A diamond cutter by trade, he left Belgium before WWII and created a daily chess column that ran without interruption for 52 years in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Though his tournament results were modest, he wrote more than a dozen chess books and made headlines in 1937 by taking on 34 opponents without sight of the board to set a blindfold record with 24 wins and 10 draws.
He even took on the CHESSMASTER development team at the age of 94 in five simultaneous games, easily winning all of them.
He was a tireless exhibitor and raconteur who entertained fans with his specialty, the knight's tour.
Spectators posted random words and phone numbers in the 64 squares of a giant chessboard.
Kolty memorized the hodgepodge in seconds and, while blindfold, called out the path required for a knight to touch every square on the board as he recalled these scraps of information in order.
"I don't know how he does it", said his wife. "He can't even remember to bring home a loaf of bread from the supermarket."
"Pawns are like buttons," Kolty often said. "Lose to many and the pants fall down by themselves."
In his newspaper office, he played without sight of the board against movie star and chess expert Humprey Bogart (black) who lost by a mere pawn in 1952.
THE MOVES: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Bd3 Nf6 5. Ne2 Bg4 it's too soon to know if the bishop belongs here. Better is 5. ... Bd6 to prepare castling. 6. 0-0 Bd6 7. f3 Be6 8. Bf4 0-0 9. Nd2 Nc6 More flexible is 9. ... Re8 before deciding where to post the night.
10. c3 Ne7 11. Bxd6 Qxd6 12. f4 c5?! overly agressive. More prudent is 12. ... Bf5 13. Nf3 Rae8 13. Nf3 less accurate than 13. dxc5 Qxc5+ 14. Nd4 13. ... Nf5 stronger is 13. ... c4 14. Be2 Bf5 minimizes white's initiative. 14. Qd2 Ne4 15. Qe1 Rac8?! a waste of time. Again 15. ... b6 is indicated. 16. dxc5 Qxc5+ 17. Ned4 Nxd4 18. Nxd4 Rc7 19. f5 Bd7 20. Bxe4 dxe4 21. Qf4 Re8 22. Rae1 Re5 gives up a pawn without a fight and leads to a hopeless ending. The last chance to avoid material loss is 22. ... Bb5! 23. Rf2 Bd3
23. Rxe4 Rxe4 24. Qxe4 Bc6 25. Qe3 black has managed to stave off the immediate mating threats but cannot overgome the lethal disadvantage of being a pawn down.
Since Kolty is blindfolded, however, there is always a chance he will overlook something. Indeed, he is starting to drift. Sharper is 25. Qf4 Re7 26. f6 Re2 27. Qb8+ Re8 28. Qg3
25. ... Re7 26. Qg3 Re8 27. f6 g6 28. Qb4 the queen is already on a strong outpost and should stay there. Simply 28. Re1 is indicated to challenge the e-file. 28. h5 Bogart in turn misses his main chance 28. ... Re2 29. Rf2 Re1+ 30. Rf1 Re2 draws.
29. Re1 Rxe1+ 30. Qxe1 Qd6 31. Nxc6 Qxc6 32. Qe7 Qc8 33. h3 Qc6 34. b4 Qxc3 35. Qe8+ Kh7 36. Qxf7+ Kh6 37. Qe7 Qc1+ comes close to drawing but not quite. 38. Kf2 Qf4 39. Ke2 Qc4+ 40. Kf3 Kg5 making it easy. The best try is 40. ... h4! forcing white to find a move like 41. Qe4! in order to win. If 40. ... Qf1+ 41. Kg3 h4+ 42. Kh2 Qf4+ 43. Kg1 Qc1+ 44. Kf2 black will eventually run out of checks. 41. f7 Black resigns.
Bogart once worked in a chess stall at Coney Island and was arguably the strongest player in the Hollywood community.
Solution to last week's puzzle: 1. Rxd5!! Qxd5 2. Qxf7+!! Qxf7 3. Nd7 mate.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
June 11-18, 2004
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