I gave a lecture at the club a while ago about Rudolf Spielmann, chessplayer from the early 20th century who, flawed as he was, has always been a role model for me. (In fact, when you consider that the two biggest influences on my chess style have been Spielmann and Bronstein, perhaps you will understand [...]

Recently I’m told one of our top players made some disparaging remarks about a predecessor. It wasn’t the first time it happened nor, I’m sure, will it be the last.
Youth often feels a burden when they mature under the shadow of those who have gone before. It’s only human nature. We feel a need to [...]

Some people seem to think I’m lost in nostalgia. There’s a genuine resurgence of chess going on in the schools around here. Hundreds of kids are playing, so obviously I’m just looking at the past through rose-colored glasses and refusing to acknowledge that the chess scene has been rebuilt. I’m sure there’s even some who [...]

As the year ends, the natural tendency is to look back and re-evaluate. I’m not immune to it. Some observations:
1) I may not be cut out to be a chess coach, but I can be a chess teacher. The difference? The amount of time you spend with individual children. I’m finding it personally draining to [...]

In 1922 the Hamilton chess club of Chicago came up to Milwaukee and played a match. Milwaukee won, 4½–1½.Hamilton, it may be remembered, was home ot the National Chess Federation (one of the two federations which merged to form the USCF in 1939) and was the strongest chess club in Chicago.

The next year, 1923, the [...]

William Martz was Wisconsin’s best player during the 60’s and 70’s. We’ve recovered some of his annotations and present them here for your edification, and as a tribute to his skill.

The latest addition to our Martz archive is a game from the North Central Open 1967 against Chicagoan Erik Karklins.

The Games

We have come across some 19th century games scores which may represent the oldest games known to have been played here. (There’s a question of a Morphy tour stop here, and others, but these games have the best evidence so far presented.) We present them here for your entertainment.

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File of 9 games from the ACF Congress (forerunner of the US Open) played in Milwaukee in 1935. Includes games by Elo, Kashdan, Santasiere and Fine.

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Any doubts we had about finding a larger event than the recent NJHS have now been put to rest. From the December 1949 issue of Chess Review:

“A junior chess tournament, sponsored by the Milwaukee Department of Municipal recreation and Adult Education in co-operation with the Milwaukee Journal, attracted a total of 2,995 boys and girls [...]

The question was asked: Was the recently concluded NJHS championship event the largest chess tournament ever conducted in the state of Wisconsin? At the time we weren’t sure; the registered attendence was probably higher than the the 1961 tournament, the previous largest we were sure of, but USCF’s story on it (in the Sep 1961 [...]