Troianescu Crushes His Opponent

    Today where I live the temperature is in the single digits and there is 6-8 inches of snow on the ground. Things were different on this date in 1951. It was mild with a high temperature of 62 degrees (F) and a low of 36. There was light precipitation that day measuring 0.08 of an inch. 

    Chess in 1951 was dominated by the Botvinnik-Bronstein World Championship match which ended in a 12-12 tie and so Botvinnik retained his title. Rumor has it that Bronstein was ordered not to win. 

    It was also the year 7-year-old Bobby Fischer lost a simultaneous game to US Senior Master and US Speed Champion Max Pavey. The loss resulted in Fischer subsequently being invited to join the Brooklyn Chess Club and you know the rest of the story. By the way, on January 17, 2008, Bobby Fischer died at the age of 64 in Reykjavik, Iceland. 

    1951 saw the development of the first operational computer chess program by Dr. Dietrich Prinz in England. It ran on a computer at the University of Manchester. The program was not capable of playing a full game. Instead, it was designed to find the best move to win within two turns. 

    In Romania in 1951, the communist regime intensified political repression which included the torture of political prisoners, the launching of forced agricultural collectivization and rapid industrialization. 

 

 

    That was the world of Octav Troianescu (1916-1980), an International Master (title awarded the previous year). From the mid-1940s to the end of the 1970s he was one of the strongest Romanian players winning the Romanian Championship in 1946, 1954, 1956, 1957 and 1968. His highest rating was 2320 in 1971. Here is one of his games to enjoy. 

[Event "Bucharest"] [Site ""] [Date "1950.08.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Kazimierz Makarczyk"] [Black "Octavio Troianescu"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E39"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"] [PlyCount "50"] [EventDate "1951.??.??"] {[%evp 19,50,-25,-19,-12,-8,-8,-1,-134,4,-31,-24,-34,-59,-33,13,-45,-39,-245, -243,-243,-263,-255,-248,-370,-382,-501,-499,-451,-346,-472,-425,-512,-492] E39: Nimzo-Indian: Classical} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 c5 5. dxc5 O-O 6. Nf3 Na6 7. a3 Bxc3+ 8. Qxc3 Nxc5 9. g3 b6 10. Bg2 Ba6 11. Nd2 {In the heavily analyzed Nimzo-Indian all this has been played many time before. The text is necessary to prevent black from playing 12...Nce4} (11. Nd4 Nce4 12. Qe3 (12. Bxe4 Nxe4 13. Qc2 d5 {gains the advantage after} 14. cxd5 Nf6 15. Nc6 Qd7 16. Nb4 Bb7) 12... Bxc4 {with the advantage. White should not castle and avoid} 13. Bxe4 Nxe4 14. Qxe4 Bd5) 11... Rc8 12. b4 Bb7 13. f3 {Castling was better.} Na6 {It looks like this N has no future on a6, but as luck would have it, it's sson to play an important role/} 14. Qd3 d5 15. cxd5 Nxd5 16. Bb2 Qe7 17. Qd4 {Not bad, but the obvious mate on g7 is easily met. Instead of exposing his Q 17.Rc1 would have been safer.} f6 {Equally good would have been 17...Nf6, but Troianescu likes his N on d5. Now with the routine 18.Rc1 that position remains equal...and boring!} 18. b5 {A tactical mistake that results in the sudden collapse of his position...black takes advantage of the Q's exposed position.} e5 19. Qf2 {Where else?} (19. Qe4 Nf4 20. Qf5 Nxg2+) (19. Qa4 Nc5 20. Qc4 Kh8 21. Bh3 f5 22. Qh4 g5 {White has no reasonable continuation.}) 19... Nc5 20. O-O {The K has reached safety, but black has a couple of quick blows that end the game.} Na4 21. Rfb1 Rc2 22. Bc1 Ndc3 23. Rb4 Qd6 24. Qe3 Nd5 25. Qb3 Qc5+ {White had to resign because he is going to lose a piece.} (25... Qc5+ 26. e3 Rxc1+ 27. Rxc1 Qxc1+ 28. Nf1 Nc5 {Black is a piece up.}) 0-1