Al Horowitz Wins U.S. Open

     Even with the war going on there was still plenty of chess activity in the US. 
     At the time nobody could have imagined the impact on the chess world, but on March 3, 1943, Robert James Fischer was born in Chicago.
     Also in 1943, the US Amateur championship was won by Ariel Mengarini. Herman Steiner won the California Open State Championship with a perfect score of 17-0.
     Reshevsky defeated Isaac Kashdan 7.5-3.5 their playoff match for the US Championship. In the Washington (DC) Divan Chess Club Championship, Reuben Fine scored a perfect 7-0 ahead of Ariel Mengarini, Oscar Shapiro and Martin Stark. 
     In Chicago, Herman Hahlbohm won the city championship with a 6-1 score to finish ahead of Samuel Factor. In the Class A Finals of the US Speed Championship Reuben Fine scored a perfect 11-0 and finished ahead of Samuel Reshevsky and Abraham Kupchik. 
     Most players, if they remember him at all, think of Al Horowitz (November 15, 1907 – January 18, 1973) for the books he wrote about chess. Few will remember that he was a leading player in the US during the 1930s and 1940s.
     He was US Open Champion in 1936, 1938, and 1943. In 1941, he lost a match (+0−3=13) with Reshevsky for the U. Chess and he played in four Olympiads (1931, 1935, 1937 and 1950); the first three of which were won by the US. 
     Additionally, in the famous USA vs. USSR radio match in 1945 in which the US got crushed, Horowitz scored one of the only two wins for the US when he defeated Salo Flohr. In the return match in 1946 he split his match against Isaac Boleslavsky. 
     Chessmetrics lists Horowitz at number ten in the world on their 1943 rating list which puts him in a group of players like Miguel Najdorf. Paul Schmidt, Andor Lilienthal, Vladimir, Reuben Fine, Isaac Boleslavsky and Igor Bondarevsky. Clearly, although he only had the IM title he was of GM strength. 
     Back in 1943 from August 14th to 24th Horowitz romped through the New York State Championship by finishing first in a field of 16 in which he was held to only two draws. 
     The tournament developed into a duel between Horowitz and Anthony Santasiere, both of whom soon left the field behind and neither lost a single game. Santasiere drew two games (with Katz and Ottern) in the opening rounds, but trailed Horowitz. When the two met in the last round Horowitz needed only a draw to finish first, but Santasiere could tie for first if he won. Strange it may seem, Santasiere took no chances and made no attempt at winning and settled for a draw by repetition. 

     Benjamin Altman, champion of the Queens Chess Club, finished in third place. He played aggressive chess and fully deserved his prize. Boston was represented by 5 players, including Massachusetts Champion Gerald B. Katz, who tied with Harlow B. Daly for 5th. Katz would have higher in the standings but faded near the end. 

     Frank Marshall showed up and gave a simultaneous exhibition and he and Horowitz shared first place in a ten-second per move tournament. There was also another speed tournament that was won by l. S. Turover of Washington, DC. 

     Guest of honor was veteran chess reporter Hermann Helms. And 70 people showed up at a testimonial banquet to pay tribute to Helms. 
     You will want to read the interesting article by Susanna Sturgis whose grandfather was George Sturgis, the first president of the USCF from 1939-1942 and Ward Mayhew Parker Mitchell.

Ward M. P. Mitchell - I. A. Horowitz

Result: 0-1

Site: U.S. Open Syracuse, NY

Date: 1943.08.16

Two Knights Defense

[...] 1.e4 e5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.♗c4 ♘f6 In the Two Knights Defense black invites an attack on f7, If white accepts the offer, the game quickly takes on a tactical character. 4.♘g5 d5 After this white has little option but to play 5.exd5, since both the B and e4-Pawn are attacked. 5.exd5 Here 5...Nxd5 extremely risky. Albert Pinkus unsuccessfully tried to prove it satisfactory with analysis in the 1943 and 1944 issues of Chess Review. 5...♘a5

5...b5 Ulvestad introduced this in a 1941 article in Chess Review. White has only one good reply: 6.♗f1 This protects g2 so he can answer 6...Qxd5? with 7.Nc3. Black's best response is to transpose to the Fritz Variation with 6...Nd4, making another advantage of 6.Bf1 apparent-the bishop is not attacked as it would be if white had played 6.Be2. 6...♘d4 7.c3 ♘xd5

5...♘d4 Alexander Fritz (1857-1932) suggested this move to Carl Schlechter, who wrote about it in a 1904 issue of Deutsche Schachzeitung. In 1907 Fritz himself wrote an article about his move in the Swedish journal Tidskrift f�r Schack. 6.c3 White's best reply. Now the game often continues: 6...b5 7.♗f1 making it very simillar to the Ulvestad Variation.

6.♗b5

6.d3 This is an attempt to hold the gambit pawn with 6.d3. It's known as the Morphy Variation or the Kieseritzky Attack and it not popular because it has long been known that black obtains good chances after: 6...h6 7.♘f3 e4 8.♕e2 ♘xc4 9.dxc4 ♗c5 And white's position will prove more difficult to play. Bronstein once tried the piece sacrifice 8.dxe4!? with success, but its soundness is doubtful.

6...c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.♕f3 Today this isn't played nearly as often as the retreat 8. Be2, but it gives better results, plus it is favored by Stockfish. 8.Qf3 was popular in the 1800s and revived by Bogoljubow. 8...cxb5 This is quite risky. Safer was 8...Rb8 9.♕xa8 ♗c5 10.♕f3

10.O-O O-O 11.d3 Too passive. 11. Ne4 was correct. 11...♘b7 12.b4 ♗b6 Situru,M (2382)-Kunte,A (2561)/Kuala Lumpur 2005. Black is better.

10.♘e4 Works out well for white after 10...♘xe4 11.♕xe4 O-O 12.O-O ♗b7 13.♕xe5 Varney,Z (2000)-Eames,R (2187)/London 2016

10...♗b7 11.♕e2

11.♕g3 Didn't turn out well for white after 11...O-O 12.O-O h6 13.♘h3 ♘e4 14.♕d3 ♕b6 15.♘c3 ♖d8 as in Matsenko,A (1953)-Boskovic,M (1864)/Herceg Novi 2008

11...O-O 12.c3 White absolutely needed to play 12. d3 so that his N could retreat to e4. Now he has a greatly inferior position.

12.d3 h6 13.♘e4 ♗b6 14.♘bc3 is at least equal, maybe even a little bit in white's favor.

12...h6 Should white retreat the N or fork the N and B with 13.b4? 13.♘f3 (13.b4 ♗xg2 14.♖g1 ♕d5 15.bxc5 hxg5 is also good for black. ) 13...♘c4

13...e4 This lands a harder punch... 14.♘e5 ♗d6 15.♘g4 ♘d5 Threatening ...Nf4 16.g3 f5 17.♘e3 f4 with a winning attack.

14.b4 His last chance at getting reasonable play was 14.O-O. Now Horowitz finishes him off in great style. 14...e4 15.♘d4 ♗xd4 16.cxd4 ♕xd4 17.♘c3 ♘e5 18.O-O Black to move and win. 18...♘f3 19.♔h1 (19.gxf3 exf3 and white can't avoid ...Qg4+ followed by mate.) 19...♘g4 20.♕xb5

20.g3 is best, but it also leaves black with a winning attack. 20...e3 21.fxe3 ♘g5 22.♖f3 ♘xe3 23.♕xe3 ♗xf3 24.♔g1 ♕d7 25.d3 ♖e8 26.♕d2 ♘h3 27.♔f1 ♕d4 mates in 3.

20.gxf3 allows a mate in 6 20...exf3 21.♕e4 ♘xf2 22.♖xf2 ♕xf2 23.♕g4 ♕e1 24.♕g1 f2 and mate next move.

20...♕xf2 Offering the Q is pretty, but there was a forced mate with 20...Nxf2+

20...♘xf2 21.♖xf2 ♕xf2 22.♗b2 ♘e1 23.♕e2 e3 24.♕xf2 exf2 25.h3 f1=♕ mate next move.

21.♕e2 (21.♖xf2 ♘xf2#) 21...♕h4 22.gxf3 exf3 Black resigned. (22...exf3 23.♕f2 ♘xf2 24.♔g1 ♘h3 25.♔h1 f2 26.♘d5 ♗xd5#)

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Torremolinos 1962

   The year 1962 saw a lot of action, but also some sadness. 
   In March veteran GM Vyacheslav Ragozin (1908-1962) died in Moscow at the age of 53. He won the 2nd World Correspondence Chess Championship (1956-1959) and for many years helped Botvinnik with his training. In November, Russian problemist Abram Gurvich (1897-1962) died in Moscow. 
     In April, Ernst Grünfeld (1893-1962) died in Vienna at the age of 68 and in May, Josef Rejfir (1909-1962), one of the strongest Czech masters before the Second World War, died prematurely at the age of 52. Veteran Dr. Milan Vidmar (1885-1962) died in Ljubljuna, Yugoslavia at the age of 77 in October. Then in November, Dr. Ossip Bernstein (1882-1962) died in France at the age of 80. 
     U.S. chess also suffered a couple of losses when on April 23, 1962, Frank Graves (born 1893) died in Fort Worth, Texas. He was elected USCF President in 1954. Then on October 25th the 38 year old Abe Turner was stabbed to death by Theodore Smith at the office of Chess Review magazine. Smith, who had been recently released from an insane asylum, claimed that Turner was a Communist spy and had to be killed on orders from the U.S. Secret Service. Other sources claim that Turner, who was a homosexual, made an unwanted pass at Smith. 
     The year began in January with Mikhail Botvinnik pocketing $280 (about $2,604 these days) for winning the Hastings tournament. Viktor Korchnoi won the Soviet Championship, held in Yerevan and Larry Evans won the US championship; Fischer did not play in the event. 
     The big sensation came in April when 18-year-old Bobby Fischer won the Stockholm Interzonal 2.5 points ahead of the field. He won with 13 wins, 9 draws, and no losses. Fischer earned $750 ($6,381 in today’s dollars) and qualified for the Candidates Tournament in Curacao. 
     In June, Tigran Petrosian won the Curacao Candidates and Fischer finished in 4th place. Fischer later accused the Russians of cheating. In the book Chess is My Life Korchnoi confirmed the accusations. 
     The great Interzonal tournament overshadowed the one at Torremolinos, a city in southern Spain. It was a poor fishing village before the growth in tourism began in the late 1950s. 
     Torremolinos enjoys one of the best climates in Europe. It has long dry summers with relatively low humidity, and mild winters with occasional, though heavy, rainfall. The town benefits in the summer from cool sea breezes predominately coming from Africa although this does mean a fair amount of Sahara dust. Temperatures normally hover around 86 °F in the summer and 63–66 °F in the winter. The city sometimes experiences a sea fog that goes as quickly as it appears. The beach which extends for nearly 5.0 miles has cycle and skating lanes alongside the fully illuminated promenade and features many beach bars and live dance music events throughout the summer. 
     The field for the 1962 event had an outstanding field: Laszlo Szabo, Alberic O'Kelly, Eduardo Perez, Bruno Parma and Roman Toran. 
     At the outset it appeared as if Junior World Champion Parma would win. But an unexpected loss to the Portuguese Durao caused him to share first with Szabo and Perez. Langeweg appeared somewhat tired after playing in rapid succession in tournaments at Zevenaar, Utrecht and Beverwijk. 

     In the first round Langeweg played Ricardo Calvo, the Spanish junior champion, and Calvo obtained an irresistible attack by means of a beautiful sacrifice. The win was good for the first brilliancy prize in the tournament. 
     IM Ricardo Calvo (October 22, 1943 – September 26, 2006, 58 years old) of Spain was a doctor, a chess historian, author and reporter, as well as a strong chess player. He spoke many languages fluently. In 1987, Calvo was condemned by FIDE and declared persona non grata by a vote of 72-1 for allegedly making racial attacks on Latin American players in an article printed by New in Chess. The FIDE committee was headed by US representative Arnold Denker. For further reading refer to this article by Edward Winter.  
     Christiaan Gerrit (Kick) Langeweg (born March 7, 1937) became an IM in 1962 and had good results in some of the IBM international tournaments at Amsterdam and played for the Netherlands in six Olympiads (1960, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1968 and 1970).

Ricardo Calvo - Kick Langeweg
Result: 1-0Site: Torremolinos
Date: 1962Sicilian Scheveningen

[...] 1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.♘xd4 ♘f6 5.♘c3 e6 6.f4 More ususal here is either 6.Be2 or Keres' 6.g4 6...a6 7.♗e2 This is the main line, but at the time the Yugoslav players Matanovich and Parma had been experimenting with 7.Bd3 7...♕c7 It is too soon to play 7...b5 because of 8.Bf3. 8.O-O ♘bd7 Black chooses the Paulsen setup, but somewhat better was 8...Nc6.

8...b5 At the time this game was played it was believed this move needed further testing, but it turns out in white's favor after... 9.♗f3 ♗b7 10.e5

9.♗f3 The most popular move.

9.g4 b5 10.a3 ♗b7 11.♗f3 ♘c5 12.♕e2 e5 13.♘f5 Nezhmetdoniv-Tal, USSR Championship, Baku 1961. The chances are even, but white has a strong attack.

9...♗e7 Here white usually plays it safe with a prep move like 10.Kh1 or continues developing with 10.Be3. Instead Calvo continues in the style of Nezhmetdinov with the very dangerous (for black!) 10. g4!? 10.g4 ♘f8 Analysis by Calvo refuted 10...h6, but that's precise;y the move black should have played as after 10...Nf8? white gets a decisive attack. Calvo's analysis is a case of "long analysis, wrong analysis." At least that was the case in the pre-engine days!

10...h6 11.g5

11.h4 was unsuccessfully tried in Day,L-Timman,J/Jerusalem 1967 and Day lost badly.

11...hxg5 12.fxg5 d5 13.♖f2 ♘xe4 14.♗xe4 dxe4 15.g6 f5 This was Calvo's move and it's a losing move that's ?? worthy.

15...♘f6 gives black a distinct advantage after 16.gxf7 ♔f8 and white's K is more exposed than black's.

16.♘xe6 ♕e5 17.♘d5 and the threat of 18.Ndc7+ is desicive.

10...O-O Has also been tried, but white has also been able to demonstrate a clear advantage after 11.g5 ♘e8 12.a4 Hindering black's Q-side play. Kogan, A (2526)-Abergel,T (2440)/Erts 2015. White is better.

11.♕e2 White continues with his development, but misses a chance to get a very strong attack by advancing the g-Pawn.

11.g5 ♘6d7 12.♘f5 and black is in grave danger. He can't take the N... 12...exf5 13.♘d5 ♕d8 14.exf5 with a decisive attack.

11...h6 Necessary. If 11...Bd7 12.g5 leaves him with only the abject retreat to g8. 12.♕f2 ♘g6 13.♗e3

13.g5 While this was good a couple of moves back, here it's not. After 13...hxg5 14.fxg5 ♘d7 15.♗h5 Very dangerous looking, but black has 15...♘de5 16.♗xg6 fxg6 which unclear according to Gligoric, but a wee bit in black's favor according to the engines.

13...♘h7 This ugly move gets refuted in brilliant fashion so black needed to play something else, but what?

13...h5 This! 14.♘f5 can now be met with

14.g5 This leads to equal chances after 14...♘g4 15.♗xg4 hxg4 16.f5 ♘e5

14...hxg4 15.♗b6 ♕d7 16.♘xe7 ♘xf4 17.♗xg4 g5 18.♘xc8 ♘xg4 with a real mess that favors black slightly.

14.♘f5 After this brilliant move black has no really satisfactory defense, but 14...O-O is his best chance. 14...exf5 A regrettable decision that results in immediate defeat.

14...O-O 15.♘xe7 ♕xe7 16.♖ad1 and while white stands better, it's still a game.

15.♘d5 ♕b8 Other Q moves were not any better. 16.exf5 ♗h4

16...♘h4 is not any better. After 17.♖ae1 ♘xf3 18.♕xf3 b5 19.♗d4 ♔f8 20.♖xe7 and wins.

17.♕e2 ♘e7 18.♗b6 White has a nasty threat in 19.g5 18...♔d7 (18...♗xf5 19.gxf5 ♔f8 20.♘c7 is also decisive.) 19.♕c4 ♘xd5 20.♗xd5 The threat is 20.Qa4+ 20...♔e7 21.♗xf7 ♗xf5 Desperation, but there wasn't anything else. Now Calvo wraps it up. 22.♖ae1 ♗xe1 23.♖xe1 ♔f8 24.gxf5 ♕c8 White has a mate in ten. 25.♗c7 ♕d7 26.♗g6 d5 27.♕c5 ♔g8 28.♖e7 ♕c6 29.♖xg7 Black resigned. (29.♖xg7 ♔xg7 30.♕e7 ♔g8 31.♕f7#) (29.♖xg7 ♔xg7 30.♕e7 ♔g8)

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Editorial by GM Kevin Spraggett / Komodo 14 is out

   From time to time I mosey over to Spraggett’s site and the other day ran across a post titled Time to pull the plug?  READ 
     In the post he discusses the issue of online sites being totally unable to control cheating and the latest attempt by Chess.com which involves downloading a driver that “will turn virtual control of your computer over to the gaming company the moment you boot your computer, and even before you log on to the game!” You can read more about the system HERE. 
      As wonderful as engines are, unless you’re an engine junkie they have ruined all forms of chess except OTB play which is sad. Some CC players have justified the use of engines by claiming that intelligently using engines (where they are permitted) allows one to play chess to a higher standard. Additionally, their use improves and enriches our understanding of the game and it allows players to play much closer to perfect chess. 

Top CC players say they improve on engine suggestions.

     They say top CC players don’t simply follow an engine's suggestion...they work with the engine, but I’m not so sure anybody but a handful of world class GMs are able to do that anymore...maybe a few years back a strong player knew when not to trust an engine, but not any more. 
     There’s no real point I’m trying to make, but I am not about to download some kind of invasive app on my laptop just to play chess. The only way I’d even consider it would be to buy a cheap laptop and use it for absolutely nothing else but to play chess.

Komodo 14 is out 

     It’s downloadable and sells for $59.98 and for $99.98 you can get the 3-5 yearly updates at a discount. i.e. you still have to pay an additional fee to get the updates.  Visit site
     They have added an Armageddon mode which tells Komodo that white (or black) must win because draws are scored as loss. In this mode the specified color avoids clear draws, but adjusts the contempt setting. All very nice, but I am not sure exactly why a human using Komodo to analyze would need this feature. 
     I think that while Komodo may play more human like and so be of value to a GM in their preparations, I am still not convinced it’s worth $60 (or $100) when it can’t beat Stockfish. 

     For anybody that’s interested, Komodo 11.01 is available for free download on their website. On the CCLR 40/15 rating list, Stockfish 11 is rated 3491 while Komodo 11.01 is rated 3322 and it has played no games against Stockfish 11, but against Stockfish 10 its score is +3 -12 =37. 

Dr. Steven Tennant

     The year 1971 was a big one in the chess world. A number of players died that year. Hans Mueller (1896-1971) died in Austria at the age of 74. He was Austrian champion in 1947. Emil Richter (1894-1971) died in Czechoslovakia at the age of 77. He was Czech champion in 1948. Olaf Barda (1909-1971) died in Oslo at the age of 61. He was 6-time Norwegian champion and was a correspondence GM. 
     C.B. van den Berg (1924-1971) died in the Netherlands at the age of 47. He was Dutch CC champion in 1943. Jose Joaqin Araiza (1900-1971) died in Mexico at the age of 71. He was Mexican champion in 1957. GM Alexander Zaitsev (1935-1971) died of thrombosis after having a leg lengthened. He was only 36. 
     In 1971, the first Louis D. Statham (aka Lone Pine) tournament was open to all USCF Masters and Experts and was won by Larry Evans. Second place was a four-way tie among Svetozar Gligoric, James Tarjan, William Martz and Walter Browne. In August, Browne and Evans were US Open co-champions. 
     The really big news of the year began in June when Bobby Fischer soundly thrashed Mark Taimanov 6-0 in the Candidates match in Vancouver. When Taimanov returned home he was banned from playing outside the country for several years and was stripped of his Honored Master of Sport title. He was a concert pianist and was not allowed to give any more performances. He was also banned from writing any articles and was deprived of his monthly stipend.
     Then in July, Fischer beat Bent Larsen in Denver with the score of 6-0. That was followed in October by a +5 -1 =3 trouncing of Petrosian in Buenos Aires. Besides his loss to Fischer, Petrosian also lost his job as editor of 64 chess magazine. 
     Nobody remembers it, but in 1971, I played in a tournament in Chicago and was approached by a gentleman who introduced himself as Steve Tennant who informed me that he had just received his assignment to a finals section of Chess Review’s 1969 Golden Knights correspondence tournament and I was one of his opponents. 
     Oddly, Chicago players don’t remember much about the early chess career of Steven R. Tennant, DDS (1948-2017) and he seems to have just mysteriously appeared with a Master’s rating sometime around 1970. 
     Tennant claimed that he had a photographic memory and most people believed him because he could recall and play over games that were decades old. He was also a big trivia fan and liked to challenge others on trivia subjects.
     His USCF rating peaked at about 2380 and was an FIDE Master. In correspondence play he held Master titles with both the USCF and ICCF. His peak years were in the 1970s and 1980s and during that time he played in about every major national tournament with his best showing being second in one National Open and in 1977 he won the Illinois Open Championship to become State champion. 
     Tennant won the 1977 US Absolute Correspondence Championship and placed highly in others as well as several several Golden Knights, including second place in the 1974 event. In 1979 he was ranked the number 2 in correspondence player in the US. An outstanding blitz player, he was also a good blindfold player. Tennant also  competed in backgammon tournaments and was a competitive bridge player. 
     They say Tennant had a personality that could be abrasive at times and as a result he was involved in a few controversies and had feuds with several organizations as well as governmental agencies. 
     Shortly after being awarded the International Correspondence Master title Tennant got into a dispute with an opponent over an if move Tennant had sent. Ultimately the ICCF ruled against him. As a result, he refused to accept the ruling or continue the game which resulted in his being forfeited and banned for life from ICCF play. 
     Few of Tennant’s games are available because most of his original game scores were lost. Here is my game against him from the 1969 Golden Knight finals; it was started in 1971 and finished in June of 1972. 
     On the February 1972 Chess Review rating list Tennant was the number 7 ranked correspondence player in the United States, classed as an Air Mail Postalite with a 1796 rating. Chess Review titles were: Postal Master (none on the 1972 list), Postal Master Candidate (4 players), Air Mail Postalite (23 players) and First Class Postalite (57 players). I was way down the list in Class A with a 1278 rating.   
     At the time I thought the ending was drawn, but was totally wrong. Tennant was winning, but then he made a ghastly recording error on his 31st move. After he got my reply, he politely requested that I send him a photocopy of his postcard in order to verify that he had actually played 31.a5. He added that if he had played 31.a5 he had no choice but to resign. 
     After some consideration I decided that Tennant had far more to lose than I had to gain and so along with a photocopy of his postcard, I offered a draw. He replied thanking me for my “gentlemanly offer” which he accepted.
     The opening: In the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez (4.Bxc6), which is not considered white's most ambitious, white damages black's P-structure and gives himself a long-term plan of playing d4, ...exd4, and Qxd4, followed by exchanging all the pieces and winning the pure P ending. Black has good compensation, however, in the form of the B pair. 
     At the Havana Olympiad in 1966, Bobby Fischer surprised both Lajos Portisch and Svetozar Gligoric with the Exchange Variation and when he did so it set off a storm of Ruy Lopez Exchange Variations being played for several years afterwards. When Fischer played it he revived the variation Emanuel Lasker used to defeat Alekhine and Capablanca at St. Petersburg, 1914, but the variation eventually fell into disuse because black eventually found ways to equalize.

Dr. Steven Tennant - Tartajubow
Result: 1/2-1/2
Site: Golden Knights Postal
Date: 1971
Ruy Lopez: Exchange Variation

[...] 1.e4 e5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.♗b5 a6 4.♗xc6 dxc6 Fischer noted that this recapture is so automatic that most annotators fail to comment on it.

4...bxc6 5.d4 exd4 6.♕xd4 and Fischer said white maintains an enduring initiative.

5.O-O This gets an ! from Fischer who said it causes more problems for black than the immediate 5.d4, adding the Nimzovich is once more proved right that the threat is stronger than the execution. This move was favored by Lasker and Ossip Bernstein and at the time the Dutch master Johan Barendregt. Remember, it was Barendregt who was attacked by Raymond Weinstein while the later was studying psychology in Holland. Weinstein was deported and subsequently murdered his elderly roommate at a halfway house in New York. 5...f6 Gligoric stated that this position had not been seen in modern GM play, and thnaks to Fischer it was necessay to go back to the 1800s to find alternatives, but 5...f6 is probably the best way to defend the e-Pawn. 6.d4 ♗g4 Best according to Fischer. Earlier Lajos Portisch had unsuccessfully tried 6...exd4. 7.dxe5 Against Gligoric, Fischer played a gambit line beginning with 7.c3. It was a move Gligoric had mentioned in a note to a game he had played in 1965. 7...♕xd1 8.♖xd1 ♗xf3 Better than 8...exf4 that Smyslov played against Fischer at Monaco 1967. 9.gxf3 fxe5 10.♗e3 These moves were given by Fischer as the best. He comments that now the maneuver Nd2-c4 allows white to keep up the pressure. 10...♗d6

10...♘e7 11.f4 would, according to Fischer, allow white to keep the initiative.

11.♘d2 ♘h6 Not good, but apparently we were both under the impression that the open g-file after 12. Bxh6 was worth more to black than it is.

11...♘e7 12.♘c4 O-O-O 13.♖d3 b5 14.♘a5 ♗b4 15.♘b3 as in Fischer, R-Rubinetti,J/ Buenos Aires 1970. The position is equal but black soon blundered and lost.

11...♘f6 12.♘c4 O-O-O 13.♖d3 ♖he8 is equal Rodriguez Garcia,M (2166)-Andreu Sin, R (2075)/Balaguer 2003.

12.♘c4

12.♗xh6 gxh6 13.♘c4 ♖g8 14.♔f1 O-O-O 15.♖d3 ♖g6 16.♖ad1 Threatening 17.Nxe5 16...♖e6 and white is better.

12...♘f7 13.f4 exf4 14.♘xd6 cxd6 15.♗xf4 O-O-O 16.♔g2 g5 17.♗g3 ♖he8 18.♖e1 d5 19.exd5 ♖xe1 20.♖xe1 ♖xd5 21.♖e7 ♖d7 22.♖xd7 ♔xd7 23.♔f3 Centralizing the K. 23...♔e6 24.♔e4 ♘h6 25.♔d4 ♘f5 26.♔c5 ♘xg3 27.fxg3 Here I didn't realize that the correct procedure would have been for me to go after the K-side Ps. Simply counting moves would have revealed the correct plan. Black can queen in 10 moves; white in 9 moves. Therefore best was 27...Kf4 27...♔d7 After this black is quite lost.

27...♔f5 28.♔b6 ♔g4 29.♔xb7 ♔h3 30.♔xc6 g4 31.c4 ♔xh2 32.♔b7 ♔xg3 33.c5 ♔h4

33...♔f3 loses. 34.c6 g3 35.c7 g2 36.c8=♕ g1=♕ 37.♕f5 ♔e2 38.♕c2 ♔f3 39.♕xh7 ♕d4 40.♕c2 ♕d7 41.♔xa6 and wins

34.c6 g3 35.c7 g2 36.c8=♕ g1=♕ should be a draw.

28.♔b6 ♔c8 29.a4 Even better was 29.g4 and black quickly runs out of moves and eventually the K would have to give way. 29...h5 30.h4 gxh4 31.a5 The recording error. Undoubtedly Tennant forgot that he had not yet played g3xh4.

31.gxh4 After this the win takes some time, but it's a sure thing. Just one example.. 31...♔b8 32.♔c5 ♔c7 33.a5 ♔d7 34.♔d4 ♔d6 35.♔e4 ♔e6 36.♔f4 ♔f6 37.c3 At some point black si going to run out of P moves and the K will have to give way. 37...c5 38.c4 and wins

31...hxg3 Here Tennant offered to resign as soon as he received verification of this move, but I offered a draw which he accepted.

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