Sunday 23 December 2018

When namesakes clash

When I first started playing chess in the 1980's, I discovered I wasn't the only "Press". There was a Sydney player, Brian Press, and although I did not believe we were related, a few people asked me if we were. While I haven't seen too many other players with the same surname as mine (with the exception of my own son), I have kept an eye on this for other players.
For example, local Canberra organiser Andrew Greenwood was erroneously believed to be the son of former ACF Treasurer Norm Greenwood, while in recent years there has been two John Adams involved in chess administration. In Gibraltar a few years back I saw two players with the same surname (male and female), and was told by one of them that the other player was her ex-husband. As fate would have it, they were then paired against each other.
One of the stronger matches was Emmanuel and Edward Lasker. There was of course a familial connection (they were very distant cousins), but this did not detract from the interest when they played each other. Of course Emmanuel was the stronger of the two, as the following game shows.


Lasker,Edward - Lasker,Emanuel [D52]
New York International Masters-01 New York,NY (19), 13.04.1924


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