1950 West Virginia Championship

     Today is Thursday. Wednesday was, to use a meteorological term, crappy; it started off with snow flurries in the wee hours of the morning and then switched over to a cold drizzle all day. 

     Things were nowhere near as bad as it was in West Virginia on November 24, 1950. Over 150 million Americans were enjoying (?) leftover turkey from Thanksgiving and more than 2 million of them (Americans, not leftover turkeys) were from West Virginia. 

     In the atmosphere far above the eastern US a storm was brewing. It was a storm that would last nearly a week and it would go down in history as one of the worst blizzards to ever strike the area. It was the Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950. 

     I lived through Ohio's blizzard of 1978 in which we suffered from wind gusts of up to 100 miles per hour, wind chills of 60 degrees below zero and snow drifts 25 feet deep. One truck driver near Mansfield was rescued after spending six days trapped in his truck which was buried under a mound of snow. Fifty-one Ohioans lost their lives. Trust me, blizzards are no fun! 

     The West Virginia blizzard was really bad. Twenty-two states were affected, but West Virginia bore the brunt of the storm and of the 353 people who died in it, nearly half were in West Virginia. 

     There's a small town of Pickens (current population 66) located in the central part of the state where the storm's official greatest snow was measured at 57 inches. Although not official, other locations measured 62-63 inches of snow.

 

    Yesterday while browsing the West Virginia Chess Bulletins from 1950 I came across the following game from the State Championship that year that was played in Beckley. The tournament was played over the Labor Day weekend in September, so the blizzard was a ways off. Here's a snappy little game from the event.

 

[Event "WV Championship, Beckley"] [Site "?"] [Date "1950.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Ed Faust"] [Black "William Hartling"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A00"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15.1"] [PlyCount "45"] [EventDate "1950.??.??"] {Catalan} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 {The opening develops into the Catalan which is a sort of mix between the Queen’s Gambit and a Reti. It's safe and solid.} c6 4. Bg2 d5 {Black's P-formation gives him a playable, but difficult position.} 5. Qb3 {White has tried a plethora of different moves here, the most usual being 5.Nf3.} Nbd7 6. Nc3 Qc7 7. Nf3 dxc4 8. Qxc4 {White is slightly better here owing to black's cramped position.} Nb6 {Black's best plan is to free his position with ...e5} (8... c5 9. Bf4 Nb6 10. Qb3 {and black has no good square to which he can move his Q.} c4 11. Bxc7 cxb3 12. axb3 Nbd5 13. Be5 {favors white.}) (8... e5 {fails to} 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Nxe5 Qxe5 11. Bxc6+) (8... Bd6 9. O-O O-O {followed by ...e5}) 9. Qd3 Bd7 {This is too passive. His intention is to castle Q-side, but that turns out badly.} (9... Bd6 {to play ...e5 is now too late to be effective as after} 10. e4 e5 11. Nxe5 Bxe5 12. dxe5 Qxe5 13. Bf4 {with a plus for white.}) 10. O-O Bd6 11. e4 { [%mdl 32]} e5 {This is practically forcedm but as above, it is no longer effective.} 12. dxe5 Bxe5 13. Nxe5 Qxe5 14. Bf4 Qe6 15. Bd6 Nc4 {Naturally black wants to get the annoying B off d6, but this is tactically refuted. Even so there was nothing that was really better.} (15... O-O-O 16. Rac1 Nc4 17. Bf4 Rhe8 18. Qd4 b6 19. b3 Ne5 20. Nb5 Kb8 21. Qd6+ Qxd6 22. Nxd6 Nd3 23. Nxf7+ Nxf4 24. gxf4 Rc8 25. Nd6 {with a decisive advantage.}) 16. e5 Nxd6 17. exf6 { This is the right capture.} (17. exd6 O-O 18. Rfe1 Qf5 19. Qd4 Rfe8 {Black's defensive task has been eased.}) ({allowing the Qs to come off also allows black to equalize.} 17. Qxd6 Qxd6 18. exd6 O-O-O) 17... O-O-O 18. fxg7 Rhg8 19. Qxh7 {Piling up the pressure with 19.Rad1 was good, too.} Qf6 20. Rfd1 Rxg7 { This meets with a very nice tactical refutation.} (20... Qe5 21. Qh4 Rxg7 22. Qb4 Rg6 23. Rac1 {White is clearly better, but at least black can play on.}) 21. Rxd6 {[%mdl 512] Wins a piece!} Qxc3 {A nice try to save himself.} 22. Rxd7 {[%mdl 512] A nice shot that wins a piece.} (22. bxc3 Rxh7 {Black is still lost, but with two Rs on the board he at least has a forlorn hope of salvaging a draw.}) 22... Rxd7 {Even here white has only one move that secures the win.} (22... Rxh7 23. Rxd8+ Kxd8 24. bxc3) 23. Qh8+ {Black resigned. Very well played by Faust.} (23. Qh8+ Rd8 24. Qh3+ Kb8 25. bxc3) 1-0