Thursday, October 8, 2020

Botvinnik Bares His Teeth

     For those that weren't around in 1964, it was a year of transformation and upheaval. The country was still suffering from the grief and shock of President Kennedy's assassination. 
     His replacement, Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a civil rights and labor law that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. It prohibited unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools and public accommodations and employment discrimination. 
     The new law didn't mean much at the time. I remember arriving at the US Marine Corps base at Jacksonville, North Carolina that year and finding that once you got a couple of miles away from the base everything was segregated and things remained that way until I left. 
     President Johnson also started sending troops to their death for no purpose in Vietnam and the stability I knew growing up in the 1950s vanished amid such things as social inequality, racism, gender roles, sexuality, a growing generational gap and drugs.      
     In In pop culture, television changed in 1964. After watching sugary sitcoms like Father Knows Best, The Andy Griffith Show and Leave it to Beaver, television turned into Halloween with stuff like Bewitched, the Munsters and The Addams Family.
     In 1964, the promising Raymond Weinstein simply dropped off the face of the earth. Unbeknownst to the general chess playing public, he had been arrested for using a razor to murder an 83-year old man in a halfway house. He was judged mentally ill and confined to Ward’s Island for the criminally insane. 
     The USCF (or any chess news source) never reported on the incident and we were left wondering what happened to him. Two years earlier Chess Review printed a brief report on the murder of Abe Turner that took place in their offices, but we heard not a word about Weinstein. Finally, in 1997, Sam Sloan reported that he had ferreted out the location of Weinstein and talked to him for 45 minutes during a visit to Ward's Island. Weinstein was uncommunicative and Sloan reported that it was apparent that he was not capable of functioning in the outside world and would remain confined for the rest of his life. 
     It was the year 20-year old Bobby Fischer won the 1963-64 US Championship with a perfect score of 11-0. Sonja Graf won the women’s title with a +8 -1 =1 score. 
     Former Soviet champion (1923 and 1927) Peter Romanovsky died in Moscow at the age of 71. Fred Reinfeld died in on May 29 in New York at the age of 54. In September Soviet IM Viktor Goglidze (1905-1964) died in Tbilisi, Georgia. 
     Botinnik's last appearance in the chess Olympics was at Tel Aviv in 1964. The Soviet team with 6 GMs led by world champion Petrosian lived up to expectations and won their seventh consecutive gold medal. 
     There were 14 teams in the Final A group and the Soviet team made up of Petrosian, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Keres, Stein and Spassky finished with 36.5 points, well ahead of Yugosalvia (Gligoric, Ivkov, Matanovic, Parma, Udovcic and Matulovic) with 32.0. West Germany, Hungary and Czechoslovakia finished next. The United States team consisted of Reshevsky, Benko, Saidy, Bisguier, Robert Byrne and Addison and they finished in a disappointing 6th place. 
     Botvinnik's opponent in this game was Israeli master Yoel Aloni (September 30, 1937 - September 9, 2019, 81 years old) who is not to be confused with Izak Aloni (April 5, 1905 - June 2, 1985). Yoel's twin brother was Hillel (September 30, 1937 - May 26, 2017). Both were well known problem composers. 
     In the following game former world champion Botvinnik, who was first and foremost a positional player, could become a ferocious tactician when the position demanded it. 
     Like the changes in television programs, in this game Botvinnik bared his teeth. Sacrificing a R for a vicious attack, Botvinnik drew the Israeli master into a mating net by the further offer of his Q. Whether Aloni accepted or declined, he was lost. The finale of the combination reached the climax when Botvinnik's isolated P reached the second rank, where it proved more powerful than both Qs. An amazing game!

Yoel Aloni - Mikhail Botvinnik

Result: 0-1

Site: Tel Avi

Date: 1964.11.10

King's Indian Defense

[...] 1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 g6 4.♘c3 d6 5.e4 ♗g7 6.h3 Usual are 6.Nf3, 6.Bd3 or even 6.f4, but Aloni goes his own way. 6...O-O 7.♗e3 e6 8.dxe6 Botvinnik rightly condemns this move because in this system the exchange of Ps on e6 eliminates all of black's opening problems because it allow him to easily develop his pieces. Preferable is 8.Nf3. 8...♗xe6 9.♘f3 ♕a5 The threat is ...Nxe4. 10.♕d2
10.♕xd6 loses to 10...♘xe4 11.♕d3 ♘xc3 and white has no reasonable answer.
10...♘c6 11.♗e2 ♘d7 The idea is to play .. .Ne5 and after the exchange of Ns black's backward d-Pawn has disappeared and the P-formation is practically symmetrical. 12.O-O ♘de5 Offering the d-Pawn, the capture of which would lead to complications that could easily swing to black's favor. 13.♘xe5
13.♕xd6 ♘xf3 14.♗xf3 (14.gxf3 is not good. 14...♘d4 with an excellent game.) 14...♗xc4
13...dxe5 Botvin nik wrote that he knew Aloni was an attacker and so he was curious to see how he would create an attack in this blocked position. 14.♖ad1 ♘d4 15.♗d3 Botvinnik had a sneaking suspicion that Aloni would play this energetic, but risky move, and not the solid 15.Nd5 which leads to equality. It's hard to say if Aloni overlooked the loss of a P or sacrificed it! (15.♘d5 ♕xd2 16.♖xd2 b6 17.b3 ♖ad8 with a likely draw.) 15...♗xh3 16.b4 Well played!
16.♗xd4 exd4 17.gxh3 dxc3 with both a material and a positional advantage.
16...cxb4
16...♕xb4 Botvinnik avoided this because after 17.♖b1 ♕a5 18.♖xb7 he believed white's pieces get too much activity. But, that really does not seem to be the case. For example... 18...♖ab8 19.♖fb1 ♖xb7 20.♖xb7 ♕a6 21.♖c7 ♖c8 22.♖xc8 ♗xc8 23.♘d5
17.♘d5 ♗g4 18.♖b1 ♕d8 19.♗xd4 exd4 20.♖xb4 b6 21.a4 Threatening the further advance a4-a5 after which either the white c-Pawn becomes a dangerous passed P,or the black P on becomes weak. 21...f5 Black has no time to delay; he must create some counterplay. 22.exf5 ♗xf5 23.a5 bxa5 24.♖b5 In attempting to regain one of his Ps white wrongly rejects 24.Rb7 obtaining adequate play. (24.♖b7 ♗xd3 25.♕xd3 ♕d6 26.♖fb1 etc.)
24.♖b7 ♕h4 Botvinnik's move which is actually inferior as after 25.♗xf5 gxf5 26.g3 ♕h6 27.♕xa5 white is better.
24...♗xd3 25.♕xd3 ♕h4 26.g3 Aloni wants to free his R from the defense of f2, but as this move is not forced, the time he loses costs this initiative.
26.c5 keeps the game even. For example... 26...♖ac8 27.♕c4 ♔h8 28.c6 ♗e5 29.f4 d3 30.♕xd3 ♖xc6 31.fxe5 ♖xf1 32.♔xf1 ♖c1 33.♔e2 ♕g4 with an uncler position in which both sides have chances.
26...♕g4 27.♖e1 The losing move!
27.♔g2 ♖f7 28.♖xa5 ♖af8 29.♘f4 with equality. Note that the N can't be kick off of f4. 29...g5 Correct is 29...Qd7 equals 30.f3 ♕d7 31.♖xg5 and white is winning.
27...♖f3 28.♕b1 ♖af8 29.♖e4 Clever. 29...♖xg3 Black, of course, does not retreat the Q but sacrifices a R instead. The decisive factor is that white's R on b5 is out of play.
29...♕d7 and black loses! 30.♘e7 ♔h8 31.♘xg6 hxg6 32.♖h4 ♔g8 33.♕xg6 and wins.
30.fxg3 ♕xg3 31.♔h1 d3 There were other plausible moves, but Botvinnik first advances his d-Pawn and opens up the diagonal for his B. 32.♘e7 ♔h8 33.♕e1 Aloni is not out of tricks just yet! 33...♕h3
33...♕f3 34.♔h2 d2 35.♘xg6 (35.♕xd2 ♕xe4) 35...hxg6 36.♖h4 ♔g8 37.♕xd2 and white is still in the game. In fact it's unlikely than black can win.
34.♔g1 d2 35.♘xg6 hxg6 36.♕h4 (36.♖h4 loses to 36...♔g8 37.♕e2 ♕g3 38.♔h1 ♕e1) 36...♔g8 Here Aloni, realizing his position was lost in the long run, resigned.
36...♔g8 37.♕xh3 d1=♕ 38.♔h2 ♖f2 39.♕g2 ♖xg2 40.♔xg2 ♕c2 41.♔f3 ♕d3 42.♔f4 ♗h6 43.♔e5 ♗f8 44.♔f4 ♗d6 45.♖be5 ♕c3 46.♖e3 ♕d4 47.♔f3 ♗xe5 wins
36...♔g8 37.♖b1 ♕d3 38.♖d1 ♗d4 39.♖xd4 ♕e3 40.♔h1 ♕f3 41.♔h2 ♕e2 42.♔h3 ♖f3 wins
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