Year Book of the American Chess Federation Volume 4, 1939 Including Thirty-four Games from the Open Championship Tournament at Boston

70+directory+[5 ad] pages with diagrams, illustrations, tables and index. Royal octavo (9 3/4" x 6 1/2") bound in original publisher's red wrappers. (Betts: 25-134;(Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana:5578) First edition.

The 39th American Chess Federation Congress, also known as the North American Championship, was held at the Hotel Touraine. A total of 42 players participated (with one additional no-show), and were divided in six seven-player preliminary sections from which the top two finishers qualified for the Championship final, 3rd-4th for the Consolation Masters, and 5th-7th for the Class A Final. In the preliminary phase, two rounds were played most days in the afternoon and evening, with adjournments played off in the afternoon before round 5. The qualifiers for the championship round were Isaac Kashdan, Israel Albert Horowitz, Boris Blumin, David S Polland, Anthony Santasiere, Harold Morton, George Shainswit, John W Collins, Charles Jaffe, Jack Moskowitz, Paul Rosenzweig and Burton O Dahlstrom. Polland sprinted to the lead as both Horowitz and Kashdan lost in the early rounds. However, both came back with wins over Polland to eventually tie for first, tail-ender Dahlstrom taking a critical half-point from Kashdan. Interest was expressed in holding a match between the two victors, and sufficient funds were raised to make a 10-game match a reality. Both were busy, so it took from mid-October to the end of December 1938 to play the 10 games. Horowitz left the next day for his yearly multi-month US tour and both had missed wins in games, so no effort was made to break the 5-5 tie.

Condition:

Corners bumped and creased, some edge wear, some occasional pencil marginalia else a very good copy.