The Most Thrilling Game of Larry Evans' Career

Taimanov congratulates Evans

     Right after WWII ended in 1945, the US met the Soviets in a radio match and although the US team expected to win they were massacred, losing by a score of 15.5-4.5. 
     The only bright spots were Al Horowitz drawing his match with Salo Flohr on board 4 and Albert Pinkus drawing his with Andor Lilienthal on board 7. On boards 1 and 2 Arnold Denker and Samuel Reshevsky were both skunked by Mikhail Botvinnik and Vassily Smylsov respectively. 
     Down on board 4 Isaac Kashdan lost twice to Alexander Kotov and on board 8 Herbert Seidman lost both of his games to Viacheslav Ragozin. Anthony Santasiere also fell victim to David Bronstein twice on board 10. It was awful.
     Then in 1953 another match was being considered to take place the following year. The proposal had originally been made in 1946 and it was renewed by Al Bisno, the US team captain, during the 1952 Olympiad in Helsinki. 
     After all the arrangements were finally completed for the match, the Russians began making stipulations. They wanted their team to stay at a Russian-owned estate in Long Island, but the visas specified New York City. They Russians were informed they could visit, but not stay, at the estate. The Russians were in Paris and returned home in a huff and the match was canceled.
     Later, the Soviets invited the US to come to Russia. For some reason the invitation was sent to Samuel Reshevsky who forwarded it to Harold M. Phillips, the USCF president. Phillips rejected the invitation and invited the Russians to come to New York in 1954 and they again accepted. People were skeptical that they actually would come, but they did. The US lost again. 
     The venue for the match was the Hotel Roosevelt in New York and in the very first round things got tense down on board 8 where Taimanov and Evens were playing. 
     The Soviet team leader Dmitri Postnikov, team physician Dr. Vladimir Rydin and the head of the Russian delegation to NY, Semyon Tsarapkin, were watching the game and at one point when it looked like Taimanov had blundered, things were so tense Postnikiv bit his tongue, Rydin chewed his score pad and Tsarapkin gnawed his knuckles. 

Worried Russian officials

     With Evans on the attack Taimanov suddenly stirred the pot by offering a N and hardly stopping to think Evans grabbed it. Within 11 moves Evans had lost handfuls of material and his King was driven from pillar to post before he resigned on move 35. It was a humiliating defeat for the ex-US champion. 
     Nor was it all that exhilarating for Taimanov; he got a good tongue-lashing from Commisar Postnikov for taking unnecessary risks. In the last round the action on board 8 between Mark Taimanov and Larry Evans produced another thriller. Evans wrote, "The most thrilling game of my career featured an inspired defense after I walked headlong into a prepared variation against the Soviet champion Taimanov in our rubber game with the score tied 1.5-1.5. Tension rode high. At move 18 he had used only two minutes on his clock, while I consumed close to an hour." Both players played aggressively; Taimanov attacked on the Q-side, Evans on the K-side. The turning point came on move 19 when Taimanov, trying to break up Evans' position, plunged his R deep into Evans' position as bait. Unlike in game one, Evans' didn't take the bait and calmly built up a crushing attack.