Marshall Spectator 11.17.2021

Bradley Beach 1929

How did a small beach town come to host an international chess tournament, much less lure the reigning world champion to play? By the 1920s, Bradley Beach had become a very popular resort town and attracted thousands of tourists from New York City and the surrounding areas. This included Victor D. Spark, a prominent New York City appraiser and art dealer who specialized in Old Masters paintings as well as 19th and early 20th century art. Spark summered in Bradley Beach with his family all his life. His father, Ned ("King of the North") Spark, was the owner of two hotels in Bradley Beach - Hotel La Reine and the Bradley Hotel. Construction of Hotel La Reine and the adjoining Bradley Hotel was completed in 1900 and 1928, respectively. According to the Bradley Beach Public Library, the hotel complex featured 500 rooms, each with an ocean view, elevators, telephones in rooms, and two kitchens (one kosher). A swimming pool was also added, and retail stores were opened on the street level of the building.

Spark was also a chess enthusiast and prominent member of the Manhattan Chess Club. Perhaps he saw the same artistic beauty in chess that he did in the paintings he appraised and dealt. By this time, the Manhattan Chess Club had already organized two of the most famous chess tournaments in history: New York 1924 and New York 1927. Spark and the Manhattan Chess Club played an instrumental role in Bradley Beach's foray into chess. In September 1928, Hotel La Reine hosted the 2nd Annual Congress of the National Chess Federation (predecessor to the United States Chess Federation). Spark organized Bradley Beach 1928 and most of the tournament participants were also members of the Manhattan Chess Club, including: Edward Lasker, I.A. Horowitz, Oscar Tenner, and eventual tournament winner, Abraham Kupchik.

Shortly after Bradley Beach 1928, former World Champion Emanuel Lasker graced Bradley Beach with a visit. Unsurprisingly, Lasker had a close affiliation with the Manhattan Chess Club. In 1894, Wilhem Steinitz and Lasker met at the Manhattan Chess Club to negotiate their proposed world championship chess match. The club eventually hosted the first 8 games of their world championship match, and Lasker joined the club the next year. Most notably, Lasker won clear first at New York 1924. Through this club connection, it appears that Spark invited Lasker to visit Bradley Beach and stay at his family's hotel.

Lasker's stay at Hotel La Reine was part pleasure, but I suspect it was mostly business. At the time, it appears Spark was seeking to solidify Bradley Beach's rapid rise to prominence in the chess world. The town was in the midst of negotiations to host a world championship rematch between Alekhine and Jose Raul Capablanca, who lost his title a couple years earlier in Buenos Aires. Spark would have been acquainted with both Alekhine and Capablanca through the Manhattan Chess Club. They both played in New York 1924 and New York 1927 (Alekhine famously wrote the tournament books), and they each visited the club to give simultaneous exhibitions. As evidenced by his visit, it appears that Lasker was serving as mediator between the three parties to organize the match. Alas, Alekhine eventually declined and instead agreed to a match with Efim Bogoljubov. Lasker went on to serve as an arbiter during this match, which confirms the active role he played in organizing the 1929 World Chess Championship. Spark's efforts were likely in vain, however, as Alekhine blatantly avoided playing Capablanca for the rest of his chess career.

After upsetting Capablanca for the title in 1927, Alekhine embarked on a two-year worldwide simultaneous exhibition tour, which brought him to the United States in March 1929. Alekhine arrived in New York City on March 19 for his second American tour aboard the RMS Aquitania (which looked eerily similar to the Titanic). After being the guest of honor at a dinner held by the University Club on March 20, Alekhine kicked off his American tour with a series of simultaneous exhibitions produced by the Manhattan Chess Club. On March 21, he played a forty board simultaneous exhibition at the Manhattan Chess Club's headquarters in the Hotel Sherman Square. On March 23, he played ten handpicked opponents blindfolded. Finally, on March 24, he played a three board consultation match, where two or three Manhattan Chess Club experts put their heads together in an attempt to defeat Alekhine.

While he did not play Alekhine, Spark was almost certainly in attendance at these events along with most of the other club members. Seeking a consolation for Bradley Beach's failed world championship bid, this could have been the occasion when Spark and the Manhattan Chess Club invited Alekhine to play in a tournament in Bradley Beach. Alekhine accepted and promised to play before he returned to his home in Paris. In the meantime, Alekhine gave simultaneous exhibitions in Boston, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Mexico City.

Alekhine kept his promise and finally arrived in Bradley Beach on June 2, 1929 for the final leg of his tour. This tournament proved to be Alekhine's only master-level tournament between his world championship matches with Capablanca and Bogoljubov in 1927 and 1929, respectively. This significance makes it all the more surprising that Bradley Beach 1929 has largely been ignored by chess historians.

[Reprinted from his column with permission from the author]

—Thomas Shupe, Marshall Chess Club Member