The US-Canadian Border War of 1950

    On Sunday, June 25th of 1950, troops from Communist-dominated North Korea launched a series of attacks across the border into American-backed South Korea along the 38th parallel, which divides the Northern and Southern parts of Korea. The result was a war that lasted until July 27, 1953. 

    Just a week before that, on June 18, 1950, players from the United States and Canada met in in a series of matches in cities along the 3,000 mile long border from Washington state to Maine in a chess war that lasted only one day. In this war the United States won. 

 

 

    The following game was played on board 2 between the teams from New Yor, Ohio and Pennsylvania against a team from Ontario. On board one was Glen Hartleb, an Expert from Erie, Pennsylvania. He was a friend of the nefarious Norman T. Whitaker with whom he coauthored a book on endgame studies. In 1962, Hartleb was killed in a car accident in which Whitaker was seriously injured.

    Hartleb's opponent on board one was Frank Anderson (1928-1980), who became the first Canadian born player to receive the IM title (1954). 

    Conducting the white pieces in today's featured game was Povilas Vaitonis (1911-1983), a Lithuanian–Canadian Master. In 1948, he moved to Canada and settled in Hamilton, Ontario. He was a five-time Lithuanian (1934, 1937, 1938,1942 and 1944) champion and was Canadian champion twice (1951 and 1957). 

    His opponent was New York Master Roy T. Black (1888-1962), a judge by profession who had a +1 -3 =1 score against Capablanca. 

    The game itself is a delightful little game. It was amusing to read the original notes...the annotator did what was common in the days of yesteryear...his annotations were based on the result, praising every move of the winner and criticizing every move of the loser. 

    Of course, Stockfish is a lot more objective. Fritz' analysis function assigns a Weighted Error Value to th game. In this game the values are: White=0.74 and Black=0.87, so the mistakes were not huge and the game was more closely contested than the original annotator gave credit for. I am not sure what Weighted Error Value is, but I do know that the lower the score the better. If you care to wade through the article, ChessBase has what I think is an explanation HERE.

[Event "Border Match, Niagra Falls, Canada"] [Site "?"] [Date "1950.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Povilas Vaitonis (Ontario)"] [Black "Roy T. Black (New York)"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A16"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "51"] [EventDate "1950.??.??"] {A16: English Opening} 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 c6 3. e4 {[%mdl 32]} d5 4. cxd5 { More common is 3.exd5 followed by 4.d4 with a Queen's Gambit setup.} cxd5 5. e5 Ng4 {An innovation and not a very good one as he will end up losing time repositioning the N. His best move is 5...d4} (5... Ne4 {This has also been tried.} 6. Nf3 (6. Nxe4 dxe4 7. Qa4+ Nc6 8. Qxe4 {is equal. Pogorelov,R (2326) -Bailet,P (2484) Sitges ESP 2014}) 6... Nc6 7. Be2 Bg4 8. O-O e6 9. d4 { equals. Hjartarson,J (2590)-Chernin,A (2600) New York 1995}) (5... d4 6. exf6 dxc3 7. bxc3 exf6 {This boring position offers equal chances.}) 6. d4 g6 { Ordinarily this prepare to fianchetto the B, but here it's to keep black from getting his K-side destroyed after the N is forced back to h6 and white plays Bxh6.} 7. Bd3 Nc6 8. Nf3 {White is clearly better thanks to blak's awkwardly place N.} Nh6 {Already black has development problems.} 9. Qb3 e6 {Now there is a bad hole on f6 and white immediately takes advantage of it!} (9... Bg7 { was worth a try.} 10. h4 Nf5 11. Be3 Nxe3 12. fxe3 Bh6 13. Kf2 O-O 14. Qxd5 { White is a P up and and has more space and so is clearly better, but at least black's K-side is intact.}) 10. Bg5 Qa5 11. O-O Nf5 12. Ne2 Bg7 13. g4 { Vaitonis is not wasting time and is going in for the kill.} Nfe7 14. Nc3 { Perhaps white was thinking about Nb5-d6, but it never somes to that.} (14. Bf6 {is more deadly.} Rg8 {An awful move to have to play,. but there is nothing better.} (14... Bxf6 15. exf6 Ng8 16. g5 {and black's position is too ugly to look at.}) 15. Rfc1 Bd7 16. Rc5 Qb6 17. Rb5 {and black has no play anywhere on the boiard.}) 14... h5 {Being able to use the h-file is a pretty forlorn hope.} 15. h3 {[%mdl 32]} hxg4 {Opening the h-file is only going to help white, but black has to try something.} 16. hxg4 a6 17. Bf6 {This is a slip that allows black to equalize. White should have played 17.Kg2 and then used the h-file to his advantage.} (17. Kg2 Qb4 18. Qxb4 Nxb4 19. Be2 Bd7 20. Rh1 Rxh1 21. Rxh1 Ng8 22. Rh7 Kf8 23. a3 Nc6 24. Na4 Rb8 25. Nc5 {with a very good position.}) 17... Bxf6 18. exf6 Ng8 {This is a natural move, but it's the wrong followup.} (18... Qc7 {A very fine move that makes the once dreamed about K-side attack possible. Black threatens to plunge his Q into the very guts of white's position.} 19. Na4 {a pass to demonstrate black's threat.} Qf4 {Black has too many threats to be met.} 20. Bf5 {This holds out the longest.} Nxd4 21. Kg2 Nexf5 22. Rg1 Nxb3 23. axb3 Nd4 24. Nh4 Rxh4 25. Kf1 Qf3 26. Nc3 Qd3+ 27. Ne2 Rh2 28. Re1 Qh3+ 29. Rg2 Qxg2#) 19. g5 {This totally quashes any hope black had of generating K-side play.} Bd7 (19... Rh3 {causes only a temporary lill in the action as white can easily defend with} 20. Be2 Rh5 21. Qd1 Qd8 22. Re1 Nxf6 {This is his best hope, but after} 23. gxf6 Qxf6 24. Bf1 Rf5 25. Re3 Bd7 26. Bg2 {White has fended off the attack and should be abler to grind out a win.}) 20. a3 {It would have been better to snatch the b-Pawn, but the complications that result in white winning would be hard to calculate OTB, so it's hard to criticize this move.} (20. Qxb7 Ra7 21. Qb3 Rh3 22. Qd1 Rb7 23. Kg2 e5 24. Rh1 Rxh1 25. Qxh1 e4 26. Ne5 Nxe5 (26... exd3 27. Qh8 Kf8 28. Qg7+ Ke8 29. Qxg8#) 27. Qh8 Kd8 28. Qxg8+ Be8 29. Rh1 Qb6 30. Rh8 Qe6 31. Bxa6 { with an easy win.}) 20... Qc7 {Missing his chance to counterattack and breathe new life into his position.} (20... Rh3 21. Qd1 Nxf6 22. gxf6 O-O-O 23. Kg2 Rdh8 {with complete equality! In Shootouts from this position white scored +1 -0 =4}) 21. Ne2 {Putting th kibosh on ...Qf4} Qd6 {The original annotator was critical of this asking the question was black's only reason for this move a desire to get his Q off the open c-file? The truth is that there is nothing else that is even slightly better.} (21... e5 {is a bid for active play, but after} 22. Qxd5 Be6 23. Qc5 Rd8 24. Qc2 exd4 25. Rfe1 Qd6 26. Rad1 {White's advantage will prove decisive because black is, in effect, playing without the N and R. He is also faving a potential Bxg3.}) 22. Qb6 {Hereabouts Stockfish is recommending different move because they are a few hundredths of a P better, but that is inconsequential,} e5 {...and loses.} (22... Rh3 {is better, but it would not save the game.} 23. Ne5 {and black is out of useful moves and can only wait for the inevitable.}) 23. Nxe5 Qe6 {This allows an abrupt end, but he was lost no matter what he played.} (23... Rd8 24. Nf4 Nxf6) 24. Nf4 Qd6 25. Rfe1 Kf8 26. Qc5 {Black resigned.} (26. Qc5 Qxc5 27. Nxd7#) 1-0