Following up on the information in yesterday's post (see "A New Opening?") Bill Wall adds further information on the chessplayer Jon Ishkan, mentioned in the Precita Valley Chess Herald as playing the opening we now know as the Jerome Gambit...
The crosstable of the 1958 US Open lists player #119 as John E. Ishkan. His score was
loss #40 Boris Garfinkel
loss #59 Dale Ruth
win #126 H.E. Rock
win #61 E. Aronson
loss #133 Ted Bullockus
loss #76 Walter Grombacjer
loss #97 A.W. Burger
win #130 Ralph G. Houghton
loss #108 R. Hochalter
win #128 Paul Wagner
loss #69 W.H. Donnelly
loss #102 Donald R. Seifert
Since Ishkan beat Rock, Aronsen, Houghton and Wagner, at least one of those games featured the Jerome Gambit.
Additionally:
John E. Ishkan played in the 1955 US Open in Long Beach.
John E. Ishkan played in the 1957 US Open in Cleveland. He was #140, scoring 4.5 points.
According to the May 20, 1956 USCF rating list in Chess Life magazine, Ishkan lived in Fairfield, Connecticut and was rated 1731.
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The Precida Valley Chess Herald story in "A New Opening?" noted
During the U.S. Open at Rochester, Minnesota, there was a small tourney taking place on the side [emphasis mine]. In it was one man named John Ishkan, who, during one round as White, played 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
Identifying Ishkan's opponents from the U.S. Open itself might not put us on the track of the above mentioned game -- but who's to say that Ishkan didn't play the "Ashcan opening" in one or more of his games in the main event as well?
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