Precision Play by Anthony Santasiere

    Owing to his college studies Larry Evans, club kingpin for the past three years, was unable to defend his title in the 1950/51 Marshall Chess Club Championship in New York City. That left the quest for the title wide open and playing in his best, form Milton Hanauer triumphed. 

    Second place fell to John W. Collins, a former United States Correspondence Champion, who, after an indifferent start, came back strong in later rounds. 

    The third prize winner was Carl Pilnick. Bernard Hill, former titleholder of the New York Academy of Chess and Checkers, was a strong threat from the beginning and actually lead for most of the way, but spoiled his chances when he dropped his last two games to Joseph Richman and Dr. Ariel Mengarini, a former national amateur champion. 

    Anthony Santasiere, former United States Open champion and frequent champion of the Marshall, finished in a disappointing fifth place. Eliot Hearst was the New York State champion and captain of the Columbia University team which had taken intercollegiate top honors. 

 

 

    The club’s new Junior Champion was Karl Burger of Columbia University who score of 6-2 to edge Philip Schwartz by half a point. 

    Anthony Santasiere (1904-1977) was an original thinker, but he was often dogmatic and exaggerated the value of novelties and sometimes insisted that it took bizarre opening moves in order to play “Romantic” chess. 

    In 1941, Al Horowitz ans Samuel Reshevsky played a match for the US Championship which Reshevsky won with a +3 -0 =13 score. I remember reading a magazine article by Santasiere on the match in which he castigated both players for playing 13 draws and playing the Queen’s Gambit with nary a King’s Gambit, Evans’ Gambit or any other real gambit. 

    But, that’s what Santasiere did; he was always chastising the great players for what he deemed to be cowardice in the openings. Ruy Lopez' and Queen's Gambits were almost always blasted. In his writings he advocated romantic openings and gambits, but he, himself, played stuff like the English and Reti.

   Thus, in the mid-1960s Larry Evans was moved to write of Santasiere, "His games are characterized by plodding, timidity and opening repetition. He enters even 'romantic debuts' such as the Vienna and King's Gambit with reams of prepared analysis, strives constantly to keep the draw in hand and prevent complications from getting away from him over the board. Where are the glorious games which qualify Santasiere as the darling spokesman of romanticism?" 

    In the following game we see Santasiere play, not a gambit, but a solid English opening, but he did play it with precision.

[Event "Marshall CC Chp, New York"] [Site "?"] [Date "1950.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Anthony Sanatsiere"] [Black "John W. Collins"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A28"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "53"] [EventDate "1950.??.??"] {A28: English Opening: Four Knights Variation} 1. c4 {Back in the days when I started playing in tournaments this was always my first move. I thought it was safe and solid and not a lot of opening knowledge was required.} e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Bb4 6. g3 O-O 7. Bg2 Re8 8. O-O $1 Bxc3 9. bxc3 Qe7 10. Bf4 (10. Qa4 Ne4 11. Qc2 d6 12. Nxc6 bxc6 13. Be3 {Black’s position is preferable. Bareev,E (2670)-Kotsur,P (2500) Luzern 1997}) 10... Nxd4 { Straightening out white's Ps looks like a poor decision, but there was not really a lot of choice.} (10... Ne5 {would have given white something about which to think, but in the end black still ends up undoubling white's Ps.} 11. Nf5 Qe6 12. Ne3 d6 13. Nd5 Nxd5 14. cxd5 Qg6) 11. cxd4 d6 12. Re1 c6 (12... Ne4 {would not have prevented the eventual advance of white's e-Pawn, but it was black's most promising continuation.} 13. f3 Ng5 {the threat is ...Nh3+} 14. e4 (14. Bc1 Nh3+ 15. Kf1 c6 16. e4 h5 {with equal chances.}) 14... Nh3+ 15. Kf1 Nxf4 16. gxf4 Qh4 {is good for black.}) 13. e4 {White has achieved a meaningful superiority in space, but so far the game can only be described as . .. boring.} Bg4 14. f3 Bd7 15. Qd2 Rad8 16. Qf2 {Intending d5 attacking the a-Pawn.} Bc8 17. d5 c5 (17... a6 18. Be3 Bd7 19. Rab1 cxd5 20. cxd5 Bb5 { is not especially favorable for black.}) 18. e5 dxe5 19. Rxe5 {Equally good was 19.Bxe5} Qf8 {Black has been beaten back into a very passive position. Passive does not equate to lost however!} 20. Rae1 Rxe5 21. Bxe5 Nd7 (21... b5 {Getting some counterplay was much better.} 22. Bc7 Re8 (22... Rd7 23. d6 { is very good for white.}) 23. Rd1 bxc4 24. d6 Nd7 25. f4 c3 26. Bc6 {Things look quite grim for black, but oddly the position is evaluated as equal. In Shootouts from this position white scored +0 -1 =4}) 22. Bc7 {[%mdl 2048]} Re8 23. Bh3 Rxe1+ 24. Qxe1 Nb6 {The N would have been better placed on the other side...so the better move was 24...Ng6 keeping white's advantage at a minimum.} 25. Bxc8 (25. Bxb6 Bxh3 26. Bxa7 Bd7 27. Qe3 b5 28. Bxc5 Qb8 29. cxb5 Qxb5 30. Kg2 Qb2+ 31. Qf2 Qb5 {Owing to Bs of opposite color black has drawing chances. It's true...five Shootouts were drawn.}) 25... Nxc8 26. Qe5 (26. Qd2 {to support the advance of the d-Pawn was better.} Qe8 27. d6 Qd7 28. Qd5 b6 { and white has his work cut out to sore the point. Shootouts confirmed that white is winning as he won all five games.} 29. g4 Kf8 30. h4 Ke8 31. Kf2 Qe6 32. Qc6+ Qd7 33. Qe4+ Qe6 34. Qc6+ Qd7 35. Qe4+ Kf8 36. Qd5 h6 37. h5 Ke8 38. Qe5+ Kf8 39. a4 Qxa4 40. Qf5 Qa2+ 41. Kg3 Nxd6 42. Bxd6+ Kg8 43. Qc8+ Kh7 44. Qf5+ Kg8 45. Qe4 Qa1 46. Qe8+ Kh7 47. Qe4+ Kh8 48. Qe8+ Kh7 49. Qe2 Qg1+ 50. Kf4 Kg8 51. Be5 Qc1+ 52. Ke4 Qa3 53. Kd5 Qa4 54. Kd6 Qe8 55. Qe4 Qe6+ 56. Kc7 b5 57. Qa8+ Kh7 58. Qe4+ Kg8 59. Bd6 Qxc4 60. Qxc4 bxc4 61. Be5 a5 62. Bc3 a4 63. Kc6 f6 64. Kxc5 a3 65. Kxc4 a2 66. Kb3 Kf8 67. Kxa2 Kf7 68. Kb3 Ke6 69. Kc4 Kd6 70. Kd4 Ke7 71. Ke4 {White has a won ending.}) 26... b5 {[%mdl 8192] This is a gross blunder that loses at once.} (26... Ne7 {Here's how white won in a Shootout at 15 plies.} 27. d6 Nc6 28. Qxc5 Qc8 29. Qd5 h5 30. Ba5 Nb8 31. Bc3 Qe8 32. Kf2 Qa4 33. Qe5 f6 34. Qe6+ Kh7 35. Qf5+ Kg8 36. Qc8+ Kh7 37. Bd2 h4 38. Qf5+ Kh8 39. Qc8+ Kh7 40. Qxb7 Nd7 41. Qe4+ Kg8 42. Qd5+ Kf8 43. Qa8+ Kf7 44. Qd5+ Kg6 45. gxh4 Ne5 46. h5+ Kh7 47. c5 Qb5 48. Bc3 Nd7 49. Qe4+ Kh8 50. c6 Qc5+ 51. Kg2 Qxd6 52. cxd7 Qxd7 53. Qg6 Qe7 54. h6 {and wins.}) 27. d6 { Forcing black to sacrifice his N for the P. Black resigned. A typical plodding Santasiere games which Fritz 17 awardwd a weighted error value of 0.20 (precise).} 1-0