Last night saw a coating of snow (a half an inch, or 1.25 centimeters)...just enough to cover road surfaces...and the temperature plummet to 0 degrees F. (-18 degrees C.) which is causing a disruption to everything here. No doubt we are now the object of people’s snickering by those living in places like, say, International Falls, Minnesota, where the temperature is -28 degrees F. (33 below C.).
It’s a funny thing, but in January of 2019, I posted how we were suffering from a Polar Vortex
for a couple of days that brought unusually cold weather with temperatures below 0 degrees F.
It was at that time that my hard drive crashed and had to be replaced with a solid state drive. There were other problems...Fritz 12 wouldn’t work. Fortunately, after a few days of tinkering, it was up and running. But, for some reason the website on which I had been posting games was no longer available and the games posted disappeared!
Today’s game is taken from Dallas, 1957; it was played from November to December. David Bronstein from the Soviet Union was invited but unfortunately he was unable to obtain a visa. It probably had something to to with the US and Russia’s political situation. In October of 1957. Then in November (the same time the tournament in Dallas started) the Soviets sent up another satellite, this time carrying a dog.
A match between Pal Benko and the strong Texas Master, Ken Smith was played as a side event. Benko won 5.5-1.5. This event resulted in Yanofsky’s first GM norm.
In the following game Larry Evans cleverly recovered from mediocre opening play, but then rashly captured a Pawn and not only did Larsen get a dangerous passed Pawn, but he also got a Rook on the 2nd rank which resulted in a brilliant sacrifice not once, but twice. For the curious, on the day this game was played it was 58 degrees (14 C.) in Dallas. Here it was close to freezing with light snow.
[Event "Dallas"] [Site "Dallas, TX USA"] [Date "1957.12.03"] [Round "?"] [White "Larry Evans"] [Black "Bent Larsen"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D32"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17"] [PlyCount "56"] [EventDate "1957.11.30"] {D32: QGD, Tarrasch Defense} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 {At the time this game was played the QGD, Exchnge Variation (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.cxd4) was popular, but ifhe wanted to play it he had to play 3.cxd4 otherwise black can evade it.} c5 {The Tarrasch Defense, an aggressive bid for central space, had a poor reputation at the time. Today it's considered sound.} 4. e3 {The main line is the Rubinstein Variation (4.cxd5 followed by the fianchetto of the f1B). Instead Evans chooses this quiet variation, perhaps to avoid a sharp confrontation against the erver dangerous Larsen.} Nf6 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. cxd5 { Tarrasch thought 6.Bd3 was best here because it leads to the Queen's Gambit Accepted only with an extra tempo for black after 6...dxc4} exd5 {Larsen has no fear of getting an isolated d-Pawn because it offers attacking possibilities.} 7. Bb5 {The other equally popular option is the non-committal 7.Be2. The strange looking text is equally good though.} a6 8. Bxc6+ bxc6 9. O-O Bd6 10. dxc5 Bxc5 11. e4 {[%mdl 512] Energetic play.} (11. b3 Bg4 12. Bb2 O-O 13. Ne2 Bd6 14. Ne5 Bxe5 15. Bxe5 {and Paszewski,M (2286)-Szustakowski,A (2267) Krakow POL 2022 was soon agreed drawn.}) 11... O-O 12. Bg5 Be7 13. Nd4 Qd6 (13... Bd7 14. exd5 Nxd5 15. Bxe7 Qxe7 16. Nxd5 cxd5 {is equal. Bukhman,E (2371) -Bach,M (2354) Kiel 2003}) 14. e5 Qxe5 15. Nxc6 Qxg5 16. Nxe7+ Kh8 17. Nxc8 Raxc8 {White has succeeded in eliminating black's two Bs and isolated his d-Pawn, but as will be seen the P is hardly a weakness.} 18. Qd3 {Evans now takes steps to stopped the passed d-Pawn which must be held up as quickly as possible, but doing so is as job for which a N is usually better suited. The text move is not bad though.} (18. Ne2 Rfe8 19. Nd4 {with a dead equal position and it is not likely either side can make progress.}) 18... Rfd8 19. Qxa6 {Even though this gives white two connected passed Ps it leads to a double-edged position that is harder for white to defend than ot is for b;ack to attack. Evans excelled in good positional judgment and here it seems he gets reckless. Both 19.Rac1 and 19.Ne2 were solid continuations.} d4 {As Nimzovich said, passed Ps have a lust to expand.} 20. Ne2 {It's a bit too late for this to be really effective.} Rc2 {Now black appears to have a great advantage on account of his advanced P and his R on the 2nd rank. Nevertheless, appearances can be deceptive because white is not completely without chances. Shootout results were interesting: white scored +1 -2 =2} (20... d3 {The P could have kept lusting.} 21. Nc3 Rb8 22. Rab1 d2 23. Rfd1 Re8 {with an unclear position. In Shootouts white scored +0 -1 =4}) 21. Rad1 Qe5 22. Ng3 h5 23. Rfe1 Qd5 {[%mdl 128] White has two good defensive choices.} 24. Re2 { [%mdl 8192] This terrible only fuels the lust of the d-Pawn and results in the loss of the gaem.} (24. Qd3 Rxb2 25. Nf5 Qc5 26. Nxd4 {with a likely draw.}) ( 24. Qb6 Rd6 25. Qb8+ Kh7 26. h3 {with a murky position.}) 24... d3 25. Re3 { No doubt Evans was hoping that the d-Pawn has been stopped and has finally will become weak, but now Larsen strikes from a different direction.} (25. Rxc2 dxc2 26. Rf1 h4 27. Ne2 h3 28. Nf4 Qe4 29. Nxh3 Rd1 30. Ng5 Rxf1+ 31. Qxf1 Qd5 {wins}) 25... Rxf2 {[%mdl 512] The first offer of this R. It's beautiful and devastating...if it's followed up corretly.} 26. Ne4 (26. Kxf2 Ng4+ 27. Kg1 Nxe3 28. Rd2 Qc5 {wins}) 26... Nxe4 {This is exactly why you cannot believe everything you see in pre-engine analysis! In the notes I saw the annotator missed the fact, as did the players, that this throws away all of black's advantage and should have allowed white to equalize.} (26... Ng4 {wins.} 27. Rdxd3 (27. Qxd3 Nxe3 28. Qxd5 Rxd5 29. Nxf2 Nxd1) 27... Rxb2 28. Nd2 Nxe3 29. Rxd5 Rxd5 30. Qa8+ Kh7 31. Nf1 Rxg2+ 32. Kh1 Rd1 33. Qxg2 Nxg2 34. Kxg2 Ra1 { win a won ending.}) 27. Rexd3 {[%mdl 8192] Did Evans think he was winning here? It may look like it, but watch this...} (27. Rdxd3 {avoids th threat of a discovered check and holds the position.} Qg5 28. Rxd8+ Qxd8 29. Rxe4 Rxb2 { with a likely draw.}) 27... Rf1+ {[%mdl 512] Another offer of the R...this time it has to be taken.} 28. Rxf1 {It looks like white has escaped with the loss of a piece, but he will have some play in the form of two connected passed Ps on the Q-side plus a R on the 7th vs a R+N.} (28. Kxf1 {loses in a clever way.} Qf5+ 29. Rf3 Rxd1+ 30. Ke2 Nc3+ 31. Rxc3 Qf1+) 28... Qc5+ { White resigned because black has a forced mate.} (28... Qxd3 29. Qxd3 Rxd3 30. Rxf7 {and black will win this ending, but it will tale some time.}) (28... Qc5+ {After this surprise move black mates as follows...} 29. Re3 Qxe3+ 30. Kh1 Nf2+ 31. Rxf2 Qxf2 32. h3 Rd1+ 33. Qf1 Rxf1+ 34. Kh2 Qf4+ 35. g3 Qf2#) 0-1
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