An Uncultured Grandmaster

    It has been a strange past few days! The unseasonably warm weather in this neck of the woods meant my neighbor across the street was able to cut his grass on Christmas day; normally we would be shoveling snow or at least bundling up to go outside and not cutting grass!

    Also, sometime between the 22nd and the 25th Blogger started displaying the games again. Strange.

    Vladimir Liberzon was born in Moscow on March 23, 1937 and emigrated to Israel in 1973. He died in Isreal in 1997 at the age of 59. 

    He graduated from college with a mechanical engineering degree and claimed never to have been a professional player. However, for many years he worked as a chess trainer in Israel and he authored two chess books in Hebrew. In one of them he posed the question, "What is the best variation of Alekhine's Defense?" Answer: "They are all bad." 

    Liberzon was the first Grandmaster from the Soviet Union who was allowed to emigrate to Israel and so became Israel's first Grandmaster. 

    Known for his disciplined professionalism, Liberzon played in several Soviet championships, his best result being fourth at the 36th Championship in Alma-Ata 1968/69. Other results were less notable; his first entry led to a lowly finish at Tbilisi 1966/67, but he achieved solid mid-table performances at Moscow 1969 and at Riga 1970. 

    After moving to Israel he scored well in international tournaments finishing first or tying for first at Venice 1974, Lone Pine 1975, Beer-Sheva 1976 and Lone Pine 1979. 

    He finished second (or tied for second) at Netanya 1975 and Reykjavík 1975 and he finished third at Amsterdam 1977. He was a leading member of the Israeli teams in the Olympiads between 1974 and 1980. During his career he scored victories over Mikhail Tal, Paul Keres and Tigran Petrosian. Botvinnik was luckier; twice he barely escaped defeat. 

    Liberzon was not considered a cultured man. William Hartston told the story about when he first met Liberzon in Iceland in 1974, before they had been introduced, Liberzon walked over and asked if he spoke Hebrew. Hartston replied no, but said he did speak a little Russian. Liberzon replied that people with noses as big as Hartston’s usually spoke Hebrew. Liberzon spent the rest of the tournament telling Hartston dirty jokes in Russian. 

    His opponent in this game is FM Robert Sulman (born 1961) who is a USCF Life Master (meaning he played over 300 rated games and maintained a rating over 2200) who had a rating high of 2406 in 1992. 

    According to a note about him at Chessgames.com he was originally from Newburgh, New York and had a very original style, a bit quirky, and aggressive. He became a mathematics professor at the State University of New York at Oneonta and seems to have retired from chess over 20 years ago. 

[Event "Lone Pine"] [Site "Lone Pine, CA USA"] [Date "1981.03.29"] [Round "1"] [White "Vladimir Liberzon"] [Black "Robert Sulman"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C03"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "1981.??.??"] {C03: French Tarrasch Variation} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 {The Tarrasch Variation is named after Siegbert Tarrasch. This move became popular during the 1970s and early 1980s when Karpov used it to great effect. Though less aggressive than 3.Nc3, it is still used by top-level players seeking a small, safe advantage. Like 3.Nc3, 3.Nd2 protects e4, but is different in several key respects: it does not block white’s c-Pawn from advancing, which means he can play c3 at some point to support his d4-Pawn. Hence, it avoids the Winawer Variation as 3...Bb4 is now answered by 4.c3. On the other hand, 3.Nd2 develops the N to a less active square than 3.Nc3, and in addition, it hems in white’s dark-square B. Hence, white will typically have to spend an extra tempo moving the N from d2 at some point before developing his c1B.} b6 { A rare sideline. 3...c5 and 3...Nf6 are the most popular replies while 3... dxe4 and 3...Be7 are seen less frequently.} 4. Ngf3 Nf6 5. e5 (5. Bb5+ c6 6. Bd3 Ba6 7. Qe2 Bxd3 8. Qxd3 {is completely equal. Sanal,V (2506)-Tate,E (2259) Albena BUL 2015}) 5... Ne4 6. Nxe4 (6. Bd3 Bb7 7. Qe2 Nxd2 8. Bxd2 a5 9. O-O { Vogt,L (2455)-Karner,H (2410) Tallinn 1981. White is a bit better.}) (6. Bb5+ { This is white's best reply.} c6 7. Bd3 Nxd2 8. Bxd2 Ba6 9. Bg5 Be7 10. h4 h6 11. Bxe7 Qxe7 12. Kf1 O-O 13. Rh3 c5 14. Rg3 {An interesting position which white soon won, but at this point the chances are about even. Van der Wiel,J (2590) -Short,N (2615) Brussels 1987}) 6... dxe4 7. Ng5 Bb7 (7... Qd5 {The attempt to save the P is not advisable because of} 8. Qh5 g6 9. Qg4 Bb7 10. Qf4 f5 11. exf6 {with the advantage.}) 8. Bb5+ Nd7 (8... c6 {leads to some tricky play that results in approximately equal chances, but it's difficult, if not impossible, to calculate OTB.} 9. Ba4 h6 10. Nxe4 b5 11. Bb3 c5 12. Nxc5 Bxc5 13. dxc5 Qxd1+ 14. Kxd1 Bxg2 15. Rg1 Bf3+ 16. Ke1 g5) 9. Qg4 {White already has a strong initiative.} a6 10. Be2 Qe7 11. Nxe4 O-O-O {Black hopes to find shelter for his K on the Q-side, but even so, white, having move space and greater freedom will succeed in ferreting out the Black even on the Q-side.} 12. Bf3 Kb8 13. O-O f5 {Black has to do something and this try is likely as good any any.} 14. exf6 $1 gxf6 15. Nc3 f5 16. Qf4 Rg8 17. Bxb7 $18 Kxb7 18. Qf3+ c6 19. Bf4 Qb4 {The Q doesn’t belong over here.} (19... Bg7 {attacking the d-Pawn offers better chances.} 20. Rad1 Nf6 {Even here white is considerably better.}) 20. Qe3 Qxb2 {This capture is, as usual, very risky especially here because it opens up a file against his K. Sulman has completely lost the thread of the game.} 21. Rab1 (21. Qxe6 {would be a mistake.} Ba3 {Now after either 12.Qe3 oe 12.Qc4 white's advantage is not so great.}) 21... Qa3 22. Qxe6 Rg4 (22... Rg6 {keeps fighting.} 23. Qe3 Bd6 24. Rb3 Bxf4 25. Qxf4 Qf8) 23. Rb3 (23. Qxf5 {is inferior.} Rxf4 24. Qxf4 Qxc3 25. Qh4 Kc7 26. Qxh7 Qc4 {and black can make a fight of it in spite of the material situation! In Shootouts the ending were long and very, very tricky. White scored +2 -1 =2}) 23... Qa5 {After this black is quite lost.} (23... Qe7 {Really does not help much though.} 24. Qxf5 Rg7 25. Ne4 Qf7 26. Qxf7 Rxf7 27. g3 {and the end is not far off,.}) 24. d5 {Opening lines to the K.} cxd5 25. Nxd5 {Now the b-Pawn is under a murderous attack.} Rg6 26. Qxf5 Rf6 27. Qe4 Nc5 28. Qe5 Bd6 29. Qxf6 {Black redigned. Precision play by Liberzon.} 1-0