Samuel Reshevsky

American - Samuel Reshevsky - A 77 year tribute!

Reshevsky, Samuel (Sammy) Herman
Pronunciation: [re-'shef-skee] (1911-1992)
Active Player for 77 years!


Peak ELO Rating 2680 Percentage Score 52.50%

Nov 26, 1911	Birth name Schmul Rzeszewski, born in Ozorkow, in Russian Poland.
Age 4	Learns chess.
Age 5	Begins giving exhibitions 1920
Age 8	Family emigrates to America
Age 9	First American simultaneous with 20 West Point officers & cadets. He won 19 games and drew one.
Age 9	He toured the country and played over 1,500 in simultaneous exhibitions and only lost 8 games.
Early years	Didn't go to school till parents were taken to court.
Early years	His benefactor was Julius Rosenwald, founder of Sears & Roebuck.

1936, Age 24	Won his first U.S. Championship, eventually played 21 U.S. Championships, winning 7.
1937	Russians give him the title "escape artist" for his resourcefulness in bad positions.
1946-56 (34-44)	Considered "the best in the world during this time" by Bobby Fischer.
1971, Age 60	Last U.S. Championship win.
1981, Age 70	Last U.S. Championship, tied for 3rd place.
1984, Age 73	Tied for first place in a grandmaster tournament in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Mar 4, 1992	At age 81 he died of heart attack, having played 11 world champions, including victories over Keres, Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine. He competed in 3 world championships. Reshevsky died with postal games in progress.

Quotes:

I played hard in my childhood - everything from football and kick-the-can to pinochle and Monopoly. The only game that has endured into my adult life is chess. Perhaps this is due to the cosmopolitan nature of the game or because interesting opponents are easy to find. On the other hand, I believe that chess is more than a game. It is a creative endeavor of the mind, a strategic battle of wills, a science worthy of the world's most powerful computers, and a beautiful art when played by the masters.

- Samuel Reshevsky

From 1946 to 1956 probably the best in the world, though his opening knowledge was less than any other leading player. Like a machine calculating every variation, he found moves over the board by a process of elimination and often got into fantastic time pressure.

- Bobby Fischer

Information presented above is from various sources including Leonard Barden's "Play Better Chess", La Mecca Chess Encyclopedia and an article by Jay Ter Louw. (Source link died.)

A Biography for Reshevsky is available:

"Samuel Reshevsky: A Compendium of 1768 Games with Diagrams, Crosstables, Some annotations, and Indexes" by Stephen W. Gordon, 1997 McFarland & Co., Hardcover, English Figurine Notation, 406pp., $65.00.