Mistake in Judgment Results In Quick Loss

    In 1938, probably the most terrifying event in the Unites States happened on April 30th when 34-year old Elizabeth Coleman died. She was the first African-American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot’s license which she received in 1921. 

    She was in Jacksonville, Florida and had recently purchased a plane known as a Jenny in Dallas, Texas. Her mechanic and publicity agent, 24-year-old William Wills, flew the plane from Dallas in preparation for an airshow and had to make three forced landings along the way. 

    As a result, Coleman's friends and family implored her not to fly it, but she insisted. On a practice flight for a planned parachute jump the next day, Wills was piloting the plane and at 3,000 feet Coleman, who was unharnessed, was probably looking over the side to examine the terrain. 

    At that point the plane unexpectedly went into a spin and Coleman fell out and plunged to her death. Wills was unable to recover from the spin and was killed when the plane hit the ground. It was discovered that a wrench used to service the plane had been accidentally left behind and it had jammed the controls. I have had a private pilot’s license for many years and can tell you that the spin recovery training was the worst part of the training. Seeing nothing but ground in the windshield and violently spinning was terrifying...for me anyway. Also in 1926, Edgard Colle of Belgium died at the age of 34 after a surgery for a gastric ulcer.

 

 

    In this game Vidmar made an error in judgment when he removed his well placed N from the center, apparently with the idea of launching a K-side attack, and Spielmann quickly took advantage of it. The game was played in the tournament in the Semmering, Austria. It was organized by Ossip Bernstein and contained some of the best players of the day.

 

[Event "Semmering"] [Site ""] [Date "1926.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Rudolf Spielmann"] [Black "Milan Vidmar"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C29"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"] [PlyCount "37"] [EventDate "1926.??.??"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "17"] [EventCountry "AUT"] [Source "ChessBase"] {C29: Vienna Game: 2...Nf6 3 f4} 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 {Popular in the 1800s, the Vienna fell into disuse until 1939 when American master Weaver Adams claimed that ot led to a forced win for white. It diesn't, of course.} Nf6 3. f4 d5 { This dynamic move isn't played very often, but it's black's best chance.} 4. fxe5 Nxe4 {This N is something of a problem for white. It's well placed and simply excahnging it is not very aggressive and so would be anathema to Spielmann. Instead he tries to gain time.} 5. Nf3 Bb4 6. Qe2 Bxc3 {Helping to preserve his N on e4.} 7. bxc3 {Capturing with the other P is also acceptable.} O-O 8. Qe3 Nc6 9. Bd3 f5 {This attempt to gain play on the K-side is where Vidmar starts to fo wrong.} (9... Re8 {picks up a P temporarily and the chances would be quite equal after} 10. O-O Nxe5 11. Nxe5 Rxe5 12. c4 d4 13. Qf4 Qe7 14. Ba3 c5 15. Bxe4 Rxe4 16. Bxc5) 10. O-O f4 11. Qe2 {[%mdl 2048]} Ng5 {This is not as bad as some annotators in the past have suggested. 11...Bf5 developing a piece and supporting the well placed N was suggested, but that move favors white. Based on the further course of the game it appears that Vidmar's intention was to conduct a K-side attack. If that was the case he has totally misjudged the position and all he succeeds in doing is weakening his own K's position..} (11... Bf5 12. Ba3 Re8 13. c4 {Undermining the N.} Nxe5 14. Nxe5 Rxe5 15. Rxf4 {White has good play}) 12. Ba3 Nxf3+ {[%mdl 8192] If this, followed by the advance of Ps on the K-side, was Vidmar's reason for playing 11...Ng5 it represents very poor judgment because after this his position is lost.} (12... Re8 {Once again this is the correct move after which the chances remain fairly even.} 13. h3 Be6 14. Rab1 Rb8) 13. Qxf3 Rf7 14. Rae1 {Before undertaking any action Spielmann gets all his pieces ready; especially note the position of his Bs drawing a bead on black's K.} g5 {Whether played with the intention of guarding the f-Pawn or intending to get some play with ...g4 this leads to a quick debacle, vut his position is beyond saving mo matter what he plays.} 15. e6 Rg7 16. Qh5 Ne7 {Preventing white from advancing the e-Pawn.} 17. Bc5 {And now Bd4 would win.} Nc6 {The N goes back with a loss of time, but he could hardly allow Bd4} 18. e7 {[%mdl 512]} Nxe7 19. Bxe7 { Black resigned. Mate by Qe8 cannot be prevented.} 1-0