A Battle Between Interesting Characters

     With World War Two winding down chess activity began increasing, but there were still casualties among chess players. 

     Bill Wall's prodigious chess site informs us that in January, Austrian master Wolfgang Weil (1912-1945) died in combat in Croatia and Dutch master Arnold van der Hoek (1921-1945) was killed in an Allied bombardment on a labor camp at Watenstedt, a suburb of Brunswick, Germany. Also in January, Hungarian master Kornel Havasi (1892-1945) died in Austria where he was working as a forced laborer for the Nazis. 

     In April, Hungarian master Zoltan von Balla (1883-1945) died in Budapest in a traffic accident with a Soviet tank. The same month the promising German master and fervent Nazi, Lieutenant Klaus Junge, was killed when he refused to surrender in a shootout with Allied troops on April 17th in the battle for Hamburg, just three weeks before the war ended. 

     In May, German master Heinz Nowarra was (1897-1945) was possibly killed in an Allied bombardment in Berlin. 

     For the United States, the war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945, and on September 2, 1945, the Japanese signed formal surrender documents. 

     The 1944-45 Marshall Chess Club Championship concluded during the early part of March. Because of the war a number of contenders were missing: Corporal Milton Hanauer, Lieutenant Carl Pilnick, Corporal Louis Levy, Private Solomon Weinstock and Lieutenant Harold Sussman. Civilians Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky were absent because they were living outside of New York City. 

     The championship resulted in an undefeated victory for Army Private First Class Herbert Seidman. It was the second year in a row he was the club champ. Second place went to a young Irving Rivise who was to later become a prominent California master. Four-time title holder Anthony E. Santasiere finished third. Seidman drew with both of his nearest rivals, Rivise and Santasiere. 

     The Santasiere-Seidman game was adjourned and between them a total of twenty-six hours was spent analyzing the adjourned position. On resumption of play, they agreed to a draw after one minute.

 

     In the following game the interesting character Walter Goldwater gets outplayed by an equally interesting character, Anthony Santasiere. It is noteworthy how white's position disintegrates, not by any outright mistakes, but by sight technical inaccuracies that have a disastrous cumulative effect. 

     Another notable thing about the game is that when it was annotated by Fritz 17 using Stockfish, the program's Weighted Error Value for Santasiere was 0.09 which is considered flawless. Goldwater's was 0.61 which is not bad! It means his moves were, on average, only a little over a half a P inferior to the best engine move.

[Event "Marshall CC Champ (1944-45)"] [Site "New York, NY USA"] [Date "1945.01.28"] [Round "?"] [White "Walter Goldwater"] [Black "Anthony Santasiere"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B12"] [Annotator "Stockfish 14.1"] [PlyCount "72"] [EventDate "1944.11.19"] [Source "Chess Review, Ma"] {Caro-Kann: Advance Variation} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 {An old Tal favorite. The Advance Variation has gained popularity after having been been widely regarded as inferior for many years.} Bf5 4. Bd3 {The Bayonet Attack (4. g4) is always interesting! This move exchanging off his good B is suspect. Usual is 4.Nf3 and then develop the B on e2.} (4. g4 Bd7 5. Nc3 e6 6. Be3 Ne7 7. Qd2 h5 8. g5 g6 9. Bd3 Na6 10. a3 Nc7 11. Nge2 {Nepomniachtchi,I (2732)-Anand,V (2786) Leuven BEL 2017. The position is equal.}) 4... Bxd3 5. Qxd3 e6 6. Nf3 { This is strategically incorrect because the N belongs on e3 where it does not obstruct the advance of his f-Pawn which is necessary in this formation.} Qa5+ 7. Bd2 {Better was 7.c3. With the B on d2 black has no good square by which to get the N into play.} Qa6 {This forces the trade of Qs because it white doesn't he will experience difficulty in castling.} 8. Qxa6 Nxa6 {[%cal Bb8a6, Ba6c5,Bc5d7][%mdl 32]} 9. Nc3 Ne7 {With Qs off the board the chances of an attack against black's K are greatly reduced and his endgame prospects are brighter. His P-formation is sounder and he can force open the c-file to his advantage. Note that white's advantage in space is meaningless unless he can build up with f4, g4, f5 etc.} (9... Nc7 10. O-O-O O-O-O 11. Ne2 Be7 12. Bg5 Bxg5+ 13. Nxg5 Nh6 {White has the uooer hand, but the game ended uo being drawn in Moiseev,V (2425)-Tishin,P (2425) Bogoroditsk RUS 2013}) 10. Nd1 { Castling was better.} c5 11. dxc5 {This is wrong because white wilfully removes the support of his e-Pawn. It was imperative that he play 11.c3.} Nxc5 12. Nd4 {This explains white's last move...he has made d4 available and cleared the way for the advance of his f-Pawn.} Nc6 {Compelling white to make another exchange because his e-Pawn is attacked.} 13. Nxc6 {Goldwater was under the misapprehension that exchanges offered him drawing chances. But with each exchange, he improves black's position. Here, he fortífies black's center and has left himself weak on the b-file.} bxc6 14. Bb4 {Consistent with his exchange policy, but inconsistent with the requirements of the position.} ( 14. f4 {was called for, but after} f5 15. Nf2 Ne4 {and black is better.}) 14... a5 15. Ba3 Rb8 16. Ke2 (16. O-O {was worth a try.} Nd7 17. Bxf8 Kxf8 18. Re1 Ke7 19. b3 c5 {Black is clearly better thanks to his more active position.}) 16... Nd7 17. Bxf8 Rxf8 18. f4 f6 19. exf6 Rxf6 20. Rf1 Rb4 {Black's pieces are very active while white's are sorely undeveloped.} 21. g3 e5 {[%cal Re5f4]} 22. f5 {Forced.} (22. fxe5 Re4+ 23. Ne3 Rxf1 24. Rxf1 d4 {wins a piece.}) 22... g6 23. fxg6 {This is very bad.} (23. c3 {was his best try, Then after} Rb8 24. b3 Rxf5 25. Rxf5 gxf5 26. Ne3 Nf6 27. Nxf5 {Black still has the better game, but at least white has managed to his pieces into play.}) 23... Re4+ {The point...black wins a piece and whiye can resign.} 24. Ne3 d4 {He does not need to recapture as he can stop the adverse Pawn in his good time.} 25. Rxf6 (25. gxh7 Rxe3+ 26. Kd2 Rh6 {with an easy win.}) 25... Rxe3+ 26. Kd2 Nxf6 27. gxh7 Nxh7 {[%mdl 4096] With only one P for the piece, white may safely resign. He was no doubt encouraged by having two passed Ps, but Santasiere makes a quick end to the game.} 28. c3 Ng5 29. cxd4 exd4 {[%cal Be5d4,Bd4d3,Bd3d2][%mdl 32]} 30. Rd1 {White is just going through the motions.} Nf3+ 31. Kc2 d3+ {The threatened N fork facilitates matters.} 32. Kc3 d2+ 33. Kc2 Re1 {Now all black must do is exhaust white's P moves and white will be in Zugzwang.} 34. h4 Kf7 35. g4 Kg6 36. a3 a4 {Goldwater resigned.} (36... a4 37. Rxd2 (37. g5 Kh5) 37... Nxd2 38. Kxd2 Rg1 39. g5 Rg4) 0-1