Danger On The Dark Squares

 

   Yankton, South Dakota with a population of a little over 14,000 is located in the SE part of the state and has hardly been a chess Mecca, but in September 1957, the city hosted the Champion Of Champions tournament which was made up of the some of the country’s state champions. An interesting note to the tournament was that although advance entries were being taken, most players shunned them. A number of state champions made inquires, but decided not to make the trip. 

     Oklahoma State Champion A. C. Anderson, a drafting engineer, was lucky. The company he worked for picked up the tab his travel expenses, all his meals and miscellaneous expenses and gave him full pay for the three days he was absent from work. Most players arrived by car. 

     Hans Berliner got the trophy on tiebreaks and he and Curt Brasket each received $200.00. Anthony Santasiere and Lee T. McGee got $62.50 each.

     Everybody remembers Hans Berliner (January 27, 1929 – January 13, 2017), correspondence chess Grandmaster and Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, as the World Correspondence Champion, from 1965–1968. Additionally, Berliner directed the programming of the chess computer HiTech and he was a published chess author. In his 1999 book The System, Berliner claimed that the move 1.d4 gives White a large, and possibly decisive, advantage. But, not everyone realizes he was a strong OTB Master. 

     He was born in Berlin where one of his classmates at school was future Estonian President Lennart Meri, whose father was serving as Estonia's ambassador to Germany. In 1937, the 8 year old Berliner's family, who were Jewish, moved to United States to escape Nazi persecution and took up residence in Washington, D.C. 

     Berliner learned chess at age 13, and it quickly became his main preoccupation. In 1949, he became a master, won the District of Columbia Championship (the first of five), the Southern States Championship and tied for second place with Larry Evans at the New York State Championship. He won the 1953 New York State Championship, the 1956 Eastern States Open ahead of William Lombardy, Nicolas Rossolimo, Bobby Fischer (at age 13) and Arthur Feuerstein, and the 1957 Champion of Champions tournament. Berliner played on the Olympiad team at Helsinki 1952, drawing his only game on the second reserve board. Berliner appeared in four US Championships: 1954 (tie 8th–9th places), 1957–58 (5th place), 1960–61 (tied for 8th–10th place) and 1962–63 (tied 7th–8th place). 

     In 1969, Berliner got his PhD and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1974. His thesis was titled: "Chess as Problem Solving: The Development of a Tactics Analyzer". 

     Berliner is remembered most for his feats in correspondence play when he won the 5th World Correspondence Chess Championship in 1965, beginning the final game on April 1, 1965 and finishing three years later. He won with the extraordinary score of +12 -0 =4 which gave him a margin of victory of three points. The game in which he played the Two Knights Defense to defeat Yakov Estrin in the 1965 is one of the most famous games in correspondence chess. 

     In his later years Berliner lived in Florida and worked to develop computer chess programs. He died on January 13, 2017 in Riviera Beach, Florida, fourteen days short of his 88th birthday. 

     Squares are important and Berliner’s win over Jack Shaw in the following game shows just how important. It’s instructive to see Berliner take control of the dark squares and score a quick win. 

     Jack Shaw (January 25, 1925, - January 20, 2014, 88 years old) was New Mexico State Champion in 1957, 1958, 1964 and 1970. 

     On the Spring 1957 USCF rating list Berliner’s rating was 2313 and Shaw was rated 2202. For the record, here are the rating of the other players. Brasket (2209), Santasiere (2333), McGee (unr), Ragan (2173), Manney (unr), Ramirez (2222), Whitaker (2313), Reynolds (1918), A. Anderson (2075), Pehnec (2022), Narkinsky (unr), Vines (1954), Perkins (1818), Godbold (2131), G. Anderson (1840), Miller (1760) and Holmes (unr). Note that in those days Masters were 2300 and up.

Jack Shaw - Hans Berliner
Result: 0-1
Site: Champion of Champions Tmt, Yankton, SD
Date: 1957
King's Indian: Saemisch

[...] 1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 g6 3.♘c3 ♗g7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 Early on Bobby Fischer had trouble against the Saemisch. In his book How to Beat Bobby Fischer, Edmar Mednis gave five of Fischer's losses against the Saemisch and stated that Fischer eventually avoided the K-Indian if he believed he would face it. But, against Spassky in their 1992 match he faced it five times and scored +2 -1 =2. IM Jorge Ferreira's recommendation for black is to gain space on the Q-side and begin attacking white's center with the moves ...c6, ...a6 and ...b5. His idea is that black's pieces increasingly gain freedom and soon find strong squares from where they can dominate the position. 5...e5 6.d5 O-O 7.♗e3 ♘e8 Berliner preferred this to 7.. .Nh5 where he thought the N was awkwardly placed. Usual, and now known to be better, is 7...c6. However, 7...Nh5 is still a playable alternative. 8.♕d2 f5 9.exf5 A very double edged move. Castling Q-side is safer. 9...gxf5 10.O-O-O c5 Berliner gave this a ! commenting that it's a good move giving him absolute control over the d4 square. Neither Stockfish nor Komodo 10 like it much.

10...c6 White was OK after this in Buck,L-Mittermayr,G (2250)/Finkenstein 1993 11.♗d3 cxd5 12.cxd5 ♕a5

10...♘d7 Jakubowska,A (2205)-Mareckova,M (2173)/Poronin POL 2016 continued 11.g4 ♘c5 12.♘ge2 fxg4 13.fxg4 ♗xg4 14.♖g1 with equal chances.

11.♗d3

11.dxc6 leads to interesting play. 11...bxc6 12.h4 ♘a6 13.h5 ♕a5 14.h6 ♗f6 15.g4 f4 16.♗f2 with equal chances.

11...♘d7 12.♔b1 a6 13.g4 Instead of this white would have done better completing his development with 13.Bg5 and 14.Nge2 13...e4 This is the point of 10...c5. He now is assured control of the dark squares. 14.fxe4 fxg4 15.h3 ♘e5 16.hxg4 ♗xg4 The position is about equal and this move is not bad, but the R isn't doing anything, so perhaps exchanging it with 17.Rf1 then playing Qg2 with play on the K-side would have been better. 17.♖c1 b5 Immediately beginning action on the Q-side. Black has the initiative which quickly builds up. 18.cxb5 axb5 19.♗e2 Mandatory was 19.Bxb5, but Berliner's assertation that after 19...Qa5 black still gets a strong attack is wrong.

19.♗xb5 ♕a5 20.♗h6 ♖a7 21.♗xg7 ♖xg7 22.♗e2 and there is no attack. In fact, white is better.

(19.♗xb5 h5 20.♗h6 ♖b8 21.♗xg7 ♘xg7 also leaves white better.) 19...♕a5

19...b4 was even better. 20.♘d1 ♘f6 21.♗xg4 ♘fxg4 and black dominates both sides of the board and can now play ...Qa5 with ev en greater effect.

20.♗xb5 ♘c7 21.a4 After this white is dead lost.

21.♗e2 offered him a fighting chance, but after 21...♗xe2 22.♕xe2 ♖fb8 black is much better.

21...♘xb5 22.♘xb5 ♕xa4 23.♘xd6 The loss of the d-Pawn is irrelevant because black has a mate in 8. 23...♕a2

23...♘c4 24.♘xc4 ♕a2 25.♔c2 ♕xc4 26.♔b1 ♕xe4 27.♕d3 ♕xd3 28.♖c2 ♖f1 29.♗c1 ♖xc1 30.♔xc1 mate next move.

24.♔c2 ♘c4 White resigned. He gets mated in 9 moves.

24...♘c4 25.♘e2 ♕xb2 26.♔d1 ♘xd2 27.♖c2 ♖a1 28.♔xd2 ♕b4 29.♘c3 ♗xc3 30.♔d3 ♗e1 31.♖xc5 ♖d1 32.♗d2 ♖xd2 33.♔e3 ♕xc5#

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