Twenty-five teams were entered and were divided into three preliminary groups of eight or nine teams with the top three from each group advancing to the Final A. Fourth-sixth places played in the Final B and the rest in the Final C.
The Olympiad was a collection impressive talent that included nearly two dozen GMs, which was a lot in those days. Even without World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik who was missing due to illness, the Soviet team (Paul Keres, Vasily Smyslov, David Bronstein, Yefim Geller, Isaac Boleslavsky andf Alexander Kotov) dominated the event.
The USA team (Samuel Reshevsky, Larry Evans, Robert Byrne, Arthur Bisguier, George Koltanowski and Hans Berliner)
had no illusions about the nature of their task.
They got off to a promising by downing Argentina.
Then in the second round they met the Russians. Byrne turned back Bronstein. Reshevsky (vs. Keres) and Bisguier (vs. Geller) drew and Evans lost (to Smyslov) and so the match was tied.
The next two rounds (against Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia) were drawn. Thus, as far as the United States was concerned, it had met its strongest rivals and had every reason to be satisfied with the result.
The team's play in the later rounds was steady, but they started a slow slide as a result of missing a vital point here and there and gradually allowed other teams pass them in the standings.
The hero of the American team was Robert Byrne who scored +5 -0 =3. Reshevsky also did reasonably well scoring +3 -1 =3. Unfortunately, the play of Evans and Bisguier was not up to their usual standard especially when they were bumped up to a higher board.
Miguel Najdorf of Argentina finished with the best score on board one, so he clearly was in excellent form and yet in a routine position he fell into an obvious and elementary trap against Reshevsky.
[Event "Olympiad Final A, Helsinki"]
[Site "Helsinki FIN"]
[Date "1952.08.21"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Samuel Reshevsky"]
[Black "Miguel Najdorf"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E95"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 14"]
[PlyCount "53"]
[EventDate "1952.08.21"]
{King's Indian Defense} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6.
Be2 e5 7. O-O Nbd7 {[%cal Bb8d7,Bd7c5,Bc5e6][%mdl 32]} 8. Re1 c6 9. Bf1 Re8 10.
Rb1 {This move, which received extensive testing at Helsinki, was Reshevsky's
improvement over 10.d5 which was common at the time. Today it is the only move
played in this line. The advantage of 10.Rb1 is that it maintains the tension
in the center. Additionally, the R move lessens the effect of black's
flanchettoed B and may also serve as a preparation for b2-b4 expanding on the
Q-side.} exd4 11. Nxd4 Nc5 12. f3 a5 13. Be3 Nfd7 14. Qd2 a4 15. Nc2 (15. b4 {
The standard move today.} axb3 16. axb3 Ne6 17. Nxe6 Rxe6 18. Na4 Qc7 19. Red1
{with an excellent position. Zakharevich,I (2463)-Andreikin,D (2532) Sochi 2007
}) 15... Be5 16. Bd4 (16. Ne2 {Was played earlier in Barcza,G-Eliskases,E
Saltsjobaden 1952 which continued} Qc7 17. Nf4 Nf8 18. Nb4 Qa5 19. Nbd3 Qxd2
20. Bxd2 Nxd3 21. Nxd3 {with an equal position.}) 16... Ne6 17. Bf2 Qf6 18. Ne2 {The position is equal and the
purpose of this move is to support repositioning the N on c2 to d4. The fact
that it also contains a trap that Najdorf falls into is an unexpected bonus!}
Bxb2 {[%mdl 8192] This loses. After either 18...Ndc5 or 18...Nf4 the position
is equal,} 19. Rxb2 {[%mdl 512]} Qxb2 20. Nc3 {Trapping the Q. There is no
defense to the threat of 21.Rb1 and so the game is over, but Najdorf plays a
few more moves to avoid having been victim of a miniature.} a3 21. Rb1 Ndc5 22.
Rxb2 axb2 23. Nb4 {[%cal Bc2b4,Bb4d3,Bd3b2][%mdl 32]} Na4 {Played with the
forlorn hope that white plays 24.Nxa4 or allows ...Nxc3 either of which remove
the coverage from b1 so the P can queen.} 24. Nb1 Bd7 25. Nd3 b5 26. cxb5 cxb5
27. Nxb2 {Black resigned.} 1-0
No comments:
Post a Comment