problems, especially in all-women events (she always
felt more comfortable playing against men where she was “not expected to
win”). And when things went wrong they
tended to get worse before they got better.
That tendency manifested itself twice during the
Marian Fox, like all the women who
were longtime members of the Pasadena Chess Club, had hundreds of games under
her belt in way of experience and was no pushover. Little is known of her except that she came
from a well-to-do family in
Two losses in as many rounds was a
devastating start for Mary, but she had a chance to heal in rounds 3 & 4
when she was paired against arguably the two weakest players in the field, L.
Marie Hinchman and Elizabeth Hillman.
Again, there are no game scores, but it’s likely she won fairly easily
against Hinchman and then got back on track, perhaps playing her best game to
that point against Hillman. Whatever the
circumstances, she entered round five with an even score and newfound
confidence and managed to win her game against Alma Wolff.
Alma Wolff was originally from
Mary Bain sitting at chess board (decorative chess set) in
the courtyard at the Maryland Hotel during the
After the shaky start Mary found
herself on a three game winning streak and in a position to change the course
of the tournament. In round 6 she would
again meet LaVieve Hines. LaVieve was
undefeated, but because she had one game that was postponed her score was 4
points, while Mary was at 3 points. If
Mary could win she’d be right back in the hunt.
All we have from the game is a
concluding fragment with the diagramed position:
LaVieve Hines – Mary Bain
White to move
This position appears to have come
out of a Reti opening or Catalan, possibly suggested to LaVieve by Alekhine
since she was primarily an e4 player.
White has a lead in development and nagging pressure against black’s
queenside. However, it’s not obvious
what white’s best move is. Of course,
1.Qd2 loses on the spot to 1…Qxc3, and 1.Rc1 Rd8! actually hands the initiative
to black since any move by white’s knight can be answered with …Qxc1. 1.Nd5 seems natural, but after 1…Qd7 the
knight will not be able to maintain its outpost without pushing her pawn to e4,
which would leave black’s knight a secure outpost on d4. LaVieve finds the best move:
1.e3!
Nf5?
Mary probably wanted to trade queens
here, but for good reason feared the ending after 1…Qxc3 2.exd4 Qxd4 (2…exd4
3.Re1 Kf7 4.Rc1 is worse) 3.Qxd4 exd4 4.Bxb7 Rd8 5.Rfd1 when white has a solid
extra pawn and will be able to torture black forever with no risk. Still, that may have been preferable to the
text since white now keeps all her positional trumps while also generating
direct threats against black’s exposed king.
2.Nd5
Now this lands with powerful effect.
2…Bxd5
After 2…Qd7 3.b6 axb6 4.Rxb6 Rd8
white has the nice tactic 5.Nc7+! Qxc7 6.Rxe6+ Kf8 7.Qb1 Ne7 8.Rb6 with an easy
win.
3.Qxd5 Nd6 4.b6! axb6 5.Rfc1 Qe7
6.Rxb6 Rd8 7.Rd1 Nf7 8.Qb5+ Kf8 9.Rxd8+ Nxd8 10.Bxb7 g6 11.a5 Kg7 12.Bd5 Black Resigns
With this loss Mary’s chances for
winning the tournament were effectively over, and she played like it the rest
of the way scoring only 2½ points in the next four rounds finishing in 3rd
place at 5½-4½.
Mary Bain in
It’s not well known that Mary ever even lived on the West coast, let alone began her competitive chess career there. When I spoke with her children, they both recalled living in Hollywood and even seeing movie stars like Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Lew Ayres and Harold Lloyd among others. But neither knew anything about Mary’s participation in the Pasadena tournament. Neither had they ever heard the name LaVieve Hines!
Well before Pasadena 1932 Mary Bain was already an accomplished chess player. She had learned chess from her mother at an early age and became a student of the game during high school in her native Hungary where chess was part of the curriculum. Her first chess notoriety came in 1921 when she was 17 years old, a passenger on a British ship en route to New York with hundreds of other mostly English-speaking passengers. Speaking only her native Hungarian (she also spoke German, Romanian and Ukrainian), Mary spent most of the voyage in lonely silence. Out of boredom, she had set up her chess set on the ship deck and soon had interested passengers pining for a game. Mary was beating one opponent after another, so much so the ship's captain took notice and had the purser arrange a game with her in the ship's salon that evening. He too went down to defeat, though Mary claims she was a bit lucky, having played through "a siege of stage-fright." As a prize he gave Mary a "loving cup" for which also earned her a round of applause. The Ballroom orchestra conductor offered to play her favorite song, but not remembering any musical numbers she picked one from a list of suggestions. The moment of high-seas drama was unquestionably the virus that infected Mary with chess fever. Her most important lession, though, was the discovery that chess was an "international language" that defied borders. She made many new friends through the "mental interplay that goes on over the chess board."
Almost nothing is known of Mary's
time in
that is speculation. Mary notes that "shortly after [her] arrival
in
of this exhibition, though it most
likely occurred in 1924 or 1925, two or three years after her arrival.
In 1925 a then 21 year-old Mary
Weiser was visiting her sister, Sadie, who moved to
There is still much to this story
that remains unclear. And that includes
about Mary herself, even her true age.
According to her children she was born in 1903 (not 1904 or 1905 as is
sometimes claimed). The stock story is
that Mary's father (or stepfather?) had gone "missing" during the
Great War, presumably dying in a POW camp, leaving her mother alone and
broken-hearted, having also lost a son.
Mary's older sister, Sadie (1899-1995),
immigrates to
While living with her sister in San Francisco , Mary met Leslie Balogh Bain, a U.S. citizen born in Logan , West Virginia in 1900. After his father died his mother returned to Hungary , taking Leslie (still an infant) with her. He grew up with the Balogh family in Budapest .[6] It’s unclear how they met, but after a whirlwind romance Leslie and Mary married, starting a family almost immediately, having a son, Mitchell (b.1927) and a daughter, Eva (b.1929).
Leslie was a professional photographer and reporter who worked for numerous newspapers and magazines throughout his life including Look magazine, the New York Reporter, the Miami Daily News and the North American Newspaper Alliance. He would become an award-winning photo journalist in both WWII and Korea, and was a foreign correspondent covering events live during the October Hungarian Uprising and the Batista—Castro Rebellion in Cuba where Bain was fortunate not to be killed after being clubbed in the head by a thug loyalist (Castro? Batista?) and woke up in a Havana hospital days later. He would also become a political analyst, had a syndicated column (“The Long View”) and authored three books: "The War of Confusion" (1942); "Chaos or Peace" (1943) and "The Reluctant Satellites: An Eyewitness Report on East Europe and the Hungarian Revolution" (1960). He even worked in radio, producing the popular program "The Order of Adventurers" for ABC (then called NBC-Blue) and later managed a radio station in Florida (WKAT Miami Beach).
Leslie Bain in 1940s (Monson collection)
In the early 1930s Leslie was working in film special effects and in 1931 he acquired a contract with the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation in Los Angeles , prompting the Bain family’s move to Hollywood , though Leslie had been working there sporadically since 1926. It was a golden meal ticket—they thought—during the Great Depression.
The Bain’s rented a guest house
(really servant’s quarters) on
Original location of the
Although a devoted mother and
homemaker, Mary’s passion for chess was stronger than ever after her lackluster
performance in the
Early Hollywood Chess Club members included Cecil B. deMille[7], Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Joseph von Sternberg, Ernst Lubitsch, Slavko Vorkapich, Lew Ayers, William Wyler, Harold Lloyd, Ernst Laemmle and women players Carmel Meyers and Gypsy Clarke. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was named the first Club president, while state champion Harry Borochow (the “resident master”) was named as a vice-president. Mary Bain was on the board of directors.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Leslie Bain, Hollywood Chess Club, 1932.
This was one of a series of photos Fairbanks took of him playing chess
(I have another with him playing Harry Borochow) which would be
used to promote his upcoming film, The Narrow Corner (1933) then
in production. (Monson collection)
They were not alone. Interest was such that some 50 members
quickly overwhelmed the capacity of the
Unlike the stalwart Mechanic’s
Institute Chess Club in San Francisco (which is still extant to this day!), the
Hollywood Chess Club would change locations multiple times over the next few
years, and not without controversy with
the arrival of Herman Steiner and Capablanca, though that story extends beyond
the scope of this article. What is
clear--and should not be overlooked--is that Mary Bain played a significant
role in the formation, development and promotion of chess among
Dr. Robert Griffith and Mary Bain,
(Monson Collection)
Early examples of Mary’s play are
rare. She was not noted for keeping her
game scores and chess publications at the time afforded little if any space to
women’s chess. Moreover, newspaper chess
columnists were protective of the male ego and often sought ‘permission’ from
male players before publishing games in which they had lost to a woman. But there are examples.
The following game is not enough to
give a true account of Mary’s strength, but it’s arguably her most famous game,
played against the Cuban legend, Jose Capablanca, at the Hollywood Chess Club,
then on Yucca Street.
Capablanca-Mary Bain
23 board Simultaneous Exhibition
1.e4
e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bc5 5.O-O O-O 6.Nxe5 Re8 7.Nd3 Bd4 8.Ne2?! Rxe4
9.Nxd4 Nxd4
With active play Mary has achieved
the better game. But now the Cuban
legend makes a surprising blunder . . .
10.Ba4??
. . . which Mary quickly pounces on.
10…
Ne2+ 11.Kh1 Nxc1 (Diagram)
Final Position
White is losing a piece. Capablanca resigned on the spot which is a
bit surprising since he could have tried to complicate matters with 12.Nc5 when
12…Rc4?! (best is 12…Rh4 13.g3 when Mary would have to spot the killer 13…
Ng4!) 13.d4 d6 14.b3 Rc3 15.Qd2 Ne2 16.Nd3 is still better for black, but very
messy and unclear.
Much like the Fine-Borochow miniature
(From the Pasadena Congress) that has had so much controversy surrounding it,
the Capablanca-Bain game also has its share of mythos. The Chess Reporter[8]
records it as a draw, giving Capa’s final score as 21 wins and two draws (to
Borochow and Bain). However, in Douglas
Houghton’s chess column[9]
the actual game score is given, noting Capablanca’s resignation after move
11. But with an asterisk, “Note—Mrs.
Bain would not accept victory and conceded it a draw.”
Why she did this is not known. But even more curious is why Capablanca would
agree to such a disingenuous result!
While winning against Capablanca was
unexpected, it wasn’t entirely out of the question. She had previously scored draws in simuls
given by Isaac Kashdan and Harry Borochow and had beaten a number of good
players in the Los Angeles area under tournament conditions, including the
following game against a mid-level player from the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Paul
Zens—Mary Bain
L.A.A.C. vs.
Team League Match
March, 1933
1.e4
e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d3 Bc5 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 g5 7.Bg3 d6 8.h3 Qe7 9.Nd5 Nxd5
10.Bxd5 Nd4 11.c3 Ne6 12.Ne2 c6 13.Qa4? Bd7 14.Bb3 Bb6 15.Qc4 Nc5 16.Bc2 Be6 (16…Ba5!)
17.Qb4 Na6 (17…f5!) 18.Qa4 f5
19.exf5 Bxf5 20.O-O O-O-O 21.d4 Bxc2 22.Qxc2 exd4 23.Nxd4 Qh7 24.Nf5 Bc7
25.Rad1 d5 26.Bxc7 Nxc7 27.Qd3 Rd7 28.Qf3 Rhd8 29.Qg4 Kb8 30.f4 Ne6 31.fxg5
Nxg5 32.Qf4+ Ka8 33.h4 Nf7 34.g4 Qg6 35.a4 b6 36.b4 Rg8 37.Ne3 Re7 38.Rf3 Re4
39.Qxf7 Qxf7 40.Rxf7 Rxe3 41.Rf4 Rxc3 42.Rdd4 Rh3 43.h5? Rxh5 44.Kf2 Rh2+
45.Kg3 Rc2 46.Rf5 Rc4 47.Rdf4 Rxf4 48.Rxf4? h5 49.Kh4 Rxg4+ 50.Rxg4 hxg4
51.Kxg4 d4 52.Kf3 c5 53.bxc5 bxc5 54.Ke2 Kb7 55.Kd3 Kb6, White resigns
Bandits, Blue Moons
& Fleas
The
Amusingly, for the first film Leslie,
Slavko and their film crew were nearly caught up in a “bandit scare on Wall
Street” when they parked their cars next to J.P. Morgan’s office on a Sunday
morning to begin filming footage of
The logistics for Once in a Blue
Moon also had its share external drama, the film requiring some
“five-thousand extras” who descended upon the sleepy lakeside town of
Mary Bain as a Russian peasant in Once in a Blue Moon
(1935)
(Monson collection)
The role of a peasant wife was
tailor-made for Mary who grew up, quite literally, in the shadow of Imperial
Russia. The pay was a pittance, but the
experience was a great “teaching moment” for her children, at least in context
as explained by Mary. Her homeland of Karpatská
Rus (or Karpato-Russia) was located in the meatgrinder region of Transcarpathian
It would be Mary’s only foray on the
silver screen.
Despite Leslie being gainfully employed, times were still tough due to the lingering depression and Mary took a job stitching leather at the I. Miller Shoe Company to make ends meet. But she still found time for chess, quickly becoming a figurehead at the famous Marshall Chess Club where she received special attention from both Frank Marshall and the grand “gentleman of chess,” Geza Maroczy, each encouraging her to compete internationally, with an eye toward Vera Menchik’s throne.
Although Mary would eventually dip her toe in international waters, her primary focus was always on family, equal opportunity education and fighting against discrimination in any capacity, not only for women. As Mary’s daughter Eva told me, Mary once chastised Regina Fischer for letting the young Bobby play chess all day rather than making him go to school. She also caused a rift at the Marshall club when she stood up for a young African-American boy who wanted to join the club.[10] Both Mary and Leslie were well ahead of their time on social inequality issues and did not back down from controversy. Leslie even did a documentary film, Harlem Sketches (1935), which showed “a real cross-section of Harlem life” during the depression, revealing the harsh conditions African-Americans lived under in their tenements, living quarters and vacant lots where half-starving children gathered. The film (no longer extant) was so controversial it was banned in some states because it “advocates equal social rights for Negroes.”[11]
Of course, past is prologue and we
know that Mary went on to much grander days in her chess career. For the better part of three decades
(1930s-1960s) she was one of the top female players in the nation, representing
the U.S. in several international events, including the 1937 Women’s World
Championships in Stockholm, Sweden where she placed 5th out of twenty-six
competitors (Vera Menchik won). She
also won several U.S. Open Women’s titles.
Her greatest result was winning the
U.S. Women’s closed championship in 1951 by a near perfect score of 8.5/9, a
full point ahead of a field of the strongest female players in
In the mid-1950s Mary would establish another chess club, the “Mary Bain Chess Studio,”[12] at 145 West 42nd Street not far from Times Square in New York , a club which also catered to bridge players according to Mary’s son, Mitchell. She would later sell the club to Larry Evans. Mitchell also shared an anecdote about his mother’s club that she had found amusing. Down the street from Mary’s club at 210 West 42nd Street was the Chess and Checker Club of New York, more commonly known as “The Flea House,”[13] which was badly damaged by fire in February 1960. “When the FDNY ordered everyone out,” he said, “the chess players, carefully holding their boards, scurried across the street to mom's club to continue playing!”[14]
Although Mary and Leslie were divorced in 1948 (largely due to Leslie’s foreign correspondent work) they remained on friendly terms and in frequent contact. Both were lifelong smokers and both died in their 60s, Leslie in 1962 and Mary on October 26,1972.
Despite all her success in chess, I
can’t help but wonder whether Mary’s greatest regret was never getting a chance
to avenge her losses to LaVieve Hines at
For LaVieve Hines Pasadena 1932 was to be her history.
LaVieve Hines,
LaVieve Mae Hines is easily the
strongest American female chess player you’ve never heard of. And if her
results are any indication (almost exclusively against the strongest male
players on the West Coast), she is likely the strongest female player (and
prospect) the
Born in
But her talents extended well beyond
classical music. She was an astute
student of Russian ballet and other forms of dance. She was fluent in three languages and five
dialects and, as one
THE GREATEST CHILD ACTRESS IN THE WORLD Little
Lavieve Mae Hines And her own Juvenile Company under the management of Burdett
Milton Garfield
LaVieve and Brother
James performing their “New Dutch Act” (1904)
Her destiny was clear. Or so it would seem. She was to be Shirley Temple before there was
a Shirley Temple; Mickey Rooney, before there was Rooney; Jackie Coogan, before
Coogan.
But that didn’t happen.
In 1913 William Hines, LaVieve’s
father, lost most of the family fortune after investing heavily in a failing
Canadian mining company. The loss put a
strain on not only William’s financial stability but also his marriage to
Amelia, LaVieve’s mother.
There was also the Great War that got
underway in 1914. Wars change everything and as
William was devastated and died of
melancholy four years later. His anger
is evident in his last will and testament:
I give and bequeath to my wife Amelia M. Hines, my
daughter LaVieve M. Hines and my son James Wesley Hines each the sum of Five
Dollars; I also give and bequeath to my daughter LaVieve M. Hines one Stainer
violin which is now in her possession with the hope that its music will cheer
and brighten her life. No other
provision is made for my said wife or children for the reason that they have
all deserted me without provocation.
They would contest the will on the
grounds that William was under psychiatric care and incapable of making sound
decisions, though in the end the matter was moot since there was so little
remaining of the estate.
As for LaVieve’s movie career . . .
well,
LaVieve Hines
modeling “hand painted Louis Mead gowns” for a
By any standard LaVieve was an
eccentric woman. She was fanatical about
her appearance, rarely appearing in public without one of her exotic dresses
and she often went to great lengths to conceal her real age, even on official
census reports. She was sharp witted, outspoken and contemptuous of authority,
particularly in men. One Los Angeles
Times chess column from 1931[15]
printed one of her quips about the sterner sex:
“Men aren’t so bad if they are chessmen—You can generally get them to do
as you wish.” And after crushing the
Pasadena Chess Club champion, Alex Taylor, in a game she was quoted as saying,
“Just another one of those games where a man plays and pays.”
It’s not clear when LaVieve learned
chess, but it’s thought by family that she was taught the game by her father
while still a young girl in
A year later in 1929 she had her
first of three encounters with World Champion, Alexander Alekhine. It’s clear that she had already earned the
respect of many men in the
The game itself isn’t LaVieve’s best
performance. But it wasn’t a disaster
either, and in the three games she played against Alekhine she improved in
each.
Alekhine
– LaVieve Hines
50 board
Simultaneous exhibition
May 7,
1929
1
d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Nbd2 c5 7.Bd3 a6 8.cxd5 exd5
9.Rc1 b5 10.dxc5 Nxc5 11.Nb3 Nxd3+ 12.Qxd3 Bb7 13.Nfd4 Ne4 14.Bxe7 Qxe7 15.O-O
O-O 16.Rc2 Rac8 17.Rfc1 Rxc2 18.Qxc2 Nd6?!
Too passive. With 18…h5!? (seeking rapid kingside
counterplay) black could answer 19.Qc7 with 19…Qf6! when 20.Qxb7 Qxf2+ 21.Kh1
Qxe3 gives black dangerous counterplay.
19.Qc7
Qd8 20.h3 Qb8 21.Na5 Rc8 22.Qxb8 Rxb8 23.Rc7 Ba8 24.Ra7 Nc4 25.Nac6 Re8 26.b3
Nb2 27.Rxa6 Kf8 28.Nxb5 Bxc6 29.Rxc6,
black resigns.
Her second encounter with Alekhine
came in August, 1932. This time LaVieve
was ready to scrap.
Alekhine—LaVieve Hines
Simultaneous Exhibition
August 9, 1932
1.d4
Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 c6 7.e3 Bg4 8.Bd3 Nbd7 9.Nge2
Be7 10.Ng3 h6 11.Bxf6 Nxf6 12.Bf5 Bd6 13.Bxg4 Nxg4 14.Nf5 Bf8 15.O-O-O g6
16.Ng3 Bg7 17.Kb1 a5?!
Best was simply to castle. Now white is able to develop an initiative
which LaVieve will have to work hard to parry.
18.e4!
h5? 19.h3 Nh6 20.exd5 cxd5 21.Rhe1+ Kf8 22.Qb3 h4 23.Nge2 Nf5 24.Nxd5 b5!
Excellent! Having lost a pawn LaVieve realized that she
must now grab the initiative and generate threats at all cost, which she does.
25.Qxb5
Rb8 26.Qc5+ Kg8 27.Nec3 Kh7 28.Re4 Rc8 29.Qb5?
Suddenly having to start thinking
about defense Alekhine now falters.
29…Nd6
30.Qd3 Nxe4 31.Qxe4 Re8 32.Qf4
(diagram)
Black
to move
32…a4!
I give the exclamation mark not for
the technical accuracy of the move but rather for her thought process. Objectively, the quiet defense of the f7-pawn
with 32…Kg8 was best (at least according to our modern silicon friends), but
the move chosen by LaVieve was by far the more psychologically annoying move.
33.a3
Alekhine likely didn’t give much
thought to capturing on f7, since in the mind’s eye it would allow the black
rook to infiltrate white’s 2nd rank.
But 33.Qxf7 Rf8? 34.Qe6 Rxf2 35.Ne7! actually works out in white’s favor.
33…Rb8
34.Nb4 Qb6 35.Qxh4+ Kg8 36.Ncd5 Qe6 37.Qf4 Qe4+?
A mistake that must have eased
Alekhine’s nerves considerably. The last
thing black should do at this point is exchange queens. Having succeeded in putting her opponent on
the defensive, a useful waiting move like 37…Rbd8 or even 37…Rb7 (defending f7
and leaving possibility for doubling rooks on the e-file at some point) would
have kept the tension on Alekhine. In
the latter case a logical move like 38.Ne3 could then be met by 38…Rxb4! 39.axb4
Qb3, with an array of dangerous threats.
But even now all is not lost.
38.Qxe4
Rxe4 39.Nc6 Rbe8 40.Ne3?
Logically wanting to shut the rooks
out, but this turns out to allow black a saving defense. After 40.Nc3 Re1 41.Kc2 things are still in
order for white.
40…Bh6
41.d5 (Diagram)
Black
to move
41…Bg5
The losing move. However, it’s easy to see how LaVieve and
even Alekhine himself may have missed the study-like defensive resource for
black after 41…Bxe3! 42.fxe3 Rxe3, and now after the seemingly winning 43.d6?
black actually wins after 43...Re1 44.Rxe1 (44.Kc2 transposes) 44…Rxe1+ 45.Kc2
(45.Ka2 Rd1) 45…Re6! when the pawn cannot advance since the knight can be
captured with check!
42.d6
Bd8 43.d7 Rf8 44.Nd5 Re6 45.Ndb4 f6 46.Ka2, and with no counterplay prospects, Miss Hines resigned.
Not a perfect game by any means, but
it demonstrated that LaVieve understood the importance of the initiative and
used it to great effect. After the game,
in fact, Alekhine paused to acknowledge LaVieve’s play even in a losing
effort. “What do you mean by annoying me
for 46 moves?” he said. This game also registered something important about
LaVieve skill level in Alekhine’s mind, though it would be another year before
he made it known.
Expanding Her
Horizons
In 1929 LaVieve was awarded the title
of Pacific Coast Women’s Champion. Though
only an honorary title, it was warranted since there were no official women’s
tournaments at that time and what female players she did contend with were well
below her skill level. She was
subsequently the subject of several articles in
By 1931 LaVieve had joined the
Beverly Hills Chess Club where some of the strongest players in the Southland
congregated, including state champion Harry Borochow, Irving Spero and George
“Pat” Patterson. By her own account she
joined the club because of “the opportunity it gave her to meet the many state,
city and interstate champions and foreign experts who reside in
If LaVieve’s affront to the
Then came the Lindley Memorial
Tournament in honor of the recently deceased Dr. Charles L. Lindley, one of the
founders of the Beverly Hills Chess Club.
The tournament is special in the history of women’s chess because I know
of no other American tournament prior to this where a woman was allowed to
compete in a men’s event. Her remarkable
score of 9½-½ stunned even her staunchest supporters while also removing all
doubt from her detractors. The
performance even sparked yet another feature article on her, this time in the
Los Angeles Evenening Express with a photo and headline: “Female Intuition
Bests Masculine Logic at Chess.”
It is unfortunate that none of her
games from these events survive. Like
most of her games they were missing from her personal archives and the chess
publications maintained the status quo for not publishing men’s losses to
women. There are, however, numerous
reports of her scoring wins and draws against the top ranking players in the
region, such as Sidney Weinbaum, Irving Spero (the former Ohio champion whom
she “beat in 26 moves”), George Patterson, Alex Taylor (whom she defeated 4-2
in a “rapid transit” match) and even state champion, Harry Borochow. She also scored draws in simultaneous
exhibitions against Alekhine, Kashdan and Dake.
From 1930-1932 LaVieve herself gave
four simultaneous exhibitions, mostly as fundraisers to support the Pasadena
Congress. She played against both male
and female opponents and was noted for her rapid play and confidence. Her finally tally of +32-4=1 stands as a
credit to her ability at this form of play.
It is also notable that with the exception of Mary Bain all of her
opponents from the 1932 Pasadena Chess Congress had played boards against her
in one or more of her simultaneous exhibitions and lost.
Among LaVieve’s personal archives she
did have a few game scores and position fragments, including one she was obviously
proud of—a spectacular win against Harry Borochow. Borochow was a strong master, around 2350
strength and at the height of his skills in the 1930s. The event is not given, or even a date,
though it was likely an “impromptu game” or “social chess” (i.e., a casual game) played at either the Pasadena Chess Club
or the Beverly Hills Chess Club sometime in 1931. The game is significant not only because of
the manner in which she dismantles the sitting state champion, but she does so
with the black pieces against his favorite opening, the
Harry
Borochow—LaVieve Hines
“Impromptu
Game”
1.e4
e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4 d5 4.fxe5 Nxe4 5.Nf3 Bb4
Already black is leaving the trodden
path, which was Breyer’s 5…Be7. LaVieve
liked to portray herself as an intuitional rather than scientific player, but
she did study openings and likely studied the
6.Qe2
Bxc3 7.bxc3 O-O 8.Qe3 Nc6!?
This simple developing move was
LaVieve’s innovation. It had occurred
only once before, Spielmann-Vidmar, Semmering, 1926, in a game which black
lost. It’s unlikely she had ever seen it
before. Borochow apparently was not
aware of it either given that he goes wrong almost immediately.
9.c4?!
This doesn’t lose, but neither does
it offer white any advantage. Necessary
was 9.Bd3 (or 9.Bb5 per Keres) 9…f5 10.O-O when white’s two bishops, unified
center and half-open b-file give him an advantage according to Tesitlin &
Glazkov in The Complete Vienna.
Certainly this is better than Borochow’s choice, though black’s
prospects after 10…Qe7 hardly seem worse.
Update 2020: It is
interesting to note that LaVieve had notes on the
9…Bg4! 10.cxd5
After this white’s position already
starts to get shaky. Better was 10.Bb2
with a difficult but tenable position.
10…Bxf3
11.Qxf3?
Necessary was 11.gxf3 Qh4+ 12.Ke2
Nf2! (12…Ng3+? 13.hxg3 Qxh1 14.dxc6 is good for white) 13.dxc6 (after 13.Qxf2?
Nd4+ 14.Ke3 Nxc2+ 15.Ke2 Qb4 the Ra1 falls, leaving black up an exchange along
with all the other positional trumps) 13…Nxh1 14.Qg1 Rfe8 15.Bb2 Rad8! when
16.Qxh1? loses (correct is 16.Bc3 but 16…b5! keeps an edge for black) 16…Qb4
17.Bc1 (17.Bc3 Rxe5+ 18.Kf2 Rxd2+! -+) 17…Rxe5+ 18.Kd1 Rde8 19.Bd3 Qh4 -+
11…Qxd5
12.Bd3 f5
A good practical decision but the
engines suggest a clearer win with 12…Nxe5! 13.Qxe4 Nxd3+ 14.Qxd3 Qe5+, winning
the rook.
13.exf6
The problem with 13.Bxe4 is black
avoids the exchange of queens with the zwischenzug 13…Qxe5.
However, this would have been preferable to the text which opens more
lines of attack for black’s pieces.
13…Rae8
14.O-O Qd4+
LaVieve’s one real mistake in an
otherwise brilliant game, though it’s not obvious why. The idea is correct but she interposed her
moves. Stronger was the immediate
14…Rxf6 15.Bxe4 (15.Qe3 Nd6) 15…Qd4+ 16.Qe3 Rxf1+ 17.Kxf1 Rf8+ 18.Ke2 Qxa1 with
a winning material advantage.
15.Kh1
Returning the favor. After 15.Qe3 Qxa1 16.Bc4+ Kh8 white has the
saving resource 17.f7! which keeps the f-file closed and keeps the fight
going. It’s easy to see how this could
be missed since it requires that white not
capture the knight on e4, thus remaining a piece down for the foreseeable
future.
15…Rxf6
16.c3 (diagram)
Black
to move
16…Nf2+!
Sufficient also was 16…Rxf3 17.cxc4
Rxd3, but LaVieve seeks a more elegant solution.
17.Rxf2
Qxd3! and white resigned.
It’s easy to see why she was proud of
this game. The fact that it was never mentioned, let alone printed, is what
makes me think it was from a private casual game. Had it been played in a tournament or other
public event it would have caused a sensation and been reported as a “brilliant
win by Miss Hines,” as was the case in other games where she had crushed her
male opponents but the game scores were never published.
LaVieve Hines:
In lieu of the string of
accomplishments LaVieve had amassed, it seems almost a letdown to speak of her
winning the “women’s tournament” at the Pasadena Congress as the apex of her
chess career. She simply outclassed the
field, probably by 400-600 points by modern rating standards. The only woman who was thought to be even a
remote threat was Mary Bain but that proved not to be the case. Clearly, she was head and shoulders above
everyone else.
There is a strong argument that
LaVieve should be recognized as the first
To my knowledge LaVieve never claimed
the title of U.S. champion, but the notion was certainly inferred by her
contemporaries whom, after seeing her battle tested successes against some of
the best players in Southern California, gave her the honorary title of Pacific
Coast Women’s Champion. They also noted
in chess columns that she was likely the strongest woman in the nation. But the most compelling argument is a
remarkable endorsement by the sitting world champion, Alexander Alekhine!
August 1932. LaVieve Hines and Alekhine
at her home at
Prior to the Pasadena Congress
Alekhine spent several days with LaVieve, residing at her home in
During this time Alekhine shared with
LaVieve all of his games and analysis from the recently concluded
She also notes that Alekhine was
“coaching her” for the upcoming women’s tournament at the Congress and gives
some of the opening variations that he had suggested for her.
Among LaVieve’s artifacts was a photo
of Alekhine with an inscribed note to her that read:
To the
future American chess womens (sic) champion.
Sincerely,
A. Alekhin
14, Aug.
1932
Of course, there was no ‘official’
What is an endorsement by the world
champion worth?
Four days later LaVieve would meet
Alekhine in their third and final encounter:
Alekhine—LaVieve
Hines
26 Board
Simul
September
2, 1932
1.e4
e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.d4 Bd7 5.Bxc6 Bxc6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.dxe5 Nxe4 8.Nxe4 Bxe4
9.exd6 Bxd6
LaVieve has emerged from the opening
with the two bishops and a slight lead in development against the foremost
openings expert on the planet. One
common tactic for simul players is to go for early draws against stronger
opponents to cut down on their thinking time.
I believe Alekhine’s mindset moved in this direction here.
10.O-O
O-O 11.Re1 Re8 12.Bg5 Qc8 13.Nd4 Bc5 14.c3 Bg6 15.Rxe8+ Qxe8 16.Qe1 (now clearly heading for the draw) 16…Qe4 17.Qxe4 Bxe4 18.Re1 Re8 19.f3 Bc6
20.Rxe8+ Bxe8 21.Be3 Bxd4, draw
(L) LaVieve Hines posing with
showing final position from her drawn
game against Alekhine (1932)
(R) The
That LaVieve was happy with the
result is exhibited in the fact that she posed with the final position on the
board along with her Pasadena Congress victory cup in a photo. The game is further evidence that she had the
skills to match the claims.
But there was also the it factor.
What set LaVieve apart from almost
all other women had as much to do with her attitude as with her skills on the
board. Her confidence was unshakable and
she didn’t buy into the chauvinistic convention that women are intellectually
inferior to men. “Women” she said “could play chess equally as well as men if
they were not psychologically beaten before they started.”[18] In another article she extrapolates further,
noting that women could not only be “as great or better players than men if
only they would apply themselves,” but women are not using their best asset,
“women’s intuition,” which she attributes to much of her success. “A good intuitional player,” she says, “can
beat a good logical player with surprising frequency.”[19]
Whether or not LaVieve’s views on
women’s intuition holds up is really of no consequence. The fact that she scoffed at the idea of male
superiority in chess put her in a class by herself, and not only for 1930s
Perhaps Gisela Gresser, the regal
9-time U.S. Women’s Champion, had it right when she said the reason men are
better is that “Women are too intelligent.
They have more important things to do than play chess. To be a really great chess player you have to
give up your whole life to it.”[21]
There can be little doubt that had
LaVieve continued playing the future dominance of American women’s chess by
Gisela Gresser and Mona Karff would have looked very different. More, had she studied under the
mentorship of someone like Isaac Kashdan, whom she admired, there was a good
chance that America might have seen a world champion in women’s chess.[22] It should be remembered that Vera Menchik
studied under Geza Maroczy whose solid, positional, style gave her the perfect
bedrock to build on and easily outclass her nearest rivals in women’s
chess. She was even allowed to compete
in all-men events, notoriously opening the Vera Menchik Chess Club[23] of which no one
wanted to be a member but many were. Kashdan
was of the same class as Maroczy, both as a player and as a person. In fact, in 1932 Kashdan was already the
strongest player in
This is one of several publicity
photos taken at the
The problem with talking about
someone’s ‘potential’ is that you’re really highlighting their failure to
achieve something. They should’ve,
could’ve, would’ve achieved this, if—but for whatever
reason did not. Ultimately, LaVieve did
not go on to greater things in chess. In
fact, shortly after the Pasadena Congress she literally seems to disappear off
the face of the planet! After around
mid-1933 there is not another mention of her in chess, nor for that matter in
anything.[24]
The Girl that Got
Away...
So what happened? And more, why should we care? As it turns out both questions have the same
answer.
I thought she must have settled down,
gotten married, had children, etc.
Life. Sometimes promising chess
talents just move on with realities that extend beyond a 64-square board. Had she moved back to
None were the case.
LaVieve Hines lived to be 101 years old
(one of the great feats in human history)!
After moving to
So what gives? What could have happened that would cause
this firecracker of a woman to withdraw so suddenly—and completely—from chess
and society? Interestingly, for family this has always been a mystery, though
it was thought that it had something to do with Amelia and the power she held
over LaVieve. Perhaps. But maybe there was something else.
The White
Blackbird
As it turns out there was one man who
aggressively injected himself into LaVieve’s life over a three-year
period. A man who was widely lauded for
his weekly chess column in the Los Angeles Times, but on June 19, 1933 wrote
his name in the annals of chess infamy when he murdered Gabrielle Andrieux, a
young French girl who had shunned his marriage proposals. His name was Clif Sherwood.
The same Los Angeles Times Sherwood
worked for ramped up the hyperbole in their headline the next morning:
“Checkmate!”
Death, with immutable fingers, slipped across the
chess board of life yesterday afternoon and ended the game in which police were
waiting to move against Cliff Sherwood, 40-year-old chess expert, for the
murder of Gabrielle Andrieux, French modiste, in her home at
On the run, Sherwood was found twelve
hours later by
Clif Sherwood and Gabrielle
Andrieux (Monson collection)
It would be easy to use a tragic
event such as this to sensationalize the relationship between LaVieve and Clif
Sherwood, but it’s not necessary; in this case reality really is
stranger than fiction.
Born in 1884 in
Mental illness also ran in his
family. His father had been declared
insane and spent the last years of his life in a sanitarium in
That Clif suffered from
manic-depressive disorder and likely other forms mental illness is evident in
his chess columns, which he frequently utilized to reveal odd points about
himself or others. In one example from
1931 he cites the suicide note left by chess player, Kenneth Haegg who had
recently attempted suicide (and failed):
“Instinct orders ‘Live.’ But reason says ‘Life is
senseless, therefore abandon it.’ Not
being a fool, living in a world of fools is too great a strain.”
Sherwood’s cryptic response: “His diagnosis may have been quite correct
but his method of cure not so impressive.”[28]
Even more frequently his column was
used as a singles forum in blatant attempts to drum-up a romantic
connection. Each week he presented a
chess problem that readers would write to him with their solutions and those
who got it had their names printed. Tragically, Gabrielle Andrieux’s name can
be found among those who “wrote in.”
Most likely she attended one of the “social chess for women” or other
“ladies especially invited” ruses he used to draw in women.
One woman wrote in asking whether
chess players make good husbands. If
there’s a positive side to the tragic figure of Clif Sherwood it’s the humorous
self-degradation he was at times capable of, as evidenced by his response:
“The chess editor, knowing nothing about marriage
and almost as much about women, ventures to guess that while the wife of a
chess player might complain the first year of their married life about his
staying out nights (at the club) it’s a safe bet by the second year she’d
complain if he didn’t stay out.”[29]
LaVieve Hines also wrote in to his
column, almost weekly. And starting in
1929 he became more and more obsessed with her.
His columns mentioned her on dozens of occasions, often with some sort
of romantic innuendo. And no other woman
besides LaVieve received such attention.
“Miss LaVieve Hines of the Pasadena Chess Club,” he notes in a column
from 1929, “is trying to organize a team of women. If they’re all like Miss Hines the writer
would gladly furnish a team of men to play them and enjoying (sic) losing every
game.” In another, also from 1929 he
says: “Miss LaVieve Hines plays their
[Pasadena Chess Club’s, ed.] best men to a standstill . . . but one look
at this pretty young lady, and what man wouldn’t let her win?” And this from
1930: “Miss LaVieve Hines . . . has been winning so regularly of late from some
of the strongest men players that we have a suspicion the charming young lady’s
smile has something to do with it . . . Anyway, she needs watching: maybe
that’s the trouble.”[30]
Sherwood standing
next to LaVieve at chess board.
“Girl awarded chess
title”
But it did not stand at mere words of
infatuation. Sherwood went to some
length to get involved in real life events surrounding LaVieve’s chess and
possibly other activities. He was a
piano player and very likely played up to her musical talents as well.
In 1930 when LaVieve was awarded the
honorary title of “
In an earlier photo published in the
Pasadena Star-News in 1929 headlined, “Pasadena Woman Will Play in Simultanous
Chess Match” [against Alekhine, ed.]
Sherwood also appears with LaVieve, sitting next to her at a chess board.
And there were many other examples,
in each case with Sherwood demonstrating some gesture of infatuation toward
LaVieve. And it’s worth noting that
among LaVieve’s scrap books she had copies of all the newspaper clippings he
had written about her.
Perhaps even more interesting is what
is not in her scrapbook. While
there were numerous articles in the media about Clif Sherwood’s murder of
Gabriella Andreiux and his subsequent suicide, there is no reference whatsoever
to those events among LaVieve’s papers. Naturally, she would have
been shocked by the events and shunned any reference to it.
Others
did the same.
Under
the heading “Chess and Crime” in the July-August 1933 The Chess Reporter,
Henry MacMahon spoke collectively for the entire Southland chess community by
distancing themselves from Sherwood in no uncertain terms. Several times MacMahon refers to Sherwood as
a “white blackbird,” which is a turn of the century term for an anomaly of
nature, “an aberrant curiosity that fascinates spectators,” like Alexander
Dumas’ The Black Tulip or Horace’s black swan.[31] Which was all just another way of saying
Sherwood was not one of us.
“Chess players,” MacMahon said, “are proverbially honest, they’re not
out to do you except on the black-and-white battlefield.” He goes on to lambast the media for calling
Sherwood an “expert” at chess and reminds us that he was not, stating that
chess was merely “an escape” for Sherwood, but “never a major interest or any
kind of obsession.”
MacMahon is being a bit disingenuous here. Although Sherwood was indeed well below
“expert” strength as a player, he was quite knowledgeable about the chess world
he wrote about. He also had a sizable
following of “friends” through his chess column, receiving numerous praises
from MacMahon himself within the pages of the The Chess Reporter as well as
from other respected commentators such as Herman Helms in New York and even as
far away as England. He was afforded
honorary memberships to most of the chess clubs in the
After MacMahon poetically cleansed chess (and chess players) from
any stains Sherwood might have left on our dear game, those dark memories
gradually faded into the background noise.
Chess went on. Even the Los
Angeles Times chess column went on when the recent
Except for LaVieve Hines.
After June 1933 there is no further
reference to LaVieve having anything to do with chess or chess players! Not once in the next twenty years did she
write in to Steiner’s column to give a solution to a chess problem. Or Isaac Kashdan’s column after him, or Jack
Peters’ column after that. That could be
just a coincidence. Perhaps she’d
already decided to hang up her pawns after the Pasadena Congress, but it’s not
likely. To the contrary she had
expressed interest in playing in the next cycle of the Southern California
Championship.
Here’s what I think happened.
The murder of Gabrielle Andrieux
scared the hell out of LaVieve! Seeing
how close Clif Sherwood had managed to get to her she must have imagined the
very real possibility that it could have been her lying dead, head bludgeoned
and shot twice in the chest. But even
that might not have been the final straw were it not for her mother, Amelia,
who most likely settled the issue in no uncertain terms—finis!
Whatever it was, LaVieve Hines disappeared
from the chess arena forever.
Inexplicably, even with all the media attention she had received in the
press and the long list of great masters who knew her, talked with her and even
played games against her, her name somehow drifted into oblivion and she was
forgotten.
If nothing else, I hope this article
will at least change that.
Update 2020: While it
remains true that LaVieve Hines never returned to chess, there were two
glimmers of hope that the flame might be reignited. The first was in 1937 when Douglas Houghton,
the tireless chess promotor and editor of the chess column in the Pasadena
Star-News, expended some effort to bring LaVieve back into chess. He convinced her (initially, at least) to
perform a simultaneous exhibition at the 1937 Morphy Day festival in nearby
Sierra Madre, a favorite event of hers which she had helped organize from its
inception in 1930. “Champion Returns”
was the headline Houghton gave in his column.
“A feature new to the Morphy Day program will be the women’s rapid-transit
tourney and simultaneous exhibition by Miss Le Vieve (sic) Mae Hines,
[1] Douglas Haughton letter, “The Gambit,” August, 1928
[2] Sherwood Column,
[3]
As Dale
Brandreth correctly noted in the Pasadena Congress book, the First
International Ladies Chess Congress was held in
[4] The
placement of Mary Bain in 3rd was actually a correction of my own
over her original listed spot in 4th place. Since there were unfinished games the
tournament directors based the standings on percentage rather than points. Mary is the only player who completed all 10
games and while her percentage was slightly below that of Marian Fox, she had
nevertheless scored 5½ points to Marian’s 4.
However, there are some discrepancies in the newspaper accounts of score
totals. In one report Marian Fox was listed with a score of 5-2 with more games
to be played. If true then her final
placing in 3rd could be accurate.
[5] Los Angeles Times column, Aug. 18, 1932, pg. A16
[6] No relation to the Hungarian chess player, János Balogh
[7] Cecil
B. deMille had been a paying member of the Beverly Hills Chess Club since its
inception in 1930 when he was elected as a board member (cf., The Gambit,
July, 1930, p.189) and he remained a lifelong fan and supporter of chess. On February 27, 1931, using his own
letterhead, he wrote the following in support of the Pasadena Chess Congress
(cf., The Chess Reporter, June, 1931, p.5):
CECIL B. DeMILLE PRODUCTIONS INC.
MGM STUDIOS
The Olympiad Chess Congress Committee is
deserving of hearty support in its effort to promote an International Masters’
Tournament at Los Angeles in the summer of 1932.
The managements of recent Olympiads have
encouraged such contests, thereby fostering sound minds in sound bodies.
The benefits of the royal game are many; an international
Tournament sets them forth forcibly. The
presence of Alekhine, Lasker, Capablanca or like experts in daily public
competition over a fortnight is not only a tremendous advertisement of the
glorious pastime but very instructive to the army of chess fans, bringing about
an era of more interesting and accurate play.
Cecil B. deMille (signed)
[8] The Chess Reporter, June, 1933, p.4
[9]
[10] Interview with Eva Young-Bain, 2009.
[11] ODFC records, Ohio State Archives, Rejected films, Series 1518.
[12] Also known as the New York Chess Club
[14] Interview with Mitchell Bain, 2009.
[15] Sherwood Column,
[16] Sherwood column, Los Angeles Times, 05-12-1929
[17] Houghton article, Pasadena Post, 08-29-1932
[18] Psychology Winner at Chess: Reason Why Men Are Best at Game is Explained, Pasadena Star-News, 11-21-1930
[19]
Femenine Intuition Bests Masculine Logic at Chess,
[20] Women Chess Players Emotional But They Manage a Fine Game,
[21] Queen Among the Knights,
[22] Geza Maroczy, the great Hungarian player and coach of Vera Menchik, even thought Mary Bain, with proper coaching, could legitimately challenge Menchik.
[23]
From Wikipedia. When in 1929, Menchik entered the
[24] On April 8, 1933, Jose Capablanca played 32 boards at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. He won 25, drew 6, and lost one game, to J. Allen and E. Carlson in consultation. LaVieve Hines also played a board and lost. This appears to be the last public game she played.
[25] The
[26] In my original article I wrote that Sammy was 9-years-old, which was the common mantra. However, as I discovered definitively in my article, Profile of a Prodigy?, for New in Chess (2019 #1), he was at least two years older than advertised, probably 2½ years older.
[27] It’s possible that this event was also what inspired LaVieve Hines to focus on chess. Watching young Sammy being paraded around and basking in the applause, she may have been reminded of herself as a “child star.”
[28]
Sherwood Column,
[29] Sherwood column_Los Angeles Times, 06-10-1928
[30] Sherwood column, Los Angeles Times, 05-18-1930