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| Euwe defeats Giustolisi |
Television was coming into its own. Popular programs included game shows What's My Line, Beat the Clock, Truth or Consequences and You Bet Your Life. Entertainment/sit-coms The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and The Jack Benny Program debuted.
You could buy a new house for $8,500, a car for $1,500 and gas was $0.18 a gallon. And, if you made an average salary, you made $3,200 a year.
The chess year started with the 1949-50 Hastings Christmas tournament ending on January 8, 1950. Laszlo Szabo won and Americans were thrilled to learn that 17-year-old Larry Evans finished 4th. And, Ludmila Rudenko won the second Women's World Championship, held in Moscow.
Only two chess players departed this earth in 1950. On May 27, American chess patron Maurice Wertheim died at the age of 64 and on October 30, the 1929 Soviet Champion IM Boris Velinsky died in Moscow at the age of 62.
Madame Chantel Chaude de Silans became the first woman to play on a men’s team when she played first reserve board on the French team at the Dubrovnik Olympiad; she scored +1 -4 =1.
The International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) was formed.
The US State Department would not allow Reshevsky to travel to Hungary for the first candidates tournament that was held in Budapest. David Bronstein and Isaac Boleslavsky tied for first and it was Bronstein who won the playoff by a score of 7.5-6.5.
FIDE awarded the first Grandmaster title to 27 players, 94 IMs and 17 Women IMs. GMs were Bernstein, Boleslavsky, Bondarevsky, Botvinnik, Bronstein, Duras, Euwe, Fine, Flohr, Gruenfeld, Keres, Kostic, Kotov, Levenfish, Lilienthal, Maroczy, Mieses, Najdorf, Ragozin, Reshevsky, Saemisch, Smyslov, Stahlberg, Szabo, Tartakower, and Vidmar.
In November, the USCF published its first rating list; Fine was number one and Reshevsky number 2.
There was no US Championship tournaments in 1949 or 1950 so Herman Steiner, who won the championship in 1948 in South Fallsburg, New York ahead of Isaac Kashdan, held the title.
In other news, Arthur Bisguier won the 1950 US Open, held in Detroit and the Yugoslav team (Gligoric, Pirc, Trifunovic, Rabar, Vidmar junior, Puc) won the Dubrovnik Chess Olympiad. The United States team (Samuel Reshevsky, Herman Steiner, I.A. Horowitz, George Shainswit, George Kramer and Larry Evans) finished fourth.
The year ended with the 1950-51 Hastings Christmas tournament getting underway. It was won by West Germany's Wolfgang Unzicker who was undefeated and finished ahead of O'Kelly and Rossolimo.
There was another Christmas tournament nobody remembers that was being held 590 miles away in Lucerne, Switzerland. Today's game is from that event. Underappreciated World Champion Dr. Max Euwe defeated Italian master Alberto Giustolisi.
Giustolisi (March 17, 1928 - February 27, 1990) was IM who won the Italian Championship four times: 1952 (shared with Castaldi and Norcia), 1961, 1964 and 1966.
Alberto Giustolisi–Max Euwe0–1Lucerne Christmas Tournament28.12.1950Stockfish 15
Nimzo-Indian 1.d4 f6 2.c4 e6 3.c3 b4 4.c2 0-0 5.f3 c5 6.dxc5 a6
7.a3 xc3+ 8.xc3 xc5 9.b4 ce4 10.c2 b6 the main
alternative here is 10...a5, but as might be expected, Euwe plays the most
exact move and enjoys a slight advantage. 11.b2 Two other moves have been
tried here: 11.Ng5 and 11.e3. b7 12.e3 White seems oblivious to the coming
attack on f2. 12.d2 was his best move. After d5 13.cxd5 c8 14.d3 xd2 15.xd2 xd5 Black is slightly better. 12...g4 13.h3 This is
incomprehensible! Why waste a move forcing black to play the move he was going
to play anyway? 13.e2 gxf2 14.0-0 g4 15.d3 f5 Black is clearly
better, but at least white has minimized the damage. 13...gxf2 14.g1 f5
This keeps the Bs diagonal open, but even better was 14...d5 14...d5 15.d3 15.cxd5 leaves white lost after c8 16.b1 xd5 and there is no way for
white to salvage the game. 15...c8 15...xd3+ 16.xd3 c7 17.e5 xc4 18.xc4 dxc4 with a won ending. 16.xe4 xe4 15.e2 c7 The nasty
threat is ...Qg3 16.e5 d6 17.b2 g5 Black has a dangerous
K-side initiative, but white's position, while clearly inferior, turns out to
have some defensive resources. 18.f1 g4 19.d4 19.xf2 was the only
reasonable try. xf2 20.xf2 gxf3 21.gxf3 f7 and white remains without
any counterplay. 22.c3 e7 23.g7+ e8 24.g1 h4+ 25.g3 f7 26.g5 xg5 27.xg5 f4 28.e4 c8 and at least white can make a fight of it. 19...e7 Evidently the idea is to play ...Qh4, but playing in the center would
have been more dangerous to white. Black should try 19...e5 20.xf2 xf2 20...exd4 lets white off the hook. 21.f4 dxe3 22.0-0-0 f7 22...gxh3
would be a ghastly blunder. 23.xe4 xe4 24.c3 e7 25.c5 f6 26.cxd6 d8 27.d7 hxg2 28.xf6 xf6 29.xf6 d5 30.d8+ xd8 31.xd8 f4 32.g5 f3 33.xf3 xf3 34.d8+ f7 35.xe3 and wins 23.hxg4 and white has
equalized! 21.xf2 exd4 Black has a decisive advantage. 20.xf2 xf2 21.xf2 Suddenly white is right back in the game. e5 Black's P mass looks
threatening, but white has a way out of danger. 22.b5 But this
isn't it! 22.c5 An amazing resource that would have kept the position
completely equal. exd4 23.c4+ f7 24.xd4 Black must meet the threat of
Qh8 e5 This is superior to the other main option 24...g3+ 25.cxd6 xd4 26.xd4 with an unclear position. In Shootouts white scored +1 -0 =4 22...gxh3 and wins... 23.f3 xf3 24.gxf3 h4+ More efficient would have been 24...
Kh8 24...h8 The idea is ...Rg8-g2+ 25.xd6 xd6 26.d1 e7 27.d5 ae8 and black is winning. 25.f1 After this the game is clearly
over. 25.e2 was the crucial defense. g3 26.d2 g2+ 27.d3 and while
black is winning, white can still put up a fight. 25...f6 26.d3 h2 26...h8 Making room for the R on the g-file would have lead to a quick win. 27.xd6 This may be why Euwe avoided 26...Kh8...because 27.Nxd6 introduces some
tricky complications that could be hard to figure out OTB. g3 27...g8
this unsuspecting move is refuted by 28.f7+ xf7 29.xe5+ fg7 30.xf5 h2 31.e2 h1 32.xh1 xh1 33.xg7+ xg7 34.g5+ f7 35.d5+ and black's K
can't escape the checks! An incredible save. 28.xe5 xe5 29.d4 xd4 30.exd4 xd6 and wins 27.d5+ g7 28.e2 h1! 29.xh1 xh1 30.xa8 g6 31.d2 g2+ Facing mate, white resigned. 31...g2+ 32.c3 b1 33.xa7+ h6 34.xh7+ xh7 35.d4 xb2+ 36.d3 d2# 0–1
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