Kussman was born December 21, 1907 in Geneva, Switzerland. Exactly when he arrived in the United States is unknown, but he graduated from Morris High School in the Bronx, New York in 1925. His father taught him how to play and he seemed to have a natural talent for the game. In 1924 he played fourth board for his high school team in the preliminaries of the Interborough High School Chess League and won six games in a row; in the finals he scored +1 -1 =1. After graduating, he attended City College of New York (class of 1929) and played fourth board on the chess team. After joining the Manhattan Chess Club in 1926, the following year he won third prize in the Class B handicap tournament and in 1928 he finished third in the Class A tournament. In 1928, while a college student, Kussman scored an excellent victory in the National Chess Federation's first Intercollegiate Championship. By 1930 he was participating in the Mahanttan club's Young Masters Tournaments which included the likes of Reuben Fine and Arthur Dake. In 1928, the National Chess Federation was beginning to stand on its own and had become affiliated with FIDE, become involved in supporting trips to international tournaments by US Masters and in 1929 organized its own championship which was held at Bradley Beach, New Jersey. The Intercollegiate was held at the Manhattan Chess Club and was directed by the legendary L. Walter Stephens. It was Stephens who was largely responsible for the tournament when he sent letters to colleges all over the country. Arnold Denker didn't care much for L. Walter Stephens, depicting him as a rigid and humorless man who sucked the enjoyment out of everything. Denker also poked fun at Stephens penchant for wearing bightly colored suits. The younger players barely tolerated Stephens and frequently made vulgar jokes about him. His wife, Maude, was described as as a "tall pencil-thin lady with a weakness for flowered hats as lush and wild as any tropical forest." She served as secretary of the Manhattan Chess Club from 1942-1954, Her husband occupied that position had from 1924-1941 and Denker claimed they lorded over the club "as if it were the family plantation."
Most likely Denker's dislike of Stephens stemmed from an incident at the 1942 US Championship when Stephens incorrectly forfeited Denker in his game against Reshevsky. Despite the invitations sent out by Stephens the turnout for the Intercollegiate was quite small, but some of the best college players in the country played in the 7-player, double round event.
The winner received a gold medal for his prize. Quite different from today's prizes. The final standings were:
1) Abraham Kussman (+8 -2 =2) 9.0-3.0 2) D.G. Weiner (+8 -3 =1) 8.5-3.5 3-5) T. Beyer (+5 -5 =2) 6.0-6.0 3-5) D. Bronstein (+5 -5 =2) 6.0-6.0 3-5) P. Schlesinger (+4 -4 =4) 6.0-6.0 6) A.N. Towsen (+3 -8 =1) 3.5-8.5 7) L. Ault (+2 -8 =2) 3.0-9.0
Leslie Ault was to later become a US Intercollegiate Champion and authored a couple of chess books. He was also the father of masters Leslie and Robin Ault. Graham Clayton gives a good account of Ault's career HERE. Kussman's losses were to Weiner and Bronstein. Second place was taken by D.G. Weiner of the University of Pennsylvania who came within a whisker of winning except for a setback in the semi-final round. With the exception of Kussman and Ault the other players faded into chess obscuity. Theodore Breyer of Columbia University class of 1931 was a recent high school graduate. For some time it seemed that he was destined to easily finish third, but then lost two games in a row (two games per day were played). A.N. Towsen of Albright College class of 1928 and Leslie Ault of Rutgers class of 1929 both lacked experience, but both helped themselves to a point and a half from Schlesinger who had won both of his games from Weiner. Kussman died at the age of 67 on March 13, 1975.
The 1941 New York State Congress was held in mid-August on the campus of Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.
Over 20 players entered the Championship, but the committee was totally unprepared for that many and had a hard time deciding what to do. They finally decided to limit the championship section
to masters with national or international reputations and placed other entries in the Experts Section. Needless to say, the Experts were disappointed that they were not allowed a crack at the State title.
In the Experts Section Sven Almgren and Abe Yanofsky, a schoolboy from Winnipeg, Manitoba, shared first with 7.5-1.5 scores a half point ahead of Dr. Bruno Schmidt who started off with a string of seven straight wins before losing in the last two rounds.
The other tournaments were designated "Working Men's tournaments" and the games were played in the evening.
The Class A tournament was won by Frank Valvo with 8.5-1.5, a full point ahead of Julios Partos and Paul Rosenzweig.
In the Class B tournament Frederick Ekstrom and Louis Persinger tied for first with 7.5-1.5.
The Class C section was won by Sidney Ross with 8.5-0.5 a full two points ahead of George Cheney.
In the Masters section an undefeated Reuben Fine demonstrated that he was in fighting form and ready to make a determined effort to dethrone Reshevsky as US Champion in the upcoming 1942 tournament. Even before the 1942 championship, Fine had tried unsuccessfully to arrange a championship title match with Reshevsky to be played in the winter of 1941.
As it turned out, Fine didn't play in the '42 event which is famous for being the one in which the TD, L. Walter Stephens, incorrectly forfeited Denker after Reshevsky's flag fell.
Stephens, standing behind the clock, picked it up and turned it around so that the clocks were facing opposite sides and then forfeited Denker. Even though proven wrong Stephens refused to change his decision. As a result Reshevsky and Kashdan tied for first and Reshevsky won the playoff match.
At the State Championship, even though he didn't lose any games, Reshevsky, then the current US Champion, found it tough going. He won only four games and drew six.
Indicative of his poor form was his game against a Harvard student named Clarence Hewlett, Jr., a promising young player, but one who was hardly in Reshevsky's class.
Clarence Hewlett (June 20, 1921 - August 6, 2006, 85 years old) was born in Iowa City, Iowa and passed away in Waynesboro, Virginia.
He earned his bachelor of science degree in physics and served as team captain of the Harvard Chess Team. He also attended Columbia University, earning his master's degree in mathematics.
He worked as an instrumentation designer on World War II's Manhattan Project where he developed instrumentation used in measuring the separation of Uranium 235 and Uranium 238, and was recognized for his contribution to the building of the Uranium Diffusion Plant.
He spent his career working for General Electric as an electrical engineer and computer circuit designer. He held over 20 patents for mechanical and electrical circuit designs.
A rated Expert, Hewlett won the New Hampshire championship in 1966 and 1970. After retirement, he became active in the game of Othello and served as the editor of the Othello Quarterly for 14 years.
Hewlett was Othello's oldest champion, winning the Virginia State Othello Championship in 1986 and 1987 and the Midwest Othello Open in 1985. Additionally, he played in the 1990 World Othello Championship held in Stockholm, Sweden.
He directed numerous local, regional and national tournaments and was the tournament director of the Othello World Championships held in Warsaw, Poland, in 1989 and again in New York in 1991. Hewlett also designed an Othello hardware endgame analysis computer that at the time was the world authority on Othello endgames.
In their game Hewlett outplayed Reshevsky in the early stages, won a pawn and could have drawn. However, Reshevsky's greater experience and his uncanny faculty of finding the best moves in time pressure allowed him to overpower Hewlett and win.
In this tournament Reshevsky's proverbial good luck deserted him in a couple of games. Overlooking the win against Fine cost him a probable tie for first place.
As usual, Reshevsky was frequently in time trouble and in his game against Denker he had 17 moves to play in about 2.5 minutes! While both players were blitzing out moves and making check marks on their scoresheets in lieu of writing down their moves. the TD, that old clodpoll L. Walter Stephens, in a precursor to the coming 1942 incident, interrupted and insisted that they actually write down their moves.
Reshevsky protested loudly and took up valuable time arguing with Stephens. The clocks were stopped and the players wrote down their moves.
Obviously upset by this interruption, the players resumed play with about one minute to go on each clock. Somehow both of them managed to move, record it and punch their clock in the remaining time to reach adjournment. Reshevsky complained the incident affected his play and might cost him the game, but he managed to win the after adjournment.
Then in the last round against tailender Harold Evans, Reshevsky made what was for him a rare, and in this case ill advised, attempt to win the brilliancy prize and it cost him second place.
With no chance to catch Fine, it was a foregone conclusion that he would defeat Evans and finish half a point ahead of Denker and Kashdan.
Indeed, Reshevsky obtained an overpowering position against Evans, won the exchange and had an easy win in six different ways. Instead of taking the point in a quiet, unspectacular fashion Reshevsky played an unsound Queen sacrifice. Evans found the flaw in the line and forced a perpetual check. The draw cost Reshevsky $33 in prize money. That's about $560 today.
With so many thrill packed games to choose from it was hard to decide which one to publish, but I finally settled on Hewlett's game against Harold Evans. The game was awarded the Brilliancy Prize by a panel of judges consisting of Harold M. Phillips, Frank Marshall and I. A. Horowitz who were unanimous in their selection.
Evans' unimaginative, routine opening meets with swift punishment from an array of batteries centered on his King.
I have no idea who Harold Evans was. I seem to remember a NY player named Harry Evans and Larry Evans was taught chess by his father, who was named Harry, but are they connected?
Harold Evans - Clarence Hewlett Jr
Result: 0-1
Site: New York State Championship, Hamilton
Date: 1941
Dutch Defense
[...]1.d4e62.e3f53.♗d3♘f64.♘f3b65.c4♗b76.O-O
6.b3♗e77.♘bd2O-O8.O-O♕e89.♕c2♘c610.♗b2♘b411.♕c3♘xd312.♕xd3♘e4 Black has the better prospects. Nader,M (2033)-Abdel Fadil,M (2228)/Mahalla EGY 2009
6...♗d6
6...♗e77.♘c3O-O8.♕c2♗b4
8...♗xf39.gxf3♘c610.a3♕e811.f4 White's position is the more promising. Elissalt Cardenas,H (2317)-Lopez de Turiso,J (2137)/Parla ESP 2008
9.♘e2♘e410.a3♗d611.♘g3♗xg312.hxg3a5 White is somewhat better. Shiomi,R (2072)-Salem,A (2228)/ Calvia ESP 2004
7.♘bd2O-O8.♕c2♘c69.b3♘b410.♕b1♘xd311.♕xd3♕e8 A typical method of attacking on the K-side for black in the Dutch. 12.♗b2♕h513.♖ac1♗e414.♕c3♘g415.h3♖f6 Obviousy white can't take the N because of mate on h2. Now he has only one move that avoids defeat. 16.c5 White fails to find the equalizer.
16.♘xe4fxe4 Again, there is only one move here. 17.♘e5♘xe518.dxe5♖g6 Guess what? There is only one good move at white's disposal. 19.♔h2 and white can defend himself with little difficulty. Reaching this position would not have been an easy task OTB!
16...♖g617.cxd6♘e5 White has no way of saving the game. 18.♔h2 Allows a mate in 5, but there was no really better move.
The 1942 US Championship was controversial for a couple of reasons. It was the tournament that was almost won by Isaac Kashdan and it was also the tournament where the director, L. Walter Stephens, incorrectly forfeited Denker after Reshevsky exceeded the time limit then refused to change his decision. There was another clock incident in the tournament that Denker never mentioned. Prior to the start of the tournament the director, L. Walter Stephens who was also the vice president of the USCF, had called a players' meeting that was attended by only half of the players. At the meeting it was agreed that the clocks must not be stopped under any circumstances. The third round game between Arnold Denker and Norman Lessing, which was won by Denker, resulted in Lessing filing an appeal. As there was no official referee to make a decision, the appeal went to the USCF president George Sturgis. At that time the USCF's headquarters was in Boston. Sturgis' decision would be important because if he reversed Stephens' decision it would affect the standings.
Lessing
Although players were required to keep score, as Herman Helms put it in the New York Times, “there (was) no power short of a sergeant-at-arms to make this compulsory.” Both Denker and Lessing were in time pressure and weren't recording their moves; they were putting check marks on their scoresheets. Still, neither of them were sure of exactly how many moves had been made. After what was most likely his 42nd move, Denker said to Lessing, “That's the 45th move, Lessing, isn't it?” Apparently Lessing knew it wasn't the 45th move as claimed by Denker. Instead of stopping the clocks and summing the director, Lessing continued to play until they reached what he thought was move 45. In the scramble, he blundered away a piece and lost.
Lessing then claimed that his blunder wasn't due to time pressure, but rather that Denker's remark at a critical moment had interfered with his concentration. Stephens wouldn't allow the claim and Lessing appealed to Sturgis, who eventually denied Lessing's claim. Norman Lessing (June 24, 1911, New York City – October 22, 2001, Santa Monica, California) was a television screenwriter and producer, playwright, chess master and chess writer.
Lessing grew up in New York City and played a great deal of chess as a youth, reaching national master strength. At the age of 19, in the 1930 New York State Championship he scored 6.5-1.5 to tie for first with Anthony Santasiere who was awarded the title on tiebreaks. Lessing played mostly at the Stuyvesant Chess Club, on the lower east side of Manhattan. But, there was a May, 1941 Brooklyn Daily Eagle mention about Lessing, who was described as “formidable ace of the Steinitz Chess Club” taking on 50 opponents in a simultaneous for a one dollar fee. After moving to California he won the 1967 Santa Monica Chess Club championship and the 1967 United States Senior Open at which time he had a rating of 2207. He was the Senior champion at the American and National Opens several times in the 1960s. His last tournament appears to have been the Santa Monica Masters Invitational in 1971. Lessing wrote for television from its pioneering days in 1950 in New York and moved to California to continue his career until 1979. Shows he wrote screenplays for include: Hawaii Five-O The Fugitive Lost in Space Bonanza The Nurses The F.B.I. Baretta Cannon Dragnet Eight is Enough Shirley Temple's Storybook The Adventures of Ellery Queen The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He also wrote the play 36 which was performed all over the United States.
In the following game against Reshevsky, Lessing almost succeeded in hanging on for a draw, but the game also demonstrates Denker's observation that playing Reshevsky was like having a bulldog hanging on to you pant leg; he just wouldn't let go. Lessing, along with IM Anthony Saidy, wrote the book The World of Chess, published in 1974. It was a coffee-table chess book, featuring many photos players and exotic chess sets and a chapter by each writer about their chess experiences. It was not a great book. He died at his home at age 90 of congestive heart failure and complications from Parkinson's disease. At the time of his death Lessing was working on a book about his chess experiences to be titled The Stuyvesant Chess Club. Upon his death the USCF called him “the last link to the Golden Age of Coffeehouse Chess."
Final Standings 1943 US Championship: 1-2) Isaac Kashdan and Samuel Reshevsky 12.5-2.5 3-4) Arnold Denker and Albert Pinkus 10.5-4.5 5) Herman Steiner 10.0-5.0 6) Al Horowitz 9.0-6.0 7) Herbert Seidman 7.0-8.0 8-9) Jacob Levin and Louis Levy 6.5-8.5 10-11) Irving Chernev and Carl Pilnick 6.0-9.0 12-13) Harry Baker and Norman Lessing 5.5-9.5 14-16) Boris Altman, Matthew Green and Harold Hahlbohm 4.0-11.0 Green withdrew and forfeited 7 games Reshevsky won the playoff 7.5-3.5
The
string of tournaments held at Ventnor City, New Jersey from 1939 to
1945 were marvelous events that featured almost all the prominent
American masters of the day. Originally it was hoped that the
tournaments would rival Hastings, but it wasn't to be. World
War Two broke out in Europe in September of 1939 so getting foreign
masters presented a problem. Then the United States entered the war
after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. There
was no 1946 event because
of various difficulties and in 1947 it was
changed from an invitational to an open event, but only 20 players
showed up and that was the end of it. The 1939 tournament proved to be not just
enjoyable because of the resort surroundings, but
tournament expenses were low so the prizes
were good. It so successful that the organizers wanted to make the
1940 event even better. Held from July 6-14, the second Ventnor City
Invitational was even able to award prizes to the players who didn't
finish in the top places. One innovation in this event was, for the first
time in history, the use of electric clocks which were designed and
manufactured by Gerald
Phillips, one of the tournament officials; the clocks worked
perfectly. Shortly before the tournament was slated to begin
Fred Reinfeld and Jacob Levin withdrew citing business reasons. They
were replaced by Jeremiah Donovan and L. Walter Stephens. The last two rounds were the most exciting. Eight
players were statistically able to share first and ten of the players
could share in the first four prizes. As it turned out, both
Bernstein and Hanauer had to win their last rounds games to finish
first. The most surprising player was Donovan who reinforced the
impression he had made in the recent Marshall Chess Club
Championship. In the end, Hanauer and Bernstein shared first prize
and possession "of the Challenge Trophy, six months each."
Frank Marshall was there award the trophy. Marshall also gave a 10
board simul, scoring +8 -0 =2. The
contestants:
Milton Hanauer (1908-1988), had a law
degree but never practiced law. He had also earned a PhD. in French
Literature and taught French in Haarlem. He later became a high
school principal and promoter of chess in
schools. He
authored a few
beginner books: Chess Made Simple, Chess
Made Easy, Chess Streamlined, Checkers Made Simple, Chess and Chess
For You and Me. As a sidebar, Chess Made
Simple is still a pretty good book. See
HERE. Anthony
Sanatsiere - (1904 – 1977) was among
the top US players from the late 1920s into the mid 1950s. He never
earned an international title in chess, and had very
little international competition. In
addition to chess, he wrote extensively on
non-chess topics and was
a middle school mathematics teacher. He
wrote three novels, 13 books of essays, 14
collections of short stories, and 30 volumes of a personal journal.
And, according to Arnold Denker, a lot of
bad poetry. Santasiere won the 1945 US
Open, four New York State championships,
and six Marshall Chess Club championships. He also
played in four US Championships. As a chess writer he was colorful
and highly opinionated. I
once had a copy of an old chess magazine in which Santasiere
annotated the games from the Reshevsky-Kashdan match and he was
highly critical of both players for their choice of openings. Both
were criticized for failing to give chess fans Romantic chess! In
the 1970s he and Larry Evans engaged in a war in print and Evans
severely criticized Santasiere when he asked, "Where are the glorious
games which qualify Santasiere as the darling spokesman of
Romanticism?” Olaf
T. Ulvestad –see
HERE Harry
Morris (1905-1966) was a president of
the Mercantile Library Chess Club of Philadelphia and a four-time
State Champion. He was a procurement officer in the Air Force until
he retired at age 55. Harold
Burge (1896-1979) was the New Jersey
state champion in 1938 and in 1939. Edgar
T. McCormick (1914-1991)
earned a mathematics degree from Princeton in 1935. He enlisted in
the Army in 1941. Stationed in Iceland, he served as a cryptologist.
A chess promotor, he was two-time New Jersey champion and Virginia
champion once. He won the US Amateur Championship twice and at the
time of his death was the reigning Amateur Champion. Sidney
Bernstein- see HERE Weaver
Adams
- see
HERE Jeremiah
Donovan - (Dates of birth and death unknown. A search online yielded several people named Jeremiah F. Donovan. The most likely candidate was born on July 24, 1921 and died at the age of 67 on January 23, 1989. He had been residing in West Palm Beach, Florida. No other information was available and it's pure speculation, but the age is about right.) was a star player, along with Herbert Seidman, on the Brooklyn College chess team when he played in this tournament. He soon enlisted in the US Army where he obtained the rank of sergeant. Donovan was a member of the Marshall Chess Club and participated in several US Opens. A feared opponent in New York chess circles, he was especially good at blitz. Herbert
Seidman (1920-1994)won
the Marshall Club Championship in early 1942 where he was undefeated.
He graduated that year and also enlisted in the Army. He won the
Marshall Club Championship in 1944, 1945, tied with Hanauer in 1946,
and was the club champion again in 1955. Seidman also played in the
1945 US-USSR Radio Match where he lost both of his games against
Ragozin. After earning his MBA degree he was employed by the
American Cancer Society where he rose to the position of
Vice-President of Epidemiology and Statistics. His papers on
smoking-related cancer were widely published. In 1961 Seidman
was co-champion of New York with Pal Benko and won the State title in
1971. Philip
Woliston
disappeared after this tournament
only to pop up again, this time known as Philip Geffe to finish
second in an open tournament in Nevada. see HERE L.
Walter Stephens (1883-1948)
had served as captain of the Princeton chess team and earned a MA in
education from Columbia in 1915. Stephens also served as TD in many
tournaments and served as secretary of the Manhattan Chess Club from
1924-1941. After his retirement, his wife replaced
him from 1942-1954. Arnold Denker wasn't a fan of either of them.
It was Stephens who mistakenly forfeited Denker in the 1942 US
Championship when Reshevsky exceeded the time limit. Stephens refused to
change his decision even when spectators pointed out his error. His
decision allowed Reshevsky to tie with Kashdan for the title.
Reshevsky went on to defeat Kashdan in a match for the championship.
When the US joined World War II the demand for just about everything skyrocketed. Among these were the metal needed for tin cans as well as the things that went into them. Meat, chocolate, coffee, coffee, cooking oils, sugar and other foods, even Girl Scout cookies, were limited or disappeared altogether.
To buy rationed foods, shoppers had to produce the right ration stamps or coupons. To control spending and discourage hoarding coupons and stamps were only good for certain periods of time. Just because shoppers had coupons there was no guarantee the items would be on the shelves at the grocery store.
In 1943, the average life expectancy for men was 62.4 and 64.4 for women. The average movie theater ticket cost 30 cents. A gallon of gas cost 21 cents. A dozen eggs cost 57 cents.
A mystery involved a Navy ship, the USS Eldridge, in the Philadelphia Navy Shipyard happened...it involved invisibility and teleportation. Was it a hoax? The Philadelphia Experiment
In the chess world in 1943, the US Amateur championship was won by Ariel Mengarini and Herman Steiner won the California Open State Championship with the score of 17-0. Israel A. Horowitz won the 44th US Open, held in Syracuse, New York.
The FBI prevented Humphrey Bogart from playing postal chess because they believed chess notation miht be a secret code. One wonders if they were not just harassing him. Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, was a weird man, so who knows?
On March 3, 1943, Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) was born in Chicago.
On April 24, Walter Frere (born in1874) died in New York at the age of 69. He was one of the top amateur chess players in New York City. His father had helped organize the First American Chess Congress of 1857 that was won by Paul Morphy. Another American player lost that year was Stasch Mlotkowski (1881-1943 who) died in Gloucester City, New Jersey at the age of 62.
Due to the war a gaggle if foreign masters were lost: Henryk Pogoriely (1908-1943) was murdered by the Nazis in Pawiak prison in Warsaw. Abram Rabinovich (1878-1943) starved to death in Moscow. Alexander Romanovsky (1880-1943) died in Russia. Romanian master Emmanuel Sapira (1900-1943) died in Belgium.
Mirko Broeder (1911-1943) was murdered by the Nazis.
Vasily O. Smyslov (1881-1953), the future World Champion’s father, died in Russia. Polish master Abram Szprio (1912-1943) died at Auschwitz as did Belgian-French master Leon Monosson (1892-1943).
Gunnar Gundersen (1882-1943) died in Melbourne. Karlis Betins (1867-1943) died in Riga, Latvia. Mexican-British master Adrian Garcia Conde (1886-1943) died in London.
Latvian master Vladimir Petrov (1907-1943) died in a Russian gulag.
Karl Berndtsson (1892-1943) died on Gothenburg, Sweden. Jan Kotrc (1862-1943) died in Czechoslovakia. Heinrich Wolf (1875-1943) died in Austria.r. Polish master Edward Gerstenfeld was shot by the Nazis in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
Mikhail Barulin (1897-1943) died in a Russian prison. He had been arrested. Because he refused to sign a confession or denounce other chess problemists. Botvinnik supported Barulin’s arrest.
The US Champion Samuel Reshevsky annexed the Metropolitan (New York City) Speed Championship which was played at the home of L. Walter Stephens, a major organizer who financed many national tournaments.
Stephens is best remembered as the tournament director who wrongly forfeited Arnold Denker after Reshevsky 's flag had fallen during their game in the 1942 US Championship.
Stephens picked up the clock from behind and turned it around to look at it. When he did so, the fallen flag was on Denker’s side of the board, so Sthephens forfeited Denker. Howls of protest from everybody (except Reshevsky) did not sway Stephens who flat out refused to change his decision.
The New York City speed tournament was a double round robin with the games played at a ten seconds a move. Reshevsky’s play was ruthless and only Weaver Adams, Isaac Kashdan and Al Horowitz managed to nick him for a draw. For his efforts Reshevsky was rewarded with first prize of $40.00 which had the buyinmh power of about $709 today!
What kind of chess did they play at 10 seconds a move? Check out Horowitz’ lucky win in this game.
A game that I liked (Fritz 17)
[Event "New York City Speed Championship"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1943.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Weaver W. Adams"]
[Black "I. A. Horowitz"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C28"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 16"]
[PlyCount "54"]
[EventDate "1943.??.??"]
{C28: Vienna Game} 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bc4 {The original
idea of the Vienna Game was to play a delayed King's Gambit, but in modern
play ehite often plays more quietly by fianchettoing his King's bishop. Adams
famously claimed that the Vienna Game led to a forced win for white.} Nc6 4. d3
{[%mdl 32]} Na5 5. Qf3 {Adams goes his own way . 5.Nge2 is the main line.} Nxc4
6. dxc4 c6 7. Nge2 d6 8. h3 Be6 9. b3 d5 {Perhaps this is a bit premature.
Black has several safer moves, 9...O-O, for example.} 10. cxd5 cxd5 11. Bg5 (
11. exd5 Nxd5 12. O-O Nxc3 13. Nxc3 {with a slightly better gane.}) 11... dxe4
{More exact was 11...d4} 12. Nxe4 Be7 13. Bxf6 gxf6 {Evidently Horowitz was
hoping that his two Bs and the semi-open g-file would give him attacking
chances, but things should not have worked out that way.} 14. N4g3 (14. N2g3 {
stays on course.} Qa5+ 15. c3 O-O-O 16. O-O {with about equal chances.}) 14...
Qa5+ 15. c3 O-O-O 16. O-O {The small difference between this position and the
one after 14.N2g3 is that white has a well placed N on d4 and here he does not.
It's enough of a difference that here black is better.} Rhg8 (16... Qd5 {
leads to a strong position after} 17. Qe3 f5) 17. Nf5 Bf8 18. c4 {[%mdl 8192]
This blooper should lose. Oddly, the next tine this P moves it will lose for
real.} (18. Neg3 {keeps things equal. For instance...} Qd5 19. Ne4 Qd3 20. Ne3
Bd5 21. Qf5+ Be6 22. Qf3 {etc.}) 18... Bc5 (18... e4 {wins the N on f4!} 19.
Qxe4 Bxf5) 19. Nfg3 Bd4 {Now the advantage swings over to white.} (19... h5 {
keeps the balance.} 20. Ne4 f5 21. Nxc5 Qxc5) 20. Nxd4 Rxd4 21. Qxf6 Qc5 {
Horowitz is preparing a sacrificial attack with this move, but actually allows
white to gain a decisive advantage.} (21... Rg6 22. Qf3 Rd8 23. Rae1 f5 {
and black is holding on.}) 22. Rae1 Rxg3 {The point behind his last move, but
the whole idea is flawed.} 23. Rxe5 (23. fxg3 {is not playable...} Rf4+ 24. Kh2
Rxf6 25. Rxf6 {and in the long run white'. two Rs will be no match against the
Q and B.}) 23... Qb6 {Maintaing the on on the f-Pawn...or so it seems.} 24. c5
{[%mdl 8192] This closes the diagonal and makes fxg3 possible, but it loses
the game.} (24. fxg3 {Things are not always what they seem!} Rf4+ {is met by}
25. c5 Rxf1+ (25... Rxf6 26. cxb6 Rxf1+ 27. Kxf1 {White has a won ending.}) 26.
Qxf1 Qc6 27. Qe2 {and white has a winning position.}) 24... Rxg2+ {[%mdl 512]
Thanks to white's last move black's idea proves successful...bnut only with
this sacrifice.} 25. Kh1 (25. Kxg2 {is even worse.} Bxh3+ 26. Kxh3 Qxf6) 25...
Qc6 26. f3 Rdd2 27. Qh8+ Kc7 {White resigned. There is a mate in 11.} (27...
Kc7 28. Rg5 Rxg5 29. Qf6 Rxc5 30. Qf4+ Qd6 31. Qxd6+ Kxd6 32. Rd1 Rxd1+ 33. Kg2
Rc2+ 34. Kg3 Rg1+ 35. Kf4 Rc3 36. Ke4 Bd5+ 37. Kd4 Rxf3 38. b4 Rd1#) 0-1
