Nasser’s announcement came about following months of mounting political tensions between Egypt, Britain, and France. Although Nasser offered full economic compensation, the British and French were suspicious of Nasser who was opposed to their political influence and efforts to perpetuate their colonial domination.
In the United States President Eisenhower was worried by the prospect of the outbreak of hostilities as well as possible intervention by the Soviet Union. Consequently, on September 9, 1956, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles proposed a consortium of 18 of the world’s leading maritime nations to operate the Canal. This and international mediation efforts failed.
Additionally, in discussions with the United States that took place between August and October, the British hinted that they might resort to force. At the same time in some political intrigue, the British and French were holding secret military consultations with Israel who regarded Nasser as a threat to its security. The result of those meetings was a plan to invade Egypt and overthrow Nasser.
As a result, Israel attacked on October 29, 1956, advancing to within 10 miles of the Suez Canal. Under the pretext of protecting the Canal from Egypt and Israel, Britain and France landed troops a few days later.
This left Eisenhower deeply concerned about the Soviet Union's intervention just like they had done in Hungary. The Hungarian Revolution which began on October 23, 1956 was a countrywide revolution against the Stalinist government and it was ruthlessly suppressed. It was also the reason a number of Hungarian chess players, including Pal Benko, ended up in the United States.
Under pressure from the United Nations Britain and France withdrew in December and Israeli forces departed in March 1957. That month, Egypt took over control of the canal and reopened it to commercial shipping.
What did that have to do with chess? It meant the annual traditional Hastings Christmas tournament had been called off in view of the unsettled international situation.
Eventually it was rescheduled and it was a four-way fight for first between Svetozar Gligoric of Yugoslavia, Bent Larsen of Denmark, Alberic O'Kelly of Belgium and Fridrik Olafsson of Iceland.
Today, O'Kelly is mostly remembered for his contributions to the Sicilian Defense, but at the time he had been collecting a string of first prizes in tournaments and on the January 1957 rating list Chessmetrics puts his rating at 2644, placing him at number 31 in the world. That placed him in a group of better known players like Pal Benko, Wolfgang Unzicker, Oscar Panno and Alexander Kotov.
In this Hastings tournament, as a result of a loss to Gligoric, he failed to capture first. Gligoric had been playing under par recently, but at Hastings he was in top form.
Olafsson, despite personal victory over Larsen, his bete noire to whom he had lost a match for the Scandinavian title, was relegated to a tie for third when he lost to Gligoric in the last round.
There is little doubt that when you look at the the crosstable the question springs to mind, "Who was Derek G. Horseman?" I posted about him last year and gave his game with Szabo from this tournament HERE.
The following short, sharp encounter features a nice combination by Peter Clarke against Roman Toran.
FM Peter Clarke (March 18, 1933 - December 11, 2014, 81 years old) was born in London, England. He was a ICGM and in 1977 he won the British Correspondence Championship. Over the board he finished 2nd on five occasions in the British Championship.
Clarke was also a writer and chess correspondent for the London Sunday Times and is best known for his biographies of Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian. Clarke was also an International Arbiter.
In the early 1950s, Roman Toran (October 8, 1931 - October 1, 2005, 73 years old) was among the best Spanish players. In 1951 and 1953, he won the Spanish Championship. He won the Gijon International Tournament seven times: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1954. He also qualified for two Zonal Chess tournaments (1954, 1962).
Toran retired from competition in the mid-1970s and devoted himself to journalistic work and chess activism. From 1982 to 1990 he was the FIDE Vice President for Europe, between 1988 and 2000 the president of the Spanish Chess Federation. He published dozens of books on chess, was the founder of several Spanish chess magazines.
[Event "Hastings 1956/57"]
[Site "Hastings"]
[Date "1956.12.28"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Peter Clarke"]
[Black "Roman Toran"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B93"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 14.1"]
[PlyCount "43"]
[EventDate "1956.12.27"]
{Sicilian Najdorf} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f4 e5
7. Nf3 Nbd7 8. Bc4 Be7 9. a4 O-O 10. Qe2 b6 {At the time this game was played
theory on the Najdorf was in its infancy. The text move gives far worse
results for black than today's standard reply of 10...Qa5} (10... Qa5 11. Bd2
exf4 12. Nd5 Qd8 13. Bxf4 Nxd5 14. Bxd5 Bf6 15. Bxd6 Bxb2 16. Rb1 Bc3+ {
with equal chances. Ljubojevic,L (2605)-Ribli,Z (2585)/Amsterdam 1978}) 11. O-O
Bb7 12. fxe5 {Not bad, but 12.Kh1 Qc7 13.Nh4 has proven more effective.} dxe5
13. Bg5 {Now black can keep the position even with either 13...h6 or 13...Qc7}
Nh5 {Black was probably expecting to place a N on f4 afetr white exchanged Bs.
In that case white would have gained the advantage though.} 14. Rad1 {Putting
black in an uncomfortable pin and forcing him into a cramped position to get
out of it.} (14. Bxe7 Qxe7 15. Rad1 Nf4 {This is a mistake.} (15... Ndf6 {
keeps the game even, but black's Ns are rather poorly positioned.} 16. Qe3 Qc7
17. Bd5 Nxd5 18. Nxd5 Bxd5 19. exd5 {with equal chances.}) 16. Qd2 Nf6 17. Qd6
{with an excellent position.}) 14... Bc5+ {This natural check is in reality a
blunder in a bad position.} (14... Qe8 {wasn't any real improvement. After} 15.
Nh4 Nf4 (15... g6 16. Nf5 Bxg5 17. Nd6 Qe7 18. Nxf7 {and white is practically
winning.}) 16. Bxf4 exf4 17. Nf5 Ne5 18. Bd5 Bxd5 19. Nxd5 Bd8 {Here, too,
white has an excellent position.}) 15. Kh1 Qc7 16. Rxd7 {Decisive.} Qxd7 17.
Nxe5 Qc7 18. Nxf7 {He could also win with 18.Rxf7, but this is even more
forceful.} g6 (18... Rxf7 19. Rxf7 {and the discovered check will prove deadly.
}) 19. Nd5 Bxd5 20. Bxd5 Ra7 21. Nd6+ Kg7 22. Rxf8 {Black resigned.} (22. Rxf8
h6 (22... Bxd6 23. Rg8#) 23. Ne8+ {ends the game.}) 1-0
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