Vienna 1950/51

     The Korean War started in 1950 when North Korean Communist invade South Korea and on June 27th the United States got involved; it ended in 1953. I have memories that in either 1952 or 1953 sitting in my parents’ living room with my sister and her boy friend (a fellow named Howard) who was wearing his Army uniform. He had been wounded in Korea and was home on leave. 

     On November 1, 1950, there was an assassination attempt on President Truman by Puerto Rican nationalists. The day before the attempt, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola boarded a train to Washington from the Bronx in New York. They carried with them two pistols and had the goal of bringing national attention to the cause of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. 

     There was a shootout and White House policeman Leslie Coffelt became the first and only member of the Secret Service to die protecting the President from an assassination attempt. Griselio Torresola (July 19, 1925 – November 1, 1950) was, in turn, killed by a returned shot from Coffelt. 

     Oscar Collazo (January 20, 1914 – February 21, 1994) was convicted and sentenced to death, but Truman commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. In 1979 Collazo's sentence was commuted to time served by President Jimmy Carter. He was paroled and he return to Puerto Rico where he continued to participate in activities related to the independence movement. On February 21, 1994, he died of a stroke in Vega Baja, having passed his 80th birthday by just over a month.

     Today you step into an elevator and push a button for the floor you want and that’s it. But it wasn’t always that way. In 1950, the first self-service elevator was installed in Dallas, Texas by Otis Elevator. 

     Before that there used to be elevator operators. A good elevator operator had to have skills. Early elevators were usually controlled by a lever and the operator had to start and stop it, regulate its speed which required a good sense of timing because he had to stop it so the car was lined up the with the floor. They operator also had to open and close the doors manually. They were also trained in safety and in large department stores they served as greeters, announced product available on each floor and occasionally mentioning special offers. 

     In the chess world the year started off with Laszlo Szabo of Hungary winning at the Hastings 1949/50 tournament. Larry Evans, age 17, finished 4th. 

     In early January, Liudmila Rudenko (1904-1986) won the 2nd Women's World Championship, held in Moscow. 

     David Bronstein and Isaac Boleslavsky won the first candidates tournament, held in Budapest. Bronstein won the playoff, 7.5-6.5. Reshevsky was unable to play because the State Department would not allow US citizens to travel to Hungary. 

     FIDE met in Copenhagen and awarded the first Grandmaster title to 27 players, 94 International Master titles and 17 International Women Master titles. The first USCF rating list was published; there were 2,306 rated players, Fine was top rated at 2817 and Reshevsky was 2ndat 2770. 

     James B. Cross won the US Junior championship and Arthur Bisguier won the 1950 US Open. 

     The Yugoslav team (Gligoric, Pirc, Trifunovic, Rabar, Vidmar, Jr. and Puc) won the Dubrovnik Olympiad. The US team (Reshevsky, Steiner, Horowitz, Shainswit, Kramer and Evans) took 4th. Miguel Najdorf won the Amsterdam international. Samuel Reshevsky was 2nd. Paul Keres won the USSR Championship.

     I used to own a duplicate of the Dubrovnik chess set, but it was destroyed when our house flooded this past summer. It's shown here with my chess table and vintage Russian chess clock, both of which survived.

 

     Boris Velinsky (1888-1950) the 1920 USSR champion died in Moscow. In the US , Maurice Wertheim (1886-1950) died in Cos Cob, Connecticut at the age of 64. He was former president of Manhattan Chess Club and chess patron. 

     Lost in all that was a small international tournament in Vienna that was played at the end of the year and finished in 1951. It was won by Alfred Beni (1923-1995), an Austrian International Master. 

 

     The following game from that little known event was played by the little known Karl Kopetzky (1909-1985) of Austria and Bora Tot (1907-1987) of Yugoslavia.

 

[Event "Vienna 1950/51"] [Site "Vienna"] [Date "1950.12.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Karl Kopetzky"] [Black "Bora Tot"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B08"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "61"] [EventDate "1950.12.26"] {B08: Pirc Defence: Classical System} 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 {According to Garry Kasparov, the Pirc Defense is "hardly worth using in the tournaments of the highest category" because it gives white "too many opportunities for anybody's liking." Black will have counterplay but has to be cautious about playing too passively.} 3. Nc3 g6 4. Nf3 {The main line is 4.f4. In this line qhite contents himself wityh the classical P center (Ps on d4 and e4).} Bg7 5. h3 { The main line is 5.Be2, but white has been quite successful with this move.} O-O 6. Be3 Nbd7 7. Qd2 c5 8. O-O-O (8. d5 a6 9. a4 Qa5 10. Ra2 Nh5 11. g4 Bxc3 12. Qxc3 Qxc3+ 13. bxc3 Ng7 14. Nh4 {White's position is the more active. Tsuboi,E (2344) -Rodriguez,A (2485) Sao Paulo 2004}) (8. Be2 cxd4 9. Nxd4 Nc5 10. Bf3 Bd7 11. O-O {is equal. Gerasimenyk,M (2211)-Kubanov,N Evpatoria 2006}) 8... Qa5 {Well played...it gives black active play on the Q-side since white's castling there could prove somewhat risky.} 9. Kb1 (9. Bc4 {didn't work out too well for white in Jelson,Y-Le Hoang Tran,C Thailand 2005. Black should now continue} Nb6 10. Qe2 Nxc4 11. Qxc4 b5 12. Qxb5 Qxb5 13. Nxb5 Nxe4 {with a good game.}) 9... b6 {But this move is far too passive. The aggressive followup to black's last move was 9...b5!} (9... b5 10. Nxb5 Qb6 11. Nc3 Bb7 12. e5 {Whte must continue aggressively to have any hpe of success.} (12. Bd3 Rab8 13. b3 Qb4 {with sufficient play for the P/}) 12... dxe5 (12... cxd4 13. Bxd4 Qc7 14. exf6) 13. Nxe5 Nxe5 14. dxe5 Rfd8 15. Qe1 Nd5 {Black has good play, but the chances are about equal if white defends carefully.}) 10. Bh6 { While it's true that this eliminates black's B it really does not accomplish much. Aginn, 10.e5 is better.} (10. e5 cxd4 11. Nxd4 Qxe5 12. f4 Qc5 (12... Qa5 13. Nc6 Qh5 14. Be2 Qh4 15. Nxe7+ Kh8 16. Bf2 Qh6 17. g4 {with a winning attack.}) 13. Ne6 {wuth a excellent position.}) (10. e5 dxe5 11. dxe5 Ne8 12. Bh6 Nxe5 13. Nxe5 Bxe5 14. Qd5 Bxc3 15. bxc3 Qxc3 16. Qxa8 {with a decisive advantage.}) 10... cxd4 11. Nxd4 Bb7 {This logical followup to his last move misses a tactical shot that maintains the balance. Now white gets the better of it.} (11... Nxe4 12. Nxe4 Qxd2 13. Bxd2 (13. Rxd2 Bxh6 {wins}) 13... Bxd4 14. Bg5 Bg7 15. f3 {with equal chances.} (15. Bxe7 Re8 16. Bxd6 Rxe4 {and wins} )) 12. Bxg7 $16 Kxg7 13. Nb3 {[%mdl 2048]} Qh5 {After this it's clear black's Q-side operations have come to a halt. Of course on h5 the Q is subject to harassment.} (13... Qe5 {This is the only other available position for the Q, but after} 14. f4 Qh5 15. g4 {his position is even worse.}) 14. g4 Qh4 15. Bg2 Nc5 16. f4 Nxb3 {The decision not to take the e-Pawn was the correct one.} ( 16... Nfxe4 17. Nxe4 Bxe4 18. Bxe4 Nxe4 19. Qd4+ Nf6 20. g5 {wins the pinned N. }) (16... Bxe4 $2 {just transposes.} 17. Bxe4 Ncxe4 18. Nxe4 Nxe4 19. Qd4+ Nf6 20. g5) (16... Rad8 $142) 17. axb3 Rad8 18. Qe3 Kg8 19. Bf3 h6 20. Rhg1 Nd7 { Obviously it would prove too dangerous to take the h-Pawn, but his best chance was countering in the center with 20...e5} (20... e5 21. f5 gxf5 22. g5 { This excellent move rips open the K-side.} hxg5 23. Qxg5+ Qxg5 24. Rxg5+ Kh7 25. Rxf5 Ng8 26. Rh5+ Nh6 27. Nb5 {A not so obvious ,ove it would have been difficult to OTB!} d5 (27... a6 28. Nxd6 Bc8 {Otherwise Nf5} 29. Rxe5 Be6 30. Rh5 Rd7 31. e5 {and white is winning.}) 28. exd5 f5 29. c4 e4 {and black can at least put up a fight.}) 21. g5 {The threat is 22.Rg4} h5 22. Ne2 {[%mdl 32]} Rfe8 (22... Qxh3 $2 23. Rh1 Qe6 24. Nd4 {traps the Q}) 23. Bh1 Ba6 {Black should still try ...e5} 24. c4 {Preserving jis N} Bb7 25. Rd4 {Instead of this move which allows black to equalize, white should have pressed on with his attack.} (25. f5 e5 26. fxg6 fxg6 27. Rxd6 {White is clearly better.}) 25... e5 {Suddenbly black has equalized!} 26. Rxd6 exf4 {This only improves the position of white's pieces.} (26... Nc5 27. fxe5 Bxe4+ 28. Bxe4 Qxe4+ 29. Qxe4 Nxe4 30. Rxd8 Rxd8 {The mass exchanges have made black's defense much easier and here the chances would be equal.}) 27. Nxf4 Nc5 28. Rxd8 Rxd8 29. Nd5 Bc8 { This attack on the h-Pawn is not dangerous, but his position has already badly deteriorated to the point that it's hard to suggest any improvements.} 30. Rd1 Ne6 (30... Qxh3 {leads to mate.} 31. Nf6+ Kg7 32. Rxd8 Qf1+ 33. Ka2 Qxf6 34. gxf6+ Kxf6 35. Qf4+ Bf5 36. exf5 Nd3 37. Rxd3 Kg7 38. fxg6 f6 39. Rd7+ Kxg6 40. Be4+ f5 41. Qxf5+ Kh6 42. Qg6#) 31. Ne7+ {Black resigned; white picks up the R. } 1-0