Five U.S. players were invited: US Champion Larry Evans, former champions Samuel Reshevsky and Herman Steiner, former U.S Open Champion I.A. Horowitz and Dr. Edward Lasker.
At the time technically Rossolimo represented France, but he planned to make his home together with his wife and young son in the United States after the tournament.
A Chess Life article observed that his inability to speak English could hinder him for awhile in his search for an occupation outside of chess, but added a man of his talents should have little trouble attaining eventual success. As for his English, when I met him at his chess studio in the mid-1960s, it was excellent. A little-known skill of Rossolimo's was that he was an expert in ju-jitsu,a Japanese martial art focused on close-quarters combat. It utilizes techniques like throws, joint locks and chokes.
Originally there were 23 players, but early in the tournament General Manuel Soto Larrea (who played 6 games) and Captain Jose Joaquin Araiza Munoz (who played 5 games) were recalled by the Mexican government. According to one source it was because of a coup d'etat in Cuba when the president, Carlos Socorras, who sponsored the tournament, was disposed by Fulgencio Batista. The tournament took place in February and Batisya seized power on March 10, 1952, but there may have been political rumblings at the time of the tournament.
The most shocking evens during the tournament was when the Cuban player Roberto Quesada suffered a heart attack after round 16 (+5 -4 =7) in which he had drawn with Spanish GM Arturo Pomar. Born in 1905, he died at the age of 46 on March 14 and his funeral was attended by the participants and tournament directors.
At one point Rossolimo was in first place, but then mysteriously lost three games in a row to spoil his chances for a really high prize. First place was $2,500.00 and as Chess Life observed, “...even with the price of meat these days, you can buy a lot of bacon with $2,500.00.” That’s almost $30,000 today and in 1952 bacon was the equivalent of $6.50 a pound. One thing of which I am sure, Reshevsky did not buy any bacon with his share of the prize money.
The winner, Edward Lasker (1885-1981, 95 years old) was born in Psmen, German Empire, but now in Poland). Before World War I he moved to London, and after the outbreak of the war he moved to the United States.
Quesada’s sacrificial attack was unsound, but it offered good practical chances as evidenced by Lasker’s subsequent play. It was only later that Quesada went astray and lost.
[Event "Havana"]
[Site ""]
[Date "1952.03.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Juan Quesada"]
[Black "Edward Lasker"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C55"]
[Annotator "Stockfiah 17.1"]
[PlyCount "86"]
[EventDate "1952.??.??"]
{C50: Two Knights Defense} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 {Originally the move
4.Ng5 was harshly criticized by Tarrasch and Soviet theorist Vasily Panov
called it primitive. Later, in the 1900s, it was the most popular reply and at
the time od this game ir was considered best.} 4. d4 exd4 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 d6
7. Nxd4 O-O 8. Nc3 Ne5 9. Be2 Re8 {All this has been heavily analyzed, but at
the time this was a novelty abd it;s probably black's best reply.} 10. b3 d5 {
The idea of this move is to simplify the position and obtain easy equality.}
11. f4 {Quesada is having none of that easy equality, and decides on a very
aggressive, but dangerous, course.} (11. Nxd5 Nxd5 12. exd5 Qxd5 13. Nf5 Qxd1
14. Nxe7+ Rxe7 15. Rxd1 {would not ne any fun.}) 11... Bb4 {An excellent move
that limits white's possibilities of taking any action in the center.} 12. Bb2
Bxc3 {Another good move that removes the e-Pawn's protection.} 13. Bxc3 Nxe4
14. Bb2 Ng6 {Another strong ove attacking the f-Pawn. It's obvious that white;
s 11th move was quite a poor one, but rather thatn paying something like 15.
Bf3 and trying to hold on as best he can, Quesada comes up with another plan,
a bad one, but it eventually works.} 15. Bh5 {In this position black stands
better and the text move envisions an unsound idea, but one that results in
complications galore so in reality it;s not a bad idea at all.} Nxf4 $19 {
Why not take another P? Black's advantage is already decisive so Quesada has
nothing to lose by playing his next move.} 16. Bxf7+ {Tal once said there were
good sacrifices and his...this is like his.} Kxf7 {Black has a decisive
advantage, but he has to prove himself up to the task of winning a won game.
Lasker wasn't up to the task and the fact that he won the game is only due to
later mistakes by Quesada.} 17. Rf1 {The point. Black is in a dangerous
looking pin and white will recover his piece.} Qf6 {A horrible move walking
into a pin.} (17... g5 18. g3 Kg8 19. gxf4 c5 20. Nf3 Bh3 21. Re1 {Black is
only a P uo, but is attack is very strong and he can look forward to scoring
the point.} gxf4) 18. Ne2 Qxb2 (18... Qb6+ {is a bit better.} 19. Bd4 Qd6 20.
Nxf4 Kg8 21. Nh5 Re7 22. Qf3 {Black is on the defensive, but he does have an
extra P though at this point ot doesn't mean much.}) 19. Qxd5+ {It's possible
that Lasjer overloojed this and was expecting 19.Rxf4+. After the exchange of
Qs whits has achieved complete equality.} (19. Rxf4+ Kg8 20. Qxd5+ Be6 21. Qd4
(21. Qxe4 Qxa1+) 21... Qxd4+ 22. Nxd4) (19. Nxf4 Nf6 20. Nxd5 Be6 21. Nxc7 Rad8
22. Qc1 Qd4+ 23. Kh1 Re7 24. Nxe6 Rxe6 {Black is a piece up and white only has
a P to show for it.}) 19... Kf8 {The difference between this position and that
after 19.Rxf4 is that black is still in a pin on his N.} (19... Be6 20. Qxe4
Kg8 21. Nxf4 {with equal chances.}) 20. Nxf4 (20. Rxf4+ Nf6 21. Raf1 Qe5 {
Black is a piece up.}) 20... Nf6 21. Qc5+ Kg8 {Black is still a piee up. but
white is able to weasel his way out of his difficulties with some ingenious
play.} 22. Nd3 {Black's Q is trapped.} b6 {The only move.} 23. Qc4+ Be6 24.
Nxb2 Bxc4 {Amazing! White has beaten off the attack, recovered his piece and
obtained complete equalty. And, he has sufficient resourses to meet black's R
on the 2nd rank.} 25. Nxc4 Re2 {[%mdl 2048]} 26. Rf2 Rae8 27. Rd1 b5 28. Nb2 {
This is an error thgat keaves the N badly placed and allows black to maintain
a R on the 2nd rank.. He should have exchanged Rs anf then played the N to a3.
In that case the position would be equal.} (28. Rxe2 $11 {remains equal.} Rxe2
29. Na3 b4 30. Kf1 Re6 31. Nc4) 28... Ng4 {Well played!} 29. Rxe2 Rxe2 {
[%mdl 4096]} 30. h3 Ne3 {There is no need to grab the c-P right away because
it's not going anywhere. Compare the activity of white's poorly placed pieces
to black's well placed ones.} 31. Rd8+ Kf7 32. Rd7+ Kf6 33. Rxc7 Rxg2+ 34. Kh1
Rxc2 35. Rxc2 Nxc2 {The key to this ending is black's better placed K and N
plus the K-side P-majority. Lasker's finishing technique is instructive.} 36.
Kg2 Ke5 37. Nd3+ Kd4 38. Nf4 Kc3 39. Ne6 Kb2 40. Nxg7 Kxa2 41. Ne8 Kxb3 42. Nf6
h6 {White resigned.} 43. Ng4 a5 {White resigned} 0-1
No comments:
Post a Comment