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Charles S. Martinez, the chess player who defeated Champion Lasker at the Franklin Chess Club, Philadelphia, last week, was born in Cuba in 1868. He is the son of the well known expert, D. M. Martinez, who played several matches with Steinitz and Captain Mackenzie. In 1886, the younger Martinez won the first prize in the Junior Chess Club tournament, winning nine and a half points and losing a half. In the match between the Manhattan and Franklin Chess clubs on Decoration Day, 1901. he drew his game with Marshall, while this year he won the championship of the Franklin Chess Club, winning ten games, drawing two and losing only one to Newman. Martinez is ordinarily a rapid and rather an impulsive player. He belongs to the Morphy-Janowski school.
-New York Tribune, November 09, 1902
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LASKER AND MARTINEZ
Among the interesting curios at the Franklin Chess Club is the score of a chess game. There is, as a rule, nothing unusually striking about the ordinary record of the moves of a game, but in this particular instance the game was played between Doctor Lasker, the world's champion, and Charles Martinez, probably the strongest player in Philadelphia, in 1902, at 20 moves an hour. These facts alone are sufficient to hold the attention of the observer, but on glancing down the sheet the reader finds, to his surprise, that the game was won by the brilliant Philadelphian after 44 moves. Not the least interesting feature of this attractive bit of chess history is that the entire score was kept and signed by Doctor Lasker and given to A. K. Robinson, a strong Philadelphia player, who presented it to the Franklin Club. The score of the game follows:
-Chess by David Andrew Mitchell
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Charles S. Martinez (1868-1941) was the son of Dion M. Martinez (June 26, 1837 [only 4 days after Paul Morphy was born] – March 11 1928) who was president of the Franklin Chess Club and acknowledged as one of the strongest players in Philadelphia. Dion Martinez emigrated from Cuba to Texas in 1875 and settled in Philadelphia.
The GRAND INTERNATIONAL CENTENNIAL CHESS CONGRESS, HELD IN
PHILADELPHIA, IN AUGUST, 1876 by W. Henry Sayen states:
"D. M. Martinez, of Havana, the champion of Cuba, a player finished in style and masterly in combination, who defeated Captain Mackenzie in New York in 1874, by the odd game. Owing to sickness in his family, Mr. Martinez was compelled to withdraw after playing four games, and the chess world lost some specimens of very fine play."
However, there doesn't seem to be any substantiation. The only Cuban champions I've ever found from the last half of the 19th century were: Félix Sicre in 1860, Celso Golmayo Zúpide in 1862, followed by his son, Celso Golmayo Torriente, in 1897.
Dion Martinez attended the Steinitz-Zukertort match:
(from the Collected Works of Wilhelm Steinitz ) " . . .Conspicuous among the latter were Mr. D. M. Martinez, the President of the Franklin Chess Club of Philadelphia, to whom a seat of honor was assigned near the players, M. J. Redding of San Francisco, Mr. K. Shipley of Philadelphia, Mr. Osborne of Ansonia, and Mr. Martinez, Jr. "
Just as Dion Martinez was elected president of the newly-formed Franklin Chess Club in 1875, his son, Charles S. Martinez won the first tournament of the newly-formed Junior Chess Club in 1886 (Willaim Penn Shipley, who co-wrote Chess in Philadelphia, was also a member) Shipley won his match that year vs. A.K. Robinson 17.5 to 4.5; while Martinez was the Junior Tourney 9.5 to .5. [Chess in Philadelphia].
Here's an interesting glimpse into the Franklin Club in 1889:
In 1889-
- Gunsberg played 10 single blindfold games at the Franklin Institute. vs. J. Elson (0-0-1); vs C.S. Martinez (0-1-1); vs. A.K. Robinson (1-0-1); vs. W.P. Shipley (2-1-0); vs. W.C. Wilson (0-0-2).
-Max Weiss played 10 single blindfold games vs. C.S. Martinez (2-1-0); vs. C.J. Newman (1-1-1) ; vs A.K. Robinson (0-0-1) ; vs. H.G. Voigt (2-1-0).
-Bird played 49 single blindfold games vs. J. Elson (0-0-1) vs. C.S. Martinez (4-4-4) vs. C.J. Newman (3-4-0); vs. A. Priester (4-0-0) ; vs. A.K. Robinson (5-4-1); vs. W.P. Shipley (5-3-1) ; vs. J.W. Young (5-1-0).
-Blackburne, in a sighted simul, lost to A. Beckman and E. Starck; drew with C.S. Martinez and H.Wells.
Dion Martinez' photo from Chess in Philadelphia.
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