Irving Chernev, who wrote "Wonders and Curiosities of Chess," would have loved this. The following two games were both played at the U.S. Open, five years apart. The White players were brothers from Chicago named Albert and Angelo Sandrin, who both became Life Masters. In both games, White played exf7+, to which Black responded with ...Kh8. A few moves later, White captured Black's rook on f8 for free and with check, checked again with the capturing piece in order to vacate the f8 square, and then underpromoted his f-pawn to knight, checkmating Black. Commenter "Phony Benoni" (David Moody) at chessgames.com calls the games "definitely a case of sibling rivalry."
Albert's game is from the 1949 U.S. Open, which he won ahead of such luminaries as Larry Evans, Arthur Bisguier, and Anthony Santasiere.
2 comments:
Albert (who was legally blind) won the 1949 U.S. Open, the tournament where the first game was played.
Circa 1985, I found the book of the 1949 U.S. Open in a secondhand store (complete with photos of the players), and gave it to Angelo at the Chicago Chess Center. He gave me a bottle of Napoléon brandy the next week!
I never met Albert, but Angelo was a very nice guy.
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