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Reuben Fine
had an impressively strong finish to win the 1948-49
international tournament in New York (USA). The
event took place at the Manhattan Chess Club from
December 23rd, 1948 to January 2nd, 1949 and oddly
enough, did not take days off for either Christmas or
New Year's Day.
The tournament was arranged in a spontaneous manner by
the Manhattan Chess Club organizers when it was
discovered that Fine, Gideon Stahlberg, Max Euwe,
and Miguel Najdorf would all be in New York in
December of 1948. The vice president of the club,
Sidney F. Kenton, quickly organized the event and
managed to raise $5800 in prize money.
Stahlberg could not manage to work the entire event into
his calendar, so he had to decline the offer.
American Samuel Reshevsky seemed like a logical
alternative, but simply said that he would not play.
Herman Pilnik of Argentina found out about the
tournament and notified the organizers that he would
indeed participate if invited. Rounding out the
group of ten participants were Americans Herman
Steiner, George Kramer, Isaac Kashdan,
Arthur Bisguier, Arnold Denker, and
Israel Horowitz.
The draw
was held on December 18th and the time controls were
explained as 20 moves/hour to be controlled after the
first two hours, then after each hour. The players
were each given $250 for expenses and the prize money
was announced as follows: 1st place-$1000, 2nd
place-$750, 3rd place-$500, and 4th place-$250.
Fine and
Najdorf separated themselves from the field very early
in the tournament. By the end of Round 6, Najdorf
(5½/6) had a full two point lead over the field and
Fine (5/6) was right on his heels with a point
and a half cushion on the rest of the contestants.
The two leaders were to meet in Round 7 with Fine
playing the White pieces. The game turned into a
Sicilian Defense with Najdorf finding himself in a very
defensive position and on the verge of going down a
pawn. He would try a desperate combination that
found him in a hopeless ending.
Fine would
win the critical Round 7 game and also win his two
remaining games to actually win the tournament by a full
point and a half, as Najdorf drew in both his final two
games. Euwe and Pilnik would share a tie for third
place, a full three points behind the winner.
Horowitz cost himself a place in the money by refusing a
quickly offered draw from Fine in the final round.
His reasoning was that Najdorf deserved a fighting
chance to win the tournament, as he was only one full
point behind Fine going into the last round. This
honorable gesture and fighting spirit is something that
is rarely seen in today's grandmasters. |
