Prague 1946, It Could Have Been a Great Event

Ivan Rohacek

    Needless to say, beginning with the 1939 Olympiad in Buenos Aires, World War II put a damper on international chess. The after the war when Alekhine died in March of 1946 things were even more clouded. 

    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. 

[Event "Prague"] [Site "Prague CSR"] [Date "1946.10.11"] [Round "7"] [White "Ivan Rohacek"] [Black "Carlos Guimard"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C13"] [Annotator "Stocjfiah 16"] [PlyCount "83"] [EventDate "1946.01.05"] {C14: French: Alekhine-Albin-Chatard Attack} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 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... Bxg5 {Accepting the gambit. In practice it's a bit risky for black to do so.} 7. hxg5 Qxg5 8. Nh3 {The reason for this move rather than 8. Nf3 is to play Qg4} Qe7 9. Qg4 {White has the initiative.}) 7. Bd3 {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. Qh5+ g6 9. Bxg6+ hxg6 10. Qxh8+ {and nobody would want to try and defend black's position.}) (7... Nc6 {is worth a try, but after} 8. exf6 Nxf6 9. Nf3 {white wil play Qd2 and O-O-O with good attacking chances.}) 8. exf6 (8. Qh5+ {is better.} Kf8 9. Be3 {Correct is 8. exf6 with a slight plus.} fxe5 10. dxe5 d4 11. Rh3 dxe3 12. Rf3+ Nf6 13. exf6 exf2+ 14. Kxf2 Qd4+ 15. Ke2 Bxf6 {Black has successfully defended himself and went on to win in Neatby,L-Haley,P Canada 1945}) 8... Nxf6 9. dxc5 Nbd7 { Castling was better.} (9... O-O 10. h5 h6 {and black has no problems.}) 10. Bb5 (10. h5 O-O 11. h6 g6 {Black's position is difficult, but certainly defendable. }) 10... O-O {Black has survived the opening and is even a bit better because white has no real attacking chances.} 11. Nf3 (11. h5 h6 12. Bh4 Nxc5 {and black is clearly better.}) 11... Nxc5 12. Qe2 a6 13. Bd3 Nxd3+ 14. Qxd3 b5 { [%mdl 32]} 15. Bxf6 gxf6 16. O-O-O Rf7 17. Kb1 {As wiil be seen 17.a3 was more accurate.} Bd7 {Here Guimard's play gets just a bit passive and that's all Rohacek needs to renew his attack.} (17... b4 18. Ne2 a5 19. h5 a4 20. Ned4 Qb6 {and it's white's turn to tend to his King.}) 18. g4 {[%mdl 32]} b4 19. Ne2 Qc7 {This is just a bit too passive.} (19... e5 {a promising P sacrifice for active play.} 20. Qxd5 Bb5 {with equal chances.}) 20. g5 Rg7 (20... fxg5 21. hxg5 Bb5 22. Qe3 Bxe2 23. Qxe2 Qf4 {is no defense. White gains a decisive advantage with...} 24. g6 hxg6 25. Ne5 Rg7 26. Rd3 {A winning r-lift.} Bf6 27. Ng4 Re7 28. Nxf6+ Qxf6 29. Rf3 Qg7 30. Rfh3 {Black cannot hold this position.}) 21. Nfd4 a5 {[%mdl 8192] 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. Nf5 Bxf5 24. Qxf5 Rf8 {and white can only clim a minimal advantage.}) 22. Nf5 {[%mdl 512] Surprise! Black has overlooked a Q fork on his R and a8R. White wins!} Rc8 (22... exf5 23. Qxd5+ Kh8 24. Qxa8+ Qc8 25. Qxa5 {with a won position.}) 23. Nxg7 Kxg7 24. gxf6+ Bxf6 {The remainder of the game is a matter of technique.} 25. Qg3+ Qxg3 26. fxg3 {[%mdl 32]} Kf7 27. g4 Rc7 28. g5 Be5 29. Nc1 Kg6 30. Nd3 Bd6 31. Rdf1 Rc8 32. Rf6+ Kg7 33. Rhf1 Be8 {Prevents Rf7+.} 34. Nf4 Bxf4 35. R6xf4 {[%mdl 4096] The ending is going to require some thought on white' prt, but Rohacek is up to the task of sqeezing out the win.} Rb8 $2 {This hastens the end.} (35... Bg6 {was worth a try.} 36. R1f2 Bf5 { And now white;s best course it to transpose into a won R+P ending.} 37. Rxf5 exf5 38. Rxf5 Rc5 39. b3 {holding up black's Ps.} Kg6 40. Rf6+ Kg7 41. Kb2 { Black is out of meaningful moves.} Rc3 42. Rf5 Rh3 43. Rxd5 Rxh4 44. Rxa5) 36. Kc1 e5 37. Rf6 Bh5 38. Ra6 e4 39. Rxa5 e3 40. Rxd5 Bg6 41. Rd7+ Kg8 42. Rc7 { Black resigned.} (42. Rc7 e2 43. Re1 Re8 44. Rc4 Bh5 {Baiting a trap...white still wins, but taking the c0Pawn here would only make thing more difficult.} 45. Rd4 (45. Rxb4 Rd8 46. Rxe2 Bxe2) 45... h6 (45... Rf8 46. Kd2 {wins easily.} ) 46. gxh6 Kh7 47. Kd2 Kxh6 48. Rxb4 {with a clear win.}) 1-0