A Surprise at Norristown, 1973

 

     In 1973 an international tournament, officially known as the Gambone - Leight Invitational, was held in Norristown, Pennasylvania. Norristown is located about six miles from the Philadelphia city limits. 

     In this long forgotten tournament the entry list included two (at the time) National Masters who had won the East Coast and West Coast Qualifying Tournaments: Craig Chellstorp and Kim Commons, both of whom had never had an opportunity to compete for FIDE ratings. 

     US players Edmar Mednis, Andrew Soltis, Kenneth Rogoff and William Martz were USCF Senior Masters (2400+) while Arthur Bisguier was a GM. 

     Of the foreign players, Bruno Parma and Herman Pilnik were GMs. Peter Biyiasas and Enrico Paoli were IMs. Cavit Uzman was a Turkish National Master. 

     A GM norm required an 8.5-2.5 score which nobody achieved. An IM norm was 7.5-3.5 which was achieved by Kenneth Rogoff. 

     Before the tournament started there was an incident involving Herman Pilnik of Argentina. He was met at the airport by a local organizer and on the way to the playing site their car was struck and overturned and it came to rest partially hanging over a steep embankment. 

     The driver and his wife, who was a passenger, were hospitalized while Pilnik emerged with a lot of cuts and bruises, but he still played his first round game as scheduled and defeated Soltis. 

     One wonders if Pilnik, who passed away in Caracas, Venezuela in 1981, ever concluded that visiting the United States was a bad idea. 

     Back in 1945, Pilnik was involved in a car accident on his way to Los Angeles to play in the Pan American tournament in Hollywood. In that accident Pilnik was the driver. 

     He had lost his plane reservation and so rented a car to drive from Dallas, Texas to Los Angeles, a distance of of over 1,400 miles! 

A bandaged Pilnik

     In Arizona, Pilnik struck a parked and unlighted truck at night. In this accident he spent two days in a hospital in Yuma, Arizona and missed his first-round game against Reshevsky. He finally arrived three days late still wearing bandages. 

     I was going to present the game between Commons and Martz which won the brilliancy prize, but decided against it. Martz’ Q-sac was not at all speculative because he got adequate compensation and the resulting position was no more that equal. Additionally, Martz later missed the best continuation and the game dragged on for nearly 30 moves. 

     More exciting was watching GM Arthur Bisguier getting thrashed by a virtually unknown Turkish Master. It’s surprising how quickly the FIDE 2430 rated GM found himself in trouble against Uzman who was unrated with the FIDE. After the event Uzman’s FUDE rating was 2235, Bisguier’s was 2420.

 

     As a matter of record, the top rated FIDE players in 1973 were: World Champion Fischer (2780), Karpov and Tal (2660), Spassky (2655), Korchnoy and Portisch (2650), Petrosian (2640), Botvinnik (2530), Polugayevsky (2635), Larsen (2620), Smyslov (2610), R. Byrnem Geller and Stein who had passed away in July (2605) and Huebner (2600). 

[Event "Norristown International"] [Site "Norristown, PA USA"] [Date "1973.06.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Cavit Uzman"] [Black "Arthur Bisguier"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C44"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "75"] [EventDate "1973.06.16"] {C44: Ponziani Opening} 1. e4 {[%mdl 32]} e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. c3 { A gutsy move by the Turkish Master offering a tactician like Bisguier the Goring Gambit where white sacrifices one or two Pawns in return for a lead in development and typically follows up by putting pressure on f7 with Bc4, Qb3 and sometimes another common motif is Ng5, while Nc3–d5.} Nf6 {This one way, transposing into a variation of the Ponziani, black can decline the gambit. 4.. .d5 is also a good reply.} 5. e5 Ne4 6. Qe2 (6. Nxd4 Qh4 7. g3 {A strange error form a Master!} Nxg3 8. fxg3 Qe4+ 9. Qe2 Qxh1 {Black is clearly better. Skytte,R (2392)-Nielsen,P (2662) Denmark DEN 2009}) 6... f5 7. Nxd4 (7. exf6 { is an interesting line that seems to result in equality after} d5 8. Nbd2 Qxf6 9. Nxe4 dxe4 10. Qxe4+ Be7 11. Bg5 $11 {Garsky,V (2253)-Siraj,S (1998) Nova Gorica SLO 2023}) 7... Nxd4 8. cxd4 d5 {Bisguier quickly finds himself in hot water after this move which opens up the position. The proper move was 8...c6} (8... Bb4+ 9. Kd1 b6 10. f3 Ng5 11. Qc2 Ne6 12. Qxf5 {Zaitsev,M (2463)-Bartel, M (2158) Dortmund GER 2007. Black is facing an uphill battle.}) 9. exd6 Bxd6 10. f3 {Fearless...white realized the coming check holds no danger for him.} Qh4+ 11. Kd1 (11. g3 {Believe it or not this move is actully better, but who would actually play it OTB?} Bxg3+ 12. hxg3 Qxh1 13. fxe4 fxe4 14. Bf4 { The engines prefer white by nearly two Ps, but I suspect most players would not want to play this position with either color!}) 11... O-O {Threatens to win with ...Nf2+.} 12. fxe4 fxe4 {Materially black has a P vs Nm and freer development, but whits'K is surprisingly safe.} 13. h3 {Prevents Bg4.} Rf2 14. Qe1 {At first glance things look grim for white. By the way, the text is an excellent defensive move.} (14. Qb5 {meets with a quick refutation...} Bg4+ 15. hxg4 Qxh1 {and wins}) 14... Bg3 15. Nc3 {White simply has to complete his development. It's odd, but there is no good R move with a discovered attack on white's Q.} (15. Be3 {attacking the R is a bit more precise. After} Rxb2 16. Qc3 Qh5+ 17. Kc1 Rb6 18. Bc4+ {Black's attack has come to nothing and white's K is safe, so now his material advantage is the major factor.}) 15... Bf5 { This defends the P, but 15...c5 offered him better chances.} (15... c5 { This leads to complications galore.} 16. Bc4+ Kh8 {Now things gey really tricky.} 17. Rf1 e3 18. Bxe3 Bg4+ 19. hxg4 Rxg2 20. Bf2 Bxf2 21. Qe2 Rh2 22. d5 {White should win...should!}) 16. Ne2 {The tempting 16.Bc4+ only equalizes.} Bg6 (16... a6 {This is a "pass" to demonstrate white's threat.} 17. Nxg3 Qxg3 18. Be3 Rxb2 19. Qxg3) 17. Nxg3 Qxg3 18. Be3 Rxg2 19. Bxg2 Qxg2 {Black is a R down...the rest is meaningless.} 20. Kc1 Rf8 21. a4 Rf3 {Well, maybe not totally meaningless. Black has a threat.} 22. Ra3 (22. a5 {A "pass" to demonstrate the threat.} Rxe3 23. Qxe3 Qxh1+ 24. Kd2 Qxa1 {Black wins.}) 22... Bf7 23. Rc3 c6 24. h4 Qg4 25. Qd2 Rg3 26. Rf1 Rg2 27. Rf2 Rg1+ 28. Kc2 Ra1 29. Rg2 {Prevents ...Qg1} Qxh4 30. Rh2 {Prevents Qh1.} Qe7 31. Rc5 Ba2 32. Qc3 Qf7 33. Rf2 Bb1+ 34. Kd2 Qa2 35. Qb4 {White threatens Rf8+ with mate to follow.} h6 (35... Bd3 36. Rf8+ Kxf8 37. Rf5+ Ke8 38. Re5+ Kf7 39. Qe7+ Kg6 40. Rg5+ Kh6 41. Qxg7#) 36. Qxb7 Bd3 37. Rxc6 Rh1 38. Qc8+ {Black resigned. Very precise play by Uzman!} (38. Qc8+ Kh7 39. Qf5+ Kh8 40. Rc8+ Qg8 41. Rxg8+ Kxg8 42. Qf7+ Kh8 43. Rg2 Rd1+ 44. Kxd1 Bc2+ 45. Rxc2 Kh7 46. Rg2 {mates next move.}) 1-0