Thanks to a couple of books by C.J.S. Purdy I had heard of the name Saul Goldsmirh (1911-1988), an importer and merchant from Wellington, New Zealand who was also involved in the country's politics.
I did not know it, but the English player Murray Chandler (born 1960) was born in Wellington, New Zealand. William A. Fairhurst (1905-1982) was born in England, but business interests caused him to move to New Zealand around 1970 and he retired there.
Back issues of magazines of the New Zealand Chess Federation was a gold mine containing the names of many unheard of players and their games.
The first chess club in New Zealand was formed in September 1863 in Dunedin. The New Zealand Chess Association came into being in the 1870s. The association, re-founded in 1892, conducts the annual championship. New Zealand was one of the earliest countries to make use of the telegraph to play interclub matches in 1866.
In 1938, writing in the New Zealand Chess Gazette, R.O. Scott, the champion of Wanganui, wrote that it was not possible to compare the New Zealand chess standards favorably with that of other countries because of the country's isolated position, but things were changing because there existed a greater number of first class chess books than were formerly available to New Zealand players.
The 1948 New Zealand Championship saw introduction of the Swiss System in five preliminary rounds as a means of selecting the Championship finalist and determining the players in the other sections.
In Dunedin, the summers are cool, the winters are short and very cold and it is windy and partly cloudy year round. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 39°F to 64°F and is rarely below 34°F or above 72°F.
In 1948 the tournament started on December 26th and players arrived in town expecting the typical cool weather for the summer with its share of hail, rain and wind, but instead they were surprised to be greeted by such fine weather that many players shed themselves
of ties, coats and pullovers. That was a time when men often wore suits in public. Many made do with older suits from the 1930s. Suit vests fell out of favor as an excess use of fabric. New suits were made with a wool-rayon blend instead of wool and often with patterned (especially striped) fabric.
In the following game played in the fifth round, Lang, made a solid bid to take a point from Wade who was leading. Lang came out of the opening with a very promising position, but mishandled the postion and in the end allowed Wade to win a game he shouldn't have. Lang was the joint New Zealand champion in 1954. He was also prominent in the country's correspondence chess organization.
J.F. Lang–Robert Wade0–1New Zealand Championship, Dunedin1948Stockfish 14.1
QP Opening 1.d4 d5 2.e3 f6 3.d3 c5 4.c3 c7 5.d2 Wade believed that
Lang was intending to play the Stonewall with 6.f4 which explains his next
move. 5.f4 c6 5...g6 The fianchetto is a safe, solid way to meet both
the Stonewall and the Colle Attack. 6.f3 g7 7.0-0 f5 8.xf5 gxf5 9.bd2 bd7 Equals. Herzog,A (2350) -Petschar,K (2325) Austria 1994 6.f3 g4 7.0-0 e6 8.h3 f5 9.b5 d6 black is better. Jovicic,R (2184) -Zmijanac,D
(2127) Belgrade 2016 5...e5 Unusual, but not bad. Normally black would
play 5...Bg4 or 5...g6 6.dxe5 xe5 7.gf3 c7 A tempo has been the cost of
preventing white from playing the Stonewall, but now he has the advance of the
e-Pawn available as in the Colle. 8.e4 Even after this advance white has no
more than equality. c6 9.0-0 9.e5 was tempting. d7 10.0-0 Black wins
the e-Pawn, but it gains him nothing because after dxe5 11.xe5 xe5 12.e1 e7 13.b5+ c6 14.h5 equals. 9...g4 This turns out to be a not so
good idea. 9...e6 10.exd5 xd5 11.e1+ e7 12.e4 xe4 13.xe4 xe4 14.xe4 d8 15.e2 0-0 with about an even position. 10.exd5 xd5 11.e1+ 11.a4 was a promising alternative. e6 11...d7 12.e4+ ce7 13.c4 f5 14.b5+ d8 15.e2 f4 16.e1 c8 17.c4 d3 18.e3 white is better. 12.g5 0-0-0 13.xe6 fxe6 14.b5 d6 15.xc6 xc6 16.xc6+ bxc6 17.e4
white is better. 11...e7 12.e4 The move 12.Qa4 was still good. 0-0-0
Even though white's pieces are aimed at the K-side this is not as good as 12...
O-O as Lang now shows. 12...0-0 13.eg5 f6 14.c2 h6 and white has no
more than equality because black 's defensive resources are adequate. 13.g3 h6 13...f4 Wade believed this led to white getting the better game.
However, after 14.xf4 xf4 15.e3 h5 white does not have anything...
neither does black. 14.h3 e6 15.c2 Wade
thought this was a good move because the square f5 is a vital square to
exchange off black's pieces, hinder black from launching a K-side P-storm and
at the same time attack black's K. He was correct about it being a vital
square, but white's taking time to add the Qs support to f5 was incorrect. 15.f5 At once is correct. xc3 16.c2 d5 16...xf5 17.xf5+ d7 18.xd7+ xd7 19.bxc3 White has a decisive advantage. 17.xe6+ fxe6 18.h5 d6 19.g6 hg8 20.xe6 with complications in which both sides have chances.
15...f4 Wade was willing to allow a weakening of his K-side Ps in order
to obtain some rather vague attacking chances. Unfortunately for him, he
missed an excellent opportunity to gain a solid advantage. 15...cb4
After this life is good for black. 16.cxb4 16.e2 xc3 17.bxc3 xd3 Black is better. 16...xb4 17.e2 xd3 Here, too, black has an
excellent game. 16.f5 g5 17.e4 Wade was happy to see this as he feared
17.Bxf4, but 17.Qe4 is hardly a mistake. 17.xf4 gxf4 18.h5 d6 19.ad1 xf5 20.xf5+ b8 21.e4 White stands well thanks to black's weak Ps. 17...b8 18.xf4 Equally good was 18.Bxe6 gxf4 19.h5 d5 20.xf4
White might have done better by keeping the Qs on and playing 20.Qe2 d6
One gets the feeling that Wade believed he was attacking, but the fact is that
the position favors white after this move. It would have been to black's
advantage to trade Qs and go into an ending. 20...xf4 21.xf4 xf3 22.gxf3 g5 with an equal position. 21.e3 he8 Speaking of white's next
move Wade commented, "Perhaps 22.Qxe8 was best," Indeed, white would have been
vastly superior. A safer move for black would have been 21...Ne7, but at the
same time this move sets a little trap. 22.d3 22.xh6 This is inadequate.
h8 23.e3 xh5 with a piece for two Ps. 22.xe8 There is no good way
to meet this move because black's Q is unable to cope with the activity of the
Rs. xe8 22...e7 23.xd8+ xd8 24.ad1 xf3 25.gxf3 White won all five
Shootouts. 23.xe8+ d8 24.f6 c6 25.d1 White's pieces are beginning
to swarm all over black. a6 26.e5 a7 Has black gained some breathing room?
27.xc6+ xc6 28.e4 In this position, too, white scored five Shootout
victories. 22...c4 23.c2 23.xd5 is an obvious blunder. h2+ 24.xh2 xe1+ 25.xe1 xd5 26.g3 23...xf3 24.gxf3 It would have been safer to
eliminate one of the Rs first with 24.Rxe8+ g8+ 25.g4 White is lost, but
in the long run it would have been better to get out of the pin with 25.Kf1 e5 26.f1 d3 Not only is the N on a strong square, white's Q is shut out
of the game. White must now prevent ...Bc5. Black is clearly winning. 27.e4 c5 28.xc4 f5 Black is trying to get his Q to h2 deciding the game. 29.f4 Giving up a piece, but it is his best move. That being the case, you know
white's position is really bad! xf4 30.xf5 d3 In order to play . ..Qh2 31.g2 Prevents Qh2+. b5 32.b4 bxc4 33.bxc5 xc5 34.b1+ a8 35.xc5 xc5 36.f4 Giving up and why not? He is a R down. h5 White resigned. 0–1
No comments:
Post a Comment