In May 1964, with service schools completed, I ended up with Weapons Platoon, G Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines at at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and was soon training on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. October found me aboard the USS York County and off to the Mediterranean on Operation Steel Pike. Like I said, no time for chess.
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Of course I was unaware of the big Capablanca Memorial that was played in Havana. It had a big prize fund, too...$2,500; that's over $21,000 today. That doesn't sound like much, but 1964 I was making about $123 a month (over $1,000 a month in today's dollars), so the prize fund was almost two years pay.
Given foreign relations at the time, the participation of Larry Evans was something of a surprise. In fact, Evans was leading for much of the tournament, but a surprise loss to World Junior Champion Carlos Bielicki of Argentina knocked him down to 4th place.
Larry Evans (March 22, 1932 – November 15, 2010) won or shared the US Championship five times and the US Open Championship four times. He wrote a long-running syndicated column and authored or co-authored more than twenty chess books...many of which, according to some, were of dubious value.
In the 1960s, Evans moved to Reno, Nevada after he discovered he had a talent for counting cards. He could memorize cards and he made a lot of money doing it, but kept getting banned from casinos.
Card counting is not illegal as long as players don't use any external card-counting device or people who assist them. Card counters theoretically have an advantage of from a half percent to 1.5 percent over the casinos and casinos don't like those odds.
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that players cannot be discriminated against because of counting even if they're detected. As a result, New Jersey casinos employ countermeasures designed to make counting cards difficult. In Nevada, the law allows casinos to operate like a private club and so they can throw the card counters out.
I never cottoned to Evans' style. He was willing to take risks in open tournaments against weaker players but against stronger players he played rock solid, uninspired chess. Give him the opportunity to grab a Pawn and that's what he'd do then hang on for dear life and try to convert it. Boring stuff. The following game is one of his more interesting ones.
Larry Evans - Mijo Udovcic
Result: 1-0
Site: Havana
Date: 1964.09.03
King's Indian: Saemisch
[...] 1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 g6 3.♘c3 ♗g7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 The Saemisch is a critical challenge to the King's Indian and at one time Bobby Fischer avoided facing it. White postpones the development of his K-side in order to solidify the center. Plus, the P on f3 potentially sets up g4-g5 or h4 giving white a K-side attack. At the same time it allows black relatively little counterplay on the K-side. The disadvantage is that the P on f3 deprives the N of its most natural square. The strategic nature of the battle in the center is mostly up to black, who can challenge the center with P advances ...c5 or ...e5. White must then decide whether to close the center with d4-d5, or let it remain flexible. Another option open to black, as seen in this game, is to pursue an early initiative on the Q-side by aiming for .. .b7-b5. 5...O-O 6.♘ge2 c5 7.d5 a6 Black has adapted a Benoni-like setup that requires an early ...e6 and while postponing the move and aiming for ...b5 has its advantages, if black wants to play for ...b5 he is better advised to play . ..Na6-c7 first. 8.a4 Without his N on c7 black is going to have a very hard time advancing his b-Pawn. 8...b6 This is much too passive.
8...♘bd7 9.♘g3 ♖e8 10.♗e2 ♘f8 11.♗g5 ♕a5 is more active. Rustemov,A (2550)-Purtov,A (2445)/ Polanica Zdroj 1997
8...e5 9.♗g5 h6 10.♗e3 ♘h7 11.h4 f5 with about equal chances. Admiraal,M (2479) -Blom,V (2269)/Escaldes 2018
9.♗g5
9.♗e3 ♘bd7 10.♘c1 ♘e8 11.♕d2 Le Bail,A (1859)-Haussernot,C (1924)/Aix les Bains 2009
9...♘bd7 Black has better prospects with 9...h6 which gives him more flexibility on the K-side. 10.♕d2 ♘e5 11.♘g3 ♖b8 12.♗e2 ♘e8 13.O-O f6 Already a desperate attempt to get counterplay, but it leaves him with a backward e-Pawn and a blocked B. 14.♗e3 ♗d7 15.♖ab1 ♘c7 Now black is ready to play ...b5 16.f4 ♘f7 17.b4 Right at the moment when black is ready to strike on the Q-side, it's white who strikes first! 17...♕c8 18.bxc5 bxc5 19.♖xb8 ♕xb8 20.♖b1 ♕c8 21.♖b3 Black is near lost. White has a general superiority in space which allows him maneuvering room, controls the only open file and has b6 as an entry point into black's position. 21...♖e8 22.a5 e6 The e-Pawn hampers the activity of black's pieces, but this exchange also works to white's advantage. Oddly, there is no move that is entirely satisfactory for black. 23.dxe6 ♗xe6 It makes little difference which piece he recaptures with. 24.h3 At this point Evans begins some probing moves. Playing Nd5 may look good, but after ...Bxd5 the valuable d-file would be closed. 24...♗d7 25.♔h2 ♕d8 26.♗f3 ♗e6±27.♗e2 ♕d7 28.♖b7 Typical of Evans. He eschews the more tactical 28.f5 (28.f5 gxf5 29.♗f4 fxe4 30.♘cxe4 and black has no good move.) 28...♕c8 29.♖b6 ♘a8 30.♖b3 ♘c7 31.♘a4 Finally...some progress. 31...f5 32.♘b6 ♕d8 33.exf5 gxf5 34.♗h5 ♕f6 35.♖d3 ♗f8 36.♗f2 ♖b8 37.♘e2 ♘e8 38.♘c3 ♘g7 39.♗f3 ♕h6 40.♘cd5 Played at just the right moment. 40...♕g6 41.♘c7 Udovcic resigned.
41.♘c7 White wins no matter what black does. A sample line... 41...♗c8 42.♗d5 ♕f6 43.♘xc8 ♖xc8 44.♘xa6 ♘e6 45.♗h4 ♕h6 46.♗xe6 ♕xe6 47.♖g3+ ♗g7 48.♕b2 wins
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