The Great Yerhoff - Ulvestad Fracas of 1946

Yerhoff in 1941

     If you are an old postalite (as Al Horowitz used to call correspondence players) like me, you probably remember seeing the name Frank J. Yerhoff in magazines like Chess Review and the Chess Correspondent. 
     Yerhoff (May 8, 1918 – April 27, 1999, 80 years old) was born in Regina, Saskatchewan and over the board he was one of Canada's strongest players during the late 1930s and 1940s. 
     He learned to play chess in 1935 and it wasn’t long before he was good enough to win both the Saskatchewan and correspondence chess championships...titles which he held for many years. He was a devoted Morphy fan and also dabbled at composing problems. 
     Yerhoff finished second in his first OTB tournament, the 1937 Sasketchewan Championship, but then won the tournament for the next eight years in a row and was joint Canadian Champion with D.A. Yanofsky in 1945. He was also Canadian Correspondence Chess Association champion in 1938 and the Canadian Correspondence Champion in 1939, 1940, 1941, 1943 and 1945.
     During the war years his efforts were confined mostly to correspondence play and starting in 1942 he began playing in Chess Review tournaments where he also had considerable success. Unfortunately not long after he started playing in Chess Review tournaments censorship regulations forced Chess Review to Canadian entries. 
     The US Open returned at the end of World War II and the 1946 tournament set a record with 58 players and it was the first Open run under the Swiss System. The first two rounds were paired by lot to determine qualifiers for the various final sections. The Preliminary tournament was played as an eight-round Swiss. Afterwards, the players were divided into groups of 8-10 by order of finish, with ties broken by Sonnenborg-Berger. Each finals group then played a round robin, with scores from the preliminary section carried over. 

Winners of the preliminary group were: 
1) Olaf Ulvestad 6.5 
2-4) Herman Steiner, Abraham Kupchik and Gerald Katz 6.0 
5-10) Donald Byrne, Walter Shipman, Harry Fajans, Herbert Seidman, Arthur Bisguier and Frank Yerhoff. 

     Weaver Adams, Miguel Aleman Dovo, Robert Byrne and Hyman Gordon equaled the scores of the players in the 5th-10th group, but failed to qualify for the Championship group because their S-B points were too low. 
     The final standing were: 

Scores include both finals and preliminaries 
1) Herman Steiner 13.5 
2) Herbert Seidman 2.5 
3) Abraham Kupchik 12.0 
4-5) Donald Byrne and Olaf Ulvestad 10.5 
6) Arthur Bisguier 9.5 
7-10) Harry Fajans, Gerald Katz, Walter Shipman and Frank Yerhoff 8.5 

    In the following game Yerhoff defeats Olaf Ulvestad in a real free-for-all. 

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[Event "US Open Pittsburgh"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1946.7.20"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Frank J Yerhoff"]
[Black "Olaf Ulvestad"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Philidor Defense} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 {Philidor's original idea was to play
... f5. In an artickle in the Chess World WGM Raluca Sgîrcea and IM Renier
Castellanos stated that the Philidor is an excellent practical weapon to play
for a win with the black pieces. It's solid, but somewhat passive.} 3. d4 Nf6
4. Nc3 {A common Philidor position. Tip... black should never release the
tension in the center by playing ...exd4 unless there is a concrete reason for
doing so.} 4... Nbd7 5. Bc4 Be7 6. O-O c6 7. Bg5 Qc7 8. d5 {It would have been
better to play 8.a4. White would have the initiative, but no particular
target. } 8... Nb6 {He probably should have played 8...h6. Instead he chooses
a plan that totally blocks the Q-side and in doing so severely limits his
options for obtaining counterplay.} 9. Bb3 c5 10. a4 {Now black should play
10...c4 and after 11.Ba2 Bd7 he has some play.} 10... a6 11. a5 Nbd7 12. Nh4
{Not bad, but a safer way of preparing action on the K-side would be to play
12.Nd2.} 12... h6 13. Be3 {An interesting position has arisen. White's N on h4
is hanging and it's tempting for black to try and take advantage of it and win
a P. However, in doing so he exposes himself to a dangerous attack. Instead,
he should continue with the thematic idea of play on the Q-side with
13...b5.} 13... Nxe4 {Black will quickly regret this.} 14. Nxe4 Bxh4 15. Qg4
Bg5 16. Nxg5 hxg5 17. Qxg5 {White has quickly gotten his P back and black's K
is badly exposed and all the defenders are away on the other side of the
board.} 17... O-O {Here's an interesting observation. Stockfish gives white a
P and a half advantage after 18.c4 Qd8 19. Qg3 f5 20.Bh6. And, after Yerhoff's
next move Fritz' little red warning light comes on and the evaluation drops to
near dead equal meaning 18.Ra4 is a poor move. Shootouts confirmed this is
the correct evaluation Initially I liked white's idea of a R-lift to bring his
QR over to the attack, but it soon becomes clear that he just doesn't have
enough pieces available to crash through.} 18. Ra4 f5 {This looks very
dangerous as it opens up his K's position, but at the same time it makes room
for defenders to get to the K's defense. White's real problem is that he
doesn't have quite enough pieces to strengthen his attack.} 19. Bd2 {Moves
like 19.f4 and 19.Rh4 were worth looking at, but it seems no matter what white
plays black manages to find adequate defensive resources. The move played
defends the a-Pawn, but it really wasn't necessary.} 19... Nf6 {With the N on
f6 black's K is looking much safer. In fact, black has now equalized.} 20. f3
{Not good. It denies the N e4 and g4, but now with 20...f4! shutting out
white's B followed by ,,,Nh7 driving back the Q, black has seized the
initiative on the K-side seemingly out of nowhere! 20.c4 defending the d-Pawn
and hoping to bring the B to a better diagonal on c2 was better.} 20... Qf7
{Now white's intended 21.Rh4 is met by 21...Nh7 which forces him to exchange
Qs and there is zero hope for any kind of attack.} 21. Bc3 {This has a clever
point, but 21.c4 was still the best move. Black should have still played
21...Nh7 and ...f4.} 21... Bd7 22. Rh4 {Now if black plays 22...Nh7 white has
the sacrifice 23.Rxh7 followed by 24.f4. It doesn't force a win, but it
introduces complications where anything could happen.} 22... Rae8 {Once again,
better was 22...f4! with slightly the better of it.} 23. Bc4 Nh7 24. Qd2 Qf6
25. g3 {Now black has a bunch of reasonable moves that keep the positon about
equal: ...g5, ...Qg6, ...Qe7 and maybe even some others. Instead, he finally
decides to play ...f4, but Yerhoff's last move just prevented it!} 25... f4 {A
blunder.} 26. Rxf4 {Of course...the e-Pawn is pinned.} 26... Qe7 27. Rxf8+
Rxf8 28. Qe3 {In spite of his mistake black is far from lost after .. .Nf6.}
28... Ng5 {White's next move isn't bad, but he keeps an even firmer grip on
the position with 29.f4 opening up the position for his two Bs and black gets
ripped to shreds after 29.Nf7 30.fxe5 dxe5 31.d6!!} 29. h4 Nh3+ 30. Kg2 {
Technically black's best move is now 30...g5, but Ulvestad has set a clever
trap and Yerhoff falls for it!} 30... Rf4 {This should not have worked! Just
about any reasonable move keeps the win in hand} 31. gxf4 {This earns a whole
bunch of question marks because it throws away every whit of white's advantage
and allows black at least a draw after 31...Nxf4+ 32.Kg3 (He gets mated after
32. Kf2) Nh5+ 33.Kf2 Qh4+ and ...Qxc4+} 31... Qxh4 {A blunder that meets an
amazing refutation!} 32. Bxe5 {This takes home the point and Yerhoff's
remaining moves are flawless.} 32... dxe5 33. d6+ Kf8 34. Rh1 g5 35. Kf1 gxf4
36. Qg1 Qh7 37. Qg2 e4 38. fxe4 f3 39. Qxf3+ Ke8 40. Bd5 {And in this hopeless
position black resigned. Actually there was a mate in 13 with 40.Qf6, but it
really doesn't matter.} 1-0