A Sidney Bernstein Brilliancy

 

Senior Master Sidney Bernstein

     In 1959 gas was 25 cents a gallon, a postage stamp cost 4 cents and you could buy T-Bone steaks for $1.09 a pound. Membership in the USCF was $5.00 a year and Chess Life was published twice a month on newsprint paper,. 

     If you wanted to play, let's say, in the New Jersey Amateur (rated under 2200) that was held in April at the Midway Diner in Hammonton, New Jersey, the entry fee was $5,00. Accommodations were available at the Lake Front Motel (today it's the Red Carpet Inn) for $3.00 a night, $2.00 for double occupancy. The prizes..."many trophies." 

Midway Diner

     Most chess books were under $5.00 and Chess Review was selling folding cloth boards for $1.75 to $4.00. An imported German chess clock could be had for $22.00 (plus $2.20 Federal excise tax) and a wooden set with a 3-1/2 inch King cost $35.00; a wood storage box was included. 

     On October 31, 1959, Mikhail Tal won the Candidates Tournament at Bled, Yugoslavia. More importantly, 1959 was the year I started playing postal chess in Class C (Average) with Chess Review. 

     The year 1959 began with 15-year-old Bobby Fischer winning the U.S. Championship with an undefeated +6 -0 =5 and pocketing a $1,000, a little over ten times that amount in today's dollars. 

     Not surprisingly, Fischer was complaining to the tournament organizers before the tournament even started. He said there were "irregularities in procedures" that could unfairly deprive him of the title. His complaint was that the choosing lots to determine who played whom and when was done in private without the players being present. He said the practice was just unfair and threatened to forfeit his games if the pairings were not redrawn in public. 

a querulous Bobby Fischer

  The tournament officials were adamant. One of the directors was Hans Kmoch, who had double-forfeited Eliot Hearst and Edmar Mednis in the 1956 Rosenwald tournament because neither of them had kept an accurate scoresheet. 

     It was agreed that Fischer's protest had some merit, but the officials were not going to redo the pairings because they had already been published and doing so would only serve to antagonize the other participants.

     They also wisely prepared to deal with Fischer's threat by placing a 22-year-old pre-med student named Anthony Saidy on standby. In the end, Fischer played. 

     According to Edmar Mednis the level of play in the championship, when compared to previous championships, was quite high...as evidenced by the fact that Samuel Reshevsky could only manage third place. 

     Sidney Bernstein agreed, adding that the emphasis was positional play, but that also contributed to a "certain lack of color and excitement." He added that the level of play was higher and that with the rising of the level of play the number of blunders was reduced.    

     Arnold Denker considered the level of play "fairly high,'" but he thought it was a shame that the playing conditions were becoming worse. James Sherwin agreed, calling the playing conditions and prizes "quite unfortunate." 

     In the following game Sidney Bernstein did his part to deal with the lack of color and excitement. He opened with the Orangutan and the play was rather boring until Seidman counterattacked and things got real tactical and Bernstein finished off his opponent with a surprising Queen sacrifice.

[Event "1959-60 US Champ, New York"] [Site "New York, NY USA"] [Date "1959.12.29"] [Round "?"] [White "Sidney Bernstein"] [Black "Herbert Seidman"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A00"] [Annotator "Stockfish 15"] [PlyCount "51"] [EventDate "1959.12.18"] {Orangutan} 1. b4 {Bernstein played 1.b4 four times in this event, scoring 2. 5-1.5. He claimed that this win over Seidman was worth more than one point! A00:} Nf6 2. Bb2 e6 3. b5 a6 4. a4 axb5 5. axb5 Rxa1 6. Bxa1 d5 (6... c5 7. e3 (7. bxc6 bxc6 8. e3 d5 9. Nf3 Nbd7 10. Be2 Bd6 11. c4 O-O 12. O-O Ba6 13. cxd5 {Draw agreed. Waht could be more boring than that?! Lorenc,T (2102)-Skliba,M (2233) Vsetin CZE 2015}) 7... d5 8. Nf3 Nbd7 9. c4 b6 10. Be2 Bb7 11. O-O { with equality. Tkachiev,V (2575)-Karpov,A (2765) Alma Ata KAZ 1995}) 7. Nf3 Be7 $146 (7... Nbd7 8. e3 Bd6 9. c4 c6 10. bxc6 bxc6 {The draw outcome was hardly surprising in Haralambof,V-Haygarth,M Tel Aviv 1964}) 8. e3 {The position is equal.} Nbd7 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Ne8 11. c4 Bf6 12. Nc3 {[%mdl 32]} dxc4 13. Bxc4 Nd6 14. Be2 b6 15. Na2 Bb7 16. Bxf6 Qxf6 17. Nb4 Ne5 18. Nd4 Qg5 19. g3 Qh6 20. Qc2 Qh3 21. Nbc6 {A good square for the N which is going to play a surprising part in the game in the future. So far the game has not been particularly exciting, but that is about to change.} Kh8 {Getting his K out of reach of the N on c6, but 21...Ra8 was better.} 22. Ra1 (22. f3 {to keep the N off g4 was more accurate.} Nxc6 23. Nxc6 (23. bxc6 Bc8 24. f4 {leaves black badly tied up.} Re8 25. Qa4 f6 {Black wants to play ...e5} 26. Qa7 e5 27. fxe5 fxe5 28. Qxc7 exd4 29. Qxd6 {Threatening mate with Rf8+} Qe6 30. Qxe6 Bxe6 31. exd4 {White wins.}) 23... Qf5 {is equal.}) 22... Ng4 {Counterattack.} 23. Nf3 { A reasonable possibility was 23.Bxg4 eliminating the N.} Qh5 {After this white gets a significant advantage because the Q will be exposed to attack by the B.} (23... e5 {Threatening to drive off the N keeps the chances even and results in an entertaining display of tactical fireworks.} 24. d3 Nxb5 25. d4 e4 26. Bf1 Qh5 27. Nh4 g5 28. h3 Nxe3 29. fxe3 gxh4 30. g4 Qg5 31. Bxb5 Qxb5 32. Ne5 f6 33. Qxc7 fxe5 34. Qe7 Qe8 35. Qxb7 exd4 36. Ra7 Qg6 37. Ra8 Rxa8 38. Qxa8+ Kg7 39. Qb7+ Qf7 40. Qxe4 dxe3 41. Qxe3 Qf6 {with a likely draw.}) 24. Ra4 { This R along with the N on c6 have a bright future.} (24. Nh4 {was a good alternative.} g5 25. Ra4 gxh4 26. Rxg4) 24... Nxh2 {[%mdl 8192] This dangerous looking move loses thanks to a fine tactical display by Bernstein.} (24... Qh3 25. Qd1 Re8 26. Ra7 f6 27. d4 e5 {and white can claim no more than a minimal advantage.}) 25. Nfe5 {The game is over after this amazing move.} (25. Nxh2 { No doubt this is what Seidman was expecting.} Qxe2 26. Nd4 Qe1+ 27. Nf1 e5 28. Nc6 Qe2 29. Nxe5 Qxb5 {with what is likely a winning endgame advantage.}) 25... Qxe2 {The reply to this move must have been shocking.} (25... Qg5 26. Kxh2 { White is a piece up.}) 26. Qxh7+ {[%mdl 512] An abrupt end...it's mate in three.} (26. Kxh2 {loses to} Qxf2+ 27. Kh3 Nf5 28. Rg4 f6 29. Nd7 Rf7) (26. Qxh7+ Kxh7 27. Rh4+ Qh5 28. Rxh5+ Kg8 29. Ne7#) 1-0