If you lived in South Africa (in those days the Union of South Africa) in 1955 the big political news was The Congress of the People that was held in June. And, if you were a railroad fan the South African Railways placed the first of sixty Class 5E, Series 1 electric locomotives in service. They would eventually become the most prolific locomotive type to ever run on South African rails.
If you were a sports fan the South Africa national football team toured Australia and played and won five games against the Australia national association football teams.
If you were a chess player the big news was that the first world champion to ever play an event in Africa was Max Euwe who played in the Johannesburg 1955 event. And, the really big news was Euwe came in a surprising third a half point behind Muhring and Hreidenfeld.
The final standings were in doubt until the last round when Euwe went all out against Muhring after losing to Heidenfeld in the previous round. But, Euwe only managed a draw while Heifenfeld defeated Wilken and so moved into a tie for first.
Willem Muhring (1913 - 1999) was a Dutch IM and a pioneer in the computer industry. See A tribute to Willem Jan Muhring for an interesting bio.
Wolfgang Heidenfeld (1991 - 1981) was born in Berlin and was forced to move from Germany to South Africa because he was a Jew. In 1957, he moved to Dublin and in 1979 the family moved back to Germany. You can read my post about him HERE.
Barta da Cruz was from Mozambique while the other players were local South Africans about whom nothing is known.
The September 1955 edition of a typewritten South African magazine titled New Youth, Independent Youth Monthly mentions Dr. Euwe in the section On The Youth Front.
A group of seven young "non-European chess enthusiasts" who were members of the Transveal Indian Youth Congress at the South African Colored Peoples’ Organization interviewed Dr. Euwe and handed him an open letter.
Their interview with Dr. Euwe took place in the foyer of the venue, the Johannesburg Library, as the youths were barred from entering the library itself. Euwe actually came into the foyer in between moves during his game to listen to and speak with the youths.
The letter they gave to Euwe expressed “deep disappointment in not being able to watch you play owing to the color of out skins.”
The letter went on to say that the game originated in the 5th century in India and it had always been played by people of all nationalities, colors and creeds.
It stated, “We are sure that in your wide experience you have played and enjoyed games with persons of all colors. You must agree with us that the color of a person’s skin does not matter as long as they appreciate the art of chess.”
After the interview with Dr. Euwe the youths stated that they had been received by him with understanding and he had expressed regret at not being able to participate in playing games against non-whites because his contract for the trip and tournament forbade him from doing so.
[Event "Johannesburg"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1955.??.??"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Wolfgang Heidenfeld"]
[Black "Max Euwe"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]
%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Giuoco Piano} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 {The main line in which
white plays 4.c3 in preparation for the central advance d2-d4.} 4... Bb6 {A
rare sideline. Black can try to hold a strongpoint in the center at e5 with
4...Qe7 or counterattack with 4...Nf6.} 5. d4 Qe7 6. O-O d6 7. h3 Nf6 8. Re1
O-O 9. a4 a6 {More usual is 10.Bg5 or 10.b4. From here the N begins a long
journey to d5, but it only gets to stay there for a single move.} 10. Na3 {
Pelikan-Pereira, Sao Paulo 2005 continued 10...Bd7 11.Nc2 Na5 12.Bd3 Nb3 with
equality. del Campo-Vega Merida 2002 continued 10...Re8 11.Nc2 h6 12.Ne3 and
Nd5 with a quick draw.} 10... Kh8 {Euwe's idea is to overprotect e5, but it
allows white to seize the initiative with 11.d5! 12.Bf1 and 13.Nc4 with good
play on the Q-side. His best plan was to play 10...exd4, but after 11.cxd4 he
would have to lose a tempo with 11...Qd8 in order to get his Q off the line
with white's R.} 11. Nc2 {Equally promising was 11.d5 Euwe now has a choice
of a couple of good moves: 11...a5 hindering white's expansion on the Q-side.
And both 11...exd4 and 11...Bd7 were worth considering.} 11... Ng8 {But this
move is just too passive and allows white a free hand to carry out his own
plans.} 12. b4 f6 13. Ne3 Ba7 14. Ba3 Qe8 15. Qd3 Nce7 {Euwe's opening play is
rather surprising because he was a leading opening theoretician and here he
has been moving his pieces backwards and avoiding counterplay while neglecting
his development.} 16. b5 axb5 17. axb5 Qh5 {Instead of the better 17...Bb6
Euwe plays a move that Stockfish give two ?? and, as Fritz puts it, "strolling
merrily down the path to disaster." It works out OK though because Heidenfeld
missed (as did Euwe) the surprising tactical refutation. 18.Bxd6!! cxd6 19.b6
and white comes out of the complications with a very good position.} 18. Nf1
Qe8 {This is wrong because the same idea is still available to white with 19.
Bxd6. Therefore, black needed to play 18...Bb6 which renders the whole idea
of capturing on d6 ineffective...bad even.} 19. Re2 {Too passive. After this
black should have adequate defensive resources, but his position remains
cramped.} 19... Ng6 {After this white retains a considerable advantage. He
still should have played 19...Bb6} 20. Bc1 {The Bxd6 idea is out because of
the threat of ...Nf5} 20... Bd7 {For what it was worth black might have tried
for some play with 20...f5} 21. Rea2 {So...now the idea of b6 is looming with
devastating consequences. White now has a clearly winning position.} 21...
Qb8 { White's next move is OK, but he could have switched over to a K-side
attack with moves like Ng3 and h4 and Euwe would have been totally helpless.}
22. b6 { Even so, this is a neat tactical resource that also leaves white with
a winning position.} 22... cxb6 23. Bb5 Bxb5 24. Qxb5 N8e7 25. Ne3 Nc8 26.
Nd5 Nge7 27. Nxe7 Nxe7 28. dxe5 Nc6 {He might as well have resigned as play
this. Even so, 28...dxe5 29.Be3 is hopeless.} 29. exd6 {29...Qxd6 30.Ba3 is
out of the question.} 29... Na5 30. Ba3 Rd8 31. e5 Qc8 32. Bb4 Nc6 33. Qd5
fxe5 34. Nxe5 Nxe5 35. Qxe5 Qb8 36. Qe7 b5 {Euwe resigned before his opponent
could play...} 37. Rxa7 Rxa7 38. Rxa7 Rg8 39. d7 h6 40. Bc5 Kh7 41. Bd4 {mates
in 9 moves} 41... Qd8 42. Qe4+ g6 43. Ra8 Qxd7 44. Rxg8 Kxg8 45. Qxg6+ Kf8
46. Bc5+ {etc} 1-0
Leon Wilken represented South Africa at the 1966 Havana Olympiad, scoring 3/4.
ReplyDeleteJack Wolpert lost a play-off match to Kurt Dreyer for the 1937 South African championship title.
Michael Pines was born in Warsaw, and moved to Vilnius in Lithuania, before emigrating to Southern Rhodesia, where he served with the Rhodesian Brigade during WW2. He was multiple times the Rhodesian champion.