longer ruled by the great amateur
players such as himself. This
brave new world was populated by
the likes of Samuel Reshevsky,
Memphis Chess Club member Reuben Fine, and Isaac Kashdan.
Dave Cummings
Dave Cummings, suffering
from a “slight indisposition,”
attended but did not play in
the 1913 Western
Championship. His presence
was key, however, in support
of the Memphis bid for the
1914 tournament. Since
Scrivener, who was elected
President, appointed
Cummings as Secretary and
Treasurer of the association for
1914, Cummings was also
instrumental in making the
1914 tournament in Memphis
a smashing success. Although
we don’t know much about
him at this point, we do know
he was apparently quite a
player in his own right. In
1910, he beat B.B. in a
Memphis Chess Club
handicap tournament, scoring
15.5 – 2.5, and in 1913, he
was listed as a finalist in the
third tournament of the Illinois
Correspondence Chess
Association.
In his time Bradford B. Jefferson
was a major force in American
chess, who only briefly stepped
out of his relative obscurity to
show the world how well he could
play this game before retreating
once again to his domestic and
business affairs. In the words of
Bob Scrivener:
1913 Western Open
Robert Scrivener vs Bradford Jefferson
White to move and checkmate in 4.
“B.B….was the greatest ʻamateurʼ
player who ever lived! A really
wonderful person to know...I have
always basked in the sunlight of
his fame and some of the reflected
glory has spread over me at times,
but he has always been the
fountainhead of Memphis chess,
and when he goes the world will
be a much sadder place.”
1913 Western Open
B.B. Jefferson died May 14, 1963,
at the age of 89. He is buried in
Memorial Park Cemetery in
Memphis.
John Winter vs Herman Hahlbohm
Black to move and checkmate in 7.
Solutions to both problems are at the bottom of
page 8.
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