Yorkshire Chess History

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1924: Geza Maroczy in Sheffield

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Narrative

In November 1924, the Hungarian master Geza Maroczy was touring England, giving simultaneous displays, and arrangements were made for him to visit the Sheffield Chess Club (a central chess club of the day), on Wednesday 3rd December, when he was expected to take on 20 to 30 opponents.

Advance notice was given in the Yorkshire Telegraph and Star of 22nd November 1924. A week later the event was advertised as due to take place at the Gambit Café, the headquarters of the Sheffield Chess Club, on Wednesday 3rd December 1924, starting at 7.30 p.m.

In the preceding days, Maroczy had given displays at Hudderfield where he played 23 games, winning 20 and drawing 3, and at Wakefield where he played 25 games, winning 23 and drawing 2. At Sheffield he played 30 games, winning 25, drawing 4 and losing 1. After visiting Sheffield, he gave a display the next day in Leeds.

In Sheffield, he took on 30 opponents. Before starting, Maroczy asked the players to state whether they preferred to play a King-side game or a queens-side game, opening 1.e4 or 1.d4 according to the opponents expressed wish!

Opponent (as reported)	Result	Fuller/Corrected Name
AY Green	win	Arnold Yarworth Green
W Knowles	draw
D Letts	draw
F Sheldon	draw
FW Whitehead	draw		(see game below)
JW Ball	loss
JE Bird	loss
JH Bruce	loss
TA Carling	loss
TC Chapman	loss	Thomas Coulson Chapman	(see game below)
S Clough	loss
W Coates	loss
HEN Cooke	loss
AS Davy	loss
WJ Dingley	loss
FH Fox	loss
CR Gurnhill	loss	Charles Reuben Gurnhill
JS Hamer	loss	Joseph Samuel Hamer
AH Hobson	loss
E King	loss
SP Ludbrook	loss	Stephen Percy Ludbrook
J Moore	loss
C North	loss
J Orange	loss	James Orange
CF Parkinson	loss
Lieutenant Porch	loss
HO Rolfe	loss
JD Taylor	loss
E Weston	loss	Edward Weston
W Wilkinson.	loss

Two of the games:

The following was not well-played by Black, but featured a pretty, if obvious, queen sacrifice by Maroczy.

Maroczy Simultaneous Display, Sheffield, 03/12/1924;

White: Maroczy, Geza (Hungary), Black: Chapman, TC (Sheffield)

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Nxd4 6. Qxd4 d6 7. Be3 Bf6 8. Qd2 Ne7 9. Bc4 Ng6 10. O-O O-O 11. Rad1 Ne5 12. Be2 Be6 13. b3 Ng6 14. f4 Bc8 15. Nd5 Qd7? 16. Nxf6+ gxf6 17. Bd4 h6? 18. Bxf6 Ne7 19. f5 Kh7 20. Rf3 Ng6 21. Qxh6+ and Black resigned. 20. .. Ng8 hangs on longer, but 21. Rg3 spells doom for Black.

Here’s one of the draws.

Maroczy Simultaneous Display, Sheffield, 03/12/1924;

White: Maroczy, Geza (Hungary), Black: Whitehead, FW (Sheffield);

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. c3 Be7 10. Nbd2 O-O 11. Bc2 Nc5 12. Nb3 Bg4 13. Re1 Re8 14. Nbd4 Nxd4 15. cxd4 Ne6 16. Be3 c5 17. dxc5 Nxc5 18. h3 Bh5 19. Rc1 Ne4 20. g4 Bg6 21. Bb3 Rc8 22. Qxd5 Qxd5 23. Bxd5 Nc5 24. Nd4 Nd3 25. Rxc8 Rxc8 26. Ra1 Nxb2 27. Bb7 Rc3 28. Bxa6 b4 29. Nf5 Bxf5 30. gxf5 Ra3 31. Rc1 Rc3 32. Bd2 Rxc1+ 33. Bxc1 Nd1 34. Bc4? Bc5 35. Kg2 Nxf2 draw agreed.

Created

18/08/2013

Stephen John Mann

Last Updated

18/08/2013