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| Ivan Rohacek |
Fortunately, in the summer of 1946, FIDE met the challenge and reestablished itself and managed to fix the World Championship situation.
The 1946 Prague international was a memorial to Karel Treybal and Vera Menchik. Treybal (1885-1941) was a Czech lawyer and chess player who was born in a village southwest of Prague.
On May 30,1941, he was arrested, imprisoned and charged with concealing weapons for use by resistance forces and the illegal possession of a pistol. Wjether the charges were true or not he was condemned to death and executed by the Nazis on October 2, 1941.
Women’s World Champion Vera Menchik was the dominant female player before the war. World War II in Europe ended on May 8, 1945, but on June 26, 1944, Menchik, her sister and mother died when their house in London took a direct hit by a V-1 flying bomb.
The Prague International Tournament could have been one of the greatest of the post-war tournaments...but it wasn’t. In fact, both American chess magazines, Chess Review and Chess Life barely mentioned it. The tournament started on October 2nd with a much weaker entry than had been anticipated mostly due to the withdrawal of the Russians.
The organizers had hopes that the winner would be able to advance to a world championship tournament. To that end they had invited Mikhakl Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, Salo Flohr and David Bronstein, plus Max Euwe. Once source sats Samuel Reshevsky and Reuben Fine were the American invitees, but the October 5, 1946 issue of Chess Life says the American invitee was Herman Steiner.
Soviet authorities the Soviets threw a monkey wrench into the Prague event when they waited until two days before the start of the tournament to announce that they would not be sending anybody. Their excuse was that the event conflict with the semifinals of their national championship.
The announcement necessitated a delayed start to the tournament. Additionally, Savielly Tartakower had accepted his invitation, but was delayed due to travel difficulties and he never arrived. Karel Opocensky replaced him.
The result was that the lineup that was badly weakened and with it the prospect of the winner getting a shot at the World Championship tournament. Even so, it was an interesting race for first.
Jan Foltys had a fast start winning his first four games, but his pace slowed with two draws followed by two losses. Three draws in the final five rounds were only good enough for a 4th place tie.
Svetozar Gligoric also started quite well, scoring five wins and a draw in the first six round, bit that pace was too good to keep up and his hopes faded when he only won one more game and lost two.
Yugoslavia’s Petar Trifunovic started poorly with three losses in the first two rounds. He lost no further games, scoring seven wins and four draws which enabled his to tie for second place with Sweden’s Gosta Stoltz. Stoltz also began slowly, scoring +2 -2 =3, but he had a strong finish, winning five and drawing one.
The winner, Miguel Najdorf, started well, losing only one game while winning six in the first seven rounds. In the penultimate round he drew with Stoltz and that clinched first place.
The loser of the following game was Carlos Guimard (1913-1998) of Argentina. Chessetrics estimated his highest ever rating to hve been 2647 in April of 1939 making him the 15th ranked player in the world. He was warded the IM title in 1950 and the GM title in 1960. He won the Argentine championship in 1937, 1938 and 1941.
The winner was the virtually unknown Ivan Rohacek (1909-1977) of Czechoclavakia. Chess metrics estimates his higest rating to have been 2520 in 1944 placing him at number 62 in the world. He won Czech championships in 1930, 1936 and 1939. In July 1992, Slovakia, which is where Rohacek was from) declared itself a sovereign state and began negotiations with the Czech Republic to disband the country that had been Czechoslovakia. On January 1, 1993, Slovakia and the Czech Republic became two separate autonomous countries.
Ivan Rohacek–Carlos Guimard1–0C13Prague7Prague CSR11.10.1946Stocjfiah 16
C14: French: Alekhine-Albin-Chatard Attack 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.c3 f6 4.g5 e7 5.e5 fd7 6.h4 This gambit was devised by Adolf Albin and played by
the French player Eugene Chatard, but it was not taken seriously until the
game Alekhine–Fahrni, Mannheim 1914. Today it is known as the
Alekhine-Albin–Chatard Attack. White offers to sacrificed a P to keep the
black K in the center, as castling on either side appears unsafe f6 Black
may decline the gambit in several ways, but this is not one of them. 6...c5 is
good. 6...xg5 Accepting the gambit. In practice it's a bit risky for
black to do so. 7.hxg5 xg5 8.h3 The reason for this move rather than 8.
Nf3 is to play Qg4 e7 9.g4 White has the initiative. 7.d3 It's
already apparent that black is going to be facing some pressure on the K-side. c5 7...fxg5 is just too risky. 8.h5+ g6 9.xg6+ hxg6 10.xh8+ and
nobody would want to try and defend black's position. 7...c6 is worth a
try, but after 8.exf6 xf6 9.f3 white wil play Qd2 and O-O-O with good
attacking chances. 8.exf6 8.h5+ is better. f8 9.e3 Correct is 8.
exf6 with a slight plus. fxe5 10.dxe5 d4 11.h3 dxe3 12.f3+ f6 13.exf6 exf2+ 14.xf2 d4+ 15.e2 xf6 Black has successfully defended himself and
went on to win in Neatby,L-Haley,P Canada 1945 8...xf6 9.dxc5 bd7
Castling was better. 9...0-0 10.h5 h6 and black has no problems. 10.b5 10.h5 0-0 11.h6 g6 Black's position is difficult, but certainly defendable.
10...0-0 Black has survived the opening and is even a bit better because
white has no real attacking chances. 11.f3 11.h5 h6 12.h4 xc5 and
black is clearly better. 11...xc5 12.e2 a6 13.d3 xd3+ 14.xd3 b5
15.xf6 gxf6 16.0-0-0 f7 17.b1 As wiil be seen 17.a3 was more
accurate. d7 Here Guimard's play gets just a bit passive and that's all
Rohacek needs to renew his attack. 17...b4 18.e2 a5 19.h5 a4 20.ed4 b6 and it's white's turn to tend to his King. 18.g4 b4 19.e2 c7 This is just a bit too passive. 19...e5 a promising P sacrifice for
active play. 20.xd5 b5 with equal chances. 20.g5 g7 20...fxg5 21.hxg5 b5 22.e3 xe2 23.xe2 f4 is no defense. White gains a decisive
advantage with... 24.g6 hxg6 25.e5 g7 26.d3 A winning r-lift. f6 27.g4 e7 28.xf6+ xf6 29.f3 g7 30.fh3 Black cannot hold this position. 21.fd4 a5 Black presses on with his Q-side plans, nut he needed
to turn his attemtion to the defense of his K. 21...fxg5 22.hxg5 e5
This counter in the center is much more effective thn playing on the Q-side. 23.f5 xf5 24.xf5 f8 and white can only clim a minimal advantage. 22.f5 Surprise! Black has overlooked a Q fork on his R and a8R.
White wins! c8 22...exf5 23.xd5+ h8 24.xa8+ c8 25.xa5 with a won
position. 23.xg7 xg7 24.gxf6+ xf6 The remainder of the game is a
matter of technique. 25.g3+ xg3 26.fxg3 f7 27.g4 c7 28.g5 e5 29.c1 g6 30.d3 d6 31.df1 c8 32.f6+ g7 33.hf1 e8 Prevents
Rf7+. 34.f4 xf4 35.6xf4 The ending is going to require some
thought on white' prt, but Rohacek is up to the task of sqeezing out the win. b8? This hastens the end. 35...g6 was worth a try. 36.1f2 f5
And now white;s best course it to transpose into a won R+P ending. 37.xf5 exf5 38.xf5 c5 39.b3 holding up black's Ps. g6 40.f6+ g7 41.b2
Black is out of meaningful moves. c3 42.f5 h3 43.xd5 xh4 44.xa5 36.c1 e5 37.f6 h5 38.a6 e4 39.xa5 e3 40.xd5 g6 41.d7+ g8 42.c7
Black resigned. 42.c7 e2 43.e1 e8 44.c4 h5 Baiting a trap...white
still wins, but taking the c0Pawn here would only make thing more difficult. 45.d4 45.xb4 d8 46.xe2 xe2 45...h6 45...f8 46.d2 wins easily. 46.gxh6 h7 47.d2 xh6 48.xb4 with a clear win. 1–0
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