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  • Monday, June 20, 2022

    New York Met League Match 1954

         At the end of New York City Metropolitan League, two undefeated teams, the Marshall Chess Club Seniors and the Manhattan Chess Club, met at the Manhattan club in the seventh and last round on Saturday, May 22, 1954.
         The weather was partly cloudy with a high of 65 and a low of 45. The front page of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle had a story that was a prelude of what was to come. 
         Halfway around the world in what was then known as Indo-China, it was reported that Communist troops overwhelmed the French fortress at An Xa in the Red River delta and then struck northward toward Hanoi 40 miles away. 
         The outpost in Quang Nam Province fell after three weeks of bloody fighting when 800 Communist Vietminh regulars overcame the exhausted company of Vietnamese by sheer weight of numbers. 
         Just 11 years later, on October 3, 1965, 30 men from Company M, 3d Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment were walking across a rice paddy in eastern Quang Nam Province when rifle fire and mortar explosions erupted from three sides. The ambush was nearly perfect. About 200 Viet Cong had surrounded the Marines. Caught in the open with no cover they were pinned down. The firefight that resulted lasted for almost eight hours and 13 Marines were killed in one of the costliest days since the United States had entered the war. 
         When relief reached the patrol the firing suddenly ceased and the Viet Cong slipped away into the gathering night. The Marines rescued what was left of the patrol and retrieved the dead and wounded. The firefight had nearly annihilated the patrol and all of them had been wounded and nearly half were dead. 
         The dead were: 26-year-old 1st Lieutenant Adam E. Simpson, Jr., Staff Sergeant Roscoe Ammerman (age 37), Private First Class Robert W. Allen who was 2 days shy of his 18th birthday. Sergeant Nelton R. Bryant (age 26), Corporal Eugene L. Ellwood (age 19), Private First Class Louie G. Fritts (age 19), Private First Class Michael R. Fulk (age 18), Sergeant Paul Hamilton, Jr. (age 27), Corporal Larry D. Harvey (age 21), Private First Class Leon P. Lampley (age 20). Oddly, Lampley was from the same hometown (Hamilton, Ohio) as Corporal Ellwood. Private First Class Bernard J. Masny (age 19), Sergeant Reginald Nicolas (age 29) and Private First Class James Edward Thomas (age 19). Semper Fi, Marines!
         Back to the chess match. By mutual agreement, there were 12 players to a side for this match. The names for the first six for each side were shuffled and drawn to determine who played whom. By a happy coincidence, US Champion Larry Evans and former Champion Arnold Denker met. The lower six were similarly drawn. 
         At adjournment, Manhattan led by 4.5-3.5. In the play-offs, however, the match turned out one-sided and Manhattan won 8-4. 
         In the following game Simonson put up a fierce struggle, but he was unfortunate as the dubious opening variation he chose saddled him with a weaknesses which plagued him throughout all the phases of the game.

    A game that I liked (Komodo 14)

    Arthur Bisguier, Manhattan CCAlbert C. Simonson, Marshall CC1–0A00Met League Match, New York1954Stockfish 15
    Sicilian: Richter-Rauzer 1.d4 c5 2.e4 cxd4 3.f3 c6 Here 3..e5 transposes into Smith-Morra (or, as it was known at the time of the game, the Morra Gambit). Such positions were not to Simonson's taste because he was a coffeehouse player who preferred the initiative at all be costs. 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 d6 6.g5 The Richter–Rauzer Attack threatening to double black's Ps after Bxf6 and forestalling the Dragon by rendering 6...g6 unplayable. After 6. ..e6 Rauzer introduced the modern plan of Qd2 and 0-0-0 in the 1930s. White's pressure on the d6-pawn often compels black to respond to Bxf6 with ...gxf6, rather than recapturing with a piece (e.g. the queen on d8) that also has to defend the d-pawn. This weakens black's K-side P-structure, but in return black gains the two Bs and a central Pawn majority. a5 Starting out as a QP opening it has now transposed and no doubt because of his unfamiliarity with the latest lines Simonson feared walking into a prepared variation and so chose the inferior text move deliberately. Usual and better is 6...e6 7.xf6 gxf6 8.b5 d7 9.h5 With this unusual move Bisguier makes an attempt to exercise pressure on black's K-side, particularly the f-Pawn. 9.b3 first is usual. c7 10.d5 d8 11.h5 a6 12.e2 Lotero,F (2162)-Panesso Rivera,H (2368) Medellin 2014 9...a6 10.b3 d8 11.e2 e6 11...c8 12.0-0-0 g7 13.b1 f5 14.exf5 xc3 15.bxc3 Black is slightly better. Blomqvist,E (2454)-Bryntze,S (2155) Stockholm 2012 11...g8 12.0-0 e5 13.f4 g4 14.xg4 b6+ 15.h1 xg4 favors white. Perez Candelario,M (2496) -Korneev,O (2657) Elgoibar 2006 12.0-0 b6 13.ad1 e7 14.h1 0-0-0 15.a4 15.xf7 h5 Bisguier avoided this because his Q is in danger. The text is the consistent continuation and the reason why he castled. on the K-side. 16.d4 hf8 16...xd4 17.xe7 xe2 18.xe2 xb2 19.f4 he8 20.xd6 is good for white. 17.g7 g8 18.h7 h8 19.g7 hg8 with a draw. 15...e8 16.a5 c7 17.f4 b8 18.d2 Also good was 18.Bf3 f5 19.exf5 d5 An excellent reply. 19...xa5 is strongly met by 20.f6 xb3 21.fxe7 xd2 22.exd8+ xd8 23.d1 f5 24.h6 e4 25.xe4 fxe4 26.xe6 and white is better. 20.h6 d4 Slightly better would have been 20...Bd7 21.xd4 21.g7 was a better try because after f8 22.e4 exf5 23.f6 d7 24.d5 d6 25.xd4 xd5 26.xc6+ xc6 27.e5+ with the initiative. 21...xd4 22.xd4 c6 Oddly, Bisguier misjudged this move thinking it was inferior to 22... Rxd4 which is not the case. 22...xd4 23.g7 Bisguier claimed that white would now emerge with both material and positional superiority, but that is not the case. xf4 24.xh8 xf1+ 25.xf1 White is only a P up and the chances are equal. In Shootouts white scored +1 -0 =4. 23.xd8+ xd8 24.d1 24.h5 was slightly better. f8 25.f3 xf3 26.xf3 xa5 27.fxe6 fxe6 White is better. 24...g8 25.h3 exf5 25...c8 was only a slight improvement over the text. 26.fxe6 fxe6 27.f3 b4 28.xc6 xc6 26.f3 c8 27.xc6 bxc6 White has clearly established an advantage, but the game is far from over. 28.e3 c7 29.a4 The N will be repositioned to c4 d8 29...xa5 loses after 30.xe7 xa4 31.e5+ 30.xd8+ xd8 31.b6+ This simplification wins, but the ending is not devoid of problems. xb6 32.xb6 c7 33.g3 f6 34.c4 c5 35.g2 c6 36.f3 b5 37.b3 b4 37...d4 was called for. White then dare not play 38.Ne3 38.e2 38.e3 xe3 39.xe3 xa5 40.c3 b5 and it's black who is winning. For example... 41.h3 a5 42.d3 h5 43.d2 c4 44.c2 cxb3+ 45.xb3 c5 46.h4 a4+ 47.xa4 c4 with a won K+P ending. 38...b4 38.e3 Threatening Nd5+ d4 38...d8 39.d5+ a3 40.e2 xa5 41.e3 b4 42.d3 h5 43.xf5 white wins the ending. 38...xa5 39.e2 b5 40.xf5 b4 41.e3 d4 42.d5+ a3 43.d3 b2 44.g4 a5 45.g5 h8 46.e3 c1 47.h4 g7 48.c4 etc. 39.xf5 White is clearly winning. Bisguier commented that the last few moves were the only easy part of this difficult struggle. Black never completely recovered from the effects of his unfortunate opening play. c3 40.xd4 xd4 41.e2 c3 42.d1 h5 43.f5 f6 44.h3 d4 45.e2 e4 46.c3 Simonson resigned. In the auto-annotation Stockfish 15 evaluated Bisguier's play as "very precise." 1–0

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