His father was a military man, so he was always subject to transfers. Chess was popular in his family and almost all of his siblings played. His sisters, Teresa and Amelia, became champions of Madrid, although it was Francisco who showed the most talent.
After the Spanish Civil War (July 1936 – April 1939) the Perez family settled in Madrid and as a result, Perez was able to start competing seriously. His first major triumph came in 1941, in the Castilla Championship (a title that he would repeat four more times).
Before the war that devastated Spain, Ramon Rey Ardid dominated Spanish chess. However, after the war the picture changed significantly. The emergence of young talents, such as Perez and Antonio Medina marked the beginning of a slow renewal and a change in the top positions of the tournaments. In addition, the prodigy Arturo Pomar emerged, which popularized chess.
Early on Perez made the decision to be a professional player, an occupation that was not well regarded at the time and there were only a few chess pros in the world. Few tournaments were organized in Spain and most of them were only national events. When there was an international tournament attempts was made to invite 2 or 3 foreign masters, some of whom were Keres, Saemisch, Brinckmann, O'Kelly and Canal. Perez played in all the tournaments he could, often traveling non-stop from one city to another.
In 1948 he achieved a major successes when he won the Spanish championship. Antonio Medina, the current champion, wasn’t able to participate because he was playing in Mar del Plata. In the last round Juan Fuentes and Perez were tied and as fate would have it that’s the round in which they met. Perez played true to his style taking many risks and without fear of sacrificing material, won a great game. It was the first of three Spanish championships for Perez. Curiously, when he defended his title the following year, he found himself in the same situation: if he won the last game he would be champion, although this time he was defeated by Rafael Saborido and had to settle for the runner-up.
Information on many of the tournaments he played have been lost, but the 1940s and early 1950s were busy times and he achieved a large number of firsts in Spanish tournaments. What is known is that Perez had a curious tournament record in that he rarely finished in the middle positions, but rather he was either at the top or at the bottom!
There is no known explanation as to why this was the case, but those who knew him attributed it to fragile nerves.
His style of play probably didn’t help either because he loved complications and if there weren’t any, he went out of his way to create them and such a style always has risks and setbacks are not uncommon.
As an attacking player, Perez held the strange notion that it was better to play 1.d4 because 1.e4 was likely to lead to a draw because those opening were so well analyzed. Unlike many tactical players who pay little attention to theory, Perez had a wide opening repertoire and he always traveled with several chess magazines and books.
At times his behavior was eccentric. For example, during one tournament he complained to the organizers that some work being carried out in the street wouldn’t allow him to sleep at night. The organizers gave him another room from which no noise could be heard. The next day Perez approached the organizers and told them he had gotten used to the noise and now the silence prevented him from getting the proper rest.
Another of his requests in each tournament was to have a piano in his room because he loved to play it although those who heard him said he was none too skilled. However, Perez stated, "If I can't get away with music, I can't play.”
Perez was an extraordinarily gifted blindfold player and he set several Spanish records.
In 1959 he received the title of IM...that was in a day when it was an achievement of considerable merit since at that time it was not easy to get.
Despite the fact that his game and results had begun to decline, he qualified for the 1964 Interzonal at Amsterdam, but had a poor result finishing 22nd out of 24 with a +3 -16 =4 score.
Perez eventually ended up in Barcelona, but the lack of freedom that existed in Spain at the time was unacceptable to him. He had originally decided to flee to Holladd, but in 1962 when he was invited to the prestigious Capablanca Memorial in Havana, the chess authorities refused to let him go. But because his mother was Cuban and he wanted to know the country better, he went anyway. As a result Spanish chess authorities were furious and slapped him with a 3-year suspension., It didn’t matter because Perez had already decided not to return to Spain. The Cubans offered him work as a journalist and as a chess teacher. Playing for Cuba, he participated in two Olympiads.
During his stay in Cuba, his game gradually declined and there isn’t much information about his life during that time and only a few tournament results, all with poor finished, are known. Eventually organizers quit inviting him because he would withdraw when he lost a couple of games. What is known is that he dedicated himself to teaching young players, eventually teaching chess at the University of Havana.
It’s reported that in his last days he lived alone surrounded by chess books and magazines and his piano. During the last years of his life he wanted to return to Spain, but he was not able to do so.
The following game was played in Madrid in 1943. Alekhine was invited to Madrid by the Spanish Chess Federation, but he arrived too late to take part in the Madrid International Tournament. A Nazi broadcast claimed that Alekhine went to Madrid to take part in the tournament, but was confined to a sanitarium shortly after his arrival. For details see Batgirl’s article on Chess.com HERE.
1) Keres 13.0
2) Feuents 11.5
3) Brinckmann 9.5
4-5) Medina and Alonso 8.5
6-7) Ingeman and Perez 8.0
8) Sanz 6.5
9-10) De Augustin and Gomez 6.0
11) Pomar 5.5
12) Saemisch 5.0
13) Kocher 4.5
14) Navarro 4.0
15) Nicolas 0.5
F.J. Perez - Miguel Navarro
Result: 1-0
Site: Madrid
Date: 1943
Ruy Lopez: Old Steinitz Defense
[...] 1.e4 e5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.♗b5 d6 The Old Steinitz is solid but passive and cramped. It largely fell into disuse after World War I because of its passivity. White can force black to concede the strongpoint at e5, a significant but not fatal concession. In my database white wins half the games where black played 3...d6; not a good statistic! 4.d4 exd4 Black gets better, but not great, results with 4...Bd7. 5.♕xd4 ♗d7 6.♗xc6 ♗xc6 7.♘c3 ♕f6 Not a good place for the Q, but black already has a poor position. Best was 7...Nf6. Even then black loses half the games in my database. 8.♕d3 h6
8...♘e7 9.♘b5 ♔d7 was played in Tringov,G (2430)-Acimovic,S (2370)/Belgrade 1988. White went on to win after 10.Ndb4, but 10.O-O was stronger.
9.b4
9.O-O ♘e7 10.♘d4 a6 11.♘xc6 bxc6 12.♗e3 and white is better. Coro,L (2325)-Pereira,G (2028)/Florianopolis BRA 2019
9...O-O-O
9...d5 wasn't any better. After 10.e5 ♕g6 11.♕xg6 fxg6 white is better.
10.♖b1 Better was 10.O-O 10...♕g6 Black will regret this waste of time.
was worth a shot. Then if 10...d5 11.e5 ♕g6 12.♕xg6 fxg6 13.♘d4 he has chances of defending himself in spite of his miserable looking position.
11.O-O ♘f6 12.♖e1 White has a very active position 12...♘g4 To quote Fritz' auto-annotation in the verbal mode, another step towards the grave. After this black loses by force. His best chance was 12...Re8 after which white's advantage is nowhere near as pronounced. (⌓ 12...♖e8 13.♗e3 ♘xe4±) 13.b5 ♗d7 14.♕d4
14.♘d5 was even more forceful. 14...♗e6 15.b6 Brilliant. 15...axb6 16.♕a3 ♔b8 17.♖b4 ♘e5 18.♘d4 c5 19.♖a4 ♗xd5 20.♖a8 ♔c7 21.♘b5 ♔d7 22.♖xd8 ♔xd8 23.exd5 leaves white with a winning position. Just one example... 23...♕g4 24.f4 ♘g6 25.♕a8 ♕c8 26.♖e8
14...b6 15.♕a4 ♔b8 16.♗f4 a5 17.♘d5 ♘f6 18.♘d4 ♔b7 Black has no defense against what's coming.
18...♘xd5 eliminating an attacking piece isn't any help. 19.exd5 ♖c8 20.♘c6 ♔b7 21.♕c4 ♕g4 22.f3 ♕f5 23.♗d2 ♖a8 24.♗xa5 bxa5 Black has better, but he would still be lost. This is the prettiest line. 25.b6 cxb6 26.♘d8 ♖xd8 27.♖xb6 ♔xb6 28.♖b1 ♗b5 29.♕xb5 ♔c7 30.♕b7#
19.♘c6 ♖a8
19...♘xd5 would eventually lose after 20.♘xd8 ♔c8 21.exd5 ♔xd8
19...♗xc6 leads to a pretty mate: 20.bxc6 ♔b8 21.♕xa5 ♘xd5 22.♕a6 and black can only delay mate a couple of moves.
20.♕c4 ♘e8 21.♗e3 f6 22.♗xb6 Perez now finished off his opponent neatly. 22...cxb6 23.♕d4 ♕f7 24.♕xb6 ♔c8 25.♘d8
25.♘a7 ♖xa7 26.♕xa7 ♗e6 27.♕a8 ♔d7 28.b6 ♕h5 29.b7 ♕xd5 30.exd5 ♔e7 31.b8=♕ ♔f7 32.♕xe8 ♔g8 33.dxe6 a4 34.♕f7 ♔h7 35.♕e4 f5 36.♕exf5#
25...♕h5 26.♖b3 ♗g4
26...♕e5 is not the saving move 27.♘f7 a4 28.♕d8 ♔b7 29.♕xd7 ♔b8 30.♘xe5 dxe5 31.♕xe8 ♔a7 32.♕d7 ♔b8 33.♕c7#
27.♖c3 ♔d7 28.♕c6 Navarro resigned. (28.♕c6 ♔xd8 29.♕xa8 mates next move.) Powered by Aquarium
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