An Abrupt End In A Routine Position

 

     The year 1952 began with Gligoric winning at Hastings and Botvinnik and Taimanov tied for the 1952 USSR championship. Botvinnik won the play-off match. In Los Angeles Larry Evans defeated Herman Steiner 10-4 in a US Championship match. 

     Samuel Reshevsky defeated Miguel Najdorf 11-7, in a match dubbed The Championship of the Free World. In May, Gligoric took 1st place on tiebreak over Oscar Pomar in the Hollywood International tournament. Larry Evans won the US Open, held in Tampa. 

     The USSR team (Keres, Smyslov, Bronstein, Geller, Boleslavsky, and Kotov) won the Helsinki Olympiad. Argentina was 2nd and Yugoslavia was 3rd. Czechoslovakia was fourth. The US team (Reshevsky, Evans, Robert Byrne, Bisguier, Koltanowski and Berliner) was a disappointing fifth. Soviet GM Alexander Kotov won the Saltsjobaden Interzonal. 

     Conscription in the United States, commonly known as the draft, was in use beginning with the Revolutionary War and lasted until 1973. The idea of an all voluntary military was hatched up by Richard Nixon because he thought it would stop the rich boys from protesting against the war in Vietnam if there was no possibility that they might have to go. It didn't work. 

     In 1951 Arthur Bisguier got drafted into in the Army and served until 1953. While stationed in Germany he got to give some exhibitions and he also won a tournament in Vienna that was held in 1952. 

     Looking over the games from the tournament showed them, for the most part, to be hard fought. One game of interest was that between the seven-time Brazilian champ Joao de Souza Mendes, Jr. (June 1892 - July 10, 1969) and Ernst Stoeckl.

     Mendes was born in the Azores and played in the Brazilian Championship 29 times, winning in 1925, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1943, 1954, and 1958. He finished second five times, the last time in 1965 at age 73 when thirteen-year-old Henrique Mecking won, and he finished third five times. 

     His opponent, Ernst Stoeckl (May 26, 1912 - March 22, 2000, 87 years old), was one of the strongest players in Austria from the mid-1950s until the mid-1960s.

Ernst Stoeckl - Joao De Souza Mendes

Result: 1-0

Site: Vienna

Date: 1952

Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense

[...] 1.c4 e6 2.♘c3 d5 3.d4 ♘f6 4.♗g5 ♘bd7 5.e3 ♗e7 6.♘f3 O-O 7.♖c1 c6 White has two main moves: 8.Bd3 and 8.Qc2. After 8.Bd3 black will play ...dxc4 which surrenders the center but has forced white to lose a tempo. White will try to use this advantage in space to attack, whereas black will try to strike back in the center. 8.♗d3 8.Qc2 leaves black with many more options 8...h6 9.♗h4

9.♗xf6 allows black easy equality after 9...♗xf6 10.O-O dxc4 11.♗xc4 e5

9.♗f4 This is a reasonable alternative. 9...dxc4 10.♗xc4 but here black can play 10...a6, 10...Nd5 or 10...Nh5 all of which give him equal play.

9...dxc4

9...g5 would be wrong because after 10.♗g3 ♘h5 11.♘e5 ♘xg3 12.hxg3 blacks K-side would be dangerously weakened.

10.♗xc4 b5

10...c5 is rarely tried, but fter 11.O-O a6 12.a4 cxd4 13.exd4 ♘b6 Black has equalized.

11.♗d3 a6 12.O-O c5 13.♕e2 ♗b7 14.♖fd1 ♕b6 15.♘e5 ♖fe8 16.♗b1 cxd4 17.exd4 ♘f8

17...♖ad8 18.♗g3 ♘f8 19.♕e3 ♘h5 20.♘e4 ♘xg3 21.hxg3 with equal chances. Lugovoi,A (2510)-Chehlov,A (2288)/St Petersburg 1999

18.♗xf6 ♗xf6 19.♘e4 This position is dead equal after black takes either N. Instead her loses instantly in an instructive fashion! 19...♗d8 This seemingly innocuous move preserving the B loses instantly. (19...♗xe4 20.♗xe4 ♗xe5 21.dxe5 ♖ad8 and things can't get much more even!) 20.♕h5 Black could now resign. 20...♖e7 Defending f7.

20...♖c8 A pass to demonstrate white's threat. 21.♕xf7+ ♔h8 22.♘g6+ ♘xg6 23.♕xe8+ ♔h7 24.♘f6+ gxf6 25.♕xg6+ ♔h8 26.♕h7#

21.♖c3 OK! It's a good thing black didn't resign after 20.Qh5 because while white still has the advantage after 21.Rc3 he missed the knockout with 21.Nf6+. As a result black is still in the game.

21.♘f6+ wraps it up. 21...gxf6 (21...♔h8 22.♕xf7 ♖xf7 23.♘xf7#) 22.♖c3 ♘g6 23.♘xg6 (23.♖g3 fxe5 24.♗xg6 ♔f8 25.dxe5 ♗d5 26.♕xh6+ ♔e8 27.♗e4 with a clear win.) 23...fxg6 24.♕xg6+ ♔f8 25.♕xh6+ ♔e8 26.♕g6+ ♔d7 27.d5 ♗xd5 (27...e5 28.♗f5+ ♔d6 29.♕xf6+ ♖e6 30.♕xe6#) 28.♖xd5+ exd5 29.♗f5+ ♖e6 30.♖e3 and white is winning.

21...f6 But not with this move which allows mate in 4!

21...♖c7 keeps him in the game after 22.h4 f6 23.♘g6 (23.♘xf6+ now fails. 23...♗xf6 24.♘g4 ♖xc3) 23...♖xc3 24.♘xc3 b4 25.♘e4 ♗d5 26.♘f4 white is better.

21...♖c7 22.♘c5 This is also plausible. After 22...♗d5 23.♖g3 ♗g5 24.h4 g6 white must find 25.♖xg5 the only move that keeps the advantage. 25...hxg5 26.♕xg5 ♕d6 27.h5 ♕d8 28.♕g3 with a promising position.

22.♘xf6+ this culminates in mate. 22...gxf6 (22...gxf6) 23.♖g3+ Black resigned. A quick end! (23.♖g3+ ♖g7 24.♕f7+ ♔h8 25.♕xg7#)

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