Counterplay / Readers Respond
Moving, Mayers, Mistakes SLIDE THE PIECES, BOYS
I was intrigued by the unusual subject of Andy Soltis’ April 2014 column, namely the variety of fingering positions used when physically moving a piece.
Citing the game Bobby Fischer versus James T. Sherwin, New Jersey Open 1957, Soltis writes, “Black played 7. ... Rb8 and Bobby Fischer wrote in My Sixty Memorable Games, ‘Sherwin slid the rook here with his pinky, as if to emphasize the cunning of this mysterious move.” When the book first came out, Jimmy attributed the comment to Larry Evans, rather than to Bobby, himself.
Further on the topic of moving pieces, I well remember Carrie Marshall, Frank Marshall’s widow, who presided over the Marshall Chess Club, then as now, a lively raucous chess scene. In a valiant but usually unsuccessful attempt to keep the noise level down and the wooden pieces and tables from suffering damage, she would urge her young charges to, “Slide the pieces, boys. Slide the pieces.”
—Edward Scher Fort Lee, New Jersey
DAN MAYERS (1922-2014) DIES AT 91 My father Dan Mayers passed away at
his home in Sun Valley on January 2, 2014. He was 91. Mayers grew up in New York City. Early
in his life he devoted himself to chess, and won the New York City High School Championship in 1939. In 1953 Mayers played against nine-
year-old Bobby Fischer at the Brooklyn Chess Club, and won. It was the earliest recorded game of Fischer. After graduation with a degree in geol-
ogy from the University of Arizona in 1944, Mayers was drafted into the U.S. Army, and was assigned to work at the Man- hattan Project in Los Alamos. Apart from chess, Dan had many other
interests and passions. He was successful as a distributor of emeralds and amethysts from Africa. He was also an aficionado of the Japanese shakuhachi flute, and became the president of the International Shakuhachi Society. After his wife Barbara had passed away
he moved to spend his final years in Sun Valley, but continued playing chess to
the end of his life. In 1996, he won the British Senior Championship, and in 2004, he won the U.S. Senior Championship (over age 75 section). Just days before he passed away he was competing in the North American Open at Bally’s Casino and Resort in Las Vegas.
—Darrel Mayers Austin, Texas
8 June 2014 | Chess Life
attacking queen and bishop. White loses material.
Chess Life regrets the errors.
Send your letters to
letters@uschess.org or post on the Chess Life Facebook group.
Solution: 1. … Ng6 stops mate, while ABCS OF CHESS
In the April “ABCs of Chess”, Prob- lem IV was missing a black pawn on c7; here is the correct diagram, with Black to play:
Problem IV Stopping the mate
CORRECTIONS
In the U.S. Amateur Team West story in the May 2014 issue, we misidentified the person on the far right. It is Tom Langland, the chief tournament director.
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