Postal Nostalgia

    The other day I was going through some of my old games and some played in 1972 caught my attention. For readers who don’t remember 1972, girls were wearing maxi dresses (they reached to the floor, boo!), mini skirts (they reached mid-thigh, hooray!). 

    PONG became the first commercially successful video game. Digital watch made their debut and they were just as clunky as PONG. 

    The popular TV program Star Trek spawned Trekkies and the first Star Trek fan convention took place in New York City. HBO came to television making it possible to watch violence, nudity and obscenity right in the comfort of your own living room. 

    Players lost that year were Victor Soultanbeiff (1895-1972) the former Belgium champion. IM Georgy Lisitsin (1909-1972) died in Leningrad. Sir George Thomas (1881-1972) died in London at the age of 91. Kenneth Harkness (1896-1972) an organizer and creator of the Harkness rating system died on a train in Yugoslavia, on his way to Skopje to be an arbiter at the Chess Olympiad.

    Mikhail Tal won the Soviet Championship. Walter Browne won the National Open (on tiebreaks over Louis Levy) and the National Congress Premier Championship held in Chicago. Browne also won the US Open in Atlantic City. Anatoly Karpov, Tigran Petrosian and Lajos Portisch tied for first in Church’s Fried Chicken International in San Antonio. Finally, on September 2, 1972, Bobby Fischer became the World Champion when he defeated Boris Spassky. 

    It was also the year I played a correspondence game in the Finals of the U.S. Open Postal Championship against USCF Senior Master Arthur Feuerstein, a former (otb) U.S. Championship competitor, with a USCF rating of 2427 which ranked him #14 in the country. Fischer topped the list at 2825 and second place went to Lubomir Kavalek at 2573. I had some pretty good results and my rating was up around 2100. 

    I was primarily a correspondence player though and my postal rating with the USCF (which had absorbed the old Chess Review) was 1280. Feuerstein’s was 1514. The top rated player was a New York player named Reuben Klugman at 1846. 

    Sadly, Feuerstein (born in 1935) passed away on February 2, 2022. 

Feuerstein and I had previously met in 1970 in the semi-finals and I had black. I had a won game (4.75 Pawns to the good) according to Stockfish, but miscalculated a tactical sequence and lost! We met again in the finals and I was determined to do better. The following calamity was the result. 

[Event "U.S.Open Postal Champ Finals"] [Site ""] [Date "1972.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Tartajubow"] [Black "Arthur Feuerstein"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B99"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17"] [PlyCount "58"] [EventDate "1972.??.??"] [WhiteTeamCountry "IND"] [BlackTeamCountry "ENG"] {B99: Sicilian Najdorf} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Be7 8. Qf3 Qc7 9. O-O-O Nbd7 10. g4 b5 11. Bxf6 Nxf6 12. g5 Nd7 13. a3 Rb8 14. h4 b4 15. axb4 Rxb4 16. Bh3 Qc5 17. Nb3 Qb6 {There's not much to say about the opening. I was using The Sicilian Flank Game by Albrec O'Kelly that was published in 1969, sp the opening was pretty up to date. Remember there was no Internet in those days. That was 10 years in the future.} 18. f5 {Evidently we had reached the end of the book line. This move looked logical to me and it's certainly an aggressive one, but it actually favors black if only slightly.} (18. Na2 {This is the engine's top choice. I played it later, but it was too late to equalize!} Rc4 19. Nc3 O-O 20. Rhe1 {with a completely equal (0.00) position.}) (18. Rhf1 O-O 19. f5 {Just like in my game this slightly favors black. At least I am not alone in thinking it was a good idea. White should offer to trade Qs with 19.Qf2 with equality.} Ne5 20. Qg3 Rd8 {More accurate is 20...a5 at once.} 21. h5 a5 22. g6 {The chances are about even. Manik,M (2385)-Navara,D (2466) Czechia 2001}) (18. h5 {An interesting possibility.} Nc5 19. Nxc5 Qxc5 20. Rhg1 a5 21. g6 fxg6 22. hxg6 h6 {with approximate equality. Oleksienko,M (2492)-Grekh,A (2294) Alushta 2005}) 18... Ne5 {This centralizes the N and gains a tempo by attacking the Q. After the Q moves off the f-file there's no attack along it after fxe6. If it goes to f4 then white has problems.} 19. Qg3 (19. Qf4 a5 20. Rhf1 a4 21. Nd2 Bd7 22. fxe6 fxe6 {White's attack has run out iof gas and black has a distinct advantage.}) 19... Bd7 20. Rhe1 {At this point I realized I did not have an attack and things were not going well, so the point of this move is to exchange Qs.} (20. Rhf1 a5 {White has no attack on the f-file so offering to trade Q was in order.} 21. Qg1 Qxg1 (21... a4 22. Qxb6 Rxb6 {and white is a little better.} 23. Nd4) (21... Qa6 22. Nd4 {with full equality.}) 22. Rxg1 g6 23. fxe6 fxe6 {and white has hopes of surviving.}) 20... a5 21. Na2 Rc4 22. Qe3 Qxe3+ 23. Rxe3 {Unfortunately the exchange of Qs has mot helped mu y position even a ltlle bit.} exf5 {After this total collapse is imminent.} 24. Bf1 (24. exf5 Rxh4 25. Rg3 Rxh3 26. Rxh3 Bxf5 {Material is about equal (R vs. B+2Ps, but in the long run black has a decisive advantage. A sample line...} 27. Rg3 Bg4 28. Rd5 Bxg5+ 29. Kb1 h5 30. Nc3 f5 31. Rg1 Nf3 32. Rh1 a4 33. Nxa4 Bf4 { and white cannot compete with black's active play on the K-side.}) 24... Rxe4 25. Rxe4 fxe4 26. Nc3 a4 27. Nd2 e3 28. Nde4 h6 29. Be2 hxg5 {White resigned. Fritz assigned white a accuracy rating of 29%. Feuerstein's accuracy rating? It was 92%. You can't compete with that!} 0-1