Sharp Play by Lodewijk Prins

     The winner of the international tournament in Madrid in 1951 was Lodewijk Prins of Holland. He accomplished it in spite of losing four games, including to the US Champion Herman Steiner and Argentina’s GM Herman Pilnik both of who tied with Ossip Bernstein for second place.

    Both Steiner and Pilnik had 7 draws. Bernstein only had 5 draws, but a critical loss to Prins cost him first place. 

     Prins started off with a bang by going undefeated through the first seven rounds before he wa stopped by Steiner. Thereafter Steiner made a strong bid for first; included among his victories was a last round win against Esteban Canal. His efforts weren’t quite enough to catch Prins though. 

 

     Lodewijk Prins (January 27, 1913 - November 11, 1999) was born in Amsterdam and was awarded the International Master title in 1950, and was made an International Arbiter in 1960. In 1982 FIDE made him an Honorary Grandmaster. Prins co-authored several chess books with Max Euwe as well as several tournament books. 

     Between 1937 and 1968, Prins represented Holland twelve times in the Olympiads. Prins qualified for the 1952 Interzonal and was Dutch Champion in 1965. 

     After the German invasion of Holland in May 1940, Prins was fortunate to survive, but he did not participate in any tournaments because of his Jewish origin. 

     At the 1968 Olympiad in Lugano Prins scored a strong 9-3 and earned a bronze medal, but he was not selected for the Dutch team at the 1970 Olympiad. As a result, he broke from the Dutch Chess Federation and played only on rare occasions, mostly in opens. 

     His last tournament was Cattolica, Italy in 1993, where he finished in the middle of the field. 

     His opponent in the following game was Antonio Medina (1919-2003) an IM who was born in Barcelona. He was Spanish champion in 1944, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1963 and 1964 and was the 1962 US Open champion. 

     This game is an example of what is known as Damiano's Bishop Mate where the Queen, defended by a Bishop, delivers mate on the edge of the board. 

 

ChessBase

Lodewijk Prins–Antonio Medina1–0C58MadridMadrid ESP28.05.1951Stockfish 16

C58: Two Knights Defense 1.e4 e5 2.f3 c6 3.c4 f6 4.g5 Once called a "duffers move" and "primitive", it's at least as good as the tame alternative 4.d3. Do they still call weak players duffers? Is that epithet considered offensive? Perhaps "rating challenged" is a better term. d5 The only other reasonable move is 4...Bc5 which leads to wild complications. 5.exd5 White has little option other than to play this because both the B and the P on e4 are attacked. a5 This is almost always played because other options are bot quite satisfactory. They are: 5... Nxd5 (Pi kus variation), 5.. .Nd4 (Fritz Variation) and 5...Nd4 (Ulvestd Variation) 5...b5 This move was made famous in the Yakov Estrin-Hans Berliner, World Correspondence Championship (1965-68). 6.f1 d4 7.c3 xd5 8.e4 h4 The Berliner Varuation. Theoretically white is better, but Berliner won the game. 6.b5+ It's long been known that this is white's best move. c6 Better than the alternative of 6...Bd7 7.dxc6 bxc6 The main line is 8.Be2, but the unusual 8.Bd3 has also been tried. The text was popular back in the 1800s, fell out of favor until it was revived by Bogoljubow. 8.f3 c7 9.d3 e7 9...d6 10.c3 g4 11.b5 xf3 12.xc7+ xc7 13.gxf3 d5 was played in Van der Wiel,J (2465) -Beliavsky,A (2590) Vienna 1980. WHite is a little better, but the players soon agreed to a draw. 10.c3 10.b3 h6 11.e4 xe4 12.xe4 0-0 13.f5 Bkacj is better. Kardoeus,D (2003)-Hofer,E (2197) Kiel GER 2014 10...0-0 11.f5 b7 It would have been more prudent to chase the N away with 11...h6 12.ce4 This is slightly stronger that the alternative of 12. Qh3 12.h3 g6 13.ce4 h5 14.xf6+ xf6 15.e6 This is not quite correct; he should play 15.d3 with a good position. fxe6 16.xg6 Black is better. Garner,P-McMahon,D Dublin 1991 12...h6 Now that white can capture on f6 this is bad. 13...g6 was necessary. 12...g6 While this is best white is still better after 13.h3 h5 14.g3 xe4 15.xe4 xg5 16.xg5 At least the exchanges have allowed black to beat off the direct attack. 13.xf6+ xf6 14.h7 Black likely did not see this unexpected move when he played 12.. .h6 e7 Unfortunately giving up the exchange is the ebst option. 14...fd8 15.xf6+ gxf6 16.b4 c4 17.g4+ f8 18.xc4 White has won a piece. 15.xf8 xf8 16.d3 c5 17.g3 h8 18.0-0 c6 19.c3 White simply wants to prevent ...Nd4 d6 20.h3 g8 After this black's hopes plummet to zero. 20...e7 offers a glimmer of hope. 21.e4 21.xh6 xf5 22.d2+ h6 23.xh6 c8 24.h4 gxh6 25.xh6+ g8 26.fe1 f6 27.e3 h7 is unclear, but theoretically white is slightly better. 21...c8 22.g4 f5 23.gxf5 xf5 24.h4 xe4 25.xe4 White has what should amount to a decisive advantage. 21.xh6 This doesn't require much thought. gxh6 21...e7 would have beaten off the direct attack, but black would still be left with a losing position. 22.g5 xf5 23.xf5 c8 24.f3 f6 22.xh6 e8 23.ae1 White can finish off the game in a number of ways, but this is the quickest. 23.h7+ f8 24.ae1 e7 25.h4+ f6 26.f4 also wins or white. 23...e7 23...e6 is the only way to avoid mate, but what would be the point?! 24.xe6 fxe6 25.xe6+ 24.h7+ h8 25.g6+ Black resigned. Nearly perfect play by Prins+/- 25.g6+ g8 26.h7+ f8 27.xf7# 1–0

Download PGN