The World Chess Hall of Fame

The World Chess Hall of Fame
by GM L. Kavalek

The World Chess Hall of Fame celebrated the 10th anniversary this month in a new location in St. Louis, Missouri. The history of the Hall and portraits of inducted chess players are available on the impressive web site.

When it first opened in Miami in December 2001, I was inducted there together with five great chess players: the unofficial world champion Paul Morphy (1837-1884) and the official ones such as William Steinitz (1936-1900), Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941), José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942) and Robert James Fischer (1943-2008).

I shared the same birth city, Prague, with Steinitz and as fate would have it, we both ended up in America. “The decision of Lubomir Kavalek not to return home from a foreign tournament in 1968 was the biggest loss ever suffered by the Czechoslovakian chess,” wrote Andy Soltis in The 100 Best Chess Games of the 20th Century, Ranked. When I landed in the United States, Miami was my first point of entry and the 30-year loop of my American chess career closed in the same Florida city.

I share the same birth year with Bobby Fischer and helping him to became the world champion in Reykjavik 1972 became one of the highlight of my chess life.

Inspired by his achievements, I had a memorable year in 1973 and moved to the world’s Top Ten with the official FIDE rating 2625. It would have been the highest rating in Czechoslovakia for the next 20 years and it was the second best rating after Fischer in the United States for the next 16 years.

I shared an unhealthy habit with Lasker: we both smoked during the games. But of all the players in the Hall I was the only one pictured with a cigarette. No Lasker’s cigar, no Mikhail Tal’s ashtray full of butts. It looked as if a teacher just walked into the room and all smokers managed to hide their cigarettes, but me. But it was a document of our times, that’s how we played, often disappearing in clouds of smoke. No smoking is allowed in tournament halls today.

I also learned that Charles Henry Stanley (1819-1901) was nominated to the Hall in 2001. He is considered to be the first U.S. champion, defeating Eugene Rousseau in the match in New Orleans in 1845 with a 19-12 score (+15, -8, =8).

Stanley (left ) was the first to play the move 3…a6 against the Ruy Lopez (Spanish) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5. It was later called “The Morphy Defense.” But Stanley also drank heavily and his love of the bottle did him in. He lost his playing strength and the historian Fred Reinfeld called him “Stanley the drunkard.” He was left out of the Hall and only six of us made it in the inaugural year.

I expected we would be forever enshrined in the Hall, next to the Miami Zoo, waiting for the visitors: the curious chessplayers and the accidental tourists who might stumble to the wrong side of the fence. But the Hall closed in 2009.

Fortunately, thanks to Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield the Hall was rescued and relocated to St. Louis this year. The Gateway city became the U.S. capital of professional chess. The U.S. championships are played there and the top-rated American Hikaru Nakamura is now living in St. Louis.

The World Chess Hall of Fame is a home to 65 chess players: 16 of them are in the World Hall, including this year’s inductee, the first women’s chess champion Vera Menchik. Grandmasters Andrew Soltis and Boris Gulko are the latest additions to the 49-player U.S. Hall. Chess artifacts and magnificent chess sets and the exhibition Out of the Box: Artists Play Chess are on display. For his enormous contribution to chess, Rex Sinquefield will be inducted to the Hall on January 29, 2012.

Full article here.