A Neat Win by Nico Cortlever

    Dutch IM Nico Cortlever (1919-1995, 79 years old) first came to notice in 1938 when he finished 2nd behind Euwe in the Dutch Championship. A good endgame study composer, he was very actine in tournaments in Holland, both local and international, with varying results. By the 1970s he had given up active play, but served as the non-playing captain of the Dutch Olympiad teams. 

    His opponent in the following game was IM Dr. Max Ujtelky (1915-1979, 64 years old) a Slovak master and theoretician who was a direct descendant of famous Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, and Ujtelky tied with Jiri Fichtl in the Czechoslovak Championship at Ostrava in 1960, but lost a tiebreak match. He played for Czechoslovakia in the Olympiads in 954, 1960 and 1966.

    The game was actually horribly played by Ujtelky who launched a premature and badly planned "attack", but it's still entertaining to watch the way Cortlever refuted it. 

 

[Event "Hoogovens-B"] [Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"] [Date "1969.02.01"] [Round "?"] [White "Max Ujtelky"] [Black "Nico Cortlever"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A12"] [Annotator "James Massie"] [PlyCount "46"] [EventDate "1969.??.??"] {A12: English Opening} 1. c4 c6 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. b3 g6 4. Bb2 d5 5. h3 {White usually plays 5.g3 or 5.e3. You might think the idea of the text is to limit the scope of black's B which seems rather pointless at this stage. Bit, that's not the case.} Bg7 6. g4 {While hardly losing, this move is far too risky!} h6 7. Bg2 O-O 8. O-O {Theoretically the position is equal, but most GMs would probaby frown on white's setup.} Nbd7 9. Qc2 Re8 10. d4 h5 {The assault on white's weakened K-side begins.} 11. g5 Ne4 {A critical position has been reached, White's next move, which he apparently played as part of a plan to step up the pressure on the K-side is a losing blunder because it allows black to strike a blow in the center and get a winning K-side attack himself.} 12. Nh4 {This loses the game. After the simple developing move 12.Nc3 black's advantage would be nominal because the blocked posutuin on the K-side would make it difficult for black to achieve a brealthrough.} e5 {Een better than tking the P.} (12... Nxg5 {This is probably what Ujtelky expected, but the position is still very strongly in black's favor after} 13. f4 Ne4 14. Nf3 Ndf6 {The threat is ...Nf6 and white is at a loss for a good continuation.}) 13. cxd5 cxd5 14. Nd2 Qxg5 {This keeps the advantage, but the Q opposite the K is not as dangerous as it looks.} (14... Nxg5 {Almost as good was 14...exd4} 15. Nxg6 {This may have been along the line Ujtelky was imagining, but it's still insufficient.} fxg6 16. Qxg6 Nf8 17. Qxh5 Re6 {White has 2Ps for the N, but no attack and so black's position is a winning one.}) 15. Nhf3 Qf5 16. dxe5 Nxe5 17. Nd4 Qg5 {White should now take the opportunity to simplify a bit and eliminate one of black's attackers with 18.Nxe4. Instead he continues with his non-existent attack and further weakens his position.} 18. f4 Qg3 19. Nxe4 { This comes too late to stop black;s rampaging pieces.} dxe4 20. Qxe4 $2 Bxh3 21. fxe5 Bxe5 22. Nf5 {Pointless. Black could take thw N and still have an easy win.} Qh2+ 23. Kf2 Bxg2 {White resigned. A complete debacle.} 0-1