The list of great players in the Sarajevo tournaments is as long as your arm: Spassky, Petrosian, Keres, Kotov, Simagin, Szabo, Eliskases, Larsen, Andersson, Lobron, Darga, Robatsch, Benko, Browne, R. Byrne, Seirawan, Pirc, Velimirovic, Adorjan, Csom, Ribli, Sax, Smejkal, Hort, Jansa, Kavalek, Yusupov, Vaganian, Romanishin, Bareev, Van der Wiel, Piket, Bacrot, Miles, Short, Adams, Leko, Radjabov, Topalov and many others.
The winner of the first tournament was Stojan Puc (1921-2004) in 1957, plus he tied with Ludek Pachman for first in 1960. The most first prizes went to Viktor Korchnoi (1969, 1984 shared and 1998) and Lajos Portisch (1962 shared, 1963, and 1986 shared). Several players have won the tournament twice: Kasparov, Ivkov, Gligoric, Pachman, Puc, Ciric, Georgiev, Psakhis, Ivan Sokolov and Movsesian.
In spite of all the great players who have played there, as far back as the 1972 tournament Paul Keres complained that the tendency for Grandmaster draws was prevalent and the new goal of the GM was no longer to checkmate the enemy King, but to score points.
Back in the 1960s (or was it the 1970s, I am not sure) Nicolas Rossolimo bitterly complained that by FIDE rules in effect at the time he had become listed as "inactive" which made it almost impossible for him to get invitations to tournaments. He also complained that despite his many previous successes in international tournaments, many brilliancy prizes and Queen sacrifices, that when he went to publish a book of his best games, he was told by publishers that they were not interested because he "did not score points."
Rossolimo was so frustrated that he added he thought that in each tournament a committee should be formed to judge the games and award points based on beauty. Under this crazy system in some cases it could be possible for the loser to score more points than the winner if he played more beautifully!
Sarajevo had a reputation for a high number of Grandmaster draws, but the 1972 tournament was a refreshing exception.
The winner of the following game was the great Hungarian GM Laszlo Szabo (March 19, 1917-August 8, 1998, 81 years old).
Szabo was born in Budapest and at the age of eighteen, he won the Hungarian Championship for the first of nine times (1935, 1937, 1939, 1946, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1959, and 1967/68).
Before World War II, he worked in the foreign exchange department of a Budapest bank. During World War II, he was in a Hungarian Forced Labor unit where he was captured by the Russian army and was a prisoner of war until after the end of the war.
Following the Second World War, he began to compete in major international events and ontinued to play in tournaments and promote chess in his country until his death in 1998. Unofficially Chessmetrics assigns him a high rating of 2726 in 1946 which ranked him number 6 in the world behind Botvinnik, Najdorf, Euwe, Kers and Smyslov.
His opponent, Vlastimil Hort (January 12, 1944), is a Czech GM who during the 1960s and 1970s was one of the world's top players and reached the 1977–78 Candidates Tournament. Hort defected in 1985, moving to West Germany.
I analyzed this game using Stockfish and Komodo and in doing so, as often happens, I ran into a couple of positions where the engines were showing a winning advantage for, in this case, white, but being the patzer that I am I did not see how. In those cases I ran a Shootout just to make sure and to get an idea of the winning technique. In a Shootout the program (Fritz) plays a series of rapid games (either using a specified time or number of plies).
This brings me to a very informative article that appears in the recent issue of Chess Life in which GM Jacob Aagaard discusses analyzing with engines.
Naturally I can't reproduce the five page atricle, but he makes some instructive observations on using engines to improve your play.
When analyzing with an engine we are usually tempted to insert a whole lot of long and superfluous variations into the game. We should only be interested in variations that we, as humans, should actually be able see and then base our judgment on that.
He also noted that often we aren't going to understand why engines are giving one side and advantage. In those cases, further investigation is warranted and, hopefully, we will reach an understanding of why one side is better. If you can explain why one side is better in a way that another person can understand it then you have it.
By the way, Aagaard is an outstanding author and I can highly recommend his book Excelling At Chess Calculation, but only if you are willing to put in a LOT of work.
Laszlo Szabo - Vlastimil Hort
Result: 1-0
Site: Sarajevo
Date: 1972.03.21
Gruenfeld Defense
[...] 1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 g6 3.♘c3 d5 The Gruenfeld gives white the chance to gain the Pawn center which back in the 1920s was a revolutionary hypermodern idea. In those days the large P-center was considered to be a huge advantage that lead to a strong attack. However, black has plenty of opportunities for counterattack. At one time the defense was a favorite of Reshevsky because he considered it a "fighting defense." 4.cxd5 White takes the opportunity to kick the N around and set up an imposing P center. Seen less often are 4.Nf3, 4.Bg5 and 4.Bf4, all reasonable moves. 4...♘xd5 5.e4 ♘xc3 Probably the best reply. 6.bxc3 ♗g7 7.♗c4 One of 19 (!) moves that white has tried according to my Fritz opening book. 7...c5 8.♘e2 By far the best move.
8.♘f3 looks reasonable, but after 8...O-O 9.O-O cxd4 10.cxd4 ♘c6 11.♗e3 ♗g4 black has scored quite well.
8...♘c6 9.♗e3 O-O 10.O-O ♕c7 11.♖c1 ♖d8 12.f4 This is all opening theory and here white has tried 17 different moves!! Black now begins pecking away at white's center forcing it to advance. What will the result be? 12...♗g4 13.f5 ♘a5 14.♗d3 ♕d7 15.d5
15.e5 Is another alternative, but it, too, favors black. 15...♗xe5 16.fxg6 hxg6 17.h3 ♗xe2 18.♗xe2 cxd4 19.cxd4 ♗xd4 20.♗xd4 ♕xd4+ 21.♕xd4 ♖xd4 with a won ending for black. Chirivi C,A (2040)-Diaz Arboleda,D (2124)/Medellin 2013.
15...gxf5 16.c4 b5 This is one way to attack white's center. Another was is ... fxe4 and ...e6.
16...fxe4 17.♗xe4 e6 18.♕e1 b6 19.♘f4 e5 20.♘e6 fxe6 21.♕h4 and white's K-side attack prevailed. Kiese,M-Steinmueller,S/Berlin 1991
17.h3 fxe4
17...bxc4? would be great except for 18.♗b1 ♗d4 19.♗xd4 ♗xe2 20.♕xe2 cxd4 21.♖xf5 and white has a huge positional advantage because black's Ps are too weak.
18.♗xe4 Black has a couple of interesting replies here. 18...♗h5 Best as with this move black retains equality.
18...♗xh3 looks promising because if 19.gxh3 ♕xh3 20.♗xc5 bxc4 21.♗g2 Black has 3Ps for the B, but both Stockfish and Komodo highly favor white. In a Shootout using Stockfish white scored 7 wins in the resulting ending.
18...♘xc4 does not work out well either after 19.♖xc4 bxc4 20.hxg4 ♕xg4 21.♕c2 and white is better. In Shootouts white won all 7 games.
19.cxb5 ♖ac8 This loses outright as will be clear next move.
19...♕xb5 attacks the N and so 20.♗f3 ♗xf3 21.♖xf3 ♘c4 equalizes
20.♕e1 Unpinning the N. 20...♕xb5 21.♘f4 With the N no longer pinned white can now conduct an attack on black's K. 21...♗g6 22.♘xg6 fxg6 23.♗g5 ♗f6 24.♗xf6 exf6 It appears the black has solved his problems on the K-side and with the reduced material the danger of a direct attack on his K has disappeared. 25.♗xg6 But appearances can be deceptive. 25...♖f8 Surprisingly, white now has another sacrifice available. (25...hxg6 26.♖xf6 ♕e8 27.♖e6 ♕f7 28.♕e4 ♔h7 29.♖f1 ♕g7 30.♖e7 wins.) 26.♕g3
26.♗xh7+ Although this would win in the ending, it's much too unclear to play OTB! 26...♔xh7 27.♕h4+ ♔g8 28.♕g4+ ♔f7 29.♕f5 and black's extra piece won't save him as extensive endgame analysis shows. That's assuming that white finds the best moves at every turn.
26...♔h8 (26...hxg6 27.♕xg6+ ♔h8 28.♖f5 is the end.) 27.♗xh7 A brilliant finish. 27...♕b2
27...♔xh7 28.♖f4 and black has no way out. The difference between this variation and 26.Bxh7+ is that here white's Q is better positioned in that it cuts off black's K.
28.♗f5 ♕d4+ 29.♔h1 ♖g8 30.♕f3 ♖ce8 31.♕h5+ ♔g7 32.♕h7+ Hort resigned.
32.♕h7+ ♔f8 33.♗e6 ♖xe6 34.dxe6 ♖g7 35.♕h8+ ♖g8 36.♖xf6+ ♔e7 37.♖f7+ ♔d6 38.♕xg8 ♔c6 39.e7 c4 40.e8=♕+ ♔b6 41.♕b8+ ♘b7 42.♖xb7+ ♔a5 43.♕g5+ ♔a4 44.♕b5+ ♔a3 45.♕a6#
32.♖ce1 is actually a quicker mate. 32...♖xe1 33.♖xe1 ♕e5 34.♖xe5 fxe5 35.♕g6+ ♔f8 36.♕f6+ ♔e8 37.d6 ♖g7 38.♕xg7 c4 39.♕g8#
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