The Olympiad witnessed the debut of some strong young players: Paul Keres, Gideon Stahlberg, Jacobo Bolbochan, Andrea Lilienthal, Erich Eliskases, Peter rifunovic, Arthur Dake and Laszlo Szabo, among others.
At the start, the favorites were the United States (Reuben Fine, Frank Marshall, Abraham Kupchik, Arthur Dake and I.A. Horowitz) and Czechoslovakia, mostly because of their board 1 player, Salo Flohr, at the time one of the strongest world players in the world.
The final standings out of 20 teams was 1) United States 2) Sweden and 3) Poland.
The Unites States' third consecutive win of this event was mainly credited to Arthur Dake's outstanding 15.5-2.5 score. An interesting sidelight was that although Dake was born in Portland, Oregon, his father was from Poland and so Dake refused to play against Poland. Kupchik went undefeated and that was also a great help.
It was at this event that Paul Keres (January 7, 1916 - June 5, 1975) was introduced to the world; he met World Champion Alexander Alekhine, Savielly Tartakower and SaloFlohr. He lost to all three of them, but scored a respectable 12-7.
In the following game his opponent, William Winter (September 11, 1898 - December 18, 1955), was an interesting character who was British Champion in 1935 and 1936. Winter spent six months in prison for sedition (conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch) due to his communist activity.
Before castling, the weakest squares on the board are f2 for white and f7 for black. In this game Keres' assault on f7 with a N sacrifice in the opening is not only entertaining, but instructive.
In the game Keres demonstrates the principle that a sacrificial attack on f7 (or f2), whether with a Bishop or a Knight, must be followed up by aggressive action. That's because after ...Kxf7 not only can the King not castle, it is exposed to attack and there is also a weakness on the diagonal d1-h5. Any advantage white gets is generally of a transitory nature and must be energetically exploited before it disappears.
Paul Keres–William Winter1–0Warsaw OlympiadWarsaw POL26.08.1935Stockfish 15
Sicilian: Nimzovich Variation 1.e4 c5 2.f3 f6 The rarely
seen Nimzovich variation is, at least according to my database, a good
surprise as only about a quarter of the games are drawn and the remaining
games equally divided between white and black wins. AA disadvantage is that it
does offer white some nice tactics. 3.e5 This advance Variation is the only
ral way to try and exploit black's move. After 3.Nc3 black has at least three
reasonable moves: 3...d6, 3...Nc6 or even 3...d5 d5 4.c3 4.c3 This is
the main line. Play usually continues c6 5.c4 b6 6.b3 c4 7.c2
but this line has, on the whole, proven very favorable for white. 4...e6 5.xd5 exd5 6.d4 d6 7.g5 7.b5+ is a good alternative. c6 8.0-0 e7
with a good game. 9.c4 7...a5+ 8.c3 cxd4 8...c4 trying to keep the
position closed is the main alternative, but white is doing well after 9.e2 c6 10.0-0 9.d3 Developing. 9.xd4 c6 10.e3 e6 11.d4 dxe5 12.xe6 fxe6 13.h3 is completely equal. Kelecevic,N-Kozomara,V Sarajevo 1968 9.e6 looks promising, but Keres rightly prefers developing to launching a
premature attack with this move. dxc3 10.exf7+ xf7 11.bxc3 e7 11...xc3+ 12.d2 favors white. 12.e2 h6 13.e3 f8 14.0-0 White is only
slightly better. 9...dxc3 10.0-0 Much the best. 10.bxc3 dxe5 and
white has no good reply. 11.b3 d6 This, it turns out, is even stronger
than trying to win material with a P fork by ...e4 11...e4 12.b5+ d7 13.d4 black is clearly better. 12.0-0 0-0 13.e2 c6 14.fd1 e6 and
black stands very well. 10...cxb2 This runs into a snappy refutation. In
spite of his somewhat questionable move selection black would have been doing
reasonably well after 10...Nc6. 10...c6 11.e1 e6 12.bxc3 c7 13.exd6 xd6 14.f5 d7 11.b1 Curiously, after this according to Stockfish black
is pretty much helpless (evaluation 2.5 Ps in white's favor; generally halving
Stockfish's evaluation is more accurate). Komodo 14 puts white's advantage at
a scant half of a P. Fritz 17 at about a quarter of a P. 11.c2
Threatening to win at once with Qxc8 c6 11...e6 12.xb2 b6 13.b5+ c6 14.exd6 xd6 15.xg7 and white is winning. 12.xb2 dxe5 13.xe5 a3
and black has equalized as there is no way to take advantage of the seemingly
precarious position of his K. 14.e2 e7 15.ae1 e6 11...dxe5 11...h6
The first choice of both engines. 12.f4 b4 Black dare not open the e-file
by playing ...dxe5 13.d2 b6 14.c2 11...xa2 is met by 12.c2 c6 13.b5 d7 14.fe1 e7 15.exd6 and wins 12.xe5 d6 Losing instantly. 12...e6 was a tad better. 13.xf7 xf7 14.e1 d7 15.f3+ f6 16.xf6 gxf6 17.h5+ This move is often seen often seen in conjunction with the
Bxf7+ sacrifice and the same applies here with the N. g7 17...e7 18.f5 18.xe6 White is winning. c8 19.xb2 c1+ 20.f1 c7 Black is actually
a P up, but he is dead lost. The reason is white's pieces are more active and
black's K is exposed, to wit... 21.g4+ f7 22.be2 c6 23.g3 h5 23...xe6 24.xe6+ g6 25.g4+ f7 26.h5+ g7 27.e8 c2 28.g4+ f7 29.e6+ g7 30.c8 xa2 31.c7+ e7 32.xe7+ g6 33.d3+ h6 34.h3+ g5 35.f4# 24.f5 h6 25.h4 c1 26.e8 d6 27.2e6 c5 28.e1 c3 29.d3 d6 30.1e6 c5 31.d8 d4 White now has a pretty win as follows... 32.xf6+ xf6 33.h7+ e6 33...g7 34.g8+ e7 35.e8# 34.d7+ e5 35.f4+ and wins.
Stockfish points out a mate in 22 moves! xf4 36.e8+ 36.gxf4+ xf4
Black is lost, but he can still resist a bit. 36...e7 37.xe7+ xe7 38.xe7+ d5 39.xb7+ c5 40.b5+ d6 41.gxf4 c5 42.a6+ c6 43.xa7 c5 44.b6+ d5 45.f2 c3 46.b5+ e6 47.f5+ d6 48.e5+ c6 49.e4+ d7 50.xd4+ e6 51.xc3 d6 52.e5+ d7 53.g1 d8 54.d6+ c8 55.e7 b8 56.b7# 13.xf7 xf7 14.h5+ As noted, with a sac on f7 this
move often plays an important part. g6 There is nothing better. 15.xg6+
hxg6 16.xh8 Threatening mate with Rfe1. f5 17.fe1 White
wants to mate with Qh7+. e4 18.xe4 This mates in 11 whereas 18.
Qf6+ mates in 8. 18.f6+ g8 19.e6+ g7 20.f6+ h7 21.f7+ h6 22.g7+ h5 23.h7+ g4 24.h3+ f4 25.g3+ f3 26.e3# 18...dxe4 19.f6+
Flawless play by Keres in this model game! 19.f6+ g8 20.xg6+ f8 21.xd6+ g8 22.e6+ g7 23.e7+ g8 24.f6 g5 25.xg5 c6 26.e6+ g7 27.f6+ g8 28.h6 mate next move. 1–0
No comments:
Post a Comment