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Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Edward Lasker's Last Major Tournament

 
     Today if you wanted to fly the 5,500-plus miles from New York to Mar del Plata in Argentina it would take 11 hours. Back in1949 it took 28 hours. 
     By the way, did you know that all of South America is situated east of Cleveland, Ohio? A while back I was surprised to find out that if you flew straight south from my hometown you would not even fly over anyplace in South America. After leaving the US around Tampa, Florida you would fly over Havana and then the western end of Panama. Then you'd pass a few miles to the west of Peru. You don't actually hit land until Antarctica. But enough of fun with maps. 
     In 1949 the 64-year old Edward Lasker accepted his invitation to play in Mar del Plata and made the flight. He left New York at 2:30pm, reached Miami 4 hours later and after a 4 hour layover it was off to South America on a plane scheduled to arrive at Lima, Peru at 7 the next morning and from there it was a series of hops to Buenos Aires where he was met by Miguel Najdorf and the president of the local chess club. Then it was a harrowing ride to his hotel with Najdorf at the wheel. 

     According to Najdorf, any one of the players had a shot at being a prize winner. He may have been right. Last place finisher Cesar Corte blundered away a dead won game against Hector Rossetto in time pressure. And, Erich Eliskases barely escaped defeat at the hands 17-year old Arturo Pomar who finished next to last. 
     For Lasker, the tournament was a valuable lesson. As he had suspected, the five-hour playing sessions proved to be too much of a strain. when fourth hour fatigue set in. After this tournament he decided to swear off tournament chess.
     Here is an example of Lasker's play against tournament winner Rossetto in a game with a lot of action packed into it. By the way, don't ever take Lasker's annotations at face value because generally they are, to put it mildly, horrible. He was always very optimistic and seems to have thought he was winning almost every game, frequently awarding himself a "!" or sometimes even two when they weren't merited. After awarding himself all those exclamation marks he then had to explain why he blundered away the win. See my post How Edward Lasker Almost Won the US Championship HERE.
 

Edward Lasker - Hector Rossetto

Result: 0-1

Site: Mar del Plata

Date: 1949

French Tarrasch

[...] 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.♘d2 With this move white can in some circumstances support the P with c3 and this move also avoids the once dreaded Winawer (...Bb4). The disadvantage is that the N will soon have to move again to unblock the B. 3...♘f6 4.e5 ♘fd7 5.♗d3 c5 6.c3 b6 Infrequently played. The idea is to exchange his bad B for white's good one. 7.♕e2 While this poses a difficult problem for black, it would be preferable to play 7.Ndf3 7...♘c6 More exact is first 7...dxc4. That way black can avoid white's attempt to prevent ...Ba6 exchanging his good B.
7...cxd4 8.cxd4 ♘c6 9.♘df3 ♘b4 and if white tries to avoid the exchange of his B black gains the upper hand after 10.♗b1 Better is 10.Bg5 10...♕c7 11.♕d1 ♗a6
8.♘df3 In his annotations Lasker gave this move "!!" and said it took him 45 minutes to decide on it because it involves the sacrifice of a P.This involves the sacrifice of a P and such sacrifices always require extremely difficult considerations. .
8.♗b5 ♕c7 9.♘gf3 a6 10.♗xc6 ♕xc6 11.O-O Black has a slightly the better chances. Vlasov,E (2250)-Yemelin,V (2559)/St Petersburg 2013.
8...cxd4 9.♗b5 Lasker generously awarded himself another "!" for this move.
9.cxd4 ♘b4 10.♗d2 ♘xd3+ 11.♕xd3 a5 12.♘e2 ♗a6 13.♕e3 ♖c8 14.O-O is equal. Pinternagel,E (1893)-Streltsyn,G (2106)/Friedrichroda 2007
9...♕c7 10.♘xd4 Here Lasker gives himself another two exclamation marks adding that this is the point of his 9th move...after black wins the e-Pawn black must lose a good deal of time with his N which is exposed to attack by P moves which further white's development. 10...♘cxe5 Komodo disagrees with Lasker and thinks black is slightly better here. 11.f4 Rather than this slightly weakening move 11.Bf4 seems preferable. (11.♗f4 ♘d3+ 12.♕xd3 ♕xf4 13.♘gf3 and black has a comfortable position.) 11...♘c4 12.♘gf3 White had vague hopes of sacrificing on e6.
12.♘xe6 is not good at the moment. 12...fxe6 13.♕xe6+ ♔d8 14.♕xd5 ♗b7 15.♕h5 and white has no compensation for his sacrificed piece.
12...♗e7 13.O-O
13.♘g5 is no threat... 13...♗xg5 14.fxg5 O-O with the advantage.
13...a6 This should have allowed white to equalize with 14.Bc6. Black needs to get his K out of the center in order to claim any advantage.
13...O-O was better. 14.f5 e5 15.♗c6 ♗b7 16.♗xd7 ♕xd7 17.♘xe5 ♘xe5 18.♕xe5 ♗d6 leaves black slightly better.
14.♗a4
14.♗c6 was better. After 14...♗b7 15.♗xd7+ Black's N is more valuable than the B which is blocked by its own Ps. 15...♕xd7 16.f5 and white can regain his P. 16...O-O (16...e5 17.♘xe5 ♘xe5 18.♕xe5 favors white.) 17.fxe6 fxe6 18.♕xe6+ ♕xe6 19.♘xe6 with about equal chances.
14...b5 15.♗c2 ♘f6 All this fiddling around instead of castling costs black the initiative. 16.a4 b4 (16...bxa4 17.♗xa4+ ♗d7 18.♗xd7+ ♕xd7 19.♘e5 ♘xe5 20.fxe5∓) 17.b3 ♘a5 Also good was 17...Nd6 18.f5 After the game Najdorf analyzed the alternative 18.cxb3. During the game Lasker had spent a good deal of time looking at it before rejecting it in favor of the text.
18.cxb4 ♗xb4 19.♗b2 (19.f5 e5 20.♗g5 ♗d6 21.♖ae1 O-O with an excellent position.) 19...O-O 20.♘e5 with about equal chances.
18...e5 This move, which happens to be the best, gives back the P and it took Rossetto more than an hour to decide to play it. 19.♘xe5 Lasker commented had already consumed more than two hours and with the fourth hour of play coming to an end, he was fatigued and was incapable of seeing through the looming complications.
19.♕xe5 was correct. After 19...♕xe5 20.♘xe5 O-O the position is equal. (20...bxc3 21.♗a3 ♗xa3 22.♖xa3 O-O 23.b4 is unclear.)
19...O-O 20.♘d3 Lasker made no comment on this move which throws the advantage over to black in big way.
20.cxb4 ♗xb4 21.♘g4 ♘xg4 22.♕xg4 ♗c3 23.♗h6 ♗xd4+ 24.♕xd4 gxh6 25.♖f3 with an interesting position.
20...bxc3 21.♗f4 ♗d6 22.♕f2 ♘c6 23.♖ad1 White has been blitzing out his last few moves.
23.♗xd6 Lasker mistakenly believed this would have given him excellent chances because of the immobility of black's B. That's simply not true. 23...♕xd6 24.♘xc6 ♕xc6 25.b4 d4 26.♕xd4 ♗b7 27.♖f2 ♖fd8 and black is calling the tune.
23...♗b7 Of course there was nothing wrong with 23...Bxf4 24.♘c5 This move, which is simply bad, can be explained by both Lasker's time pressure and fatigue. He chooses complications rather than something simple. (24.♗xd6 ♕xd6 25.♕f4 at least avoids immediate disaster.)
24.♘xc6 was Lasker's recommendation, but it's not really any better than the move he played... 24...♕xc6 25.♗xd6 ♕xd6 26.♕c5 ♕d8 27.♕xc3 ♖c8 28.♕d2 ♕b6+ 29.♘f2 d4 with the advantage.
24...♘g4 Playing 24...Nb4 was also a good option. 25.♕g3 His position was bad, and this mistake simply loses a piece.
25.♗xd6 Lasker wrongly asserted that this move offered "at least drawing chances." That's hot air. 25...♕xd6 26.♕f4 ♕xc5 27.♕xg4 ♖fe8 28.f6 g6 29.♕h4 ♖ac8 30.♕h6 ♕f8 Here in Shootouts white managed only one draw in five games.
25...♘xd4 26.♕xg4 ♗xf4 27.♘xb7 White still has some hope that black makes the wrong recapture! 27...♗e3+ This shows why it's necessary to be vigilant to the end.
27...♕xb7 is a bad alternative 28.♖xf4 ♘xc2 29.f6 and white is right back in the game! 29...g6 30.♕g5 ♕b6+ 31.♔h1 ♘e3 32.♕h6 ♕xf6 33.♖xf6 ♘xd1 34.♕c1 ♖fe8 35.♕xd1 c2 36.♕c1 d4 37.♖f1 d3 and although 5 Shootouts were all drawn, practically the game could go either way. 38.♕f4 ♖e7 39.♕d6 ♖ae8 40.♕xd3 c1=♖ 41.♖xc1 ♖e1+ 42.♕f1 ♖xf1+ 43.♖xf1 ♖b8 44.♖f3 is drawn.
28.♔h1 ♘xc2 29.f6 g6 30.♕e2 ♕xb7 31.♕xc2 d4 Lasker resigned.
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