julius finn
a chess master's life in america, 1871-1931
JULIUS FINN: A Chess Master’s Life in America, 1871-1931
Author: Olimpiu Urcan
McFarland & Company, Inc.
286 pages
$45.95
Reviewed by John Donaldson
The Romanian chess historian Olimpiu Urcan, author of well-received biographies on E.E. Colman and Adolf Albin, has a new book out. JULIUS FINN: A CHESS MASTER’S LIFE IN AMERICA, 1871-1931 is more than just a simple recounting of the chessic exploits of Finn, the 1907 New York State Chess Champion and expert blindfold player. It tells the story of a man who arrived penniless in New York City at the age of 16 in 1887 and by dint of hard work raised himself into the highest ranks of New York society. Such rags to riches stories are not unknown but Finn’s differs in that chess helped him get there.
Urcan spends the first chapter of his book putting Finn’s life into context with the dates in which he lived. The 1880s and 1890s were a time of active persecution of the Jews in the Pale, that section of Polish Russia that is present day Lithuania. Many Jews came to New York City during this period and settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan seeking a better way of life. They suffered in appalling conditions in crowded tenements, many sleeping in hallways, rooftops or cellars. This was Finn’s world the first few years he lived in the United States and chess helped him escape it.
Ironically Finn did not know how to play the game when he first came to New York, but he soon learned. Urcan paints in careful detail the rich tradition of coffee house and chess the immigrants brought with them. Finn made quick progress and soon found himself among the best players of New York, particularly skilled at giving exhibitions and playing blindfold chess. His rise in playing strength soon found him rubbing shoulders with movers and shakers in New York.
The most prominent was Professor Issac Leopold Rice who was to become his good friend and mentor. Finn in return would become one of the principal supporters of the Professor’s brainchild the Rice Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.h4 g4 5.Ne5 Nf6 6.Bc4 d5 7.exd5 Bd6 8.0-0) which kept more than a few masters fed for many a year analyzing it and playing in thematic tournaments.
Urcan has done a fine job rescuing Finn’s games from various New York and Philadelphia newspaper columns of long ago. These games give a much truer picture of his abilities than the small sampling that was previously available. Judging from Finn’s games from the late 1890s up until about 1907 he was among the top players in the United States. Unfortunately, by the end of that time his playing days were pretty much over except for the occasional simul or blindfold exhibition owing to family and job responsibilities.
Finn did not abandon the chess world but changed from the role of player to chess official. He continued to support the various clubs that were the backbone of chess in New York City. He is among those pictured in the group photo of the members of the New York International Tournament Committee of 1924 alongside his friend Hermann Helms. Three years later Finn would again play a prominent role in another great tournament in the Big Apple.
JULIUS FINN: A CHESS MASTER’S LIFE IN AMERICA, 1871-1931 doesn’t just focus on Finn. There are 99 games of his featured in this book but also 58 supplementary ones played by the likes of Lasker, Showalter, Marshall and Hodges whose chess careers were intertwined with Finn in the 1890s. There is very detailed analysis of the eleventh game of the 1927 World Championship Match between Alekhine and Capablanca, ably done (4 dense pages) by the Singapore IM Goh Wei Ming. The game connects with Finn because of a letter that Capablanca wrote to him during the match.
Sadly the last few years of Finn’s life were not happy ones. The start of the Great Depression soon put Finn’s considerable wealth in peril. His shares in the Bank of the United States and the Municipal Financial Corporation would soon be devastated. He died on December 6, 1931, after a six-week illness leaving a widow and four children. An article in the New York Times on August 1, 1934, reported that he left an estate showing a deficit of $1,193,489 due largely to his stake holding in Bank of the United States. What a wild ride Finn had from pauper to extremely wealthy to pauper again.
JULIUS FINN: A CHESS MASTER’S LIFE IN AMERICA, 1871-1931 is a nicely produced book. There are numerous original photographs and reproductions from newspapers. Like all McFarland books this volume features library binding and acid free paper. The layout is clean and easy to read.
All those with an interest in American chess history from the 1890s to the late 1920s will enjoy this book.
