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In January 1946, less than one week after Hastings ended, the newspaper Sunday Chronicle sponsored a Victory Tournament in London to celebrate the end of the war. The event was divided into A and B sections, each with 12 players.
It was hoped that Mikhail Botvinnik would play, but he was, for whatever reasons, unavailable. And, because of his Nazi sympathies World Champion Alexander Alekhine’s participation was protested by Max Euwe and the Dutch Chess Federation and by Arnold Denker and the USCF. As a result Alekhine’s invitation was withdrawn.
The players were divided into two equally strong groups, A and B. The A group order of finish was: 1) Herman Steiner, 2) Bernstein, 3) Tartakower, 4) Opocensky, 5) Golombek, 6-7) Prins and Pomar, 8-9) List and Broadbent 10) Fairhurst 11) Stone and 12) Friedmann.
Today’s game was played in the B event which consisted of former World Champion Max Euwe, US Champion Arnold Denker, Swiss Champions Martin Christoffel. former British champion Sir George Thomas, strong British amateur and author Gerald Abrahams, Imre Konig, a strong Yugoslav professional player and UK immigrant, Spanish Champion Antonio Medina, the strong Portuguese player Francisco Lupi, the Belgian champion Paul Devos, former British Champion William Winter, London City Champion Gabriel Wood and the British Army Champions Richard Newman.
Arnold Denker (1914-2005) had tied for third place at the recently concluded Hastings tournament. He was born in New York and in his youth he took to boxing, but his true love was chess.
A New York businessman, Denker won the Manhattan Chess Club championship six times (1940, 1944, 1950, 1950-51, 1954, 1969-70) and was the US Champion in 1944-46. In 2004 the US Chess Federation bestowed upon him the title of "Dean of American Chess".
His opponent was Gabriel Wood (1902-1903) who won the British Correspondence Champion in 1946 and 1948 (jointly) and was London Champion in 1945. He also competed in the 1st World Correspondence Championship (1950-1953) and finished in 8th place.
After a long bookish opening both players miss ed the fact that Denker’s 21st move was a bad mistake. But then on his 24th move Wood’s plausible move turns out to be one that give black the initiative and it just keeps growing. The game ends thanks to Denker’s precise play over the course of the rest of the game.
Gabriel Wood–Arnold Denker0–1D49London BLondon ENG18.01.1946Stockfish 16
Semi-Slav: Meran System 1.d4 d5 2.f3 e6 3.c4 f6 4.c3 c6 5.e3
bd7 6.d3 dxc4 7.xc4 b5 8.d3 a6 9.e4 c5 10.e5 cxd4 11.xb5 axb5 12.exf6 b6 13.fxg7 xg7 14.e2 b4 15.0-0 b7 16.f4 0-0 All book so far! 17.fe1 17.g5 h6 18.e4 e5 19.d2 f5 20.g3 e4 21.c4+ h7 22.h5 f4 Black is winning, but failed to score the point and
ended up drawing in the endinf in Hassan,A (2352)-Zozek,S (2225) Amman 2008 17.e5 xe5 18.xe5 c6 19.f3 a5 20.xg7 xg7 21.f2 d6 22.h4 h6 23.ad1 and in this completely equal position Bobula,M (2359)-Cyborowski,L (2580)
Opole 2007 agreed to a draw. 17...a5 This prevents Ne5. 18.a3 bxa3 19.xa3 fa8 20.ea1 xa3 21.bxa3 Black has to reasonable moves here: 21...h6
and 21...Qc6. Instead, both players made a curious oversight. a6 This is an
oversight that should have cost him the game! 22.xa6 22.e4 There is no
satisfactory way to meet this. c8 22...xd3 23.xa8+ wins 23.xh7+ f8 24.xa6 xa6 25.h6 xh6 26.xh6+ e8 27.xd4 with a decisive advantage. 22...xa6 23.xa6 xa6 The ending is equal and a draw would not be a
surprising outcome. 24.f1 Bringing the K towards the center is a perfectly
logical move, but here it gives black excellent chances. 24.c1 xa3 25.c8+ f8 26.h4 This gives the K an escape square and intends the further
advance of the h-Pawn and black's N is precariously pinned. a5 27.d2 d5 28.g4 h6 29.b4 f5 30.g5 hxg5 31.xg5 d3 32.d2 e5 33.h5 d6 The
position is equal because blac's extra P on d3 should pose no real threat.
Just a sample line... 34.g2 e4 35.c5 h7 36.c8+ f8 36...f8 37.xh7 xh7 38.xf8 37.c5 draws 24...e5 Now black's center Ps become more
and more dangerous. 25.d2 e4 26.g5 e3 The e-Pawn won't stop...it just
keeps going! 27.b4 e2+ 28.e1 d3 29.c1 White's position is highly
critical and defending it is a great strain and precise play is required. b2! 30.c8+ g7 31.d8 This loses instantly. 31.d2 holds up the Ps and
at least puts up a fight. e5 32.f4 xa3 33.c3 c1+ 34.xc1 a1+ 35.b2 e1 36.xe1 xe1 37.e4 e2+ 38.c1 g4 39.c4 xh2 Clearly black is
better, but is his advantage sufficient to win? In all likelihood yes, In
Shootouts white salvaged one draw out of 5 games. However, the games were long
(at least another 40 moves) and the endings were tricky. 31...xa3 Very
nice., The B cannot be taken because black's B must guard the a5-e1 diagonal. 32.f3 32.xa3 c3# 32...a1+ Wood now plays a few more moves out of
momentum. 33.d2 d1+ 34.e3 c1+ 35.e4 d2 36.f5 36.c3+ h6 37.xd7 e1+ 38.xe1 dxe1+ 39.xe1 xd7 36...e1 37.xe1 dxe1 38.xe1 d5+ White resigned. In the auto-analysis Stockfish described Denker's play as
precise. It's worth noting that Wood's play was hardly bad as his Weighted
Error Value was only twice Denker's. In other words, Wood's play was good, but
Denker's was better. 38...d5+ 39.g4 f6+ wins the R 0–1
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