Chess Champion

Since 1909 the U. S. chess championship has been a first-class monopoly, resting exclusively with tight-lipped Frank James Marshall. In 27 years he has defended his title only once. The $5,000 purse which challenger and defender had to raise excluded most hopefuls from a try. Last year, tired of this empty honor. Champion Marshall offered to retire, suggested an annual tournament for his title. The Marshall Chess Club promptly put up a big silver cup for the winner.

Last month in Manhattan 16 U. S. experts, who had been selected or had qualified in a preliminary tournament, assembled in the Hotel Astor to fight it out. Most intent spectators wrere moppets who paid 50-c- to study such intricate maneuvers as the King's gambit, the Alekhine defense. Busiest spectators were waiters who brought the players sandwiches, pitchers of milk or coffee. A scheduled exhibition between a 97-year-old player and a ic-year-old failed to take place when the oldster fell down in his home day before the match.

Most eyes were focused on a 24-year-old Polish Jew named Samuel Reshevsky, who started to play at 5. toured Europe as a chess prodigy at 8, startled U. S. experts at 9 by winning 41 out of 42 simultaneously-played matches. In 1924 he came to the attention of the late Julius Rosenwald, who was so impressed that he spent $11,000 to send Reshevsky through high school and college. Graduated from the University of Chicago in 1933 with only average grades, Reshevsky resumed chess, made his debut in European international play last year by beating onetime World Champion Jose Capablanca to win the masters' tournament at Margate, England. Last month he quit his accountant's job in Manhattan to enter the national tournament.

The first week he found himself far down on the list of competitors. The second week he steadied, tied for the lead with 21-year-old Albert Simonson, youngest entrant. Last week Youngster Simonson, still tied with Reshevsky on the last day, lost his final match. Playing with customary meticulousness and gulping huge draughts of ice water, Samuel Reshevsky contented himself with a draw against his last opponent, became U. S. chess champion by a ^ point margin.

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