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| Meir Romm at play |
Romm worked in the Office of the State Comptroller. He was the Israeli Army Champion in 1959 and played for Israel in the World Student Olympiads in 1964 and 1965. Romm participated in the Israeli championships between1965 and 1990, his best result was in1976 when he tied for 2nd–3rd.
The site Tripadvisor, says of Netanya, Israel (population 173,00 plus) which lies on the Mediterranean coast, “It is currently recommended to avoid all non-essential travel to some parts of this area.” The British government currently advises against all but essential travel there.”
The reason is that in October of 2023 there was a large-scale terrorist attack by Hamas in southern Israel and the threat of terrorist attacks remains. The British government advises that, “There are continued exchanges of rocket, drone and small arms fire over Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and a potential increase in rocket attacks and other incidents of violence across Israel…”
That wasn’t the case in 1973. Perhaps the biggest story of the event was the return of Czech GM Ludek Pachman (1924-2003) after a lapse of five years during which time he has been in prison. 
Pachman had always been politically active, first as a Communist and later as a staunch anti-Communist. In December of 1968, he won a tournament in Athens. And, when he got back home to Prague, he was arrested, imprisoned and tortured.
He attempted suicide and on Christmas Eve of1969, doctors called his wife and told her that he probably would not survive the night. He did survive though and finally, in 1972, he was allowed to emigrate to West Germany where he became known as a strongly anti-Communist political activist. At Netanya he told of how his chess books were banned in Prague and he could hardly get tournament invitations.
Romm’s Queen sacrifice and the N sacrifice that followed it were brilliant and his win was well deserved even if the followup play was somewhat flawed.
Meir Romm–Stefano Tatai1–0C18NetanyaNetanya ISR1973Stockfidh 16
C19: French Defense, Winawer Variation 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.c3 b4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 xc3+ A risky alternative is 5...Ba5 5...a5 6.b4 cxd4 White has
two good continuations: 7.Qg4 or 7.Nb5, both of which have given good results. 6...cxb4 is a mistake. 7.b5 c6 8.d2 bxa3 9.xa3 xd2+ White has
good compensation for the P. 10.xd2 6.bxc3 How is this position to be
evaluated? White has a space advan and the B pair. In particular his dark
squared N can often be actively developed on a3. However, black gas good
counterchances. He has the potential for a strong attack down the c-flie when
white's P on c2 can become very weak if black manages to exchange
light-squared Bs. An alternative plan for black is to establish a blockade by .
..c5-c4 when either his light squared B or Q can be posted on a4. If white
tries to prevent this by playing a3-a4 then the P can be captured after ...Qa5
and ...Bd7. The result would be very complicayed play. c7 The main line is
6...Ne7. With the text black wants to answer 7.Qg4 with 7...f5 6...a5
is sometimes played, but it should be avoided! 7.d2 and black will bave to
lose time moving his Q to a square where it will not be especially well placed.
7.f3 White decides to avoid the double-edged play arising from 7.Qg4
which in theory should give him good chances. 7.g4 f5 He could also play
the bery sharp 7...Ne7 8.g3 It is also possible to play 8.Qh5+ e7 9.xg7 g8 This position favors white; in practice black has had poor results. 7...e7 8.a4 b6 Black plans to exchange the white-squared Bs by ...Ba6. 9.b5+ If 9.Bd3 then 9...Ba6 d7 10.d3 bc6 11.0-0 h6 Black must delay castling
which would be answered by the standard sacrifice Bxh7+. It shoulf be noted
that the play after this sacrifice gets quite complicated. The best line is as
follows, but there are many side lines! 11...0-0 12.xh7+ xh7 13.g5+ g6 14.h4 h8 15.g4 f5 16.g3 f4 17.xf4 f5 18.g4 xh4 19.gxf5+ White has
regained the piece and black is lost, but there is mo forced win. The best
lines is... h5 20.f3+ g4+ 21.h1 cxd4 22.xe6 xe5 23.f4+ g5 24.g6+ f6 25.xg4 xf5 26.xf5+ xf5 27.f4 White has what should be a won
ending. 12.h4 An alternative (but not better) plan was to defend the
e-Pawn with 12.Re1 and play Ba3 putting pressure on the P on c5. 0-0 13.f4
An interesting, but not to say better, alternative was 13.Nh2 intending Ng4. c4 This move is a strategic error because it blocking the Q-side and allows
white a free hand to proceed with his K-side attack. 13...cxd4 was the
proper move. The result is equal play after 14.cxd4 b4 15.d2 xd3 16.cxd3 16.xh6 is met by b2 16...gxh6 17.xh6 xc2 18.g5 f4 and there is
no white attac so black is winning. 17.xg7 xg7 18.g5+ g6 with a clear
advantage. 14.e2 f5 15.h5 h7 16.d2 g8 As will be soon seem, black
wants to obtain play on the K-side. It's a faulty plan because in only helps
white. 16...e8 17.h4 a5 And white's position is only slightly favorable
because there is no effective way for him to continue his K-side attack and
black can get a little counterplay with ...b5. 17.g3 e8 18.h4 c8 19.g2 xh5 This is in accordance with his fatal idea of play on the k-side, but all
it does is open up lines for white's pieces. 19...a6 20.h1 b5 was his
best bet. White is better, but there is no immediate win. 20.xh5 g5
Agter this it appears at first glace that black's idea was not a bad one! 21.h1! The threat is Bxg5 opening up the h-file. gxf4 22.xf4 g7 No doubt
played with the intention of doubling on the g-file, but it runs into an
outright refutation which he could have prevented with 22...Qf8, but he would
still have been lost. Thankfully for us, Tatai missed the answer to this move. 23.xh6+ A beautiful sacrifice which cannot be refused. xh6
Here white has only one move that will win. 23...g8 This allows a mate in
9 24.g6 h7 25.xe7+ xe7 26.f7+ xf7 27.f6+ e8 28.xh7 b7 29.f7+ d8 30.f8+ c7 31.xe7+ c6 32.xb7# 24.xf5+ Anything else
would lose! 24.f3 g8 25.f7+ g7 26.xg8 xg8 with a clear win. 24...g5 All other moves lead to mate. 24...xf5 25.f7+ h4+ 26.xh4+ g5 27.h5+ g4 28.f3# 24...exf5 25.f7+ g5 26.h5+ g4 27.f3# 25.d6 25.xg7 was considerably better. h6 26.xe6 xe6 27.f7+ g7 28.xe6
leaves white with an easy win. 25...g6 Once again white must find the
only move that wins. 26.xc8 26.xg6 leaves black with only one move that
does not leave him at a severe disadvantage. xg6 27.xc8 xc8 In this
position black is better...technically at least. 26...xc8 27.f4+ xf4+ 27...f5 is not as good. After... 28.f3 Threatening Bg4# gxe5+ 29.dxe5 xe5+ 29...cg8 30.g4+ xg4 31.xg4+ xg4 32.h5+ g6 33.xg4 30.fxe5 xe5 31.g4 White is winning. Here is a sample line... d6 32.g3 a6 33.hf1 h8 34.h4 c5 35.f6 e7 36.e1 e5 37.b1 b8 38.g5 e4 39.g6 e3 40.f3 b5 41.axb5 axb5 42.f5 d8 43.d1 e2 44.e1 d6 45.g5 g7 46.f6 xf6 47.xf6 xg6+ 48.xg6 b4 49.cxb4+ xb4 50.xe2 d4 51.f5 c3 52.e4 d3 53.cxd3 cxd3 54.e3 28.gxf4+ xf4+ 29.f2 cg8 Even though material
is even, black's K is too exposed for him to hold out for long. 30.f3
An unfortunate slip that reduces white's advantage to a minimum...if black
finds the best reply. 30.h4++- and the rest is easy. f5 31.f3 31.f1 xe5 32.dxe5 g2+ 33.e3+ xe5± 30...d8 ...which he
does not! Here it was black's turn to sacrifice. 30...xe5 31.dxe5 xe5 32.h5+ d6 and black can make a fight of it. In fact, 5 Shootout games were
long and arduous with white winning one and 4 draws. 31.h6 Things are
back on track; the threat is Rg6+ g6 32.ah1 Another inaccuracy that
leaves white with only a slight advantage. 32.h4+ was much better. f5 33.f1 g3 34.h5+ f4 35.e2 Black has no satisfactory move. a6 36.xd5+ g4 37.fh1 xc3 38.1h4+ g3 39.h3+ g4 40.f3+ xf3 41.5h4+ g5 42.xf3 f8+ 43.g3 g6 44.g4+ f7 45.h7+ and wins. 32...xh6 33.xh6
There is now no mate if black defends correctly, but white has excellent
winning chances in the ending because his R can penetrate into black's
position. In any case, black's defense will be difficult. f8 33...g5 34.h7 a6 35.e3 b5 and black can at least make white work for the win. 34.g6 Threatens to win with Rg4+. f5 34...h8 was a better defense. 35.g4+ f5 36.g3 a6 White is better, but he still may not be able to find the
route to the win. 35.g7 a5 Overlooking mate in 2 35...f7 would make
white work for the win. In view of the length of the winn one wonders if, in
practice, white could win at all. 36.g3 d8 37.g2 c6 38.f3 xe5+ 39.dxe5 xe5+ 40.e3 d6 41.xa7 f5 42.f3 e5+ 43.f2 f5 44.b7 c5 45.h7 f8 46.e3 g8 47.h6 d6 48.d2 g1 49.h5 h1 50.h7 h2+ 51.c1 h3 52.b2 e5 53.g6 f3 54.b7 c5 55.f7 g3 56.f6 d4 57.cxd4+ exd4 58.e8 d3 59.cxd3 cxd3 60.c3 d2+ 61.xd2 g8 62.b5 g2+ 63.d3 g3+ 64.e4 g4+ 65.f5 g8 66.c6+ b4 67.xb6 The win is still a ways off! a5 68.a6+ b4 69.d6 g1 70.e6 c5 71.c6+ b4 72.d7 g7+ 73.d6 f7 74.b6 g7 75.c6 g6+ 76.c7 g7+ 77.d7+ c5 78.a5 g1 79.c6+ d4 80.d6+ e3 81.a6 a1 82.b5 xa6 83.xa6 36.e3 It's mate after 37.Bg4#, so
black resigned. 1–0
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