In another shocking event, we saw a photograph taken by photographer Eddie Adams of Nguyen Ngoc Loan, a South Vietnamese general and chief of the South Vietnamese National Police executing Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem with a pistol shot to the head.
It cost postal chess players 5 cents for a post card. A new Chevrolet Impala sport coupe cost about $3,500. The comedy basketball team, The Harlem Globetrotters, which was founded in 1926 in were from Chicago performed in Harlem, New York for the first time in 1968. Everybody thought Woody Allen, Bill Cosby and Carol Burnett were funny….except for me.
We lost some players that year. On September 25, Soviet GM Vladimir Simagin (1919-1968) died a few hours before he was scheduled to play in a tournament. October 2nd Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), the famous painter and chessplayer died in France. Stefan Erdelyi (1905-1968) died in Romania on October 26th; he was Romanian champion in 1931, 1934 and 1949. Finally, IM Carl Ahues (1883-1968) died in Hamburg on December 31st; he was German champion in 1929.
IM David Levy famously made a $3,000 bet that no chess computer would beat him in 10 years. He won the bet. Larry Evans won the US championship. Julio Kaplan of Puerto Rico won the world junior championship. Pal Benko won the National Open. Bent Larsen won the US Open. Hans Berliner won the World Correspondence Championship. Bobby Fischer win the Nathanya, Israel.
The following game was played in a Chess Review Class postal tournament and there was a nice problem-like mate after black’s 24th move. Before looking at the game see if you can find it.
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| White to move. Mate in 7 |
Tartajubow–RLS1–0B98Chess Review Class B Postal ToutnamentCORRESPONDENCE1968Stockfish 17
B98: Sicilian Najdorf 1.e4 c5 This game was finished in July1968, and my opponent, who was from Kankakee, Illinois passed away at the age of 71 on May 31, 1969. 2.f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 a6 The Najdorf Variation is black's most popular system. Najdorf's intention with 5...a6 was to prepare ...e5 on the next move to gain space in the center. 5...e5 Playing thisd immediately is questionable. 6.b5+ Now black's best reply is bd7 In the event of 6...Bd7 white exchanges light-squared Bs after which the d5-square becomes very weak. 7.f5 This is similar to what happens in the game; white stands well/ 6.g5 e6 7.f4 e7 The main alternative is 7... Qb6 which leads to complications. 8.d3 Much more popular here is 8.Qf3. We were most likely using Modern Chess Openings, the gold standard of opening books in those days.The 10th edition was published in 1965 and was referred to as The Chessplayers' Bible. bd7 Thos move does not appear in my Fritz opening book, but it has been played a few times in the past. It's Stockfish's 2nd choice behind 7...h6. Personally I do not care for the move 8...Nbd7 because it seems too passive. Black has too many other plausible moves: The alternatives are: 8...Qc7, 8...Nc6 and 8...b5 which is the most active. 9.0-0-0 Besides this both 9.O-O and 9.Be2 are acceptable alternatives. e5 This advance is pemature. He should hace completed his development and gotten castled. 10.f5 This makes evident the flaw in black's last move. The N occupies a dominating position and Stockfish already gives white a decisive advantage. 0-0 There was nothing better. 10...h6 11.h4 and black's e-Pawn is a goner/ exf4 12.xd6+ xd6 13.xd6 with by far the superior position. 11.h6 Not bad as white still has a significant advantage, but 11.Nxe7+ was much stronger. 11.xe7+ xe7 12.d5 d8 13.xf6+ xf6 14.fxe5 White has a winning position. 11...h5 11...gxh6 is out of the question. 12.g3+ g4 13.xg4+ g5 14.h4 h5 15.xg5+ xg5 16.hxg5 White is a piece up and black's position has multiple weaknesses. 12.e2 12.f3 was a knockout punch. df6 13.fxe5 xf5 14.xf5 gxh6 15.exd6 g7 16.f3 h5 17.dxe7 xe7 18.d5 xd5 19.xd5 and white is winning. 12...f6 A mistake that leaves black totally lost.] 12...c5 would have given him a fighting chance. 13.xe7+ xe7 14.xd6 xd6 15.xd6 xf4 16.xf4 exf4 Material is equal, but white enjoys a considerable positional advantage. Shootouts were time consumingm but white scored 5-0. Given the fact that we both were Class B (1699-1799) at the time a white win is not a foregone conclusion! 13.xh5 gxh6 14.d5 Both Ns are beautifully posted, black's K-side is wrecked and his pieces are in each other's way. c5 15.g3+ h8 16.xf6 xf5 16...xf6 is met by 17.xd6 exf4 18.f3 e6 19.g3 xa2 20.xf4 20.b3 would allow black to equalize. ac8 21.xc8 xc8 22.xf7 xf7 23.b2 g7+ with equal chances. 20...xf4+ 21.gxf4 Material is equal, but white has a huge positional advantage. 17.fxe5 xe4 18.f4 18.xe4 was even vetter. xe4 19.he1 c6 20.exd6 with a winning position. 18...xf6 19.exf6 c8 20.d2 e6 21.e1 White could capture either the h- or d-Pawn, but decided to bring the other R into play first. d5 22.f3 c6 23.e5 ad8 24.xh6 g8 White to play and mate. 25.h5 25.e4 A real problem-like move! xc2+ 25...dxe4 26.xd8 Black can only delay mate for a couple of moves by tossing some material. 26.xc2 f5 27.xf5 c8+ 28.xc8 xc8+ 29.b1 g8 30.h5 mate next move. 25...f5 Nlack is hopelessly lost. 26.xf5 g6 27.h4 e6 28.e4 Firceful, but a move too late to force mate. d6 28...dxe4 29.xd8+ e8 30.xe8+ g8 31.g3 mate next nove. 29.h5 xf6 30.xh7+ Black resigned. 30.xh7+ g8 31.xg6 xg6 32.h8+ g7 33.e8 h6 34.xh6+ xh6 Blac is a R down. 1–0
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