Rice Chess Club tournament, adjourned games: Black, Marder play to draw; Tenenwurzel defeats Beynon; A word of thanks

Two unfinished games, adjourned from the tourney's third round, were completed yesterday at the Rice Chess Club Summer Masters' Tournament.  Roy T. Black and Albert Marder played to a draw in a contest that the former will certainly view as a missed opportunity for victory, while Edward Tenenwurzel defeated F.P. Beynon, a result that we understand at least one of our sister publications has erroneously reported as a draw.  More on this below.

Mr. Black opened with the Ruy Lopez vs. Marder, and by the 30th move had attained a position promising success.  Indeed, it would appear that with 31.Qg4! in place of the chosen 31.b4 the first player could have decided the contest in his favor within a few moves; the reader will find a few illustrative variations included in the game score.  Even after this slip victory may well have remained within reach over the next few moves, but the player of the White pieces never quite succeeded in landing the finishing blow, and Marder, refusing to lose hope, defended tenaciously, at last finding safety in a Rook endgame agreed drawn at the 55th move.  We present the contest here:

    

We have unfortunately not obtained the score of Tenenwurzel's defeat of Beynon.  The present tourney, only four rounds old, has already proved most difficult to cover with the journalistic thoroughness to which we aspire.  With some games played until the wee hours of the morning, others contested ahead of schedule on days originally designated as free, a handful adjourned, and still others postponed, the task has become most onerous indeed.  To add to the burden, a few of our colleagues (we shall not name names) have of late developed the most unfortunate habit, immediately following the completion of a game, of procuring the players' score sheets and removing them from the premises, in order to examine and publish them at relative leisure afterward, rather than lose time in making copies by hand.  Of course, such a practice, which makes the score of a particular game unavailable to other journals, places still further obstacles in the path of a diligent reporter, and can in some instances even lead to the incorrect reporting of a game's result.

In light of the above, we must here express out deepest thanks to a fine gentleman who has done everything in his power to facilitate our own reporting of the Rice Club tournament.  This friend of chess, a certain Mr. Ph. B., a man of good will, ready wit, and strong bibliothecarian bent, has taken upon himself the time-consuming task of visiting the offices of our friendly metropolitan rivals (the Sun, the Tribune, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and others), all in order to track down, collect, and assemble the game scores from the event, many of which would otherwise have appeared, fleetingly, in one single publication alone.  By making the results of his research freely available he is providing an invaluable service both to interested aficionados here in 1913 and to generations of chess lovers yet to be born, for the history of our game is in large measure written in the moves made on the board, whose loss is therefore much to be regretted, and whose preservation to be cheered.  It is to Mr. Ph. B. that we are indebted for the correct result of the Tenenwurzel-Beynon encounter, and, speaking generally, if our coverage of the tourney has surpassed that of others in accuracy and in scope, the credit is his.  Without his efforts our own would weigh but a dram.   

Current scores:

5 points: Capablanca (5)
3 1/2 points: Marder (4)
3 points: Kupchik (3), Bernstein (5)

2 points: Tenenwurzel (3)
1 1/2 points: Black (2)
1 point: Chajes (3), Phillips (3), Adair (4)

1/2 point: Beynon (4), Beihoff (5)

0 points:  Duras (0), Grommer (3)

The number in parentheses following a player's surname indicates the number of games he has played to date.  The adjourned game Phillips-Black is not included in the above table.