The Chessmill

Ramblings and ruminations on chess in Milwaukee,

SE Wisconsin, theUSA and the World.

[Speaking of players who grab a pawn and head for the endgame]“Here we see the tyranny of the pawn in its vilest and most nauseating form. But there are degrees, and even in master play we find weak moves being made through an insufficient contempt for pawns.

 — C. J. S. Purdy

1934 - Heyn Over Reel In Playoff

LAPHAM PARK, MILWAUKEE WI, FEB 10-11, 1934: Two firsts happened in the state championship this year.

For the first time there was an entry from LaCrosse, joining eight other players (including four recognized masters) to battle for the title of State Champion. And for the first time the Ernest Reel Trophy left Milwaukee at the end of the event.

Walter Heyn of LaCrosse defeated Robert Reel in a two-game playoff. The time controls for the playoff were 20 moves per hour, and the first game lasted five hours before Heyn finally won.

Reel and Heyn finished the tournament in a tie, both players having lost only one game. Reel lost to Heyn, while Heyn lost to Arpad Elo (who would go on to win the title the next year, and win it a total of eight times in the next fifteen years before retiring from competition).

Heyn came to LaCrosse from Berlin, where he was a member of the Berlin Chess Club, and founded the LaCrosse Chess Club, of which he was the president and where he taught chess to the skilled and the novice.

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