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| 10 West 10th Street |
Please send me any corrections or additions. I did the best that I could. More pictures later. My neck hurts.
I doubt it was coincidence that I lived across the street from the
club. My father and Dr. Vitanza were business partners with GM Reuben
Fine. I think that's what got Dr. Vitanza involved in chess, and he
very likely saw the building for sale (they would buy 10 West 10th
Street) while visiting the club. I still have some pieces from the
wooden set Dr. Vitanza gave me many decades ago. Dr. Vitanza helped
increase my interest in chess, though I was taught by my mother, and I
was also inspired by my great-uncle, Ben Ferstadt, who was from the town
of Berestechko in the Ukraine.
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| Chess House |
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| USWC Rachel Crotto |
I
played chess in junior high school. Our faculty adviser was Mr.
Vinocore. In our junior high school club was future US Women's Champion
Rachel Crotto. I didn't show up for the first scholastic tournament I
was registered for. My first actual rated chess tournament was the last
rated chess tournament ever to be held at Chess House on 72nd Street.
While Chess House was owned by NM Charles Hidalgo, the tournament was
run by Louis Brockman, who later ran tournaments with his father Henry
in Flushing.
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| FM Asa Hoffmann |
I first met FM Asa Hoffmann
at Chess House. My first visit to the Marshall was when I was a young
teenager and me and my friend Howard (not Howard Prince. A different
Howard) got lost on the way back from my second tournament in Elizabeth
New Jersey, where I first met Goichberg and Joe Lux. I think we had run
out of money and asked both of them to lend us enough money to get
home, and neither of them did. Probably Joe didn't have too much back
then. We were all teenagers. Me and Howard had just enough money to take
the PATH back to Manhattan. I lived uptown in those days with my
mother. After trying to find my father and visiting the Marshall, we
started walking uptown, and a cop let us into the subway at 23rd Street.
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| Marshall Chess Club |
When
we went into the Marshall, only Bill Slater was there, or maybe one or
two other people. I first played my friend Howard and he beat me. Then
Bill Slater played my friend, but refused to play me because I was
supposedly too weak. Some day someone will write about some of our most
minor deeds.
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| Dr. Milton Hanauer |
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| GM William Lombardy |
I got elected to the board I think
in my early twenties after I already had had my own chess tournament
business. I am still the Governor who got elected at the all-time
youngest age. Goldwater was president (
http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/goldwat1.html).
I didn't know the club was broke until many years later. I think the
other governors knew but they didn't tell me. As far as I know, I was
the second governor in the club's history to be nominated by petition,
the first being Alex Sheldon. Peter Sepulveda, who was like an annoying
big brother to me, encouraged me and signed my petition. I heard from
him recently, but he rarely comes to the club unfortunately. Dr.
Milton Hanauer also encouraged me a great deal.
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| FWC Robert J. Fischer |
Then
World Champion, GM Robert J. Fischer made his last public appearance in
New York at the Marshall Chess Club. He was seated on the bench
nearest to the front East window. With him was Betty Buscemi, who was
night manager before IM Jay Bonin.
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| IM Jay Bonin |
I was night
manager after IM Bonin. I left the board and my job there during the
aftermath of throwing Goichberg's tournaments out of the club. It was
during the time of the Goichberg tournaments that most of the club's
valuable trophies were stolen. There was no security in place, not
even locks. Goldwater was an anarchist and didn't believe in locks.
The only locks were on the front door of the building and the office.
The club's antique chess sets on display in the back room were sold
off. NM Leslie Braun helped Mr. Goldwater pack them up and take them to
Southerbees.
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| WCGM Carlsen with GM Marshall |
Someone broke into the office with a
pickaxe. I found the pickaxe in the basement. Someone was planning to
break into the office over and over again. Dr. Vitanza broke the
pickaxe handle into small pieces with a larger pickaxe, and left the
pieces in front of the club in the hopes it would leave a message to the
thief that his efforts were unwelcome. One of the other members, Bob
Lukasik, repaired the door and reinforced it with a thick wooden board
which remains there to this day. Someone stole the bust of Frank
Marshall as a joke but later returned it.
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| NTD Steve Immitt |
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| Howard Prince (Right) |
The
last years of the Goldwater administration were awful. Some of the
elderly members had left when Goichberg's tournaments came in. Even
though Goichberg's tournaments were only on the weekends, these elderly
members liked to play every day. The club was still active though, due
to the high concentration of tournament players. When Goichberg was
thrown out, there was no equivalent tournament program put in place at
the Marshall. Almost all of the tournament players went to Goichberg's
new place on 14th Street, the Bar Point. The Bar Point, I believe,
eventually became the Chess Center of New York, under the ownership of
Steve Immitt.
Mr. Goldwater was sick with
leukemia. Unfortunately most of the board members were afraid to come
forward to take up the leadership of the club for fear of Mr. Goldwater,
who everyone assumed would leave the club a great deal of money.
Goldwater left the club no money at all, and I don't blame him. There
was no one around to protect it and put it to good use.
Dr.
Finkelstein became president pro-temp and then president. I don't know
how that happened, but usually one president appoints the next
president, just a new board members usually come on the board on the
suggestion of other board members. Dr. Finkelstein and Dr. Hanauer
were once co-principals and best friends, but it seemed to me that they
were two very different men. Dr. Hanauer was one of the first pioneers
of scholastic chess long before everyone was doing it.
I
don't know much about Dr. Finkelstein's administrations. I wasn't
there. I heard later that there was an untoward attempt to sell the
building which was headed off at the last minute. Those who go far
enough to the Haft administration know that there were three plaques
that sat together on the mantle of the middle fireplace. One was Dr.
Finkelstein, one was Alex Weber. I forget who the third was. I heard
that Alex Weber was one of the great men who stopped the sale of the
building. If it were not for him we would not have a club today.
There would be no club for GM Magnus Carlsen to visit, for us to play in
tournaments, or any of the good things that are happening these days.
Another
person who was instrumental in saving the club was Peter Sepulveda.
Peter was never president, but he brought many new people on to the
board over a period of several decades. He had a great deal of
influence other who the presidents would be. I believe he played a
major role, not only in selecting Gary Sperling, but also in replacing
him with Marianna Bellizzi. From what I've heard, Sperling reactivated
the system of committees which traditionally ran the club, but he was
too autocratic, and was replaced by Marianna Bellizzi, who was president
for many years. When she got tired of being president, Peter helped
bring in Leon Haft.
I had been at the
Manhattan and rejoined the Marshall when Leon Haft hired my friend FM
Ron Young as manager. Leon wasn't crazy about me. In fact Leon threw
me out of the office a couple of times. While he never apologized for
throwing me out of the office, many years later he found a letter I
had written him, and when he saw me at the club he complemented me on
it.
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| IA Eric Schiller |
During the Haft years, Steve Immitt
was invited in to increase the chess activity in the club. All I can
remember was that the club was very active and fun during those years.
Later I would find out that Leon had taken out a balloon mortgage on
the building and had used it to operate the club. When the mortgage
came due during the Prince years we were mad at Haft for having done
that, but now I think he did the right thing in that. I actually liked
the club's decor, or the lack thereof. It was just something I had
grown up with.
Note: I should add that few give Leon credit for using part of the mortgage to combine two of the upstairs apartment, thus ending rent stabilization in the building.
Haft was controversial for a
number of reasons. During the Haft administration, the club failed to
make its annual tax filings. The tax filings had been entrusted to
Isadore Rothman, who was very sick with the cancer that eventually
killed him. Rothman was given full blame. Jack Henry eventually
talked the IRS into lowering or eliminating the fines. Leon left
before his term was up, and with no active officers, Ron Young had to
handle the club's business pretty much on his own. Steve helped out
from time to time. Ed Kopieki was the night manager. Despite all of
these problems, which most of the members didn't know about, the club
was very active during Haft's time. There were internationals run Dr.
Eric Schiller and Eric Moskow, MD. There was also a series of
internationals that included Josh Waitzkin and some of his
contemporaries, including GM Maurice Ashley. Bob Dunnigan was a very
active volunteer through most of the Haft administration.
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| Marshall Gambit |
We
had a big orange cat in those days named Marshall Gambit. He was a
perfect cat for the chess club. He didn't like dogs or other
non-members. When we had internationals, he didn't like to be excluded
from the room, he wanted to watch his friend FM Ron Young play. We
would fight him over this, but he usually got in anyhow. To my
knowledge he only walked across a game in progress one time. It was
during an international, and he knocked over one of Ron's rooks. I
think Ron asked his opponent if he had to say "j'adoube" before placing
the rook back on the board. Sadly the cat left the planet the same
week as NM Leslie Braun.
It wasn't until later
when Howard Prince was president that GM Bill Lombardy encouraged me to
run for the board again. Actually the year before Howard agreed to make
me assistant treasurer. During that year, I not only learned how
little money the club had, but also that membership was plummeting due
to an ill-timed dues increase. The building actually wasn't doing that
badly at the time even though some of the apartments were rent
stabilized. In fact, we were putting money in the bank. The club had a
very low budget due to the decline in membership, but I still remember
those as good years.
After I became assistant
treasurer and then treasurer, I saw that the club didn't and shouldn't
get too much cash from tournaments. The best source of revenue is
Resident memberships. I think the club had a tradition of not
encouraging professional players, because the original idea was that GM
Marshall would be the only chess professional there. Unfortunately the
idea of not encouraging professional chessplayers went on for decades
even after Marshall died. For many years in a row, the strong GM Andy
Soltis won the club championship. Until he was outscored one year by
then NM Brian Hulse. The idea of not encouraging professional players
still lives on in the policy of not allowing titled players to vote.
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| Vincent Livermore |
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| NM Peter Winston |
The times when NM Doug Bellizzi was manager were great. One of the great attractions was Israel Zilber (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Zilber),
a strong player who had beaten Tal twice. In Tal's game collection
book, the Game #1 is a game Tal had played with Zilber when Tal was 12
and Zilber was 15. Mr. Zilber suffered from schizophrenia. He always
wore a elaborate sea captain's uniform. He stored a large number of
these uniforms on the coat racks we then had at the club. People would
come from everywhere to play him. Everyone from the legendary NM Peter
Winston (
http://observer.com/2012/07/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-peter-winston/)
to Vincent Livermore came. It was during this period that NM Winston
played in his last rapids before his disappearance. Zilber was sleeping
at the club. This was forbidden by the administration (which I was
not part of at the time) and they kept on taking away his key to the
front door. I kept making copies of the key and giving them to him.
That's just how I am.
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