1957 Soviet Championship

Leona Gage - stripped of her title

     In 1957 things were different, but one thing was the same. In 1957, there was a flu pandemic called the Asian flu. It caused an estimated one million to two million deaths worldwide and is generally considered to have been the least severe of the three influenza pandemics of the 20th century. 
     By mid-summer it had reached the United States, where it initially infected relatively few people, but several months later numerous cases were reported, especially in young children, the elderly, and pregnant women. This upsurge was the result of a second pandemic wave that struck the Northern Hemisphere in November 1957. 
     The second wave was particularly devastating and by March 1958 an estimated 69,800 deaths had occurred in the United States. 
     Some infected individuals experienced only minor symptoms, such as cough and mild fever, others experienced life-threatening complications. Those persons who were unaffected by the virus were believed to have possessed protective antibodies.
     The rapid development of a vaccine and the availability of antibiotics to treat secondary infections limited the spread and mortality. Interestingly, the Center for Disease Control believes there are laboratories throughout the US that are still storing the 1957 virus. 
     When Elvis Presley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show for the 3rd time the cameras would only show him from the waste up. By that time he was being called Elvis the Pelvis because of his striptease-like behavior on stage. Jack Gould of The New York Times declared Elvis had no discernible singing ability and John Crosby of the New York Herald Tribune called Elvis “unspeakably untalented and vulgar.” 
     Parents, religious groups and the Parent-Teacher Association condemned Elvis and rock 'n' roll music by associating both with juvenile delinquency. At a live concert in Seattle Elvis asked his audience to please stand for the national anthem. When they did, he picked up his guitar, began his vulgar gyrating and sang You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog. The crowd ate it up. 
     The director of the Detroit Public Library banned The Wizard of Oz for having "no value for children of today," for supporting "negativism" 
     Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes accidentally invented bubble wrap while trying to create plastic wallpaper. At first it was marketed as a greenhouse insulator. Apparently that didn’t sell and eventually it was sold as the packaging material we know today.  
     When Northeast Airlines Flight 823 crashed on Rikers Island on February 1, 1957, prisoners were released from the prison building to help pull people from the wreckage. Some had their sentences commuted or reduced for acts of heroism during the incident. Story
     The idea that there was a nationwide web of organized crime wasn't recognized until police raided the Appalachian Meeting, a mafia summit in upstate New York in 1957.  Story
     Racist South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond set a record for the longest filibuster by a lone senator when the old windbag talked for 24 hours and 18 minutes as he opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 which basically was designed to make sure blacks in the South had the right to vote. He also later opposed ending segregation. 

Bits and Pieces: 
     Stan Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy) refused to ever perform publicly again after the death of his friend and partner Oliver Hardy. 
     Laika, a dog, was the first living creature to be sent into space, in Sputnik 2; she didn’t survive the trip. 
     Kent cigarettes used asbestos filters from 1952-1957. The were marketed as offering "the greatest health protection in the history of cigarettes." 
     Journalist Drew Pearson claimed that John F. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize winning book Profiles in Courage had been ghost-written by his speechwriter Ted Sorenson. JFK's father sued and ABC retracted the statement and apologized. In 2008 Sorensen admitted he wrote most of the book. 
     Miss USA 1957, Leona Gage was stripped of her title when it was revealed that she was 18, married, and the mother of two children. 
     During a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game, a foul ball off the bat of Richie Ashburn hit a fan and broke her nose. When play resumed, as she was being taken out on a stretcher, another foul ball off Ashburn’s bat hit her again. What are the odds? 
     A US Air Force pilot caught in bad weather discovered his prototype F-107 jet fighter had no cockpit lighting. He managed to navigate and land the aircraft by periodically flicking a Zippo cigarette lighter and using the flame to read the instruments. 
     James Vicary created a controversy when he announced that he invented subliminal advertising at a Fort Lee, New Jersey movie theater and he was flashing messages between film frames telling people to buy Coke and popcorn. In 1962, he said he made the whole thing up. 
     Lawrence Joseph Bader, a cookware salesman from Akron, Ohio, disappeared on a fishing trip on Lake Erie in 1957. Eight years later he was found alive in Omaha, Nebraska, as a local TV personality, Fritz Johnson. 
     The horror film Texas Chainsaw Massacre was partially based on the real murderer Ed Gein. When Gein's house was searched by authorities in 1957, they found, among other things, a belt made from a human and a lampshade made from human skin 
     The chess world lost several prominent players in 1957. On January 5, 1957, Czech Champion Oldrich Duras died in Prague at the age of 74 on January 5th and on February 15th Harald Malmgren, the Swedish Correspondence Champion in 1942 died in Uppsula at the age of 52. On April 6, 1957, Nancy Roos, US Women’s Champion, died of cancer at the age of 52 in Los Angeles at the age of 52. Max Pavey passed away in New York at the age of 39 on September 4th. He won the Scottish Championship in 1939, was US Lightning Champion in 1947, New York State Champion in 1949 and Manhattan Chess Club Champion in 1952-53 and 1955-56. 
     Vasily Smyslov defeated Mikhail Botvinnik to become world champion thus ending Botvinnik's nine-year reign. Botvinnik regained his title in the rematch the following year. 
     In June, the World Junior championship was held in Toronto and won by William Lombardy with a perfect score. 
     Bobby Fischer won a typewriter for taking first in the US Junior Championship in San Francisco. He also won the US Junior Speed Championship. In August Fischer tied for 1st-2nd with Arthur Bisguier at the US Open in Cleveland. The tournament the TD, Georges Koltanowski, originally awarded the title, trophy and prize money to Bisguier based on incorrectly calculated tiebreaks. Later it was determined Fischer was actually the winner and at the age of 14. His rating was 2264. See my post on the SNAFU HERE. 
     In September, the first women's chess Olympiad was held in Emmen, Netherlands and was won by the USSR. 
     There was a time when a feature of the finals of the Soviet Championship was that a crop of new talent was discovered, adding to the already large number of Soviet GMs. 1956 was such a year with several talented young masters who had fought their way through the semi-finals to qualify. 
     Mikhail Tal was one of those players. For him 1956 was a year of great progress. Not yet a GM, his results and his play were showing signs of genius.
     The 23rd USSR Championship was held in Leningrad from January 10 through February 15, 1956. While not as strong at the previous championship it did feature the first appearance of Tal and Polugaevsky. They did well, but the tournament was a battle between Averbakh and Spassky. Taimanov made a hard charge by winning his last three games and so managed to catch them.

     Tal's opponent in  this game, Alexander Tolush, is barely known today, but a few years before this game Botvinnik described him as the one Master in the Soviet Union who above all others based his play on sound reasoning coupled with strong attacks and tricky tactics. Tal’s most potent weapon was his ability to orient himself in positions with head whirling complications. When these two met you could expect an exciting game!

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[Event "USSR Championship, Leningrad"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1956.2.6"]
[Round "17"]
[White "Mikhail Tal"]
[Black "Alexander Tolush"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qb6 {The
complications have started.} 8. Qd2 Qxb2 {For a long time the Poisoned Pawn
was rejected as unsound by almost everybody, but there were always adventerous
players who cooked up improvements and improvements on the improvements in
their home labs. One of the pioneers of this line was Bronstein, who tied the
1951 World Championship match against Botvinnik. Later Fischer played it with
great success. He played it twice in his 1972 World Championship match against
Spassky. In the first, he reached a decent position and drew. In the second he
got surprised by Spassky who won the game after Fischer defended poorly. World
Champions Kasparov, Anand and Karpov have also played it. The line is
theoretically important even today.} 9. Rb1 Qa3 10. e5 dxe5 11. fxe5 Nfd7 12.
Ne4 {A most interesting position! One annotator observed that white's
centralized Ns and all his other pieces (except the R on h1) are poised to
attack black's K which is a ready target. The danger to white's K is of no
consequence. Also, black cannot take the e-Pawn. 12...Nxe5? 13.Nb5!
threatening mate on d8. The only good answer is 13...Nd3+ 14.Bxd3 axb5 15.
Bxb5+ and white has what should be a winning attack.} 12... Qxa2 {Two years
later in a game against Korchnoi, Tolush played 12...h6 which was believed to
be an improvement because he succeeded in winning. Even today 12...h6 remains
the most popular move.} 13. Rb3 Qa1+ 14. Kf2 Qa4 15. Bb5 {In some books you'll
see this move given with one or two ! and it's been called a beautiful move
that introduces a whole series of forcing tactics and from now on Tal plays
with great accuracy. Bah! Humbug! That's annotation based on results. The
truth is, the move is both pretty and clever, but it should have resulted in
giving black a slight advantage. The correct move is 15.Ne6!! fxe6 16. Nd6+
Bxd6 17. Qxd6 Rf8+ 18. Kg3 Nf6 19. exf6 and white is winning.} 15... axb5 16.
Nxb5 {The threat is Nc7 mate, so black's next move is forced.} 16... f6 17.
exf6 {It's black's next move that lsoes the game because it allows white's
attack to gain momentum. On;y good enough for equality was 17...Nf5, but after
17...Qxe4 18. fxg7 Bc5+ black has the upper hand.} 17... gxf6 {After this
black is lost.} 18. Re1 { Very good! It brings is last piece into play. The
attractive looking 18.Nc7+ Kf7 19.Nxa8 would only leave black with a winning
material advantage. Black can't take the N because after 18...fxg6 19,Nc7+ Kf7
20.Rf3+ his K is in a mating net. Also,. it should be noted that black has
what at first glance (Stockfish's initial reaction!) appears to be a
remarkable resource avialbable. ..he can give up his Q with 18...Nc6!! 19.Bxf6
Qxe4!! 20. Rxe4 Nxf5 21.Nc7+ Kf7 22.Rf3 Ra5 23.Rxf6+!! (the key) 23... Kxf6
24.Qc3+ e5 25,Rc4 h5 26,Rxc6+ bxc6 27.Qxa5 and white has a Q and N vs. a R and
two Bs. That whiote wins was verified in Shootouts all of which were won by
white.} 18... Ra6 {Much better, but still insufficient was 18...Nc6. White
still should avoid checking on c7 and taking the R which is good for black.
Best is 19.Bxf6 and now black's best answer is to try the Q sac as in the
previous note: 19...Qxe4! It won't save the game, but at least black has a
fighting chance.} 19. Bxf6 Nxf6 20. Nxf6+ Kf7 21. Rf3 {This has been called a
key move in weaving a mating net. At the same time it's been acknowledged that
the winning process is far from easy. The simple 21.Ne4 was quite sufficient.
Now not 21...Nxb5 23.Nd5+ Ke8 24.Nc7+ and wins} 21... Qh4+ 22. Kf1 e5 23.
Qd5+ Be6 {Tal's next move has often been give a ! with the comment that black
can only avoid mate by giving up material, but that's wrong! His next move
should have allowed black to establish equality! Correct was 24.Nh5+!! and
25.Qd3+} 24. Nd7+ {Incredibly black's K can find a safe haven on e7. After
24...Ke7!! 25.Qc5+ Ke8 26.Qc8+ Ke7 27.Qxb8 Bg7 28. Qxb7 and white is only a P
up with a very complicated position.} 24... Kg6 {Now the game is over and Tal
comncludes with a murderous attack.} 25. Nxe5+ Kg7 26. Rg3+ Qxg3 27. Qxb7+
Nd7 28. hxg3 Rb6 29. Qc7 Bc5 30. Nxd7 Bc4+ 31. Re2 {Tolush exceeded the time
limit.} 1-0