The gloomy weather meant the last couple of days allowed for some time playing blitz on line, but my play was as wretched as the weather. Ergo, I spent some time looking through Ludek Pachman's old book, Modern Chess Tactics, which was first published in English in 1970. It was a companion to Modern Chess Strategy which I also have. Pachman, I should mention, was an excellent writer.
One game that I came across was the following fantastic game by Jonathan Penrose (October 7, 1933 - November 30, 2021, 88 years old). He won the British championship a record 10 times, yet he always remained an amateur whose chess career was fitted into vacations at Middlesex University, where he lectured in psychology.
In 1960, at the Leipzig Olympiad Penrose defeated Mikhail Tal and Max Euwe then caught Bobby Fischer’s King in the middle of the board, forcing him to settle for an endgame a Pawn down. Short of time, Penrose offered a draw. Fischer replied “Sure!” then demonstrated a forced win for Penrose.
By the age of 17, Penrose was acknowledged as a top prospect. At Southsea in 1950, defeated both Efim Bogoljubov and Savielly Tartakower. Playing in Hastings for the first time in 1950/51, he beat the French champion Nicolas Rossolimo and in 1952/1953, he shared the first place at Hastings with Harry Golombek, Antonio Medina and Daniel Yanofsky.
Penrose earned the IM title in 1961 and was the leading British player for several years in the 1960s and early 1970s. He was widely considered to be of GM strength, but did not achieve the title during his active playing career. He also held the GM title in correspondence chess. Chessmetrics assigns him a high rating of 2610 on the February 1969 rating list placing him at number 57 in world.
One of the primary goals, starting right in the opening, is to invest the pieces with a greater degree of effectiveness. Even moves like 1.e4 and 1.d4 open lines for the pieces while a move like 1.Nf3 brings the N into play.
Later, in the middlegame this goal can include such things as the opening of a diagonal for a B, transferring a N to an
outpost, the opening of a file for a R, etc.
In the following game played at Hastings 1957/58, Penrose's tactical shot 15.Bf4 was played with the realization that at the end of the sequence at move 19 his Queen would be much stronger than the combined forces of his opponent's Rook and two Bishops. So said Pachman.
Unfortunately (?), today we live in an age where laptops coupled with chess engines enable any armchair Grandmaster to poke holes in the play of guy's like Nezhmedinov, Tal, Bronstein or any other great player you can name because engines find the defects no matter how small or deeply hidden.
That's what happened when analyzing this game...Penrose's 15.Bf4 was found wanting by the engines. It doesn't matter because we humans can still delight in such a move. The concept was brilliant and in practical play it was crowned with success.
His opponent, Leonard Barden, is an English master, writer, journalist, organizer and promoter. His weekly Guardian chess column began in September 1955 and continued for sixty-one years. Barden was born on August 20, 1929, and as far as I know he is still among the living and that would make him 93 years old.
Chessmetrics estimates his highest rating to have been 2497 on the January 1958 rating list and his best tournament result to have been in this Hastings event.
Jonathan Penrose–Leonard W. Barden1–0B56Hastings 1957/58Hastings ENG03.01.1958Stockfish 15
Sicilian Dragon 1.e4 c5 2.f3 c6 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 d6 6.f4
g6 7.b5 d7 8.xc6 xc6 9.e5 This is the goal of white's
opening strategy, but he has not accomplished much as black has sufficient
play. 9.f3 was the main alternative. In that case black equalizes easily
with b6 10.b3 g7 11.e3 a6 12.d4 12.d4 xe4 Instead of this
tricky line black could also play 13...O-O or 13...Rc8 13.xe4 f5 14.xc6 fxe4 15.xe4 bxc6 16.e6 xb2 The position is approximately equal. 12...0-0 Black is slightly better. 9...dxe5 The correct reply. 9...xg2
is not so good because after 10.g1 dxe5 11.fxe5 d7 white gain the
advantage with 12.e6 fxe6 13.xg2 b6 14.b3 Black is a piece down with
only two very weak Ps to show for it. 10.fxe5 e4 Taking the g-Pawn is
still a bad idea. 11.xe4 11.xc6 was more accurate, but it allows black
easy equality. xd1+ 12.xd1 bxc6 13.f2 xf2 14.xf2 g7 15.e1 11...xe4 12.0-0 In the book, Pachman wrote that white has come out of the
opening with a considerable lead in development (which I am not seeing), but
he has a weak pawn at e5 and in addition, black has the two Bishops. White's
task, therefore, will consist in creating effective threats as quickly as
possible and thereby preventing black from completing his development. Komodo
14 gives black a slight edge here of less than half a Pawn. g7 13.e1 d5
Pachman was critical of this move because black falls in with his opponent's
plan and difficult complications arise. Both Komodo 14 and Stockfish 15 prefer
Barden's move and evaluated the position as slightly in black's favor. 13...c6 was tried in Kavalek,L-Jansa,V Jablonec 1962 and after 14.g5 b6 15.c3 d8 16.e2 d5 17.f6 0-0 18.xg7 xg7 the position is about equal. 14.c3 xe5 This is the best here, since other continuations failed to give black
a satisfactory game. 14...xe5 is a mistake because after 15.a4+ f8 16.xe4 xh2+ 16...xe4 17.e6+ wins the Q 17.xh2 xe4 18.d2 White's
B+N should prove superior to the R. This is one of those positions which
theoretically favors white, but in practical play among amateurs, the stronger
player is the more likely to win with either side. 14...xg2 15.c4 xc4 16.xg2 d8 17.e4 xe5 18.xe5 xd4 This materially unbalanced position
(B vs 3Ps) favors white according to the engines. In practice things probably
wouldn't be so clear. That said, in Shootouts Stockfish won 5-0. 14...0-0
is reasonable, but after 15.e2 f5 16.xf5 gxf5 17.f2 xe5 18.f4 f6 19.ad1 White has equalized. 15.f4 A very pretty move even if the
engines don't like it! The unprotected position of the black Q and B give
white very good practical chances. Black cannot well decline the sacrifice and.
indeed, doing to would definitely favor white. 15.e2 This is hard to
evaluate. Komodo thinks the position is ablut equal while Stockfish prefers
black by about a P after f5 16.f3 c7 17.g5 d5 18.f4 c5+ 19.h1 f6
But even here things are not so clear after 20.e6 xe6 21.xe6 15...xf4 15...d5 16.a4+ f8 17.ad1 and white has reason to be well satisfied
with his position. 16.a4+ And this is where Barden starts to go wrong.
Without the help of engines the move that keeps the advantage is too hard to
find...obviously, or pre-engine annotators would have found it! c6 After
this what's going to happen is that black will get two Bs and a R for his Q,
but his situation will be extremely bad owing to the lack of any real
co-ordination among his pieces. 16...f8 was recommended by Pachman who
thought the position favored white, but it does not. After 17.e6+ fxe6 18.f1 xf1+ 19.xf1+ f5 20.g4 f6 21.gxf5 exf5 Fritz 17, Stockfish, Komodo
all have the same 0.00 evaluation...anything can happen! 16...b5 What a
move! 17.xb5 Best. 0-0 18.xe4 xe4 19.xe4 ab8 20.xa7 xb2 There
are multitudinous possibilities, but the best line is 21.c6 xc3 22.c4 d2 23.a4 e6 and black is, theoretically at least, better, scoring +4 -0 =1 in
Shootouts. 17.xe7+ A beautiful move! After this white has
equalized, but, and this is important, he has an active position and black
must watch his step. f8 Taking the R would be bad. 17...xe7 18.xc6+ bxc6 19.xf4 18.e6+ Another terrific move, in fact it's the
only move. fxe6 18...xe7 19.xf4 fxe6 20.c7+ favors white 19.xf4+ xe7 20.c7+ This is the same position as in the note to move 18. d7 21.d1 ad8 Black could not protect the B with the other R because then the R on
a8 would be lost. 21...hd8 22.xb7 e5 23.xd7+ xd7 24.xa8 22.xb7 hf8 23.xa7 All of a sudden things are looking very gloomy for black. f5 24.a4 The Ps are destined to decide the game. e5 25.a5 e8 26.a6 c6 27.xd8+ xd8 Now 28.Qxh7 puts the game away, right? 28.e3 28.xh7 Wrong!! Things aren't so simple. b5 Threatening mate. 28...c7 29.h4+ 29.xg6 b6+ 30.h1 f1# 29...c8 30.h8+ d7 31.d4+ d5 32.g7+ d6 33.c4 b6+ 34.f1 f5+ 35.e1 f4 36.c3 f2+ 37.e2 xg2 White
should be able to squeeze out the win. 29.g4 f1+ 30.g2 xa6 31.xg6 e1 32.g5+ 32.xe6 b7+ 33.f2 g3+ wins 32...e8 and white may or may
not win even though he can claim to have the advantage. 28...c7 29.b4
e5 29...b5 is more resistant. 30.g4 e5 31.d4+ c8 32.a7 e1+ 33.f2 e2+ 34.f3 a2 35.c4 c6+ 36.e3 and in a few more moves
black can throw in the towel. 30.d4+ c8 31.c4 The remaining mvoes
require no comment. e4 32.h8+ d7 33.xh7+ d8 34.h8+ d7 35.g7+ c8 36.f8+ d8 37.c5 d7 38.b5 a8 39.a7+ Stockfish, Komodo and Fritz
notwithstanding, a brilliant performance by Penrose! 1–0
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