Jim West On Chess: Sidney Bernstein's Perfect Quad

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Sidney Bernstein's Perfect Quad

Michael Goeller of The Kenilworthian posted a nice article on Sidney Bernstein and his book Combat: My Fifty Years at the Chessboard.

It was 25 years ago this month that I had the tournament of my life at the Bar Point in Manhattan.

In round one, I sacrificed a pawn as Black and beat IM Israel Zilber (a/k/a "The Sheriff" in Searching for Bobby Fischer).

My next game was as White against Bernstein, and I defeated his unusual defense in the Ruy Lopez.

Next, in round three as Black, I survived a piece sacrifice by future IM Jay Bonin and won an undeserved victory.

So, here I am, paired as White against GM Michael Rohde (a game I wound up losing), bragging to Bernstein about my above-average performance. He quickly put me back in my place by telling me of a quad that he won 3-0 as a young man. As I recall, Bernstein's three opponents were Reuben Fine, Anthony Santasiere, and Arnold Denker!

"My study of chess was accompanied by a strong attraction to music, and it was probably thanks to this that from childhood I became accustomed to thinking of chess as an art, and have never regarded it as anything else, for all the science and sport involved in it. And, moreover, an art which in some ways is closer to music than it is customary to think. Perhaps chess and music are drawn together by laws of harmony and beauty which are difficult to formulate and difficult to grasp, or perhaps by something else." - Vasily Smyslov