In August the 7th Chess Olympiad was held in Stockholm. The USA team (Samuel Reshevsky, Reuben Fine, Isaac Kashdan, Frank Marshall and I.A, Horowitz) took first place. The US team had also won in 1931, 1933 and 1935. Hungary. Poland was second and Poland was third.
Back in the 1930s alternatives to over the board play were postal chess, radio, telegraph matches and telephone matches.
Rotary dial phones were introduced to Americans in 1919, but they did not become widely used until the mid-1950's. Prior to the rotary phone a caller simply lifted the receiver off the hook and an operator answered with the phrase, “Number, please.” You then told her the number you wanted. In my home town our phone number was simply 2271. Older phones had magnetos; callers signaled the operator by turning a crank.
In April 10, of 1937, Berlin and Hamburg played a telephone match about which almost nothing is known, However, I did discover the results of the match on the wonderful Edo Historical Chess Ratings site HERE.
The winner of the following game who played on board 2 of that natch was Kurt Richter (1900-1969), a very a sharp attacking player and theoretician. After World War II he largely gave up playing for writing. He was co-editor of Deutsche Schachblatter and Deutsche Schachzeitung. He was also the author of several chess books.
His opponent was Heinrich Reinhardt (1902-1990) who later became known as Enrique Reinhardt. When World War II broke out, Reinhardt, along with other German players Erich Eliskases, Paul Michel, Ludwig Engels, Albert Becker and many other participants at the 1939 Olympiad, decided to permanently remain in Argentina. He died on June 14, 1990 in Ciudad Jardín Lomas del Palomar, Argentina.
What’s pleasing about this game is that even though it’s tactically faulty, on move 34 Richter makes a delightful Queen sacrifice that leads to a mate in 7.
[Event "Telephone Match Berlin-Hamburg"]
[Site "Telephone match Berlin-Hamburg"]
[Date "1937.04.10"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Kurt Richter (Berlin)"]
[Black "Heinrich Reinhardt (Hamburg)"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A45"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 16"]
[PlyCount "71"]
[EventDate "1937.??.??"]
{D01: Richter-Veresov Attack} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Bg5 {This opening is
named after Richter and Soviet master Gavriil Veresov, who played it
frequently for over a quarter of a century. In modern times Spassky, Tal,
Smyslov, Larsen and Bronstein experimented with it. Black has a wide choice of
replies while white's plan plans typically include rapid Q-side castling and
an early f3 and e4.} Bf5 4. e3 e6 5. Bd3 Bg6 6. Nf3 Be7 (6... c5 7. Ne5 Nc6 8.
Nxc6 bxc6 9. O-O cxd4 10. exd4 Qb6 11. Rb1 Be7 12. Ne2 {Draw agreed. Mestrovic,
Z (2410)-Komljenovic,D (2435) Sibenik 1986}) (6... Nbd7 7. O-O Be7 8. Bxf6 gxf6
9. e4 c6 {is equal. Guerreiro,N (2086)-Stopa,J (2524) Figueira da Foz POR 2014}
) 7. Ne5 Bxd3 8. cxd3 {The position is equal.} (8. Qxd3 O-O 9. f4 c5 10. O-O-O
c4 11. Qe2 b5 12. Nxb5 Qa5 13. Nc3 Bb4 14. Bxf6 gxf6 15. Qg4+ Kh8 16. Qh4 fxe5
17. Qf6+ Kg8 18. Qg5+ {Draw agreed. Lenhardt,M (2148)-Zilverberg,J (2015)
Maastricht 2009}) 8... O-O 9. O-O Nfd7 10. Bf4 Nxe5 11. dxe5 c5 12. e4 d4 (
12... dxe4 {is wilder.} 13. Qg4 Kh8 14. Nxe4 Nc6 {with fully equal chances.})
13. Ne2 Nc6 14. Bg3 Re8 15. f4 $15 Bf8 {Instead of this rather passive move
the immediate 15...b5 was good.} 16. Qe1 b5 17. Bh4 Be7 {As will soon be seen
the exchange of dark squared Ns results in a weakness on the dark squares
around the K. Better was 17...Qc7} 18. Bxe7 Qxe7 19. Ng3 g6 {This is not
really bad because the position can still be evaluated as equal, but something
like 19...Nb4 would have been better.} 20. Nh1 {The N begins a journey to g4
from where it eyes f6 and h6.} c4 {And now ...Nb4 would win.} 21. Nf2 Nb4 22.
Ng4 Nxd3 (22... Nc2 23. Nf6+ Qxf6 24. exf6 Nxe1 25. Rfxe1 {is also equal.}) 23.
Qg3 {White has sufficient compensation for the P.} Rec8 24. f5 exf5 (24... Nxb2
{There is no time for this.} 25. Nh6+ Kf8 26. fxg6 Ke8 27. Rxf7) 25. exf5 Kh8
26. f6 {With this move Richter has made a slip that should have allowed black
to gain the advantage! Correct was 26.fxe6. In all likelihood black would have
managed to survive the attack.} Qf8 (26... Qe6 {leaves white with no
satisfactory way of continuing the attack.} 27. h3 Rc5 {and it's white who is
on the defensive.}) 27. Rf3 {Another tactical mistake, this time of a more
serious nature.} (27. e6 {keeps up the pressure and would have required
precise defense from black.} fxe6 28. a4 {Excellent! White can make no
immediate progress on the K-side and so switches to the Q-side and center.} b4
29. b3 e5 30. bxc4 e4 31. Rad1 {With careful play black can successfully
defend his position.}) 27... Nc5 (27... Nxb2 {would be a blunder, After} 28. e6
fxe6 29. Ne5 {and after Raf1 white's superiority should prove decisive.}) 28.
Qh4 Ne6 29. Rh3 h5 30. Rf1 {At this point black is oblivious to white's threat
of 31.Rf5! While he can't prevent it he can render it innocuous.} d3 {[%mdl
8192] Wrong Pawn advance! This one loses.} (30... c3 {Right Pawn advance. This
one wins.} 31. Nf2 (31. Rf5 Nf4 32. Rxf4 c2 33. Rf1 c1=Q 34. Rxc1 Rxc1+ {
and black is winning.}) 31... c2 {with a decisive advantage.} 32. Nd3 Qh6 33.
Qe1 Rc4 34. Qc1 Qxc1 35. Rxc1) 31. Rf5 {This renders black defenseless.} Qc5+
32. Kf1 Nf4 33. Rxf4 (33. Rxh5+ {[%mdl 512] mates in 7} Nxh5 34. Qg5 Kg8 35.
Rxh5 Qf8 36. Nh6+ Kh7 37. Nxf7+ gxh5 38. Qxh5+ Kg8 39. Qg6+ Qg7 40. Qxg7#)
33... d2 {This allows mate in 7, but avoiding the forced mate with 33...Kg8
still loses.} 34. Qxh5+ {[%mdl 512] White mates.} gxh5 35. Rxh5+ Kg8 36. Ne3 {
[%mdl 512] Black resigned.} (36. Ne3 d1=Q+ 37. Nxd1 Qd4 (37... c3 38. Rg4+ Kf8
39. Rh8#) 38. Rxd4 c3 39. Rg4+ Kf8 40. Rh8#) 1-0
No comments:
Post a Comment