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This cookie was
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In 1949 Harry Truman was President and gas was $0.26 a gallon and you could buy a new house for about $7,500. The average wage earner raked in $2,950 a year. Minimum wage, which had been $0.40 an hour jumped to $0.75 an hour.
Popular slang words were ace (a top notch expert), cookie (a cute girl), the cat’s meow (the best) flip your lid (getting angry) and bupkis (zero).
Women were wearing shoulder pads and skirts were above their knees! Wrist length gloves were popular, too. Men were wearing zoot suits and knit V-neck vests were popular. So were lace up oxford shoes and fedora hats.
Over in England it’s hard to believe, but it wasn’t until March 15, 1949, that post-war clothes rationing ended in Great Britain. And, in April, wartime rationing of sweets and chocolate ended, but was re-instituted shortly thereafter when shortages returned.
In May the first self-service laundromat opened in Queensway, London. In October Valerie Hunter Gordon was granted a patent for the disposable diaper.
Years ago I purchased small tournament book from the CCLA on Southsea 1949 that was written by Harry Golombek. It was the first 10-day Southsea Swiss tournament that was the forerunner of a number of tournaments that were held in the 1950s and 60s.
The event was repeated at Easter time until 1952 and the series was known as Agnes Stevenson Memorial tournament. It attracted many players of international repute: Bogoljubow, Tartakower, Yanofsky, Rossolimo, Bisguier and Pachman and helped start the career of Jonathan Penrose, ten times British Champion.
The 1949 tournament only had three foreign players and some of the best British players withdrew before the start of the tournament and so the field was not as large nor as strong as had been hoped. The organizers had hoped for 48 entries, but only got 28.
In the game below P. N. Wallis, after sacrificing brilliantly, secured a tremendous attack against Rossolimo's King and had his famous opponent on the ropes, but then made a series of weak moves and ended up losing. It's hard to blame Wallis for not finding the win though because it was deeply hidden and ferreting it out over he board with the clock ticking would have been extremely difficult. Had Wallis won, it would probably have been his Immortal Game!
A number of other chances were missed by the British players and up to the end of round 5 no British player had succeeded in depriving any of the foreign Grandmasters of so much as half a point.
Rossolimo’s opponent in this game was Philp N. Wallis (October 19, 1906 - February 23, 1973), a national master. In the 1966 British Championship Wallis tied for 5th place and in the last round he beat the winner Jonathon Penrose.
He is credited as being the first to develop the English Defence (1. d4 e6 2. c4 b6) which was occasionally used by strong English players in the 1970s, including Tony Miles and was even adopted by Viktor Korchnoi, who defeated Lev Polugaevsky in their world championship semi-final match in 1977.
Wallis played in several British Campionships in the 1950s through the 1970s. Based on several financial publications bearing his name, he appears to have been an accountant.
[Event "Southsea"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1949.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Nicolas Rossolimo"]
[Black "P.N. Wallis"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]
%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{French Tarrasch Variation} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 {The Tarrasch Variation
became popular during the 1970s and early 1980s when Anatoly Karpov used it.
Though less aggressive than 3.Nc3, it is still used by top-level players
seeking a small, safe advantage. The move differs from 3.Nc3 in that it does
not block the c-Pawn and so allows white to play c3 at some point to support
his d4-pawn. It avoids the Winawer Variation but it develops the N to a less
active square. Also, it blocks the dark-square B which means white usually has
to spend an extra tempo to develop his B.} 3... Nf6 {Black almost always plays
3... c5 to break open then center, but this move is designed to close it.} 4.
e5 Nfd7 5. Bd3 c5 6. c3 Nc6 {Interesting, but less successful, is 6...b6
intending ...Ba6 eliminating white's good (and potentially dangerous) B.} 7.
Ne2 cxd4 8. cxd4 Nb4 {Leading to sharp play is 8...f6 and so it's almost
always played.} 9. Bb1 {Of course white wants to keep this B but in doing so
he has to move it to b1 where it blocks the R. On the other hand black loses
time with his N.} 9... b5 10. O-O a5 {White has a good alternative here with
Nf4, Nf3 and Be3} 11. f4 g6 12. g4 {In Kotan,L (2379)-Ruckschloss,K (2331)/
Bratislava 2003 white played 12.Nf3 before advancing his g-Pawn and got a good
game. Black's next move is faulty because it loosens the K-side. Better was
12...Qb6 holding up white's f5 because 13.f5? is met by 13...Nxe5 taking
advantage of the pin on the d-Pawn.} 12... h5 13. f5 {Black is facing the
nasty threat of 14.fxg6} 13... Nxe5 {Best as it's the only way black can get
any play. White must avoid 14. fxg6 hxg4 15. dxe5 Bc5+ 16. Kh1 Rxh2+ 17. Kxh2
Qh4+ 18. Kg2 Qh3 mate} 14. dxe5 {This allows black to equalize. White keeps
the advantage with 14.hxg4.} 14... Bc5+ 15. Kg2 hxg4 16. f6 Bb7 {Better was
attacking (and winning) the e-Pawn with 16...Qc7!} 17. Ng3 {The N would have
been more aggressively placed on f4.} 17... Qc7 18. Nb3 {This N heads in the
wrong direction. Better was 18.Qxg4 and 19.Nf3.} 18... d4+ {After this Wallis
is practically winning.} 19. Be4 Bxe4+ 20. Nxe4 Qxe5 {White has to stop
...Qxh2 and the only satisfactory move is 21.Rf4 though even then black is
winning.} 21. Qxg4 { After this Rossolimo is totally busted.} 21... Qxh2+ 22.
Kf3 Nd3 {Good enough. Wallis can be forgiven for not seeing the absolutely
crushing 22...Rh3+!! 23. Ng3 Bd6 24.Bf4 Bxf4 25.Qxf4 Nd3 26.Qc7 Rxg3+ 27.Qxg3
Ne5+!! winning the Q. It's this last move that makes the whole line work and
so it's unlikely that a human player would see it.} 23. Bf4 Rh3+ 24. Bg3 Ne5+
25. Kf4 Nxg4 26. Bxh2 Nxh2 27. Nbxc5 {Black,s next move is most natural, but
it only results in equality. The only move is the obscure looking 27...Rd8!!
28.Rf2 Rd5 Threatening ...Rf5 mate so white has to sac the exchange with
29.Rh2 to make an escape square for his K. Black then has a winning material
advantage. Who can blame Wallis for not seeing this?} 27... Nxf1 28. Rxf1
{Black's advantage has disappeared...it's most unfortunate for Wallis that
although the win was there it takes an engine to discover it!} 28... Rd8 29.
Kg4 Rh5 30. Nb7 {With his next move black's position is inferior. Oddly,
doubling Rs on the 5th rank with 30. ..Rdd5! keeps the balance.} 30... Rb8
31. Nbd6+ {Black's only hope is to give up the f-Pawn with 31...Kd7 then play
...Rd5 and hope his d-Pawn will allow him some counterchances. Instead he
traps his own K.} 31... Kf8 {Stockfish hands out two question marks for this
move. Watch how quickly his position collapses.} 32. Ng5 e5 33. Ndxf7 e4 34.
Ne5 Rxg5+ {A last hope.} 35. Kxg5 e3 36. Rh1 Kg8 37. Kxg6 {Facing mate in 5
Wallis resigned.} 1-0
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