Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Dentist to the (Chess) Stars

     Here is an interesting article by Howard Langer about his grandfather Dr. Samuel Greenberg, a New York dentist, that appeared in Tablet Magazine, a conservative online magazine focused on Jewish news and culture. Read article...
     There seems to be very little information available about Dr. Greenberg, but I did find the following game played in 1962 in the Manhattan Chess Club Championship Preliminaries that he lost against William Goichberg. It features a pleasing mating attack by Goichberg. 
     Dr. Greenberg’s name appeared in the USCF’s 1964 rating list...it was Class A (Elo 1905). National Master Bill Goichberg (born November 11, 1942) is a tournament organizer and director. He founded the Continental Chess Association which runs the annual World Open and other large tournaments. He is also a former president of the United States Chess Federation. A game that I liked (Fritz 17)
[Event "Manhattan CC Prelims, New York"] [Site "?"] [Date "1962.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "William Goichberg"] [Black "Dr. Samuel Greenberg"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D46"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "57"] [EventDate "2023.10.24"] [SourceVersionDate "2023.10.24"] {D46: Semi-Slav} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 c6 {In the Semi-Slav black's Ps sre a mixture of the Orthodox Q-Gambit (...e6) and the Slav (...c6). Black is threatening to capture the c-Pawn and hold it with ...b7–b5. White can avoid this in a number of ways.} 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. e4 { Aggressive and somewhat risky. Solid is 8.Qc2} dxe4 9. Nxe4 Nxe4 10. Bxe4 Nf6 11. Bc2 g6 {This weakens the K's position. He should play 11...h6 or even 11... c5} 12. Bg5 (12. b3 {is also good.} Qc7 13. Bb2 Rd8 14. Qe2 Nh5 15. Rad1 { and white went on to win in a handful of moves in Duong,T (2415)-Hj,S (2339) Bandar Seri Begawan BRU 2010}) 12... Be7 13. Qe2 Qc7 14. Rad1 Bd7 {This turns out to be too passive. For what it was worth he should have tried 14...b5} ( 14... b5 15. c5 Nd5 16. Bh6 Rd8 17. h4 {with a promising attack.}) 15. a3 Nh5 { This leads to a lost position...immediately! He should still have tried ...b5} 16. Bh6 {White must have blitzed this one out otherwise he would have simply played 16.Bxe7} Ng7 17. Rfe1 Bf6 18. Ne5 Rfe8 19. Qf3 Bxe5 20. dxe5 Nf5 21. Bg5 c5 22. g4 {This turns out to be a key move!} Ng7 (22... Nd4 {puts up a bit of a fight. For example...} 23. Qf6 Qd8 24. Qxd8 Rexd8 25. Bxd8 Nxc2 26. Rxd7 Nxe1 27. Bf6 {and white should win the ending.}) 23. Bf6 {Mate is on the horizon.} h6 24. Qh3 Kh7 25. Re3 {Moving in for the kill.} Rh8 {This allows a nifty finish, but he was lost anyway.} 26. Qxh6+ {[%mdl 512]} Kxh6 27. Rh3+ Nh5 28. Rxh5+ $1 {[%mdl 512]} gxh5 29. g5# {His 22nd move paid off!} 1-0

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