Consequently, Cuba was one of the greatest beneficiaries of the United States' Lend-Lease program. Still, Cuba did not declare war on the Axis powers until December 1941, making it one of the first Latin American countries to enter the war. Cuba lost six merchant ships during the war and the Cuban Navy was credited with sinking one German submarine.
Before Cuba got fully involved in the war, there was a tournament held in Havana toward the end of January in 1940 that aroused great interest, but only in Cuba. The only major chess magazine in the U.S. in those days was Chess Review and despite the fact that Isaac Kashdan who was one of the country’s top players (along with Samuel Reshevsky and Reuben Fine) won the tournament it received scant mention and only a few games survive. 
The event was held in one of the mo st beautiful buildings in Havana, the Centro Asturiano. During the evening tourists watched the games. The players we re entertained by various government offices and they were taken on outings by the city’s notable citizens.
In the following game Kashdan defeats a player known only as “Paz” in a game that at one point had a maze of tactical possibility that never happened. I was unable to locate any information on Señor Paz, but his play in this game was quite impressive ans he made a good account of himself and nearly succeeded in holding the formidable Isaac Kashdan to a draw.
Isaac Kashdan–Paz1–0C14Havana InternationalHavana CUB01.1940Stickfish 17/Dragon by Komodo
C14: French: Classical System 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.c3 f6 4.g5 e7 5.e5 fd7 6.xe7 xe7 7.d2 a6 8.f4 c5 9.f3 c6 10.g3 White usually plays 10.dxc5, but the slower text has actually yielded better results. b5 11.e2 Usual is the immediate 11.Bg7 b6 12.b3 b7 12...b4 13.c1 c4 with complete equality. 13.h3 A P offer which black refuses although he could have safely accepted it. g6 13...xd4 14.exd4 cxd4 15.xd4 d7 16.0-0 c5 White has no continuations that offer more than equality. As for black's extra P, due to the blocked nature of the position and his cramped pieces he has little chance of putting the P to good use. Five Shootouts were uneventful draws. 14.0-0 c8 The game Is taking a normal course fir the French. White Is planning a K-side attack while black counters on the Q-side. However, black might have considered capturing twice on d4 which would have simplified the position a bit. 15.f2 A real GM move, This plans to defend the c-Pawn and, at the same time, prepares to double Rs on the f-file. d7 16.e1 Evidently this is designed to prevent ...f6 cxd4 The correct continuation. 16...f6 17.dxc5 fxe5 18.xe5 xc5 19.xc6 xc6 20.xe6 xe6 21.d4 d7 22.f5 and white is winning. 17.fxd4 This is interesting, but not better than the text. 17.f5 gxf5 18.xf5 Black should now play ...h5-h4 with interesting play, but he must not play exf5 19.fxd4 dxe5 20.xc6 xc6 21.d4 f6 22.xf5 c7 23.h6 with a winning attack. A likely continuation might be g8 24.d4 d6 25.xf6 xf6 26.xf6 g7 27.xe5+ e7 28.e6 d6 29.f8+ d7 30.d8+ c6 31.d4+ c5 32.b4+ etc. 17...c5 A well-played move that keeps things equal. White must now prevent ...Ne4. 18.g2 xd4 19.xd4 e4 An interesting position. In Chess Review magazine an unidentified annotator called this a positional error because black's Ps are all on the same color as his N which means it is very limited in scope. He added that in addition after the exchange black's P on e4 is very weak and will probably be lost in any resulting ending. Stockfish, however, finds no fault with wither 19...Ne4 or 19...O-O and evaluates the position at dead even. In its evaluation Dragon by Komodo aggres with Stockfish. 20.xe4 dxe4 21.b4 An important restraining move. It also opens up the possibility of Nb4-c5 should the need arise. d8 22.c3 c7 23.e3 h5 24.h4 0-0 Here or at some point black could also consider repositioning his B with ...Bd5-c4 25.h2 g7 26.ef1 26.f5 is tempting, but it doesn't seem to lead to anything either. After xe5 27.ef1 d5 28.f6+ h7 29.f3 c7 30.g5+ g8 31.xe4 h7 White has to take the draw with 32.Ng5+ 26...c8 With this logical looking move attacking the c-Pawn black finally has slipped up. 26...g8 renders 27.f5 innocuous. 27.f5 exf5 28.g5 f8 29.h6+ e7 30.e6 e8 31.exf7+ xf7 32.xf5 gxf5 33.xf5 g6 34.xg6+ xg6 35.f8+ e7 36.8f7+ e6 37.xb7 and the double R ending will most likely be drawn. 27.f5 Now this is a knockout punch as it leads to a winning attack. d5 With this and his next move black avoids some violent white threats, but the ensuing exchanges allow white to obtain a fairly easy ending. 27...xc3 is no better. 28.xc3 xc3 29.fxe6 c7 30.exf7 d5 31.e6 and white is winning. 28.g5 Wham!! The addition of the Q to the attack is fatal. Black is mow faced with a maze of choices, but none of them help him save the game. d8 Faced with a maze of choices, Paz chooses the best try. It's not sufficient to save the game, but it's still the best move available. 28...xc3 This is just as bad as before. 29.fxg6 fxg6 30.e7+ h6 31.xf8 mates in d2+ 32.1f2 e3 33.2f7 Black can only avoid mate by tossing material. 28...xe5 is met by 29.f6+ h7 30.xe5 28...exf5 Stockfish spots a mate in 29.xf5+ g8 30.f6 xe5 31.xe5 f6 32.xd5+ h8 33.d7 g8 34.d6 g7 35.xc8+ g8 36.d7 g7 37.d8+ h7 38.xe4 g5 39.xf6+ g6 40.h8 a7 41.xh5+ g7 42.h7+ f8 43.h5+ e8 44.f8# 28...e3 This is also a good try as there is no forced win and it leads to complications. For example... 29.xe3 ce8 30.g5 exf5 31.xf5+ g8 32.d1 a8 33.h6+ h7 34.d6 xe5 34...e6 35.xe6 fxe6 36.xf8 35.xe5 b7 Threatening mate on h1 36.d1 xh6 37.f4+ h7 White is the exchange up and theoretically at least should win. 29.fxe6 Kashdan misses a stronger, but hard to see, line. 29.e3 is more deadly. c7 30.g5 d8 and white has a nice finish. 31.xe6+ xe6 32.fxe6 xg5 33.xf7+ xf7 34.xf7+ g8 35.hxg5 xc3 36.f6 c7 37.g2 White picks off the e-Pawn and wins the ending. 29...xg5 30.hxg5 White now has only a modest advantage, but Kashdan was one of the best endgame players in the world and so practically speaking black us facing a difficult task trying to hold the game. 30.xf7+ is not nearly as god as the text! xf7 31.xf7+ g8 32.hxg5 xe6 33.f6 g4 34.xg6+ h7 35.c6 e8 36.e6 e3 37.g2 e2 It's doubtful that white can win. In Shootouts white scored +1 -0 =4 30...fxe6 Missing his last chance to try and save the game. 30...c7 keeps white's advantage at a minimum after 31.g1 e3 32.xf7+ cxf7 33.exf7 xf7 34.e1 White needs to keep the R on if he wants to have any chance at winning. f2 35.xe3 g2+ 35...xa2 at once would lead to an eventual loss. 36.e6 f8 Black has problems in that his R is out of play. 37.e2 e7 38.f4 c4 39.xg6+ 36.f1 xa2 31.xf8 xf8 32.xf8 xf8 Kashdan now gets to strut his stuff in the ending. 33.a3 e3 34.g1 e7 35.c2 e2 36.f2 c4 37.e3 Played to bring the K to a strong square. 37.d4 was sufficient to win though as it wins the e-Pawn. d7 38.xe2 c6 39.f4 a2 40.e3 followed by Kd4 keeping the black K out and then a K-side P falls.. 37...d3 38.g2 c4 39.f4 d7 40.xg6 e8 41.f4 f7 42.xh5 g6 43.f4+ xg5 44.xe2 f5 45.e3 xe5 46.f4 f5 47.d3 Black resigned. The threat is Nc5 winning the a-Pawn. Paz put up a good fight, but Kashdan's play was just a bit more precise. 47.d3 xd3 48.xd3 g4 49.e4 xg3 50.e5 f3 51.xe6 e3 52.d5 d3 53.c6 xc3 54.b6 b3 55.xa6 c4 56.a5 and the b-Pawn falls, 1–0
No comments:
Post a Comment