Close Race At Amsterdam 1950

   In 1950 paranoia over Communism, or the “Reds” as they were called, had a lot of people scared. The Red Scare lasted through the late 1940s and early 1950s with Wisconsin’s Senator Joe McCarthy as the leader. 
     McCarthy used hearsay and intimidation to establish himself as a powerful and feared figure. He leveled charges of disloyalty at celebrities, intellectuals and anyone who disagreed with his political views, costing many of his victims their reputations and jobs. McCarthy’s reign of terror continued until his colleagues finally denounced his tactics in 1954. 
     The FBI’s head, J. Edgar Hoover also compiled extensive files on suspected subversives through the use of wiretaps, surveillance and the infiltration of leftist groups. 

     Many ordinary Americans felt the effects of the Red Scare on a personal level. Thousands of alleged communist sympathizers were hounded by law enforcement, alienated from friends and family and fired from their jobs. 
     Movies were still popular, but television was starting to take a big bite out of the film industry’s revenue. Every night families huddled around the TV to watch sitcoms and game shows. I Love Lucy began a three year run at the top of the ratings. Game shows like $64,000 Question and The Price is Right were very popular. 
     In 1950 the automobile industry established a new all-time production record of 7,987,000 vehicles. The most serious event of the year was the re-imposition of Regulation W, the government’s credit control bill which had limited purchases during and immediately after World War II. It required a one-third down payment with the balance to be paid within 21 months (three months longer than the wartime version) was restored in September. This caused some financial problems and two manufacturers introduced new small cars during 1950, to meet the demand for an economical car for middle income families and a car with an initial price that placed it within reach of many people who previously had to buy used cars. 
     In chess, the year 1950 started off with Laszlo Szabo of Hungary winning at Hastings 1949/50 with an 8-1 score and 16-year old Larry Evans finished 4th.
     Lyudmila Rudenko (1904-1986) won the 2nd Women's World Championship, held in Moscow. James B. Cross won the US Junior championship. Arthur Bisguier won the US Open, held in Detroit. 
     On May 27, 1950, chess patron and former president of Manhattan Chess Club Maurice Wertheim (1886-1950) died in Cos Cob, Connecticut at the age of 64. 
     1950 saw the birth of the International Correspondence Chess Federation. The first Candidates Tournament, held in Budapest from April 9 to May 16, 1950. Reshevsky was unable to play when the State Department decreed that American citizens could not travel to Hungary. The event was won by David Bronstein and Isaac Boleslavsky. Bronstein won the playoff, 7.5-6.5. 
     Madame Chantel Chaude de Silans (1919-2004) played on the French team at the Dubrovnik Olympiad, the first woman to play on a men’s team. She played first reserve board, winning 1 game, drawing 1 game, and losing 4 games. The Yugoslav team (Gligoric, Pirc, Trifunovic, Rabar, Vidmar junior, Puc) won and the USA took 4th. The US team was Reshevsky, Steiner, Horowitz, Shainswit, Kramer and Evans.
     FIDE awarded the first Grandmaster titles to 27 players. The first list also included 94 International Masters and 17 International Women Masters. The GMs were: Bernstein, Boleslavsky, Bondarevsky, Botvinnik, Bronstein, Duras, Euwe, Fine, Flohr, Gruenfeld, Keres, Kostic, Kotov, Levenfish, Lilienthal, Maroczy, Mieses, Najdorf, Ragozin, Reshevsky, Saemisch, Smyslov, Stahlberg, Szabo, Tartakower, and Vidmar. 
     In November the first USCF rating list appeared and had 2,306 players on it. Fine was top rated at 2817 and Reshevsky was second at 2770. 
     Boris Velinsky (born 1888) died in Moscow at the age of 62 on October 30, 1950. He was Moscow champion in 1928 and USSR Champion in 1929. He was on the 1950 list as one of the original IMs. 
     In 1950 Lodewijk Prins of The Netherlands organized an international tournament that was held at the stock exchange in Amsterdam from from November 11th to December 9th. 

Old rivals meet

     Invitations were sent to all the strongest masters of the day. The Soviet Chess Federation declined the invitations and, in fact, their masters weren’t allowed to play in any international tournaments until 1952. Laszlo Szabo of Hungary also declined his invitation. 
     All of the best Dutch masters played including former world champion Max Euwe and the recent Hoogovens champion, 23 year old J.H. Donner. Najdorf scored a spectacular success when he went undefeated and finished clear first. Najdorf finished one point ahead of Samuel Reshevsky who was also undefeated. 
     This tournament played a large part in causing Reshevsky to seek out a match against Najdorf which didn’t take place until 1952. 
     Najdorf’s opponent in this game was Gudmundur Gudmundsson (May 11, 1918 – April 20, 1974) was one of Iceland’s best players from the late 1930s to late 1950s. He was Icelandic Champion in 1954. It’s a typical Najdorf rout of a lesser player.

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[Event "Amsterdam"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1950.11.13"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Miguel Najdorf"]
[Black "Gudmundur Gudmundsson"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{D45: Semi-Slav: 5 e3} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 {In this
position position black is threatening to capture the P on c4 and hold it
with ...b7-b5. White can avoid this in a number of ways, but almost always
plays either 5.Bg5 which involves a very sharp P-sacrifice or 5.e3 which safe,
but it restricts his dark-squared B from going to g5.} 5. e3 {White gives
priority to developing his light-squared B and accepts that for the time being
his other B will remain out of play.} 5... Nbd7 {The Main Line. White is at a
crossroads here. The Meran Variation is 6. Bd3, provoking the continuation 6..
dxc4 and 7...b5 where black surrenders his center in exchange for Q-side
expansion and some tempi at the expense of white's B.} 6. Qc2 {Thee Anti-Meran
Variation which became very popular in the 1990s when Anatoly Karpov
pipularized it. The idea is to wait for black to commit to ...dxc4 before
playing Bd3. Black commonly replies with 6...Bd6 and then white can choose
between a couple of very different continuations.} 6... Be7 7. b3 O-O 8. Bb2 {
Believe it or not, this B is going to play a vital role in the attack on
black's K.} 8... b6 9. Bd3 Bb7 {Here white almost always castles K-side In the
game Brazdzionis,A (2335)-Tokranovs,D (2325)/Panevezys 2017 white tried
10.O-O-O but ended up at a disadvantage.} 10. Ne5 g6 {Better was 10...Rc8 or
10...c5. Instead black begins an artificial maneuver that ultimatley weakens
his K-side. } 11. f4 Ne8 12. O-O-O f6 13. Nxg6 {Typical Najdorf although
13.Nxd7 and 14.h4 was a safe way to attack black's K. With careful play b;ack
should hold his own against this.} 13... hxg6 14. Bxg6 Bd6 {Better was
14...Bb5. Here black is planning ...e5 which is not a good idea because it
opens up the game for white's pieces.} 15. f5 e5 16. Qe2 Qe7 17. Qg4 Qg7 18.
Ne2 {Bring the N into play. Black must conduct his defense with extreme
care.} 18... exd4 {Which he fails to do. Instead he helps white's pieces
spring to life. Correct was 18...c5 after which white has better chances, but
black could have offered stouter resistance.} 19. exd4 Nc7 {The losing move
because it diverts a piece away from the defense of the K. Better was
19...Rf7 and ...Re7} 20. Kb1 {Avoiding . ..Qh6+ and ...Qg5 exchanging Qs and
blunting white's attack.} 20... Rfe8 21. Ng3 Re7 {Black has managed to place a
R on e7 and but the N on c7 will be missed. Note that the exchange 21...Bxg3
eliminates the N but opens up the h-file which is equally bad for black.} 22.
Nh5 {With the N on e8 the f-Pawn would have had another defender.} 22... Qh8
23. Rhe1 Rxe1 24. Rxe1 Kf8 25. Bc1 {The dead B come to life.} 25... Rd8 26.
Bf4 {Very nice. If black exchanges Bs then white's Q could go to d6 with a
fatal check.} 26... Ne5 {Equal to resignation.} 27. dxe5 Bxe5 28. Nxf6 {
Finally the f-Pawn bites the dust.} 28... Bxf4 {Not that it matters, but
28...Bxf6 delays the mate in 5 that this move allows.} 29. Nh7+ Kg8 30. Bf7+
{Black resigned because 30...Kxf7 31.Qg6 mate.} 1-0