In our ongoing preview of the imminent Second American National tournament we turn next to Oscar Chajes and Charles Jaffe, two leading lights of the American chess scene.
The Galician-born Chajes, winner of the United States Open Chess Championship in 1909, shared 3rd and 4th places with Jaffe at the New York Masters' tournament of two years ago with a score of 9 points from 12 games played, a total bettered only by Marshall and Capablanca. Later that same year Chajes took part in the great Karlsbad tournament, where, despite finishing at the bottom of the tournament table (equal with Alapin, Fahrni, and Jaffe), he nevertheless convincingly demonstrated his fitness to compete with the world's best players, not only by achieving the standard "Meisterdrittel," but, in the process, by inflicting powerful defeats on such luminaries as Tartakower, Spielmann, and Perlis. We append two of his games from the Karlsbad tourney, each of which was awarded a beauty prize.
Jaffe, born a subject of the Czar, arrived on these shores some years ago, and in recent times has devoted all his efforts to chess. As noted, he finished level with Chajes at both the New York and Karlsbad tourneys in 1911, at Karlsbad defeating Leonhardt, Spielmann, and Burn, among others. Jaffe enjoys a reputation as a formidable match player, having bested Mieses with a clean score in a two-game match in 1907, and having offered strong resistance to Marshall in 1909 in a contest which the American champion ultimately decided in his favor by the narrow score of 4 wins to 2, with three games drawn. Jaffe, like Chajes, will be a dangerous opponent for any competitor in the coming event. We give below Jaffe's victory over Spielmann from Karlsbad.
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