Cellar Dwellers at Stockholm 1962

     Stockholm 1962 was a 23-player event with six players qualifying for the Curacao Candidates tournament. At Stockholm, Fischer won with a +13 -0 =9 score followed by Geller, Petrosian, Korchnoi and Filip. There was a three-way tie for sixth place between Gligoric, Benko and Stein. Stein won the playoff and qualified, but there was a rule that limited the number of players from one country participating in the Candidates tournament to three, so Stein was relegated to being a reserve in case somebody dropped out and Benko was the 6th qualifier. 

 

The final standings at Stockholm:

 

     Usually the featured games from a tournament like this are those played by the winners, but the players at the bottom sometimes played good games, too. Once such player was the Columbian IM Miguel Cuellar Gacharna (November 18, 1916 – December 5, 1985). 

     Besides chess, Cuellar excelled at other activities; he was an academic, piano player and a Colombian champion in three cushion billiards. Awarded the IM title in 1957, Cuellar won the Colombian championship nine times (1941, 1946, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1961, and 1971.) He won individual silver medal at first board (+12 –2 =4) in the Olympiad at Tel Aviv in 1964. 

     Although he placed next to last at the Stockholm Interzonal he defeated GMs Efim Geller, Viktor Korchnoi, Gideon Barcza and Abe Yanofsky. He also held Tigran Petrosian to a draw. A few years later in the Interzonal at Sousse 1967, he only tied for 19th place out of 22 with Myagmarsuren, but there he defeated GMs Reshevsky, Matanovic and Kavalek and drew with GMs Geller and Portisch. Besides those, there are a fair number of other GMs he defeated throughout his career. 

     The last place finisher at Stockholm, India's Manuel Aaron, only inflicted defeats on two players, but they were GMs Portisch and Uhlmann. 

     Clearly, even the cellar dwellers are sometimes capable of playing good chess, but you'll hardly ever see their games in print unless they were the victim of a drubbing at the hands of one of the superstars. In an effort to correct that injustice, here's Cuellar's nice win over GM Gideon Barcza (August 21, 1911 - February 27, 1986) who was an eight-time champion of Hungary.

Miguel Cuellar - Gedeon Barcza

Result: 1-0

Site: Interzonal, Stockholm

Date: 1962.02.14

Nimzo Indian

[...] 1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 e6 3.♘c3 ♗b4 4.e3 c5 5.♗d3 d5 6.♘f3 cxd4 7.exd4 O-O 8.O-O b6 This move ends up leaving black's light squared B limited, so 8...dxc4 is probably better. (8...dxc4 9.♗xc4 b6 10.♗g5 ♗b7 with equal chances.) 9.cxd5 According to the auto-annotation with Fritz this move transposes the opening into a line of the Panov-Botvinnik Attack against the Caro-Kann.

9.♗g5 is usually seen. 9...♗b7 Also good is 9...h6 10.Bh4 Be7. 10.♖c1 ♗e7 11.♖e1 ♘c6 12.a3 ♖c8 13.♘e4 g6 14.h4 Draw agreed. Thorhallsson,T (2455)-Erenburg,S (2573)/Reykjavik 2006

9...exd5 10.h3 ♗b7 Worth considering was 10...Bxc3 11.♗g5 ♘bd7

11...♗xc3 12.bxc3 ♕d6 13.♘e5 ♘e4 14.♗f4 leaves white standing quite well. Note that white's c-Pawn is immune. 14...♘xc3 15.♕c2 ♘e4 16.f3 ♖c8 17.♕e2 ♘c3 18.♕d2 ♕b4 19.♖ac1 ♘a6 and white's position is well worth the P. He now has an interesting sacrifice in 20.♘xf7 ♔xf7 21.♗e5 with a dangerous attack.

12.♘e5 h6 This is a serious error by the Grandmaster! He should have withdrawn the B to e7. 13.♘xd7 This leaves black's K-side in a shambles. 13...♕xd7

13...hxg5 wasn't any good either. 14.♘xf8 ♕xf8 15.♖c1 ♘e4 16.♖e1 ♖e8 17.♕b3 and white's active pieces assure him of the better game. In fact, Komodo thinks it's a winning (nearly 2.5 Ps) edge.

14.♗xf6 gxf6 15.♕h5 There is no way black is going to survive white's attack. 15...♔g7 16.♘e2 ...off to join the attack. 16...♗d6 17.♘g3 ♗xg3 which black cannot allow. 18.fxg3 ♖h8 This allows a beautiful finish, but there wasn't any way to save the game.

18...♖fe8 This prevents the coming R sacrifice. 19.♖xf6 ♔xf6 20.♕xh6+ ♔e7 21.♖e1+ ♔d8 22.♕f6+ ♔c7 and white has to take the draw. 23.♕f4+ ♔d8 and black has to allow it. (23...♔c8 24.♖xe8+ ♕xe8 25.♗f5+ wins.) 24.♕f6+ etc.

18...♖fe8 allows white to win as follows... 19.♖f4 ♖e6 20.♖af1 ♖ae8 21.♕g4+ ♔f8 22.♖xf6 etc.

19.♖xf6 ♖ae8 (19...♔xf6 20.♕e5#) 20.♖af1 ♖e7 21.♖g6+ Very nice!

21.♗g6 ♖f8 22.♗xf7 ♖fxf7 23.♖g6+ ♔f8 24.♕xh6+ ♔e8 25.♖g8+ mates next move.

21...♔f8 (21...fxg6 22.♕xg6#) 22.♖xh6 ♖g8 23.♖h8

23.♖g6! forces mate. 23...♖xg6 24.♗xg6 ♖e6 25.♕h8+ ♔e7 26.♖xf7+ ♔d6 27.♕b8+ ♔c6 28.♖xd7 ♔xd7 29.♕xb7+ ♔d6 30.♗f5 ♖e1+ 31.♔f2 ♖e7 32.♕c8 ♖h7 33.♗xh7 b5 34.♗g6 b4 35.♗e8 ♔e7 36.♕d7+ ♔f6 37.♕f7+ ♔g5 38.♕g6#

23...♖e6 24.♖xg8+ ♔xg8 25.♕h7+ ♔f8 26.♗f5 Barcza resigned. What a drubbing!

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