Kalme was born in Riga and at the conclusion of World War II what was left of his family fled Latvia and for six years lived in a Displaced persons camp in Germany before finally arriving in Philadelphia in 1951.
After the war, the western Allies established DP camps in the Allied-occupied zones of Germany, Austria and Italy. The first inhabitants were concentration camp survivors who had been liberated by the Allies on German soil.
Especially at the beginning, conditions in the camps were difficult and the occupants found themselves still living behind barbed wire and subsisting on inadequate amounts of food with shortages of clothing, medicine and supplies.
In the camps Jews sometimes lived alongside anti-Semites and Nazis. As a result, Jews were transferred to separate camps where conditions were somewhat better. All of the camps were closed by 1950, except for Fohrenwald in the American zone. It was one of the largest camps and remained operative until 1957.
Kalme's first major success came in 1955 when he became the youngest player to win the US Junior Championship, held in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chess Life described the 15-year old Kalme as "a handsome unassuming youth from Philadelphia."
His 9-1 score showed a striking superiority over a field of 25 players that included three Experts (2000-2199) and four Class A (1800-1999) players. In those days even an Expert's rating was quite high and achieving one was an admirable feat. His rating was 2186. Other top finishers were Larry Remlinger (a distant second with a score of 7.5-2.5), Robert Cross (7-3), Ronald Gross and Andris Staklis (both 6-4).
Kalme lost one game, to Robert Cross (1925-1993), the 1948 California Champion who was also a champion correspondence player
As a side note, the tournament was held in mid-July in the Lincoln YMCA which was air conditioned and that was especially welcome because there was a 100 degree heat wave that hit the city. Chess Life gave TD Alexander Liepnicks praise because he directed the tournament which was a Swiss event, something new at at time. And, the rules were considered complicated because the pairings were based on USCF ratings which changed from round to round depending on the game results!
In addition to chess Kalme also became a master of contract bridge. He sometimes played as a partner of Michael Lawrence, who was a member of the world champion bridge team, the Dallas Aces.
Kalme, who held the IM title, received a Ph.D. degree in mathematics from New York University in 1967, and became a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley and later at University of Southern California.
When Latvia restored its independence in 1991 from the Soviet Union, Kalme returned to Latvia, where he worked on a National Strategy for Bringing Computer Literacy to Latvian Schools. He died there in 2002.
The following thriller is an almost unknown slightly flawed masterpiece that he played against a player known only as Nedora in a Philadelphia City League match in 1953.
Nedora–Kalme0–1Philadelphia City League1953Stockfish 15
French Defense, Winawar Variation 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.c3 b4 The pin
forces white to resolve the central tension. 4.e5 White normally clarifies
the central situation...for the moment...in this way. The move gains space and
he hopes to show that black's B is misplaced...it isn't. c5 5.a3 xc3+ 6.bxc3 White has doubled Ps which form the basis for black's counterplay,but,
at the same time, they strengthen white's center. White also has the semi-open
b-file, a space advantage and the potential for a K-side attack because black
has traded off his dark-square Bishop. If he can survice, black's P-formation
is favorable. e7 7.d3 White has far better chances of success with the
sharp 7.Qg4 c4 Black leaves the book which offers 7...Qa4 and 7...Nbc6 as
the only two options. 8.e2 a5 9.d2 a4 9...bc6 transposes into
Remizov,Y (2385)-Aitbayev,A (2475) lichess.org INT 2021 which continued 10.h4 d7 11.h5 h6 12.f4 0-0-0 13.h3 g6 14.0-0 dg8 with equal chances. 10.h3 White had somewhat better chances with 10.h4 d7 11.0-0 bc6 12.f4 0-0-0 Black's K will be perfectly safe here and white's K-side maneuver has
come to naught. 13.g5 df8 14.b1 f6 This jab at the center gives black
the initiative. 15.f3 15.exf6 is quite inferior as after gxf6 16.f3 f5 Black has a promising position. 15...f5 16.b2 h5 Something has
gone awry for white...it's black with the makings of a K-side attack while
white's prospects of successfully attacking black's K down the b-file are slim.
17.ab1 b6 18.e1 White is curiously helpless when it comes to finding a
promising plan. h4 19.g4 ce7 20.b4 h6 21.xf5 Perhaps he should have
played 21.Bh3 to stop the advance of the h-Pawn. xb4 22.xb4 xf5 23.a4 fh8 24.f3 Now it's time for a tactical display by the 14-year old Kalme. g3 25.fb1 Taking the N allows mate. g5 This
seemingly logical move (it rips open the K-side) is seriously flawed. Correct
was 25...Ne4 25...e4 26.a1 Supporting the advance of the a-Pawn. g6
which black can ignore. 27.a5 b5 and black still has his K-side attack
while white is left with nothing but trying to defend against it. 26.e1 26.fxg5 This counter-intuitive move salvages the game! fxg5 27.xg5 f5 28.a5 Black's P on h4 renders the Rs impotent while white's Rs are poised to rip
black's guts out! b5 29.f7 White picks up the exchange which should prove
sufficient. 26...e4 27.exf6 g4 Thanks to his slip at move 25 Kalme has
allowed his opponent back into the game. 27...gxf4 This was even better. 28.e5 xf6 29.a5 b5 30.xd7 xd7 31.xb5 d6 with a small advantage. 28.e5 xf6 29.xd7 White counters with a slip of his own...
this time Kalme isn't going to let him get away. 29.a5 fully equalizes. b5 30.xd7 xd7 31.xb5 with equal chances. d6 32.b8 fh6 33.h3 xb8 34.xb8 gxh3 35.gxh3 etc. 29...xd7 30.a5 xf4 31.axb6 a5 The difference
here compared toi the position in the previous note is that white's Rs can't
operate on the b-file. 32.a4 32.4b2 g3 33.b7 f1+ 34.xf1 gxh2
and the P queens. 32...g3 33.b7 33.h3 hf8 would cost white heavy
plastic as he is forced to play 34.xg3 hxg3 35.aa1 xc3 36.e1 f2
and all of white's hope is gone. 33...f1+ The game is over. 34.xf1 gxh2 35.e2 h1 36.b8 xb8 37.xb8 All that's left is for
white to figure out how to deliver the mate. xg2+ 38.d1 f3+ Black mates. 39.c1 f4+ 40.d1 xb8 Black has a mate in 11 moves. With the one
exception, Kalme's play was very precise. 40...xb8 Stockfish 15: 41.xh4 b1+ 42.e2 xc2+ 43.f3 d1+ 44.e3 d3+ 45.f4 f1+ 46.e3 h3+ 47.e2 xh4 48.d1 f2 49.a2 xa2 50.c1 d6 51.d1 d2# 0–1
No comments:
Post a Comment