Fridays by the Fireside No. 6 - More Odd, But True Chess Trivia

In our sixth installment of Fridays by the Fireside we feature some more odd, but true chess trivia from the Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld book The Fireside Book of Chess.


Chapter - The Magic of Chess
Section - Odd, But True
Item - 52 - 57
Page - 89

• Emanuel Lasker made a clean sweep at the New York tournament of 1893. He won 13 games straight, without allowing a single draw! But history repeats itself. In the New York tournament of 1913, Capablanca too faced 13 opponents and mowed them all down in quick succession, without allowing a single draw!
• Do you sometimes wish your opponent would let you move the pieces around to help analyze a position? In 1911, Spielmann and Alapin played a match at Munich, in which analysis by means of moving the pieces was permitted. Alapin used this privilege; Spielmann decided not to do so. P.S. Spielmann won the match!
• Steinitz and Capablanca had race horses named after them!
• Steinitz was once misjudged to be a spy! Police authorities assumed that the moves made by him in playing his correspondence games with Tchigorin were part of a code by means of which important war secrets could be transmitted.
• Rubinstein won only six games at Teplitz-SchOnau in 1922. But of these six games, four were winners of brilliancy prizes!
• G. A. MacDonnell was the winner of a tournament played at London in 1868. All the competitors began their games with the positions of their Knights and Bishops reversed. The reason? They wanted to avoid book play! (And this was way back in 1868!)