Wetzler v Graham August 25th, 1973
(The romance of chess in a coffee house sure beats sitting in front of a computer screen playing a game against some other entity!)
La Bourdonnais and McDonnell would play countless matches against each other in the early 1800's. In the beginning of the 1970's Dean Graham and Henry Wetzler would be Springfield's own version of this dynamic duo. With the history of City Championship holders only extending back to 1976, Wetzler and Graham could be considered strong candidates for this top honor prior to that date.
The game we'll being reviewing here shows Henry and Dean engaged in a swashbuckling King's Gambit Muzio variation! Professor Wetzler comes out on top in this particular encounter, and looking at the date in which this game was played, my guess is the club was meeting at the YMCA coffee house. During the chess club's first year of existence we were shuttled around to various locations. Each locale had its unique charm. By the looks of it the Y's coffee house must have been "the place" during the 1930's and 40's. Being long abandoned to disuse, we were given this facility as our temporary home and its rustic charm provided the perfect environment for our weekly duals.
Mr. Graham recently paid us the honor of a visit, and having the good fortune to engage him in several games, I was happy to walk away with my pride intact. In drawing each game you could easily say Dean still packs a punch and remains a force to contend with!
The game we'll being reviewing here shows Henry and Dean engaged in a swashbuckling King's Gambit Muzio variation! Professor Wetzler comes out on top in this particular encounter, and looking at the date in which this game was played, my guess is the club was meeting at the YMCA coffee house. During the chess club's first year of existence we were shuttled around to various locations. Each locale had its unique charm. By the looks of it the Y's coffee house must have been "the place" during the 1930's and 40's. Being long abandoned to disuse, we were given this facility as our temporary home and its rustic charm provided the perfect environment for our weekly duals.
Mr. Graham recently paid us the honor of a visit, and having the good fortune to engage him in several games, I was happy to walk away with my pride intact. In drawing each game you could easily say Dean still packs a punch and remains a force to contend with!
Click on the score sheet to enlarge the image to a readable format. And click here to view the game.
