Impressive Win by a Young Larry Evans

    First, to US readers, enjoy your Thanksgiving tomorrow. I hope your weather is better than ours...winds that are half of hurricane force, freezing temperatures and snow. 

    Today’s post features a game by the loser in the last post, Larry Evans, that shows him in a better light. In the 1954/55 Rosenwald tournament held at the Marshall and Manhattan Chess Clubs there were mo surprises. 

    Reshevsky, who had 25 year’s experience and was the country’s top rated player at 2766 finished first as expected. Larry Evans (2620 amd Arthur Bisguier (2587) took the bext two spots. Donald Byrne (2587), James Sherwin (2404) and George Kramer (also rated 2404) were also rans. 

    At the time it was thought that Evans and Bisguier might, in the not too distant future, be, like Reshevsky and Fine had been, the top US players; they developed into very strong GMs, but mot that strong! 

 

 

 

    Evans had an even score in the first half, but them scored three wins and two draws in the second half. He barely edged out Bisguier who started s;ow;y, but then in the second half scored four wins (one over Reshevsky) and a draw (with Evans).

    Kramer’s horrible score could be attributed to his long absence from play against strong opposition. Larry Evans (1932-2010, 78 yearsd old_ was born in Manhattan, New York am achieved the GM title in 1957. After WWII George Kramer (1929-2024, 94 years old) was one of the most promising new players in the country. A chemist by profession, he remained an amateur, but a very strong one. 

  

[Event "Rosenwald 1954/55, New York"] [Site ""] [Date "1954.12.21"] [Round "?"] [White "George Kramer"] [Black "Larry Evans"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E70"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"] [PlyCount "53"] [EventDate "1954.12.19"] {[] E70: King's Indian Defense} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nge2 O-O 6. Ng3 {An unusual move that Kramer abandoned for the rest of the tournament after this game even though he had some excellent successes with it in the past. The idea is to play Be2, h4 and Bg5. If black should try to stop the advance of white's h-Pawn with ...h5 then white can sacrifice his B with Bxh5.} e5 {In this variation black has to play a quick ... f5} 7. d5 Ne8 8. Be2 {White has to continue aggressively because positional play with 8.Bd3 is too slow.} a5 9. h4 {Pressing on with his strategy is best option. Less aggressive options are 9.O-O amd 9. Be3} f5 (9... h5 { Theoretically this is playable. After} 10. Bg5 Qd7 11. Bxh5 (11. Qc2 $16) 11... gxh5 12. Nf5 $1 {[%cal Rf5e7]} f6 13. Be3 $1 {and the chances are about equal, but this is not the type of position that Evans preferred.}) 10. exf5 gxf5 11. f4 {Evans was highly critical of this move claiming that it creates a "glaring weakness" on the g-file which black now quickly tries to make use of. In fact, the position remains quite equal. That said, white could have dione a bit better with 11.Nh5 and, if possible, g4 continuing his attack.} Qe7 12. Qc2 Na6 {[%mdl 32]} 13. Be3 Kh8 {Preparing ...Rg8} 14. O-O-O Bd7 15. a3 {A most interesting position! When annotating this game in his book on the tournament, Trophy Chess, Evans gave this move a "?" and wrote that it often takes many move to lose a game which is true. (He had incorrectly considered other moves by Kramer questionable.) He claimed this move is bad because it leaves a glaring and fatal weakness on b3. He recommended 15.Kb1. Several engines (PlentyChess, Dragon by Komodo, Stockfish 17 and even an old version of Rybka) evaluate the position as perfectly equal. Evans recommended 15.Kb1 which is just OK/ Other OK moves are 15.Rhe1 and 15.Bf3. in other words, white does not have much activity in this position, but even after the text move he is certainly not lost.} Bh6 16. Qd2 {After this move which removes the guarf from b3 black get the advantage and it just keeps growing.} (16. Nh5 Ng7 17. Rde1 Nc5 {and the chances are perfectly equal.}) 16... Nc5 17. Kc2 a4 18. Nh5 Nb3 { [%mdl 2048] It now becomes evident that it was a mistake to allow the N to become entrenched on b3. Black has strong initiative.} 19. Qd3 Ng7 20. fxe5 Bxe3 21. Qxe3 Nxh5 22. Bxh5 {After this the game is practically over. He had better chances by offering to trade Qs with 22.Qg5 although even in that case black would still have had a substantial advantafe.} f4 23. Qd3 Bf5 24. Ne4 Qxe5 25. Bf3 Nc5 26. Qd4 Nxe4 27. Bxe4 {White resigned} (27. Bxe4 Bxe4+ 28. Kc3 Qxd4+ 29. Rxd4 Bxg2) 0-1