Probably the biggest news of the tournament was the successful return to tournament play after a lapse of five years by Ludek Pachman who had been politically active throughout his life, first as a Communist and later as a staunch anti-Communist.
In December 1968, he had won a tournament in Athens and when he returned to Prague he was arrested, imprisoned and tortured for months. During this time he attempted suicide. On Christmas Eve 1969, doctors called his wife and told her that he probably would not survive the night, but he did.
Finally, in 1972 Pachman was allowed to emigrate to West Germany where he became heavily involved as an anti-Communist political activist and his eloquence made him a regular guest on political talk shows.
Oddly, even though the tournament was played in Israel there was a scheduling problem involving Reshevsky that was caused by the occurrence of religious holidays. It seems Reshevsky adhered to a different religious observance. Apparently holidays in Israel, which had a 5 and a half day work week, were shorter.
The round 10 game between Reshevsky and Italy's Stefano Tatai was a problem. First, Tatai refused to start at 8:30pm since another round was scheduled for the next morning at 10:00am and a lot of pro players, e.g. Fischer, simply refused to play in the morning. Tatai indicated his intention to forfeit the game rather than be forced to play at such an awful time. As a result the game was postponed to the day before the final round and the starting time was changed two or three times.
When they finally did play the game both players got into time trouble, but Tatai's was worse because he had to make about 20 moves in three minutes. After his flag fell the game was reconstructed and it was discovered that more than the necessary 40 moves had been made so the game was adjourned.
Upon resumption, in the simplified ending Tatai gave up his N to eliminate Reshevsky's last useful pawn and a dead drawn position resulted. For unknown reasons Reshevsky thought for an hour before he agreed to the draw.
After his encounter with Reshevsky, in the last round Tatai met Kavalek and understandably had no intentions of trying to defeat him and allow Reshevsky to tie for first. The result was a quick 18 move draw that lasted only a few minutes. The moves were identical to the Tatai-Uhlmann game that was played at Skopje 1972. When Reshevsky saw what happened and Kavalek was guaranteed first place, he immediately offered his opponent, Friedman, a draw after only 7 moves had been played.
Anthony Saidy bellyached vociferously about the playing schedule. Rounds 9 to 14 were played without rest days and had three different starting times and the adjournments had to be played off at 9am the following day.
At one point Saidy was a half point out of first and had a good chance at making the GM (11 points) and therefore he submitted a written request to play at "a regular, normal hour." His request was turned down.
The reason given was that the schedule was the same for all the players and there were also "religious reasons." Saidy complained that there was only one player in the tournament who had the right to request changes in the schedule. One presumes he meant Reshevsky. Saidy also observed that nobody explained to him why adjourned games were scheduled on the Sabbath.
The upshot of the schedule was that Saidy, playing at the miserable hour of 10am, committed two horrible blunders and lost badly to Czerniak.
In the next to last day, Saidy, again playing in the morning, blew an ending against Mato Damjanovic and then that evening he was hammering Friedman, but played too fast and ended up having to agree to a draw. The whole experience convinced Saidy to never again to accede to playing in the morning. It makes me wonder...as a medical doctor did Saidy refuse to see patients in the morning?
For Kavalek, it was the second undefeated victory in a row. The 62 year old Reshevsky was playing well except in his game against Czerniak...he left a whole Rook en prise! Even Homer nods.
There was also an open Masters' Section that was won by Itchak Radashkovitch, a former Leningrader who had emigrated to Israel. He was followed by Ole Jakobsen of Denmark. Third was Leon Piasetsky of Canada. The favorite, Predrag Ostojic of Yugoslavia finished 4th. Larry Kaufman was playing in his first international individual event and finished in the middle with 5.5-5.5.
In the following game Italy's Stefano Tatai (March 23, 1938 - May 29, 2017) got smashed by Israeli Master Meir Romm (1939 - 1998) after Tatai got over ambitious on the K-side and ended up falling victim to a nice Q sacrifice.
The refined and cultured Tatai was a legend in Italian chess. He was awarded the IM title in 1966 and came close to making GM several times, but under rules in effect at the time the title was never awarded. He won the Italian championship twelve times (1962, 1965, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1977, 1979, 1983, 1985, 1990, 1991 and 1994). He passed away in Tenerife, Spain.
Meir Romm - Stefano Tatai
Result: 1-0
Site: Netanya
Date: 1973
French Defense, Winawer
[...] 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.♘c3 ♗b4 In the Winawer black pins the N forcing white to resolve the central tension. White normally clarifies the situation in the center with 4. e5, gaining space and hoping to show that black's B is misplaced. 4.e5 This is the most aggressive reply. Harmless is 4,exd5. Both 4.a3 and 4.Bd3 lead to no more than equality.
13...c4 Also good was 13.. .cxd4 14.♗e2 Black's last move has left him with little choice, but his best plan seems to be expanding on the Q-side with ...a6 and ...b5. Instead he makes a risky advance on the K-side. 14...f5 15.h5 ♔h7 16.♕d2 This can hardly be faulted, but repositioning the B with Bc1-a3-d6 was a good positional plan. 16...♖g8 17.g3 ♗e8 18.♘h4 ♕c8 19.♔g2 ♗xh5 Opening up the K-side proves to be a catastrophic decision. Relatively best was some sort of neutral move like 19... Bf7 or maybe 19...Rb8 20.♗xh5 g5 21.♖h1 gxf4 22.♕xf4 ♖g7 Unsuspecting of what is coming or he would have tried 22...Qf8, but even then white would stand better. 23.♕xh6+ Very nice! 23...♔xh6 There is no choice.
4.♕g4 is also interesting. 4...♘f6 5.♕xg7 ♖g8 6.♕h6 c5 7.a3 ♖g6 And now white should avoid Pachman's 8.Qe3 which is good for black and play instead either 8. Qf4 or 8.Qh4 with equal chances.
4...c5 A logical move attacking white's center. Other moves tend to lead to complex stategical play.
4...b6 Intending to exchange his problem B. 5.♕g4 Also good is 5.a3 5...♗f8 6.♘h3 ♗a6 7.♗xa6 ♘xa6 8.♘f4 ♘b4 9.♕d1 c5 with equal play.
4...♕d7 An odd looking move, but black is planning to exchange his light -squared B. but is anticipating White 's next move. 5.♕g4 f5 6.♕g3 b6 etc.
4...♘e7 5.a3 ♗xc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.♕g4 Here black can play either 7...O-O or 7...Qc7. I used to play the interesting 7...Kf8 in postal play.
5.a3 Forcing black's B to declare its intentions. Also playable is 5.Bd2 while 5.Qg4 leads to complications 5...♗xc3+
5...♗a5 is a risky alternative. 6.b4 cxd4 White should play either 7.Nb5 or 7.Qg4
6.bxc3 White has an advantage in space and the B pair. His dark-squared B can often be developed actively on a3 . However , black is not without good counterchances. He can often attack strongly down the c-file when white's P on c2 can become very weak if black manages to exchange the light-squared Bs. Another plan for black is to blockade by ...c5-c4 when his own light-squared B (or Q) can be posted on a4. If white tries to prevent this by playing a4 the P can be captured after ... Qa5 and ...Bd7 with very complex play offering equal chances. However, in the early stages it is white who is in the driver's seat and black must immediately deal with the strong positional threat of 7.Qg4. 6...♕c7 Now he can meet 7.Qg4 with 7...f5 7.♘f3 With this move white decides t o avoid the double-edged play arising from 7.Qg4 7...♘e7 8.a4 b6 Once again black plans to exchange the light-squared Bs by ...Ba6. White can prevent this but 8...b6 still provides useful protection for the c-Pawn which will block the diagonal of White's light-squared B if it goes to a3. 9.♗b5+ ♗d7 Black could still carry out his first plan by 9...Nec6 but would lose too much time. 10.♗d3 ♘bc6 11.O-O Here it is very important to note that black must delay castling which would be answered by the standard sacrifice Bxh7+ 11...h6
11...O-O 12.♗xh7+ ♔xh7 13.♘g5+ ♔g6 14.h4 ♖h8 15.♕g4 f5 16.♕g3 f4 17.♕xf4 ♘f5 18.g4 ♖xh4 19.♘xe6 ♗xe6 20.gxf5+ ♗xf5 21.♕xh4 with a winning position.
11...O-O-O is refuted by 12.dxc5 bxc5 13.♗a6+ ♔b8 14.♖b1+ ♔a8 15.♗b7+ winning.
12.h4 More exact is 12.Qd2
12.♕d2 O-O 13.♕f4 c4 14.♗e2 f6 15.exf6 ♕xf4 16.♗xf4 and white is better. Perunovic,M (2620) -Froewis,G (2423)/ Bad Gleichenberg AUT 2013
12...O-O
12...♘a5 This should have turned out badly for black. 13.♗a3 Better was 13.h5 which would have left white with the better game. 13...♗xa4 14.♕d2 ♗d7 15.♕f4 f5 and black has equalized. Yilmaz, G (2155)-Barsov,A (2397)/Cesme TUR 2019
13.♗f4
13.♖e1 f5
13...cxd4 14.cxd4 ♘b4 is equal. Antonio,R (2547)-Sharavdorj,D (2448)/Istanbul 2000
14.dxc5 bxc5 15.c4 ♘a5 16.♘d2 d4 Black is slightly better. Fluvia Poyatos,J (2500)-Simon Padros,E (2230)/La Massana AND 2008 23...♔g8 24.♘g6 ♖h7 25.♘xe7+ ♘xe7 26.♗f7+ ♔xf7 27.♕f6+ ♔e8 28.♖xh7 ♕b7 29.♕f7+ ♔d8 30.♕f8+ ♔c7 31.♕xe7+ mates next move.
24.♘xf5+ ♔g5 25.♘d6 Here black has little choice but to return the Q, but doing so allows him right back in the game.
25.♘xg7 This would have been crushing. It's a shame Romm missed this. 25...♔h6 26.♘xe6 ♕xe6 27.♗g4+
25...♘g6 (25...♕f8 26.f4+ ♔h6 27.♗f7#) (25...♕d7 26.f4+ ♔h6 27.♗f7#) 26.♘xc8 ♖xc8 27.f4+ ♘xf4+ 28.gxf4+ ♔xf4+ 29.♔f2 White is still winning positionally, but his 25th move has made his task more difficult. 29...♖cg8
29...♖f8 was just a tad better. 30.♖ae1 ♘e7 31.♖h3 ♘f5 32.♖f3+ ♔g5 33.♖g1+ ♔h6 34.♖h1 Taking the R allows black to equalize! 34...♔g5 This looks equal, but both Stockfish and Komodo evaluae the position as winning for white. Here is Komodo's main line: 35.♔e1 ♖a8 36.♔d2 ♖h8 37.♖fh3 Threatening Rg1+ 37...♖xh5 (37...♔h6 38.♗f3+ ♔g6 39.♖xh8) 38.♖xh5+ ♔g6 39.♖5h3 ♔f7 40.♖h7 ♔g6 41.♖xg7+ ♔xg7 42.♖h3
30.♗f3 ♘d8
30...♘xe5 This was his best practical chance. After 31.dxe5 ♔xe5 32.♖h6 ♔d6 white has his work cut out for him if he is to score the point. In Shootouts white scored +3 -0 =2 so black would have had some drawing chances.
31.♖h6 ♖g6 32.♖ah1 ♖xh6 33.♖xh6 ♖f8 34.♖g6 ♔f5 35.♖g7 a5 A final blunder.
35...♘f7 would prolong his misery. 36.♔g3 ♘d8 37.♗g2 ♘c6 38.♔f3 ♖h8 39.♖f7+ ♔g5 40.♖c7 ♘d8 41.♖xa7 etc.
36.♔e3 It's mate next move. Powered by Aquarium
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