In US chess Robert J. Fischer lead the rating list at 2640; Samuel Reshevsky was second at 2620. The also-rans were Pal Benko (2515), Robert Byrne (2512), Arthur Bisguier (2502), Raymond Weinstein (2444), James B. Cross (2408), James T. Sherwin (2406), Arthur Feuerstein (2405) and Hans Berliner (2403).
The United States won the 1960 World Student Team Championship. The team Captain was Jerry Spann, a well known figure in USCF affairs, who died of cancer in January 1968 at the age of 55 at his home in Norman, Oklahoma.
The playing members were William Lombardy, Charles Kalme, Raymond Weinstein, Anthony Saidy, Edmar Mednis and Eliot Hearst. Sadly, they are all gone now except for Dr. Anthony Saidy (born May 16, 1937) and, as far as I know, Raymond Weinstein (born April 25, 1941).
The US players' scores were Lombardy (12-1) with two draws! Kalme (11.5-1.5) with one loss. Weinstein (7.5-2.5) with two losses. Mednis (5.5-2.5) with two losses. Saidy (4.5-2.5) with one loss. Hearst played two games; more about his plight later.
The final standings were:
The British team took the lead in the first rounds. Playing against Belgium, Finland and Hungary, they gained 10 out of 12 possible points. But when they came up against the Soviet and United States teams they suffered severe defeat.
By the fifth round the United States was in the lead, but in the sixth round the Yugoslavs created a sensation by defeating the US by a score of 3.5-0.5 and the Soviet took the lead.
The decisive match was in round 11 when the Soviet team drew with Hungary while the US defeated Finland 4-0. In the next round the Americans consolidated their lead by beating the Hungary 3.5-0.5. Then in the 13th round the US defeated the Soviets in a fierce fight and that decided the championship.
The US team lead the Soviets by only a half point when the two teams finally met.
The tension was great. On board one, Lombardy had the black pieces against Boris Spassky, at the time the only GM in the tournament, Kalme was white against Alexander Nikitin, Weinstein black against Yury Nikolaevsky and Saidy white against Janis Klovans.
Surprisingly, Lombardy won the only relatively short game in the match, beating Spassky in 29 moves after Spassky made a bad blunder, overlooking a fork of two of his major pieces by Lombardy's Queen.
Kalme won a 75-move battle, Weinstein lost a 37-move game, but Saidy gave the US the match victory of 2.5-1.5 after he gained an advantage, but finally had to agree to a draw in 41 moves.
This result meant that, even if the USSR (with 33.5 points) scored a 4-0 win in the fourteenth round while the U.S. team had the bye that the Americans we would enter the final (15th) round with a lead.
As it was, the Soviets beat Bulgaria by only 2.5-1.5 in round fourteen, so going into the last round the US team had a three point lead over the Soviets.
In the last round the US met the strong Bulgarian team needing only 1.5 points to win the world championship. In all the games the US team managed to come out of the opening with no problems.
Lombardy had a slight edge. Kalme had a minimal advantage and Mednis had no problems and everybody agreed that Weinstein even had a won game.
The the Bulgarian team captain offered a draw on all four boards and after thinking it over for a second, the US team Captain Jerry Spann accepted the offer and so the US became the World Champions.
The USSR beat Czechoslovakia in the last round by 3.5-0.5 making the final standings the US 41-11 total and the USSR in second place at 39.5-12.5.
Lombardy won top honors on board one while on board two Kalme and Milan Vukcevich, then of Yugoslavia, but later a popular player in Cleveland, Ohio, shared top honors. Kalme’s only loss was to Vukcevich.
Dr. Milan Vukcevich was an incredibly stand up guy. He had a chance to beat out Kalme for the board prize, but as soon as he heard that Kalme had accepted a draw against Bulgaria, he felt it would be unfair for him to take the board prize because Kalme took a quick draw under the given conditions. So, in a gesture of sportsmanship, he offered his German opponent a draw, which was accepted, on move 12.
Vukcevich moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1963 and became a professor of metallurgy and later a chief engineer at General Electric. He was also nominated for the Nobel prize in chemistry.
On board 3, Weinstein shared the board prize with Nikitin of the USSR. Saidy finished fourth among the board 4 players and Mednis was 5th among the first reserve players.
As for Hearst, well he had some bad luck. Hearst did not drink carbonated beverages which at the time were the only alternative to the Leningrad water faucets which he, foolishly as it turned out, elected to drink from.
As a result, very early he developed a parasitic infection that forced him to high-tail it to the bathroom, which was quite far away from the tournament room, every 15 minutes or so.
Thus, he managed to obtain losing positions in the opening against both his Swedish and Mongolian opponents in the second and seventh rounds but fought back to win the former and lose the latter in 91 moves after coming close to gaining a draw.
After that, he and Spann agreed that it would be best for the team if he did not play any more games. Hearst suffered from his malady until he returned to the US and some new, experimental drug cured him.
A couple of months after Leningrad, Lombardy announced that he would have little or no time for chess because he was entering a seminary and planned to become a Catholic priest and teacher. He eventually achieved his goal and afterwards he continued to be active in tournament play. Lombardy (December 4, 1937 – October 13, 2017) eventually left the priesthood because he felt that the administrators and accountants with whom he worked were not serious about the mission of the church. He died a bitter old man.
Charles Kalme stopped playing chess not long after Leningrad and obtained a PhD in mathematics in 1967. He was associated with the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Southern California for a few years, but then got interested in computer science and chess programs. He retired early from the computer business early and spent the rest of his life back in his native Latvia. Rumor has it that he died in 2002 age of 62 as a result of a brutal mugging he suffered on the streets of Riga.
Weinstein qualified for the Interzonal tourney as a result of finishing third in the 1960-61 U.S. Championship, but chose not play. Shortly thereafter he began exhibiting erratic, even dangerous behavior.
While studying psychology in Holland under IM Johan Barendregt, whom he assaulted, Weinstein was deported and detained in a half-way house where he killed his 83-year-old roommate with a razor. He has been institutionalized as criminally insane for decades.
Saidy remained active in chess and in the medical profession in which he specialized in the treatment of tuberculosis patients. He retired from his job as a Los Angeles County doctor in 2000.
Edmar Mednis (March 22, 1937 – February 13, 2002) got a degree in chemical engineering, worked briefly as a stockbroker, but ended up being a chess professional. In February of 2002, while recovering from a minor operation, he developed pneumonia, did not take it seriously, and suffered a fatal cardiac arrest at the age of 64.
Eliot Hearst (1932-2018) entered the academic world in 1965 and never again played in a tournament. He taught and did research on various topics in the fields of experimental psychology, neuroscience, and the history of psychology. Over his last 20 years or so he combined his interests in chess and psychology and co-authored a book on blindfold chess.
Kalme's amazing positional squeezes were often mixed with stunning tactics like his game against the Mongolian master Suren Momo in which Kalme got a decisive attack after black neglected to develop his Q-side.
Charles Kalme (USA) - Surem Momo (MGL)
Result: 1-0
Site: Leningrad
Date: 1960
Catalan
[...] 1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 e6 3.♘f3 d5 4.g3 The Catalan got its name from a tournament in Catalonia in 1929 after the organizers asked Tartakower to create a new variation in homage to the area's chess history. It came to prominence at the top level when both Kasparov and Korchnoi played it in their Candidates Semifinal match in London in 1983. 4...♗e7 The main alternative is to win a P with 4...dxc4 5.♗g2 O-O 6.O-O c6 7.♘bd2 ♘bd7 8.b3 ♖e8 9.♗b2 ♗d6 10.♖c1 Usual is 10.Qc2.
10.♕c2 ♕e7 11.♘e5 ♗a3 12.♗xa3 ♕xa3 13.f4 Ottati,A-Kalkstein,R/Tel Aviv 1964 with good chances for white.
10...♘f8 Black has abandoned any idea of an advance in the center by advancing his e-Pawn.
10...e5 11.♘xe5 ♘xe5 12.dxe5 ♗xe5 13.♗xe5 ♖xe5 14.cxd5 cxd5 15.♘c4 and in this position black's isolated d-Pawn would be a liability.
10...♘e4 This seems to offer black his best chance of obtaining equal play. 11.♘e5 f5 with a solid position.
11.♕c2 ♘g6 12.e4 dxe4 13.♘xe4 ♘xe4 14.♕xe4 White has the better game, but it's hard to believe that he will soon suffer a total rout. 14...♗e7 15.♖fd1 ♗f6 16.♘e5 ♗d7 17.h4 The attack against the K begins! 17...♕c7 18.h5 ♘xe5 19.dxe5 ♗e7 20.c5 ♖ed8 21.♗f1 ♗e8 22.♗d3 g6 23.hxg6 hxg6 24.♔g2 Preparing to occupy the h-file with his heavy pieces. 24...♖d5 25.♖h1 ♗f8
25...♗xc5 allows a mate in three. 26.♕h4 ♔f8 27.♕f6 mates next move.
26.♗c4 ♖d2 (26...♖xc5 runs into 27.b4 winning the exchange.) 27.♗c3 ♖d7 28.♖h3 ♗g7 29.♖ch1 ♕d8 30.♕f4 ♖d1 31.♖1h2 b5 32.♕f6 The Q sacrifice seals black's fate. Nobody is going to blame Kalme for missing the mate in 13.
32.♖h7 bxc4 33.♖xg7 ♔f8 34.♖hh7 ♕d5 35.f3 ♖g1 36.♔xg1 ♕d1 37.♔g2 ♕e2 38.♔h3 ♕f1 39.♔g4 ♕xf3 40.♔xf3 ♔e7 41.♖xf7 ♔d8 42.♕f6 ♔c8 43.♖c7 ♔b8 44.♕d8#
32...♕xf6 33.exf6 ♖c1 34.♖h7 Facing mate in three no matter what he plays, black resigned. (34.♖h7 ♖g1 35.♔xg1 ♗h6 36.♖2xh6 b4 37.♖h8#) Powered by Aquarium
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