The early 1980s recession was a severe economic recession that affected much of the world between approximately the start of 1980 and early 1983. It was the deepest economic downturn since World War II. In the United States most Americans were very unhappy with the state of the economy. Fifty-four percent blamed President Ronald Reagan’s policies for making their personal financial situation worse.
1982 was also the year of the Chicago Tylenol murders when Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide killed 7 people in Chicago and several more deaths resulted in subsequent copycat crimes. One result was the pharmaceutical, food and consumer product industries developed tamper-resistant packaging and product tampering was made a federal crime.
A number of chess players were lost in 1982. Ed Edmondson (1920-1982) UCF president from 1963 to 1966 and Executive Director from 1966 to 1975 died in Honolulu, Hawaii while playing chess at the beach.
IM o fchess compositions Alexander Herbstmann, IM Lev Aronin, the 1965 Moscow champion, and IM Johan Barendregt died in the Netherlands.
A professor of psychology, Barendregt was the victim of IM Raymond Weinstein's attack. After the attack Weinstein was arrested and deported to the United States where he was detained in a half-way house and killed his 83-year-old roommate with a razor after an argument. Deemed incapable of standing trial, Weinstein was remanded to the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Manhattan's Wards Island.
Also passing in 1982 were British player 17-year-old Ian Duncan Wells (1964-1982) who drowned on a beach in Rio de Janeiro the day after he finished an international junior tournament. IM Paulino Frydman (1905-1982) died in Buenos Aires and IM William Fairhurst died in New Zealand. He was British champion in 1937 and won the Scottish championship 11 times.
British chess authr Richard N. Coles died in West Clandon, England. Finally, British-American chess composer Joseph Edmund Peckover (1896-1982) died.
1982 was the year Florencio Campomanes (1927-2010), a Filipino political scientist, chess player, and chess organizer was elected to the FIDE presidency.
He was a controversial figure. According to the book The KGB Plays Chess, while serving as Vice-President of FIDE Campomanes was recruited as an asset by the KGB. As FIDE President he was accused of helping Karpov retain the world title at all costs.
Then in February of 2003, the Philippine anti-graft court convicted Campomanes for failure to account for the Philippine Sports Commission government funds and he was sentenced to one year and 10 months imprisonment, but it was later reduced to a fine. The charges were overturned based upon a technicality...Campomanes was not a government official to whom the anti-graft laws applied and so he had no duty to render an accounting of the missing funds.
In early February 2007, Campomanes suffered injuries in a car accident in Antalya, Turkey which resulted in time in an intensive care unit. He died on May 3, 2010, in the Philippines.
In 1982, there was no US championship due to lack of funds and Walter Browne and Yasser Seirawan remained co-champions. The tournament resumed in 1983 and was won by Walter Browne, Larry Christiansen and Roman Dzindzichashvili.
Also in 1982, National Master Robert M. Snyder started the first regular television show on chess in the United States titled Chess With Robert Snyder; it was aired on cablevision in Orange, California. Snyder became infamous when he was arrested and convicted for multiple sexual assaults involving children dating back to 1983. He was featured on America's Most Wanted after fleeing Colorado while still on supervised probation in 2008. He was found in Belize and on March 30, 2010, after pleading guilty, was given an open (up to life) sentence.
On the plus side, GM Lev Alburt lead a contingent of American players in his victory at the Reykjavik International Open. The event was open to foreign players with FIDE ratings of 2300 and above and to Icelandic players over 2200.
The event was, as it turned out, very much like a miniature Lone Pine. Fifty-four players from 12 countries participated, including
12 grandmasters.
Nine Americans made the trip. Lev Alburt (8.5 points), Dmitry Gurevich (7.5), Robert Byrne and Nick De Firmian (7.0), Boris Kogan (6.5), Edmar Mednis, Dr. Karl Burger, Vitaly Zaltsman (all three with 6.0), and Allan Savage (4.0). Also, finishing was with 7.0 points was Leonid Shamkovich who left the Soviet Union in 1975, moving first to Israel, then Canada, and ultimately to the United States.
In the following game Alburt defeated one of the early leaders, Helgi Olafsson who came armed with a prepared line, but it was to no avail against Alburt.
Lev Alburt–Helgi Olafsson1–0A62Reykjavik International OpenReykjavik ISL15.02.1982Stockfish 15
Modern Benoni: Fianchetto Variation 1.d4 f6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Alburt is fond
of the Catalan which would arise if black plays 3...d5 c5 Olafsson is an
aggressive tactician who has no desire to play the positional Catalan; he
prefers the intricacies of the Modern Benoni. 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.c3 g6 7.g2 g7 8.f3 0-0 9.0-0 a6 10.a4 bd7 11.h3 White usually plays 11.Bf4,
or sometimes 11.Nd2 here. The text move prevents a possible ...Ng4 or ...Bg4 e8 This is a typical Benoni middlegame. White will try to exploit his space
advantage and central P-majority by preparing e2-e4-e5. Black will attempt to
hold back the central thrust by controlling e5 and, at at the time mobilize
his Q-side with ...b7-b5 12.d2
b8 13.c4 e5 14.a3 This hinders ...b5 and at the same time
avoids exchanges that would ease black's position. h5 Common today, at the
time this was considered a risky plan. Black's Q-side advance is stalled and
so he prepares to meet white's central expansion head on hoping to exploit the
resulting weaknesses on white's K-side. Note that 15.g4 has been rendered
risky. 15.e4 15.g4 Black can play it safe with wither 15...Nf6 or he can
play either of two promising tactical lines. xg4 15...h4 16.e4 16.gxh5 xh3 is good for black. 16...h6 17.e1 f5 with an unclear position. 16.hxg4 xg4 17.d3 xc3 18.h3 xf2 19.xf2 d4 with complications. 15...f8 Although 15...f5 had been played here, black had prepared some home
analysis; he was following a recent, little-known game of one of his
countrymen. However, his best move was probably 15...Bd7 16.h2 f5 It would
have been better to omit this and play 16...d5 at once. 17.f4 b5 18.axb5 18.fxe5 allows black at least equal chances after xe5 19.e2 xg3 20.xg3 f4 Again, the complications are unclear. 18...axb5 19.axb5 19.fxe5
this was played in Birnboim-Arnason (Randers Zonal 1982) which lead to a quick
win for black, but in reality the chances are equal after xg3 20.xg3 xe5+ 21.f2 19...fxe4 20.a7 20.fxe5 When the game was played it was thought
that 20 fxe5 Bxe5 gave black a good attack, but, in fact, the position favors
white after xe5 21.xf8+ xf8 22.xe4 xb5 23.a8 and black has to be
very careful. 20...e3 The text attempts to keep white swimming in a murky
complications, but he would have done better playing 20...Nf3+ 20...f3+ 21.xf3 exf3 22.c6 d7 23.g4 23.xb8 should be avoided because of xh3+
mate next move! 23...b7 24.xf3 White is better. 21.e2 This is more
clear than the positionally stronger 21.Nc6 xg3 22.xg3 Black has a number
of candidate moves, but none that are entirely satisfactory. g5 This is best
because he threatens ...gxf4+ It's also very good because Alburt does not find
the best move and lets Olafsson off the hook. 23.f5 23.xe3 This si the
only move that keeps the advantage. gxf4+ 24.xf4 xf4 25.xf4 and white
is winning. 23...xf5 24.xe3 d7 This is a game losing
mistake. At this point Alburt was in time pressure and the text move is not
forceful enough so Alburt is able to consolidate with little trouble.Engines
want to play 24...Kh8 followed by 25...g4, but analyst and post-game analysis
suggested the immediate 24...g4 which while technically noit the best would
have been reasonable considering the fact that Alburt's flag was near falling
and it would have been very difficult for him to thread through all of the
variations while in accute time pressure. 24...g4 25.xf5 xf5 26.c6 f8 27.hxg4 xc6 28.gxf5 d4 White has a winning advantage. 25.c6 There is
a descrepancy in online databases...they give white's next move as 25.Qxg5
with Olafsson resigning on move 32, but that is incorrect. Ths game was
published in the June 1982 edition of Chess Life with notes by Allan Savage
and Eric Schiller and the game was taken from the tournament book. be8 26.xg5 26.a7 would be a serious mistake. xc6! 27.xd7 xe3+ 28.h2 e5+ and not only is black back in the game, he stands better. 26...h6 27.h5 g6 28.xf8+ xf8 29.e2 d3 30.e3 xc6 31.dxc6 Alburt sidesteps another
pitfall. 31.xd3 e5+ and black wins after 32.h4 e7 33.e4 c4 34.c2 f5 35.xh6 35.xf5 xf5+ White has to surrender the Q to delay mate. 35...g6+ 36.g4 f4+ 37.g3 f6+ 38.g2 h4+ 39.g1 d4+ 40.h2 xh6 41.a8+ g7 42.e2 e5+ 43.g1 xh3 44.a7+ f6 45.f1+ f3+ 31...f5 32.h2 e5+ 33.h1 d4 34.d5+ Olafsson resigned. It's interesting that
white's Q and R never moved.It's also interesting that despite his time
pressure according to Fritz 17's analysis with Stockfish Alburt's Weighted
Error Value of 0.23 is labelled as precise! Black's was 0.83 1–0
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