In the absence of Fischer, Reshevsky’s undefeated victory in the 1969 US Championship, which was also a Zonal, showed that the old veteran was still one of the best players in the country.
If it was a Zonal, why wasn’t Fischer playing even though it meant he would not have a shot at the World Championship again until 1975? The short answer is that he was being a snot.
In a letter to Ed Edmondson, the Executive Director of the USCF, in which Fischer declined his invitation, he accused Edmondson of lying about the previous championship and, also, he (Fischer) believed the championship had to be 22 rounds just like the Soviet, Hungarian and other East European countries. They took chess seriously over there plus the small number of players in the US Championship made it too risky...one loss could cost you the title or you could miss qualifying.
It had been a long dry spell for Reshevsky who had last won the championship in 1946! Second place finisher William Addison and third-place finisher Pal Benko also qualified for the Interzonal. Nevertheless, thanks to Edmondson’s negotiations Benko stepped aside and Fischer was allowed to take his place and the rest was history.
The following game is Reshevsky’s snappy first round win over Dr. Karl Burger. Owing to Addison’s surprising play, Reshevsky didn’t take the lead until round 9 and then held on to it. Going into the last round he was a half point ahead of Addison so to make sure he got a spot in the Zonal, he offered his opponent, Larry Evans a quick draw. Evans declined and ended up losing while Addison defeated William Lombardy to take second.
Reshevsky's first round opponent was Karl Burger (1933-2000, 67 years old), a physician and an IM who also had two GM norms (three were required for the title). This was his only US Championship appearance, but at one time he had been Bobby Fischer’s teacher at the Manhattan Chess Club.
The game feature an oft-played variation that poses problems for black starting at move 12! Burger lost because he failed to activate his Q-side pieces. In the last 12 moves of the game Burger had to make 6 Queen moves.
Samuel Reshevsky–Dr. Karl Burger1–0E56US Champ/Zonal, New York, 1969Stockfish 17
E56: Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein 1.d4 f6 2.c4 e6 3.c3 b4 4.e3 0-0 5.d3 c5 6.f3 d5 7.0-0 c6 8.a3 dxc4 9.xc4 a5 10.d3 Reshecsjy often played
10.Qd3 e7 Here 10...cxd4 is better 10...h6 This is probably black's
best move. 11.c2 cxd4 12.exd4 c7 13.d3 e5 equals. Almasi,Z (2689)
-Quesada Perez,Y (2608) Havana CUB 2013 11.e4 xe4 11...cxd4 12.exd4 h6 13.e3 d8 14.xf6+ xf6 was soon drawn in Balashov,Y (2470)-Uddenfeldt,D
(2339) Rhodes GRE 2019 12.xe4 b6 12...d8 13.a4 b6 14.dxc5 xc5 15.b4 c4 16.c2 xc2 17.xc2 f6 18.b2 e5 19.b3+ ½-½ Lukacs,P (2420)
-Luczak,A (2440) Lodz 1979 12...cxd4 13.exd4 is OK, but black must keep
an eye on the possibility of Bxh7+ d7 White is better after 14.b4 and 15.b5,
but the time is not quite ripe for the B sacrifice although it is playable. 14.xh7+ xh7 15.g5+ and black has only one equalizing defense which has
been pointed out in similar positions by Vladimir Vukovic in his excellent
book Art of Attack in Chess. g6 15...g8 16.h5 xg5 17.xg5 16.d3+ f5 17.g3 with roughly equal chances. 13.dxc5 xc5 It would have been safer
to play 13...Bxc5. Now black's Q is harassed. In either case though white has
a strong iitiative. 14.b4 c4 The text loses time so 14...Qg5 was probably
a better choice. 15.d2 c3 16.a2 This threatens to win with Bb2. d8 17.c2 White is really pushing. e5 18.b2 g5 19.e2 e7
Closing off the Bs diagpnal with 19...e5 was worth considering. 19...e5 20.f3 h5 and, at least, black has defensive possibilities. 20.f4 At this
point white's position can be considered a winning one. h6 21.c4 f5
A desperate attempt to block the B, but now black loses by force. It males
little difference because he is lost no matter when he plays. 22.xb6 axb6 23.c7 fxe4 24.xe7 d7 25.e8+ f7 26.h8 Black resigned.
The main threat from this curious move is the infiltration into his position
bt white's Rs. 26.h8 e7 27.c1 h4 28.cxc8 xc8 29.xc8 d7 30.d4
with an easy win. 1–0
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