William Martz was one of Wisconsin’s greatest players. He was our first titled player. (Josh Manion was the first player born in Wisconsin to win a title. But Bill Martz won while playing here, and continued to live here and play in Wisconsin tournaments after gaining his title, so he definitely belongs on any list of great Wisconsin players.) Martz often contributed articles and analysis to Wisconsin chess publications. Here are some of those annotated games.

Nimzo-Indian. White plays a rare variation to get a strong pawn center, and Black goes astray in the ensuing complications.

Exchange Grunfeld. Uncannily similar to the prior game, white again hands black a positional advantage in the opening, then misses his best opportunity to hold on to the game, eventually losing on time.

Exchange Grunfeld. An error by white concedes an advantage to black, and it comes home in the ending.