The Worst BEMO Ever Played - Part 2
by DETECTO
I should have mentioned this in part one! John F. Horr when he was a youthful teenager had his right hand blown away in a terrible hunting accident! He was fitted with a wooden hand! On page 48 of Second International match Bk. there is a group photo where Horr is trying to hide his right hand as much as possible. He is wearing a gray suede leather glove! Also on page 34 of sixth American tourney Horr can be seen wearing the glove to hide his wooden hand! Also in the back row of both group photos there stands George M. Tanner. Tanner can clearly be identified as a black man! At this point I want to congratulate my very dear friend and colleague of over 40 years, Bob Podoff on his wonderful article about George M. Tanner! He did a lot of research but he didn't do quite enough! In his article he gave the impression that Tanner was not an alternate. Too bad Bob, Tanner was indeed an alternate! The original "Big Seven" the nucleus of the American team consisted of Heffner, Banks, Jordan, Horr, Long, Gonotsky and Ginsberg! Then Jordan died. The first replacement of the team had to be made! Joe Mexa Duffy became the new 12th man! Then Duffy resigned as the 12th man. So Mike Lieber who was the new 13th man became the 12th and last man on the American team in the Second International match team of 1927! So now we come to the fact that Saul Weslow, Andrew R. Dossett and then George M. Tanner were still waiting in the wings as alternates! In his research Bob overlooked Dossett and Tanner as alternates! TSK! TSK! Bob! NO ONE IS PERFECT! Now I have to say something nice to make it up to my friend BOB! The point of his article was 100% absolutely correct! The match committee chose Duffy, Lieber, Weslow and Dossett ahead of Tanner! There never was any chance of Tanner ever playing for the U.S. team! I along with Bob Podoff and many of our friends believe Tanner should have played on the team! It was a great article and had a lot of human interest! As Bob Podoff said," It was a very, very sad story! Now to review in Part one up to and including 1905, Alfred Jordan was better than John F. Horr. But in the next 10 to 15 years Horr caught up to Jordan and surpassed him! He was getting better and better every time he played. He was gaining valuable experience and becoming a seasoned veteran. In the Second American tourney in 1912 he qualified for the majors. In the Class "A" semi-finals he defeated Ginsberg 1 to 0 and 9 draws! Louis C. Ginsberg in a match in Chicago against Alfred Jordan defeated Jordan by the score of 3-1-25 draws! After the match Jordan publicly stated that Ginsberg was the probable equal of any player in the world!

Johnny Horr advocated the inclusion of the barred openings! He had made a special study of the four barred openings and was generally considered the foremost authority on them in the world! He won the 4th American tourney of 1920, He was now the new American Champion! Alfred Jordan entered 5 Amer. Tys. 1912, 1915, 1920 1922, 1924. Alfred Jordan never won an American tourney! Horr won the 1920 TY. Very convincingly! He defeated Jordan on a barred opening cook in the semi-finals and then defeated John T. Bradford in the finals! Now in 1922 in the Fifth American tourney a rising new young 18 yr. old star appeared by the name of Asa A. Long! He had to defeat Jordan twice in order to win this tourney! In this tourney Ginsberg won 3rd prize. I now pause because two or three of my students enjoy when I point out good historical checker data! They also love my checker trivia! Here are some of my best examples:- In the Fifth American tourney Ginsberg beat Long, Long beat Jordan, and Jordan beat Ginsberg! "Ring Around The Rosie" Another famous example of this: Charles F. Barker always beat August J. Heffner, August J. Heffner always beat Clarence H. Freeman and Clarence H. Freeman always beat Charles F. Barker! In the First International Heffner lost only one game, and that was to James Searight! What a wonderful name for a checker master - Searight! Searight only lost one game and that was to Barker! All of a sudden Asa Long got very rambunctious! He had just beaten Alfred Jordan twice! So he thought he was ready for the World's Championship! Next he immediately challenged Johnny Horr the winner of the Fourth American tourney And the result was The Long -Horr Match games featuring the barred openings! A 40 game subscription match played in Detroit, Michigan, Oct.5 - Oct.13, 1923 For a Purse of $1000. An amazing amount, unheard of in those days! Asa Long bit off a lot more than he could chew! And learned a valuable lesson! Asa who was only 19 years old made a misguided challenge since he did not yet have the talent he would later have in the 1930's! He was playing a seasoned veteran, an experienced old war horse with lots of checker scalps under his belt! John F. Horr had a most magnificent manuscript with loads of cooks just like Mike Lieber! He knew more about the barred openings than anybody else in the World! So what do you think happened? Asa A. Long didn't have a chance, not a prayer! Long got whipped very badly! He got his butt kicked hard! Horr defeated Long by the score of 4-1-33! This doesn't tell the whole story. Johnny Horr missed 3 more wins on Long! Long only missed one win. Horr won 3 Barred Opening games! Long only won one. Horr missed an easy Barred Opening win, and missed an easy draw in the only game that Long won! Horr sprang 4 cooks on Asa Long! Long was completely and hopelessly outplayed! The result of this match made John F. Horr very, very confident about the upcoming American Tourney to be held in New York City in 1924, the Sixth American Tourney. As a matter of fact John F. Horr was made the odds on, heavy favorite by his friends and his backers and fans and knowing checker experts! Horr really felt he could win this tourney and then challenge for the World's Championship! Nobody outside Brooklyn and New York City knew much about Sam Gonotsky except Louis C. Ginsberg, who predicted that "Gonotsky was stronger than anyone dreamed, and would some day become American Champion"! A prediction that would soon come true!

DETECTO