The Not So Great 1969 Reti Memorial

 

     Thursday saw miserable weather, but at least we did not have the tornadoes and severe thunderstorms that occurred in the South. Friday we are under a Winter Weather Advisory until after midnight: windy and 2 to 9 inches of Lake effect snow. It's a good day to wander around in the old chess world to see what turns up.

     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.

 

[Event "Reti Memorial, Bladel, NED"] [Site ""] [Date "1969.07.03"] [Round "1"] [White "Max Euwe"] [Black "Karel Opocensky"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "A56"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15.1"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "1969.??.??"] {Benoni Defense} 1. d4 Nf6 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. Nc3 Bg7 5. e4 d6 6. Bd3 O-O 7. Nge2 e6 8. O-O exd5 9. exd5 {Equally playable was 9.cxd5} Nbd7 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. Ng3 Ne8 11. Bd2 Ne5 12. Be2 f5 13. Qc1 {is completely even. Aleksandrov,A (2635)-Zhou Jianchao (2473) Dubai 2005}) (10. Bf4 Ne8 11. Qd2 Ne5 12. Bg5 Qc7 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... Ne8 12. h3 f5 13. Be3 b6 14. Qd2 Nc7 {The position offers little to either side. Peng,Z (2411) -Zwirs,N (2201) The Netherlands 2012}) (11... Re8 12. Ng3 Rb8 13. Bd2 b6 14. h3 Nf8 15. Qc2 {white enjoys a space advantage. Hadzikasimovic,Z (2117)-Sprecic,M (2280) Neum 2008}) 12. Ng3 Ne8 {Again, black takes a passive approach.} (12... h5 {leads to interesting play after} 13. f5 h4 14. Nge4 Ne5 {and white has two interesting possibilities: 15.fxg6 and 15.Bg5}) 13. Nce4 {Hardly bad, but it's not very promising.} Ndf6 14. f5 {With the N on e4 this has now lost some of its punch.} Nxe4 15. Bxe4 Bd7 16. Qc2 {After this the position is dead equal.} (16. Ra3 {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. Raf3 bxc4 18. Bd2 Rb8 (18... Bxb2 {would not be good. After} 19. fxg6 hxg6 20. Bxg6 {white is near winning.}) 19. Bc3 Bxc3 20. bxc3 {White has an active position.}) 16... b5 17. axb5 axb5 18. Bg5 Qxg5 $17 19. Rxa8 Bd4+ 20. Kh1 Nf6 21. Rxf8+ Kxf8 22. fxg6 hxg6 {The preceeding exchanges and the block position has fizzled out to a draw.} 23. Bf3 Be5 {The threat is 24...Qh4} 24. Ne4 Qh6 25. g3 bxc4 {This is safest as it avoids the complications resulting from 25...Bf5} (25... Bf5 { Threatens ...Bxg3} 26. Qe2 {keeps things equal.} Bxe4 {Safe and solid.} (26... bxc4 {This leads to some tricky play.} 27. Nxf6 Bxf6 28. Be4 Bh3 29. Bg2 (29. Rxf6 {This would lose.} Qc1+ 30. Rf1 Bxf1 {and black wins} 31. Qf2 Bd3+ 32. Kg2 Bxe4+) 29... Bxg2+ 30. Kxg2 Qg5 31. Qxc4 Bxb2 {Black should be able to draw even though he is the exchange down.}) 27. Bxe4 Nxe4 28. Qxe4 bxc4 29. Kg2 { The threat was ...Bxg3} Qg5 (29... Bxb2 {leads to complications that theoretically at least favor white.} 30. Qe6 Qd2+ 31. Kh1 f5 32. Qxd6+) 30. Qxc4 Bxb2 {Here, too, even though he is the exchange down black should be able to hold the draw.}) 26. Nxf6 Bxf6 27. Bg4 Bxg4 28. Rxf6 Qg5 29. Rf4 {Euwe avoids a trap and so a draw was agreed.} (29. Rxd6 Qe5 {The mate threat on e1 leaves white in a dire predicament.} 30. Kg2 (30. Rd8+ Ke7 31. Rb8 Bf3+ 32. Kg1 Qe1#) 30... Qxd6 31. Qxc4 Bd7 {and with precise play black should be able to win this.}) 1/2-1/2