Mini Game From the 1974 Soviet Championship

     The year 1974 was draining. Tricky Dick Nixon resigned the presidency. His predecessor, a profane lout named Lyndon Johnson, had adapted a wishy-washy policy that prolonged the war in Vietnam. It wasn't until April 30, 1975, under President Ford, that the last Americans still in South Vietnam were airlifted out and Saigon fell to Communist forces. That meant that after 8 years the US government finally stopped sending me letters every few months promising me another stripe if I would reenlist.

     Christine Chubbuck, a television newscaster in Sarasota, Florida, committed suicide during a live broadcast when she pulled out a gun and shot herself in the head.

     On June 4th, the Cleveland Indians baseball team was playing the Texas Rangers and the Indians hosted Ten Cent Beer Night. As a result, they had to forfeit the game which had to be called because of several thousand knife-wielding, bottle-throwing, chair-tossing, fist-swinging, rowdy, drunk, fans. The Cleveland police we called in to quell the riot which ended up in a lot of property damage including stealing the bases which were never recovered. 

     Radio announcers Joe Tait and Herb Score continued their live broadcast only instead of calling the game, they were calling a riot! After the riot local sportswriter, Dan Coughlin attempted to interview fans but was punched in the face twice. 

     By Cleveland General Manager Phil Seghi's twisted logic, the umpires were to blame for losing control of the game. Not to be deterred, on July 18, Seghi had another ten cent beer night that attracted 41,848 fans. This time there was a limit of two cups per person and there was no riot. 

     The national highway speed limit was reduced to 55 mph, but it had nothing to do with improving safety; it was intended to optimize fuel consumption after the 1973 oil crisis. Older readers may remember the long lines at gasoline stations and the rationing and the gas stations running out of gasoline. 

    The top song was The Way We Were by Barbra Streisand and big movies included included Blazing Saddles, The Towering Inferno and The Trial of Billy Jack, none of which I am familiar with. 

     Price of a postage stamp in 1974 was 10 cents and in an attempt to get around high gas prices you could buy an AMC Gremlin automobile for $2,408.00. Finally, after Andy "Fearless" Brown retired in 1974, every goalie in the National Hockey League began wearing the recommended face mask.   

     The 1974 USSR Championship was held in Leningrad. In those days it was always a premier event because the Soviet Chess Federation had 35 Grandmasters! As an example, the previous year's championship had all the leading GMs competing making it one of the strongest tournaments ever held in the Soviet Union. 

      By comparison the 1974 event was probably a little disappointing as most of the leading GMs were unable to take part tor various reasons and were replaced by other players. At the same time the number of participants was reduced from 18 to 16. Still, veterans like Tal, Polugaevsky Vasiukov were pitted against several promising young rivals. 

     The tournament was hard fought from the very first round with Tal and Polugaevsky taking an early lead, but they were hard pressed by rising young stars Belyavsky, Vaganian, Romanishin, Alburt and Dvoretsky. It was interesting to note Paul Keres' comment that while many of the young players had good tactical ability their positional understanding needed improvement. In the end, the young players did very well. 

     Tied for the top two places were ex-World Champion Mikhail Tal and ex-World Junior Champion Alexander Beliavsky who was surprise of the tournament because he had finished in last place in the 1973 championship! Lev Polugaevsky missed first place by only a half point and he was dissatisfied with the quality of his games in this tournament. Raphael Vaganian was known to be a very skillful tactician and he played some very exciting games. Also exceeding expectations were Oleg Romanishin, Mark Dvoretsky and Lev Alburt all of whom fought with great skill and displayed ingenuity in complicated positions. 

     The fight for first was close right up to the last round. With two rounds left Tal hada one point lead and nobody doubted that he would be the winner, but with the white pieces against his main rival, Evengy Vasiukov, Tal lost! As expected, there were a lot of were a lot of interesting games; they were hard fought, too, as evidenced by the fact that only about half were drawn. 

     In the following game Rafael Vaganian (born October 15, 1951), an Armenian GM, defeated Viktor Kupreichik (1949-2017) a GM from Belarus.

Rafael Vaganian - Viktor Kupreichik

Result: 1-0

Site: USSR Championship, Leningrad

Date: 1974

Trompowsky Attack

[...] 1.d4 ♘f6 2.♗g5 Extravagant according to Keres. By playing this white sidesteps immense bodies of opening theory. 2...c5 3.d5 ♕b6 4.♘c3 ♕xb2 Although this is frequently played it could turn out to be very dangerous for black because it loses time. 5.♗d2 ♕b6 6.e4 d6 7.f4 g6 As a result of this move black gets a cramped position. Better was 7...e6

7...e6 8.♖b1 ♕c7 9.♗b5+ and after either 9...Nbd7 or 9...Bd7 black has a satisfactory position.

8.e5 dxe5 This is an elementary error after which black gets into serious difficulties. Rather than open up the position he should have tried 8...Nfd7 9.fxe5 ♘fd7 10.♘f3 ♗g7 11.♖b1 ♕d8 12.e6 fxe6 13.♘g5 ♘f6 It's amazing that black has been down this same road numerous times. Black's position is simply horrible. My database has 8 games that reached this position and black has scored only two draws. White has achieved a huge positional advantage for the small price of his b-Pawn.

13...O-O 14.♘xe6 ♕e8 15.♘xf8 ♕xf8 16.♗e2 ♕f6 Here, too, white has a vastly superior position. Mertanen,J (2290)-Dolezal,R (2423)/Prague 2008

13...♘f8 loses to 14.♗b5+ ♗d7 15.♕f3 ♗f6 16.dxe6 ♗xb5 17.♘xb5 ♘c6 18.♘f7

14.♗b5+ ♔f8 15.dxe6 a6 No better or worse than alternatives.

15...♕d4 16.♘e2 ♕d5 17.O-O ♗h6 18.c4 ♕d8 19.♘xh7+ ♔g7 20.♘xf6 ♗xd2 21.♘d5 ♗g5 22.♖f7+ ♔g8 23.♕d3 ♖h6 24.♘f6+ Black resigned; it's mate next move. Kerkmeester,H (2220)-Van der Vorm,T (2405)/NED 1994

(15...♘c6 is the last straw 16.O-O ♔g8+⁠−) 16.♗e3 ♕a5

16...♕xd1+ is no better as after 17.♖xd1 ♗h6 18.♖d8+ ♔g7 19.♖xh8 ♔xh8 20.♘f7+ ♔g7 21.♗xh6+ and wins

17.O-O h6 This weakens g6 and leads to mate, but his position was lost anyway. 18.♕d3 ♔g8

18...♕c7 does not improve anything 19.♕xg6 ♕xh2+ 20.♔xh2 hxg5+ 21.♔g1 ♖h1+ 22.♔xh1 ♔g8 23.♖xf6 exf6 24.e7 ♘d7 25.e8=♕+ ♘f8 26.♕ef7+ ♔h8 27.♕gxg7#

18...hxg5 allows mate in 5 19.♕xg6 ♔g8 20.♕f7+ ♔h7 21.♗d3+ ♘e4 22.♗xe4+ ♔h6 23.♕g6#

19.♕xg6 ♗xe6 20.♘xe6 (20.♖xf6 ♘d7 21.♗xd7 ♗xa2 22.♗e6+ ♗xe6 23.♖f8+ ♔xf8 24.♘xe6+ ♔g8 25.♕xg7#) 20...♖h7 21.♖xf6 All roads leads to mate. 21...♘d7 22.♗xd7 Black resigned. A terrible beating.

22.♗xd7 ♕xc3 23.♖f8+ ♖xf8 24.♘xf8 ♕xe3+ 25.♔h1 ♕e4 26.♕xe4 ♗xf8 27.♕g6+ ♗g7 28.♗e6+ ♔h8 29.♕e8+ ♗f8 30.♕xf8#

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