A Flawless Game by Felix Izeta Txabarri

     Yesterday's weather can only be described as "crappy" as a massive weather system that originated in the Texas Panhandle swept through the area bringing rain, sleet, snow, slush and ice. 

     It was a good day to browse and I eventually stopped in the year 1986. By my reckoning, 1986 wasn't that long ago, only 37 years, but a lot of readers won't have any idea what happened that year. 

     On January 28th, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated at 46,000 feet only 73 seconds after launching when O-ring seals in a joint in the shuttle's solid rocket booster failed. As a result all seven astronauts on board (Christa McAuliffe, Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik and Gregory Jarvis) died. 

Yesterday's weather

     In September 1988, a Federal judge dismissed two lawsuits seeking $3 billion from the shuttle maker Morton Thiokol Inc. by Roger Boisjoly, a former company engineer who warned against the ill-fated launch. This legal wrangling reminds me of the water contamination lawsuits involving the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. If you are from the US and watched television for more than 10 minutes, you have seen the ads from the law firms trying to get in on the action.

     From the 1950s through February 1985 water on parts of the base was contaminated by perchloroethylene tetrachloroethylene. The source of the contamination was the waste disposal practices of ABC One-Hour Cleaners, an off-base dry cleaning firm. I had a lot of laundry done by the firm! 

     What's detestable about the whole thing is that Marine Corps officials were well aware that the drinking water contained dangerous levels (3,400 times safe levels) of toxic chemicals, but they failed to take any action for decades and reports by a private company were largely ignored. Instead, Camp Lejeune officials lied and told the EPA there were no environmental issues. 

     Besides the water issues, it's not generally known that in the 1970s the EPA called the base a "major polluter." The base dumped oil and industrial waste water in storm drains and potentially radioactive materials were buried, including carcasses of dogs used in testing. The base even located a day care in a former malaria control shop where pesticides were mixed and stored. 

     In the mid-1980s, as news of tainted water became public, Camp Lejeune's commanding general at the time, Lieutenant General Lewis H. Buehl III, told a bold-faced lie when he reassured residents of a base subdivision where Marine families lived that contaminants in the water were only "minute." 

     Buehl went on to become the number three ranking officer in the Marine Corps and died of a stroke at the age of 56 in 1988. 

     The nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded on April 26th and released radioactive material across much of Europe. The site remains a radioactive, but is considered safe for supervised, restricted tourism. 

     Halley's Comet reached the closest point to the Earth, during its second visit to the solar system in the 20th century. The comet is visible to the naked eye from Earth every 75–79 years. 

     Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease) had everybody scared. The disease damages a cow’s central nervous system and makes their brains look spongy under a microscope. People can get a version of it called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease; it's fatal. There were no cases reported in the United States until December of 2003, but many Americans were scared to eat beef in 1986. 

     The Iran-Contra Affair (or Scandal) happened in the United States during the second term of President Ronald Reagan. Prodded by CIA Director William Casey and National Security Council Advisor, a former Marine Lieutenant Colonel named Oliver North, a secretly arranged arms-for-hostage deal was made with one of the US's bitterest enemies in the Middle East. Israel sold weapons from the US to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages held by Hezbollah, Iran’s ally, in Lebanon. 

     North was granted limited immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying before Congress about the scheme. He was initially convicted on three felony charges, but the convictions were reversed and all charges against him dismissed in 1991. 

     While under investigation, Casey was diagnosed with a brain tumor, resigned his post and passed away in May of 1987. 

     Amid all of that, who remembers the chess tournament in Novi Sad, a city in northern Serbia on the banks of the Danube River? Probably nobody, but that's where today's game was played. 

     There was a time when one knew the name of just about every Grandmaster in the world, but that has not been the case for a long time and the winner of today's game, Felix Izeta Txabarri (born in 1961)of Spain is one I never heard of; he was awarded the title in 1994. In the 1990s Txabarri was one of the leading Spanish players. 

     His opponent, Miroljub Lazic (born in 1966) is from Serbia. He was the U14 World champion in 1979 and Yugoslav champion in 1993. He was awarded the GM title in 1995.  

     It's a rare game...in Fritz 17s auto-analysis using Stockfish 15.1 the program assigns white a value of "Flawless" meaning that Txabarri's moves were almost a perfect match with the engine! 

[Event "Novi Sad"] [Site "Novi Sad"] [Date "1986.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Felix Izeta Txabarri"] [Black "Miroljub Lazic"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E99"] [WhiteElo "2400"] [BlackElo "2380"] [Annotator "Stockfish/Komodo"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "1986.??.??"] {King's Indian: Classical Main Line} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 O-O 5. Nf3 {[%mdl 32]} d6 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. Ne1 Nd7 10. f3 f5 11. g4 { [%mdl 32]} Nf6 12. Nd3 c5 13. Rb1 (13. Rf2 Bd7 14. Rb1 {Vokac,M (2504) -Cvek,R (2405) Krnov 2000 gave white play on both sides of the board, but black's position is solid.}) (13. Be3 Kh8 14. Rb1 Neg8 15. b4 {as in Salej,J (2114) -Ramirez,C (2273) Bogota 2014 is another possibility.}) 13... Bd7 {In some games black has tried 13...f4, but releasing the tension has not worked out well.} 14. b4 cxb4 15. Rxb4 b5 {A better defense was the passive, but solid,15. ..b6} 16. g5 {Excellent! White has the initiative on both sides.} Nh5 17. Nxb5 Qb6+ 18. c5 dxc5 19. Be3 {[%mdl 32]} Bxb5 20. Bxc5 Qa5 21. Bxe7 Rf7 (21... fxe4 {Technically favors white, but practically things don't look quite so clear.} 22. fxe4 (22. Bxf8 {This favors black after} exd3 23. Bxd3 Bxd3 24. Qxd3 Bxf8 25. d6 Qxa2 ({is much less clear.} 25... Qxb4 26. Qd5+ Kh8 27. Qxa8 Qxd6 28. Qxa7) 26. Qc4+ Qxc4 27. Rxc4 Bxd6) 22... Bxd3 23. Bxd3 Nf4 24. Bc4 {Black's best move is} Kh8 25. Ra4 Qc7 26. Bxf8 Rxf8 {with a decisive advantage.}) ( 21... Bxd3 22. Bxd3 Nf4 23. Bc4 {is similar to the results after 21...fxe4}) 22. Qb3 {White is clearly winning.} Bxd3 23. Bxd3 {[%mdl 32]} Rxe7 24. d6+ Rf7 25. Bc4 Qc5+ 26. Kh1 Qxd6 27. Bxf7+ Kh8 28. Rd1 Qf8 29. exf5 {Black resigned in this hopeless position. Flawless play by Txabarri!} 1-0