Bogart was once on the cover of CL, playing chess with service members during WW II.
Few know that during his years as a young actor in NYC, he stood on street corners with a set, taking all comers for cash. He might have been in the 1900-2100 range.
Once he became a star, a chess set and he appeared in every movie, where he could find an excuse. Bogart even served once on the USCF Board of Delegates, (then called the Board of Directors).
I have finally found a movie poster with Bogart in front of a chess set. It is the French poster for CASABLANCA. Greenstreet is looking on. Reproductions are available.
8.Nb5 = the Nazi incursion into North Africa (the horsie even looks a bit like Rommel). Doubling the symbolism: it’s the Alekhine-Chatard Attack, and Alekhine had already published his collaborationist articles in the Pariser Zeitung the previous year.(*)
By analogy with Bronstein-Stahlberg, one must assume that Rick Blaine would never play 8…Kd8 (much as he might like not to sacrifice), and that he must castle. Thus, Ingrid Bergman = the rook on a8 (her long neck even looks like a rook’s tower, though perhaps more like the Ra1), who must be sacrificed to win the center.
Tongue out of cheek: Bogey did pick the position, and he picked a good one.
I have a vague memory of Kolty estimating Bogey’s strength at around 1700, which is strong enough to hustle for money if one is selective with one’s opponents.
Arnold Denker’s book, “The Bobby Fischer I Knew, and other stories”, has a chapter on chess in Hollywood and the influence of Herman Steiner who taught a number of the glitterati to play the game. Denker lists the following as avid players: John Barrymore, Lauren Bacall, Lew Ayres, Katherine Hepburn, John Wayne, Linda Darnell, Charlie Chaplin, Sydney Greenstreet, Myrna Loy among many other stars and people who worked in the film community.
Arnold Denker also included several of Humphrey Bogart’s games. From the games, you can judge his general strength. One has to assume that the chess position, a French Defense, chosen for the first scene in the movie “Casablanca” was made by Bogart. If so, it was a thoughtful selection given the context of the movie. Denker says that Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet were often seen playing chess between scenes during the making of the movie.
In George Koltanowski’s article “Chess with Bogey” (Overboard magazine; Fall 1974), when Humphrey Bogart was staying at the Sabena Hotel in Stanleyville while filming 1951’s “The African Queen”, Bogart played $1/game vs. Dr. Paul Limbos (Limbos won 17, drawing three “just to keep the client happy”). “During the entire evening both Katherine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall tried their best to distract me from the game at hand. They continually poured my glass full of whiskey – but I just wouldn’t `swallow the bait.'”
Limbos stated that Bogart appeared to be a strong Class B player, who generally played the French Defense as Black (the annotated game Limbos-Bogart was a French Winawer).
Koltanowski played Bogart once, at the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle. “I played blindfold and had my hands more than full with Bogey.” (Koltanowski-Bogart; French Defense, Exchange Variation; 1-0 in 41 moves).
