Back on December 31, 2022, I posted about happenings in 1969, and in today's post we will be returning to that year. It was the year that Chess Review (sadly) ceased to exist when it merged with the USCF's Chess Life magazine.
On another sad note, Alexander Tolush (1910-1969), Alexey Sokolsky (1908-1969) and Kurt Richter (1900-1969) all passed away.
In the U.S., John Watson won the first High School championship. Andy Soltis won the Intercollegiate championship. Kimbal Nedved won the Amateur Championship. Ken Rogoff won the Junior Closed Championship and Lawrence Day won the Junior Open.
Pal Benko, Milan Vukcevich and Arthur Bisguier tied for first in the U.S. Open, Samuel Reshevsky won the U.S. Championship and Gisela Gresser won the U.S. Women's Championship.
Simon and Schuster published Fischer's work of genius, My 60 Memorable Games.
Boris Spassky became the new World Champion when he defeated Tigran Petrosian by the score of 12.5 to 10.5. Nona Gaprindashvili maintained her world's women championship.
Today we' will be taking a look at a game from a small 4-player tournament held in Bladel, a town with a population of about 20,000 that's located in southern Netherlands, that went virtually unnoticed.
The truth is, it was what you might call a "novelty" tournament. What was unusual about it was that the four players, all old timers, had once played against the great Richard Reti to whose memory the tournament was dedicated.
It really wasn't much of a tournament though. Only six games were played and five of them were drawn. The only win was by Max Euwe who defeated Hans Muller. In that game Muller resigned after 35 moves in a position, that while is was lost, I think most players would have played on a bit.
Euwe (age 68) won with 2.0 points. He was followed by Salo Flohr (age 60) and Karel Opocensky (age 77) each with 1.5 and Hans Muller (age 72) with 1.0.
Reti's widow, who was living in Moscow, appeared at every round and watched most of the games.
Most of the games appear to have been formalities, perhaps due to the player's ages.
In the following game the players agreed to a draw which, despite the material imbalance, was a technically correct decision.
Max Euwe–Karel Opocensky½–½A56Reti Memorial, Bladel, NED103.07.1969Stockfish 15.1
Benoni Defense 1.d4 f6 2.c4 c5 This defense creates dynamic, imbalanced
positions where each side will have a chance to play for a win. 3.d5
White’s most popular response. g6 4.c3 g7 5.e4 d6 6.d3 0-0 7.ge2 e6 8.0-0 exd5 9.exd5 Equally playable was 9.cxd5 bd7 10.f4 This prevents ..
.Ne5, but it appears that it is not really necessary. At the same time it eyes
the future possibility of the further advance of the f-Pawn. 10.g3 e8 11.d2 e5 12.e2 f5 13.c1 is completely even. Aleksandrov,A (2635)-Zhou
Jianchao (2473) Dubai 2005 10.f4 e8 11.d2 e5 12.g5 c7 13.f4
The chances are equal. Sarandos,V (2245)-Vandenbussche,T (2418) Stockholm 2014 10...a6 11.a4 b6 White's last move prevented ...b5 leaving black with no
Q-side prospects. Instead of this rather passive approach black probably
should have taken a different course of development. 11...e8 12.h3 f5 13.e3 b6 14.d2 c7 The position offers little to either side. Peng,Z (2411)
-Zwirs,N (2201) The Netherlands 2012 11...e8 12.g3 b8 13.d2 b6 14.h3 f8 15.c2 white enjoys a space advantage. Hadzikasimovic,Z (2117)-Sprecic,M
(2280) Neum 2008 12.g3 e8 Again, black takes a passive approach. 12...h5 leads to interesting play after 13.f5 h4 14.ge4 e5 and white has two
interesting possibilities: 15.fxg6 and 15.Bg5 13.ce4 Hardly bad, but it's
not very promising. df6 14.f5 With the N on e4 this has now lost some of
its punch. xe4 15.xe4 d7 16.c2 After this the position is dead equal. 16.a3 This R lift is designed to reinforce white's play on the f-file. It
at least would have give him a more active position. b5 17.af3 bxc4 18.d2 b8 18...xb2 would not be good. After 19.fxg6 hxg6 20.xg6 white is
near winning. 19.c3 xc3 20.bxc3 White has an active position. 16...b5 17.axb5 axb5 18.g5 xg5 19.xa8 d4+ 20.h1 f6 21.xf8+ xf8 22.fxg6 hxg6 The preceeding exchanges and the block position has fizzled out to
a draw. 23.f3 e5 The threat is 24...Qh4 24.e4 h6 25.g3 bxc4 This is
safest as it avoids the complications resulting from 25...Bf5 25...f5
Threatens ...Bxg3 26.e2 keeps things equal. xe4 Safe and solid. 26...bxc4 This leads to some tricky play. 27.xf6 xf6 28.e4 h3 29.g2 29.xf6 This would lose. c1+ 30.f1 xf1 and black wins 31.f2 d3+ 32.g2 xe4+ 29...xg2+ 30.xg2 g5 31.xc4 xb2 Black should be able to draw
even though he is the exchange down. 27.xe4 xe4 28.xe4 bxc4 29.g2
The threat was ...Bxg3 g5 29...xb2 leads to complications that
theoretically at least favor white. 30.e6 d2+ 31.h1 f5 32.xd6+ 30.xc4 xb2 Here, too, even though he is the exchange down black should be able
to hold the draw. 26.xf6 xf6 27.g4 xg4 28.xf6 g5 29.f4 Euwe
avoids a trap and so a draw was agreed. 29.xd6 e5 The mate threat on e1
leaves white in a dire predicament. 30.g2 30.d8+ e7 31.b8 f3+ 32.g1 e1# 30...xd6 31.xc4 d7 and with precise play black should be able to
win this. ½–½
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