Sadly, we lost a number of players that year. In April, IM Lajos Steiner (1903-1975), twice Hungarian champion and 4-time Australian champion died in Sydney.
In May, the nefarious auto thief, insurance fraudster, swindler, confidence man, drug smuggler and child molester, IM Norman T. Whitaker (1890-1975) died in Phoenix City, Alabama.
I met Whitaker once in the 60s in North Carolina and it was easy to see how he accomplished some of his dirty deeds because he came across as quite a likable fellow. He had a box of chess books, 365 Selected Endgames, that he co-authored and was selling with the solemn promise that if you learned everything in it you would be a master. Of course, I bought one, but didn’t learn everything in it so I don’t know if he was telling the truth or if I got conned.
In June the legendary Estonian GM Paul Keres (1916-1975) died of a heart attack in Helsinki at the age of 59. Also in June GM Nicolas Rossolimo (1910-1975) fell down two flights of stairs in Greenwich Village, New York late one night at his chess studio downstairs. In the mid-1960s I was one liberty from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and visited the Rpsslimo Chess Studio and lost an offhand game to him.
In August, GM Friedrich Saemisch (1896-1975) died in Berlin; he was Austrian champion in 1921. In November IM Karel Opocensky (1892-1975) died in Czechoslovakia. And, in December former Swiss champion IM Hans Johner (1889-1975) died in Switzerland.
Walter Browne was the reigning US champion, Pan-American champion and German Open champion. I got to attend every round of the US Championship (also an Interzonal qualifier) that year. I also got to attend every round of an international tournament that was won by Hungarian GM Istvan Csom that was held in Cleveland. Pretty thrilling stuff!
The big news in 1975 was that in January the Philippines offered to put up $5 million (that is the equivalent of over $30 million today) to for Bobby Fischer to play Anatoly Karpov in the Philippines. The winner would have received $3.5 million ($21 million) , and the loser $1.5 million ($9 million).
At the time Fischer was living in an apartment in Pasadena, California that was owned by the Worldwide Church of God, a church founded in 1933 by Herbert W. Armstrong, a newspaper advertising designer who believed he was a modern day prophet.
The church was involved in several scandals including sexual misconduct allegations against the founder's son who became involved in a power struggle over church leadership that ended up with him becoming excommunicated. In 1979. Fischer public ally denounced the church. In 1979 some members defected over a doctrinal issues. In 2009, the changed its name to Grace Communion Internationa
In April, 1975, Fischer shocked everybody when he forfeited his World Champion title because he disagreed with the match conditions. When his demands were not met he refused to play and Anatoly Karpov was declared Champion.
These days few people appreciate Walter Browne who tragically passed away in his sleep at the age of 66 on June 24, 2015. At the time he was staying in Las Vegas and had spent the week playing poler and chess.
`Browne was born in Sydney to an American father and an Australian mother and had dual citizenship until he was 21. His family moved to the New York area when he was 3 years old and he moved to California in 1973.
He won the 1969 Australian Championship and was a six-time US Champion.
On the December 1975 USCF rating list Browne was the top ranked player followed by Robert Byrne, Lubomor Kavalek, Larry Evans, William Lombardy, Samuel Rershevsky, Kenneth Rogoff James Tarjan, Pal Benko anf Milan Vukcevich.
Browne’s opponent in the following game was Kenneth Frey (born in 1950). He received his IM title in 1975 and was Mexican champion in 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1986. In later years he was active in correspondence chess and was awarded the Correspondence Grandmaster title in 2004. Browne;s sharp play was nearly perfect.
[Event "Pan American, Winnipeg"] [Site "Winnipeg CAN"] [Date "1974.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Kenneth Frey"] [Black "Walter Browne"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D94"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17"] [PlyCount "52"] [EventDate "1974.??.??"] {D94: Gruenfeld} 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. d4 Bg7 {Browne plays the unusual, for him, Gruenfeld.because he had noticed that in the first round Frey had played poorly against it.} 5. e3 O-O 6. Be2 dxc4 7. Bxc4 c5 8. O-O cxd4 9. Nxd4 a6 10. Qe2 b5 11. Bb3 e5 {As usual, Browne was not content with just equality so he trys to grab the initiative with this bold move.} (11... Bb7 12. Rd1 Qb6 13. Bd2 Nc6 14. Nxc6 Qxc6 15. f3 {equals. Limp,E (2415) -Matsuura,E (2405) Campeonato Paulista 1998}) 12. Nc2 {Black has an edge.} e4 13. Rd1 {Browne thought this was too passive, but in relity there is nothing wrong with it.} (13. Nb4 {This move, activating the N was Browne;s suggestion. After} Nbd7 {Simpler would be 13...Bg4} 14. Rd1 Qe7 {Things get a bit tactical. } (14... Qe8) 15. Ncd5 (15. Bd5 Nxd5 16. Nbxd5 Qe5 17. b4 {with complete equality.}) 15... Nxd5 16. Bxd5 Ne5 17. Bxa8 Bg4 18. f3 Nxf3+ 19. gxf3 Bxf3 20. Qe1 Bxd1 21. Qxd1 Qxb4 22. Bc6 {equals}) 13... Qe7 14. h3 {Somewhat better was 14.Nd5} Bb7 15. Bd2 {Frey's play, while not really bad, has resulted in a passive position... not a good situation to be in against a very aggressive opponent like Browne.} Nbd7 {[%mdl 32]} 16. Nd4 {White is resigned to waiting, but it won't be for long.} Ne5 17. Bc2 Rac8 {[%mdl 32] Watch where this R ends up!} 18. Be1 Rc5 19. b4 {A very poor move. As bad as white's position looks, 19.Nxe4 give him a fighting chance.} (19. Nxe4 {was his best try.} Nxe4 20. Bxe4 Bxe4 21. Bb4 Rfc8 22. Rac1 Nd3 23. Bxc5 Rxc5 24. Rxc5 Nxc5 {While the material is about even black has a winning position. Although Stootout games were rather long (70-80 move) black scored 5-0.}) 19... Nf3+ {[%mdl 512] A nice tactical shot. It doesn’t matter how white recaptures, he is hopelessly lost.} 20. gxf3 Rg5+ 21. Kh2 exf3 22. Nxf3 Qc7+ {This nifty maneuver wraps it up.} 23. Kh1 Qc8 24. Kh2 {Browne has one more little tactical shot up his sleeve.} Ng4+ {[%mdl 512]} 25. Kg1 (25. hxg4 Qxg4 {mates in 3} 26. Qf1 Rh5+ 27. Nh4 Rxh4+ 28. Qh3 Rxh3#) 25... Bxf3 {Make that two little tactical shots!} 26. Qxf3 Ne5+ {White resigned.} (26... Ne5+ 27. Qg3 Nf3+ 28. Kg2 Rxg3+ 29. fxg3 Nxe1+ 30. Rxe1 Bxc3) 0-1
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