Viktor Goglidze

    Yesterday saw a swath of cold drizzle 250 miles wide and 800 miles long that hung around all day. It was a good day to browse some old chess books. The one I selected was The Soviet School of Chess by Kotov and Yudovich. 

    It was first translated from the Russian and published by the Foreign Languages Publishing House (Moscow) in 1958. If you can find it, this original edition is the one to get. 

    It’s full of propaganda, but it contains bios of many of the older Russian players. Unfortunately many of them have been deleted from the new editions, for example, Bondarevsky, Levenfish, Korchnoi, etc. In my first edition, there is an entire chapter on Alekhine, who the authors claimed was Russia’s greatest player; it’s missing from later editions. 

    One of the old Russian Masters in my book is Viktor Goglidze (November 27, 1905 – September 15,1964, 58 years old) who was awarded the IM title in 1950.

    In 1925, at the age of 20, he won the championship of Tbiliai in where he displayed a good understanding of positional play and he demonstrated the ability to put up a tenacious defense. 

    After a number of major successes in local tournaments he fought a stubborn and thrilling match against Nikolai Grigoriev which he lost by a score of +4 -5 =1. Taking into account the lessons he learned from that match which disclosed shortcomings in his play, in 1930, after making a good showing in tournaments in the Ukraine, Uzbek and other local events, Goglidze beat Vladimir Nenarokov 7.5-4.5 in a classification match and so gained his Soviet Master title. 

    Shortly before the outbreak of WWII he was awarded the title of Soviet Honored Master and in 1950 a publishing house in Tbilisi published a book of his best games.

 

 

    His opponent in the following game was Vsevolod Rauzer (1908-1941, 33 years old) who was the Ukrainian champion in 1927 and joint champion in 1933. After 1937, ill health brought Rauzer's playing career to an end. Confined to a mental hospital, he died during the siege of Leningrad in 1941. His contributions to opening theory influenced play long after his death. 

    The game starts out slowly, but what looks like a small slip by Rauzer quickly proves to be into a disaster. When black resigned he could have played on on hopes that white would botch the win.

 

[Event "Semi-Finals USSR Chp, Tbilisi"] [Site "Tbilisi"] [Date "1934.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Viktor Goglidze"] [Black "Vsevolod Rauzer"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D37"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17"] [PlyCount "51"] [EventDate "1934.??.??"] {E14: Queen's Indian: Classical Variation} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Be2 b6 7. O-O Bb7 8. b3 Nbd7 9. Bb2 c5 10. cxd5 Nxd5 11. Nxd5 Bxd5 12. Rc1 Rc8 13. Ba6 Rc7 14. Qe2 Qa8 15. Rfd1 Bb7 16. Bxb7 Qxb7 17. dxc5 Nxc5 18. Qc4 {Bored yet? The action will pick up shortly.} (18. Be5 Rcc8 19. Rc2 Nd7 20. Bb2 Bf6 21. Bxf6 Nxf6 22. Rdc1 {It's no surprise that Petran,P (2320)-Lipka,J (2419) Austria 2014 was eventually drawn.}) 18... Rcc8 19. Qg4 f6 {This weakens the K's position. After the better 19...g6 the B can cover the dark squares.} 20. Nd4 {[%mdl 128] Positionally white can claim to be better if for o otyher reasin that he has K-side attacking chances. Still, black's position is not horrible and so what could go wrong?} Qd7 {Plenty! Putting hs Q opposite white's R on an open file simply cannot be good. A A puzzle-like move to finish the game has escaped Rauzer's attention.} (20... h5 {Hoping to get the Q off line of his K was worth a try.} 21. Qxh5 (21. Qg6 Qd5 {Black is holding on.}) 21... Rfd8 {and with luck black maybe able to survive although it's unlikely; in Shootouts white scored +4 -0 =1}) 21. b4 {Driving the N to a useless location on the edge of the board.} h5 22. Qg6 {This is better now than in the note because black has to move the N and so doesn't have time to play ...Qd5} Na4 {White can afford to simply ignore the threat to his B.} (22... Rfd8 {offers no salvation.} 23. Qxh5 (23. Nf5 Qxd1+ 24. Rxd1 Rxd1#) 23... Na4 24. Nc6 {and it's all over for black.}) 23. Nf5 {Threatening both mate and the Q leaves black hopeless.} Qxd1+ (23... Bd6 {Shields the Q and guards g7, but white still wins after} 24. Rxc8 Rxc8 25. Rxd6 Qf7 26. Nh6+ Kh8 27. Nxf7+ Kg8 {White mates in 3} 28. Rd7) 24. Rxd1 exf5 25. Bd4 Bxb4 26. Qxf5 {Black resigned. He might have played on because even though white has a winning material advantage the winning process is somewhat tedious.} (26. Qxf5 {A likely continuation might be} Rfd8 27. Qxh5 Bc3 28. g3 Bxd4 29. Rxd4 Nc5 30. Rxd8+ Rxd8 31. h4 Ne6 32. g4 Nf8 33. Qf5 Rd6 34. Kg2 Kf7 35. Qf4 Re6 36. Qc7+ Re7 37. Qc4+ Re6 38. Kg3 a5 39. Qc7+ Kg8 40. Qd8 Kf7 41. h5 Kg8 42. Qc7 Nh7 43. Qc4 Nf8 44. f4 Kh7 45. Qd3+ Kg8 46. Kf3 Re7 47. Qb3+ Rf7 48. Qxb6 a4 49. a3 Re7 50. Qc6 Ne6 51. Qxa4 Kf7 52. Qb3 Ke8 53. a4 Kd7 54. Qb5+ Kd8 55. a5 Nc7 56. Qb8+ Kd7 57. a6 Re8 58. a7 Rd8 59. Qb3 Kc6 60. Qf7 Nd5 61. Qxg7 Re8 62. e4 Nc7 63. Qxf6+ {with an elementary win.}) 1-0