Chess In the Marines Corps

    It was 1967, a significant year for pop culture with many notable events taking place. Hot cars were Ford Mustangs and Pontiac GTOs. I knew a Navy Dental Technician at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina who owned a GTO that he raced at the drag strip in Holly Ridge which is located several miles south of the base. 

    A couple of us were sitting in front of the barracks one night watching him laying rubber up and down the street. It ended when the transmission blew sending shrapnel our way. I don’t know what GTO really stood for, but he used to say it was Gas, Tires and Oil. 

    Besides the Beatles, bell bottom pants were all the rage; I never got into either. On a sad mote, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were killed when a fire broke out in their Apollo spacecraft during a launch pad test.

    Opposition to the Vietnam War was growing and large-scale anti-war protests took place throughout the year in places like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, DC. 

    I was discharged in July and during that month and August race riots erupted in over 150 US cities. Race was not an issue in the Marine Corps. There was, however, a big fight in the NCO Club on the base that resulted in the Base Commander shutting the club down for a week or so. It had nothing to do with race, just some drunk Corporals and Sergeants getting into a fight. Fortunately, I wasn’t there that night. I might have been playing chess. 

    Until I reached “short-timer” status chess was the furthest thing from my mind. There was a chess club on the base, but the players weren’t very good. 

    In my final few months I was assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines and was watching television one night when a guy showed up who was with one of the grunt companies (infantry, I think the Army calls them) from down the street and he heard I played chess. We used to get together a couple nights a week and play. That was several weeks before I got discharged.

    I don’t know what ever happened to him, but at least he didn’t get his name on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. A Google search of his name turned up dozens of people with the same name so tracking him down was impossible Only four of our games have survived and this is the best one. 

 

ChessBase

Opponent–Tartajubow½–½D94Camp Lejeune, North CarolinaCAMP LEJEUNE1967Stockfish 17

D94: Gruenfeld Defense 1.c4 f6 2.d4 g6 3.c3 g7 4.e3 Solid, but passive. 0-0 5.f3 d5 At the time I was greatly influenced by Botvinnik and Reshevsky and Reshevsky had written that he liked this defense because of its fighting qualities. 6.d3 c5 I vaguely remembered having seen this in (I think) having been played by Kashdan in a similar position. The usual move is 6...c6, but Stockfish likes the text. 7.0-0 c6 8.cxd5 8.h3 b4 9.cxd5 xd3 10.xd3 xd5 11.d1 cxd4 12.exd4 f5 is equal. Michalek,M (2158)-Rachela,M (2351) Banska Stiavnica 2006 8...xd5 9.xd5 Again, this is Stockfish's first choice. 9.b3 b6 10.dxc5 ½-½ Simecek,A (2138)-Oresky,J (2191) Prague CZE 2014 9...xd5 10.e4 d8 In other games black has tried different Q moves, but all of them lead to equality. While there is nothing wrong with the text, undeveloping the Q makes little sense. 11.d5 Well played. After 11...Nd5 or even 11.Ne5 the chances would be equal/ b4 ...but not after this because white could have gotten a bit of an advantage. 12.b3 12.c4 g4 13.e3 xf3 14.gxf3 This is perfectly safe because vlack has no K-side attacking prospects. d7 15.a3 with a good game. 12...xd3 13.xd3 g4 14.d2 b8 15.c4 b5 16.e3 Somewhat netter would hve been 16.Qg3 d7 17.b1 Thanks to white's passivity the last couple of moves black can now undertake a counterattack on white's center. f5 18.b4 Better would have been 19.b3 hindering the advance of black's c0Pawn. cxb4 While hardly bad, instead of getting a P-majority on the Q-side getting a protected passed P with 18...c4 was better. 19.xb4 a5 20.b3 fxe4 This gives white an isolated d-Pawn, but also gives him equality because I now have a weak e-Pawn. It's hard to believe, but there is a clever tactical shot here that I mossed. 20...b4 Threatening a pin on the Q and R with ...Bb5 21.e1 b5 22.d2 a4 23.b2 23.b1 c3 wins. 23...xb3 24.xg7 xg7 25.axb3 Black has won the exchange. 21.xe4 f5 Better was 21...Qb6 22.xf5 xf5 23.d1 d7 White's next move is an imprecise one because the exchange of Qs shields my e-Pawn. 34.Bb2 was good enough to keep things equal. 24.e6+ xe6 25.dxe6 bf8 \This attack on the f-Pawn is irrelevant. Getting the Q-side Ps moving with ...a4!, ...Bc3 etc. was the correct strategy. 26.f3 Surrendering a P, while not fatal, was a poor idea. 26.Be3 was a perfectly good move, xf3 Harder for white to meey was 26...Re5, but even then b;ack's advantage would br minima;. 27.gxf3 xf3 This ending is equal. 28.g5 f8 Although this ending is still a draw, white's e-Pawn now had me concerned/ 29.xe7 e8 30.d8 Give this move a ?? It's obvious to me now that this loses and that 30/R8 holds the draw, but at the time it wasn't. 30.d7 f8 31.xf8 xf8 32.b7 b4 33.f7+ g8 34.a7 xe6 35.xa5 is a simple draw. 30...xd8 Black wins...or should have. 31.xd8 f8 Now we are back to a draw. The e-Pawn is no threat. 31...a4 would win! However, the winning process was, no doubt, beyond the capabilities of a couple of amateurs! 32.a5 32.e7 simply loses the e-Pawn. f7 33.a5 xe7 32...f8 33.f1 e7 34.e2 xe6 35.d3 d5 36.f3 e5 37.h3 d6 38.d8 b4 39.g5 e5 40.e7 b3 41.axb3 axb3 42.b4 e6 43.f4 f6 44.c5 h5 45.b6 f5 46.c7 b2 47.c2 e4 48.b8 d4 49.c7 e3 50.xb2 xf4 51.d8 f3 52.c3 g3 53.h4 h3 54.c4 g3 32.xa5 The position is equal. e7 33.f1 xe6 34.e2 d5 35.d3 Draw agreed. After this black's K cannot penetrate white's position. Weighted Error Value: White=0.74/Black=0.57 ½–½

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