Smooth Sailing for Reshevsky

     In1957, an international tournament directed by Isaac Kashdan was held in Dallas, Texas from November 30th through December 16th. The venue was the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Adolphus. 

     By the way, the hotel is still there. For more than 100 years it has been a Dallas icon.

     It was hand built by European craftsmen in the early 20th-century, The Adolphus was the passion project of Anheuser-Busch co-founder Adolphus Busch.

     Busch had made his brewing fortune in St. Louis throughout the late 1800s, but saw Dallas as the city of the future. He began investing in the booming Texas real estate market in the early 1900s. And in 1912, he debuted the city’s first true luxury hotel, modeling the building on a Germanic castle, only taller. The 22-story tower was the state’s tallest building for a decade. 

     It was unfortunate that the US State Department refused to allow Soviet GM David Bronstein to come to Dallas for the tournament. The reason? It was in retaliation for the Soviet Union’s recent refusal re to permit American travelers from visiting certain areas in Russia. Larry Evans was invited to take Bronstein’s place. 

     The tournament turned out to be a closely contested event with all players who finished in the top half sharing the lead at some point. 

     Bent Larsen of Denmarl took the early lead and remained at least tied for first until he lost to the Yugoslav GM Svetozar Gligoric in round 9. 

     Hungarian Laszlo Szabo was part of the four-way tie for first at the end of round 8, but he drew all of his remaining games and so was unable to keep up with the leaders. Gligoric had an early loss in round 3 to Szabo while Reshevsky had a loss in round 12 to Abe Yanofsky of Canada. 

     Once Larsen and Szabo fell back it was a race between Gligoric and Reshevsky for the second half. Both won their round 13 game and drew their final game, so they shared first place. 

     Besides Botvinnik, Reshevsky has long been my favorite player. I’m not sure why, but perhaps it’s because his games always seemed to me to be easy to understand. And, it was a chess thrill of a lifetime when in 1979 I drew a postal game with him. What I liked was when auto-annotating the game with Fritz using the Stockfish 15 engine I receive a score of 0.15 from the engine with the comment “very precise. Reshevsky’s score was a “very precise “0.11”. 

     In the following game by Reshevsky he makes defeating Najdorf look so easy! Reshevsky just plopped his N down on d6 and the rest looks pretty simple…just a couple of moves that gave him play on both sides and the point dropped in his lap. Why don’t my games ever go as smoothly? 

[Event "Dallas"] [Site ""] [Date "1957.12.02"] [Round "?"] [White "Samuel Reshevsky"] [Black "Miguel Najdorf"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E42"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "65"] [EventDate "1957.11.30"] {E42: Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein: 4...c5 5 Ne2} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 {[%mdl 32]} e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 {Moves like 4.Qc2, 4.Qc3 and 4.a3 have, at one time or another, all been popular. Both 4.Qc2 and 4.e3, the Rubinstein Variation, are the most frequently seen. White continues his development before committing to a definite plan of action. In reply, black has three main moves to choose from: 4...0-0, 4...c5, and 4...b6 In addition, black sometimes plays 4...d5 or 4... Nc6.} c5 5. Nge2 {Reshevsky was a firm believer in the text, but 5.Bd3 is seen more often.} cxd4 6. exd4 d5 7. c5 Ne4 {The old move here was 8.a3, but today it is rarely seem.} 8. Bd2 Nxd2 9. Qxd2 b6 10. a3 Bxc3 11. Nxc3 {[%mdl 32]} bxc5 12. dxc5 a5 {This prevents white from supporting his passed P with 13.b4} 13. Bb5+ (13. Rc1 Nc6 {Correct is either 13...a4 or 13...O-O} 14. Bb5 Bd7 15. O-O O-O 16. Na4 Ne5 17. Bxd7 {and after 17...Nxd7 18.Qf4 white would stand better. Magnussen,H (2119)-Plump,D (2258) Berlin 2010}) (13. Rb1 O-O 14. b4 axb4 15. axb4 {This position is known to be equal even though white's connected passed Ps look very dangerous. Magnussen,H (2119)-Plump,D (2258) Berlin 2010}) 13... Bd7 14. O-O O-O {Black can also play 14...a4 which is equally good.} 15. b4 Bxb5 {This allows white to get his N to the beautiful outpost on d6, but the alternative was not without its disadvantages.} (15... Nc6 16. Bxc6 Bxc6 17. b5 {with an excellent position.}) 16. Nxb5 Na6 17. Nd6 { Clearly white has the advantage here and it is instructive to watch how Reshevsky plays the position.} Qd7 18. f4 {Nice! Reshevsky is switching his attention to the K-side.} Rab8 {For what it's worth, black might have tried to prevent the advance of white's f-Pawn by playing 18...f5, but that also give rise to other deficiencies in his position.} 19. f5 exf5 {White has three main alternatives here. He can continue with the logical 20.Rxf5 which is quite satisfactory as does 20.Qxd5. Or he can gain a decisive advantage with 20.Nxf5! } 20. Rab1 {White's position is so strong that this, too, yields him an excellent position.} (20. Nxf5 {This is the move materialistic engines like; the idea is to threaten mate with Qd4} f6 (20... a4) (20... axb4 21. axb4 (21. Qd4 f6 22. c6 Qd8 {Of course taking the P allows a fork on hos Q and K with Ne7+} 23. axb4 Rxb4 24. c7 Qxc7 (24... Rxd4 25. cxd8=Q Rxd8 {white is a R up.} 26. Nxd4) 25. Qxd5+ Kh8 26. Rxa6 {and white is a N up.}) 21... Nxb4 22. c6 Nxc6 23. Qc3) 21. Qd3 Nc7 22. c6 Qd8 23. Qg3 g6 24. Rfe1 {White is winning. For example...} Re8 25. Rac1 Re4 26. Rcd1 Re6 27. Rxe6 Nxe6 28. Re1 Qb6+ 29. Kh1 Re8 30. Nd6 Rf8 31. Rxe6 Qxc6 32. b5 Qd7 33. Re1 Rd8 34. b6 {Black is helpless against the P's advance.}) 20... axb4 21. axb4 Kh8 {This move is explained by the fact that there really isn't much black can do except wait and see what his opponent does and then try to defend against it.} 22. Qc3 {A very fine move by Reshevsky. From here the Q is operating on both sides of the board; it prevents black from defending his P by ...g6 and at the same time it defends his Q-side Ps and threatens the advance of the c-Pawn. It's much better than taking the d-Pawn!} (22. Qxd5 Nxb4 23. Qxf5 Qxf5 24. Nxf5 {with a likely draw.} ) 22... Nc7 23. Nxf5 Ne6 {Black’s last two moves have centralized his N.} 24. Nd6 {Returning home!} f6 {This undermines the support of his own N, but there wasn't anything that could be be considered a whole lot better.} 25. Qh3 { Pinning the N and threatening to pile up on it.} Rfd8 {Protecting the Q and freeing the N but his position is already lost.} 26. Rfe1 Nd4 {This allows White to win the Q, but he was lost in any case.} (26... Nf4 {is met by} 27. Qf3 Ng6 28. Qxd5 Ne5 29. b5 {and black would have no qualms about resigning.}) 27. Re8+ {[%mdl 512]} Qxe8 28. Nxe8 Rxe8 {There was no reason not to resign.} 29. b5 {Another fine move by Reshevsky. By giving up this P he disorganizes Black’s pieces} Nxb5 30. Qd7 Nc3 31. Rxb8 Rxb8 32. c6 Ne4 {No doubt hoping Reshevsky will play 33.c7 when 33...Rb1 is mate. It was a very forlorn hope, but stranger things have happened.} 33. h4 {Najdorf finally gave up.} 1-0