The Chigorin Memorial is in honor of Mikhail Chigorin (1850–1908), founder of the Soviet Chess School and one of the leading players of his day. The first was played in 1909 in St. Petersburg. Later on, an international invitation Memorial tournament series was established, and mainly played in the Black Sea resort Sochi (from 1963 to 1990). Further irregular tournaments had been held in 1947, 1951, 1961, and 1972, played in diverse venues. From 1993 the venue returned to his hometown, the Memorial is now played as an Open event.
In 1964 the tournament was held in Sochi and was won by Nikolai Krogius.
1) Nikolai Krogius 11.0
2-3) Ratmir Kholmov and Mato Damjanovic 10.0
4) Boris Spassky 9.5
5) Milan Matulovic 9.0
6-8) Vladimir Antoshin, Anatoly Lein, and Rashid Nezhmetdinov 8.5
9) Igor Bondarevsky 8.0
10-11) Maximilian Ujtelky and Gideon Barcza 7.5
12) Vladimir Doroshkievich 7.0
13) Florian Gheorghiu 6.0
14) Gyozo Forintos 3.5
15) Tudev Ujtumen 3.0
16) Gonzales Garcia 2.5
The winner of the following outlandish game was Maximilian Samuel Rudolf Ujtelky (April 20, 1915 - December 1979), a Slovak master and theoretician of Hungarian origin. Dr. Ujtelky was a descendant of famous Hungarian composer Franz Liszt.
In 1960 Ujtelky tied for first with Jiri Fichtl in the Czechoslovak Championship, but lost the playoff match for the title. He represented Czechoslovakia in Chess Olympiads three times: Amsterdam 1954, Leipzig 1960 and Havana 1966. He was awarded the IM title in 1961.
The defense that Ujtelky employed in the following game might better be classified as the Hippopotamus, a dull, plodding defense in which black sits tight and waits for white to overextend himself, launch a premature attack...or blunder. It’s one of those outlandish defenses that Ujtelky made a living out of playing. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t.
In this game Nezhmetdinov, a fearsome attacker, obtained a dominating position, won (or was handed) the exchange and had good winning chances. Then after blundering away a center Pawn, he manically began sacrificing for vague attacking chances and ended up losing. A strange game.
[Event "Sochi - Chigorin Memorial"]
[Site "Sochi URS"]
[Date "1964.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Rashid Nezhmetdinov"]
[Black "Maximilian Ujtelky"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]
%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{B06: Modern Defense} 1. e4 g6 {The Modern or the Pirc? The Modern is closely
related to the Pirc with the primary difference being that in the Modern black
delays developing his knight to f6. The delay of ...Nf6 attacking the P on e4
gives white the option of blunting the g7-bishop with c2-c3. There are
numerous transpositional possibilities between the two openings.} 2. d4 Bg7
3. Nc3 d6 4. Bc4 e6 5. Nf3 Ne7 6. h4 {Typical Nezhmetdinov...play for the
attack.} 6... h6 {It's too risky to play 6...O-O 7.h5. Now black can meet h5
with ...g5.} 7. Bf4 a6 8. Qe2 Nd7 {Since white's next move prevents ...b5
black may have wanted to consider playing 8...b5.} 9. a4 b6 10. Rd1 Bb7 11.
Kf1 {Another move typical of Nezhmetdinov. He wants to bring his K to safety,
but castling would remove the R from the h-file. So, he plays this trying to
get the best of both worlds.} 11... Nf8 12. Kg1 Qc8 13. Bb3 Qd7 14. Rh3 {Does
the R have a future here? It does, but not for many, many moves...something
that was beyond calculation. One might expect something like 14.e5, but guess
what? Nezhmetdinov's move is one that shows up as a favorite of Komodo!}
14... Rd8 15. Bc4 {White threatens to win material: Bc4xa6} 15... Qc8 {It's
interesting that Komodo gives white no advantage here (less than half a P)
while Stockfish thinks white is ahead by a little over one P.} 16. Bb3 {In the
auto-annotation Stockfish slapped two question marks on this becasue it loses
all of white's supposed advantage. Instead Stockfish likes 16.d5. In reality
the game is even.} 16... f6 {Ujtelky it seems is just being cute hereabouts,
but there seems to be no clear way to take advantage of it.} 17. Re1 Kf7 18.
Bc1 c6 19. Nd2 {If white wants to undertake some action then moves like 19.d5
or 19.h5 come into consideration. In the meantime anyone playing over this
game can safely zip through the next 20 moves to get to the real action.}
19... d5 20. a5 b5 21. Nf3 Qc7 22. Bd2 Bc8 23. Na2 Nh7 24. Nb4 Rhe8 25. Nd3
Nf8 {Black's passive play has finally started to tell against him as his
position is very passive. It's rather surprising that Nezhmetdinov didn't
play 26.e5 which would have given him a promising attack.} 26. Bf4 Qxa5 {This
P-grab is wrong. Correct was 26... e5.} 27. e5 {Suddenly white finally
undertakes some real action.} 27... f5 {Wgite's next move is somewhat
surprising as one would expect Nezhmetdinov to play 28. h5! trying to dig out
black's K. Black couldn't play 28...g5?? 29.Bg5 and 30. Nxg5+ winning.} 28.
Bd2 Qb6 29. Ra1 {The move 29.h5 was still a good one.} 29... Nh7 {Preventing
the advance of the h-Pawn, but losing the exchange.} 30. Ba5 Qa7 31. Bxd8
Rxd8 32. Qd2 Bb7 33. Qa5 Ra8 34. Nc5 Bc8 35. c3 Nf8 36. Ne1 {This is a
questionable move because it allows black to suddenly get some play.} 36...
Bxe5 37. dxe5 Qxc5 {Materially white has a R vs a N and two Ps and the chances
are about equal.} 38. Nd3 Qa7 39. Bc2 c5 40. b4 {White is ruining his position
and loses a P.} 40... Nc6 41. Qa3 c4 42. Nc5 Nxe5 43. Qc1 h5 44. Rg3 Ned7
{White should now play 45.Nxd7 and then play his Q to f4.} 45. Nxe6 {Instead
he makes a completely unsound sacrifice.} 45... Nxe6 46. Qh6 Ndf8 {White has
no good followup and so is committed to sacrificing more material and hoping
black makes a bad mistake.} 47. Bxf5 gxf5 48. Re1 Bd7 49. Qxh5+ Ke7 50. Qxf5
Kd6 {Materially white is way behind (R+P vs 2Ns+B) but practically he has some
hope because of his K-side Ps.} 51. h5 a5 {Very good. White can't trade Ps
because black quickly gets his Q-side Ps in motion with ...b4 netting two
passed Ps.} 52. Qe5+ Kc6 53. Rd1 Nc7 54. Ra1 Qb8 55. bxa5 b4 56. cxb4 Qxb4
57. Rf3 {If white tries advancing his h-Pawn black simply sacrifices the N for
it and wins with his c- and d-Pawns.} 57... Nce6 58. a6 Qc5 59. Qe1 Nd4 60.
Rf6+ Nfe6 61. Ra5 Qb6 62. h6 Kd6 63. h7 c3 64. Ra1 c2 65. Rg6 (65 66. Rh6 {the
last chance for counterplay} 66... Nb3 67. Rb1 Rh8 68. a7 {White has managed
to cause some trouble with his Rook Ps, but Ujtelky has everything under
control.} 68... Qb2 69. Rh6 {Not that it matters much, but black missed a mate
in 11 moves with 67...Nf3 followed by ...Qg7.} 69... Ne2+ {Hoping to deflect
the Q. 68.Qxe2 Qb1+ 69.Rxb1 cxb1Q+ leaves black with a winning position, but
it requires careful play. Therefore it was probably white's best hope.} 70.
Kh2 c1=Q 71. Rxc1 {Now a simpler win would be 69... Qxc1 70. Qxc1 Nxc1 71.
a8=Q Rxa8 72. h8=Q Rxh8 73. Rxh8 and black wins by virtue of his d-Pawn.}
71... Nxc1 72. Qa5 Bc6 73. Qa6 Qe5+ 74. g3 Nb3 75. f4 Qb2+ 76. Kh3 Nbc5 77.
a8=Q {After playing this move Nezhmetdinov resigned. Stockfish gives the
following continuation...} 77... Nxa6 78. Qxa6 Qc1 79. Qe2 Qh1+ 80. Qh2 Qe4
81. Qf2 d4 {This P is the reason that black is able to win.} 82. Qa2 d3 83.
Qa3+ Kd7 84. Qa7+ Bb7 85. Qa1 d2 86. Qd1 Qe1 87. Qa4+ Kc8 88. Qc2+ Kb8 89.
Rh5 d1=B 90. Qxd1 Qxd1 91. Kh4 Qf3 92. Rh6 Be4 93. Rh5 Bf5 94. Rxf5 Rxh7+
{mates next move.} 0-1
No comments:
Post a Comment