An Early Fischer Game

    The 75-player 1955 US Amateur Championship was won by Clinton L. Parmelee of Newark, New Jersey. The venue was the Mohegan Country Club in Lake Mohegan, New York which is located about 50 niles north of downtown Manhattan. Parmelee’s prize was a silver cup. The women’s champion was Kathryn Slater whi finished ahead of six other women; her prize was an engraved cup. 

    Carmine Nigro, President of the Brooklyn Chess Club, had persuaded the 12-year-old Bobby Fischer to play in the tournament. There doesn’t seem to be any record of the crosstable and as far as I know the following game is the only one of two Fischer’s that have survived from the event. The other was an 11 move draw with Sanford Greene (1936-2023) whom I remember as a strong correspondence player. 

    Fischer’s opponent was Albert B. Humphrey (1811-1997). He was born in Hempstead, New York. He was the second of three children born to a builder and carpenter James D. Humphrey (1879-1963) from Canada and Ethel Brown (1891-1969) from New York, who married in 1908. 

    After high school Humphrey went to college and law school at the University of Virginia (Charlottesville). While there he won the college chess champion in Virginia. He graduated there in 1935, established his own law office in Hempstead in 1937 and was the town solicitor. 

    He got married around 1939 to a stenographer and bookkeeper named Edith L. Willock (1906-1983) who was from Queens, New York. They had a son, James. While keeping an office in New York, in 1949, the family moved to Egremont, Massachusetts, where, in 1950, Humphrey was admitted to the Bar and joined a local law firm. 

    Humphrey was stricken with polio at the age of four and drove specially built cars with the pedals replaced with hand levers. 

    In this game, Fischer had a winning advantage in the final position, but it’s not known why he agreed to a draw. However, after allowing Stockfish to analyze the position for 10-15 minutes it became clear that winning the game was probably beyond his skill level at the time. 

    Both players were probably in the 1700-1800 range at the time… or were they?! After the auto-analysis with Stockfish, the Fritz program assigns white a Weighted Error Value of 0.37 while Fischer’s WEV is a “very precise” 0.14! That’s a VERY good score for amateurs. 

 What exactly is WEV? It measure how closely the moves played in the game compare to the engine’s choice. If the moves matched the engine exactly the WEV would be 0.00. In any case, the lower the WEV score, the better.

 

[Event "US Amateur. Lake Mohegan, NY"] [Site "Lake Mohegan, NY USA"] [Date "1955.05.22"] [Round "6"] [White "Albert B.Humphrey"] [Black "Robert Fcher"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "E61"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "65"] [EventDate "1955.??.??"] {E90: King's Indian Defense} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Nf3 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. h3 Nbd7 7. Be3 e5 8. d5 a5 9. Be2 (9. g4 {was played in Bjelobrk,I (2329) -Vajda,L (2632) Sydney AUS 2013 which continued} Nc5 10. Bxc5 dxc5 11. Qd2 Ne8 12. Qe3 b6 13. Bd3 {with slightly better chances.}) 9... b6 {This is too passive. The thematic 9...Nc5 is the recommended move.} (9... Nh5 10. g3 Bf6 11. Nh2 Ng7 12. Qd2 Be7 13. g4 Nc5 {White;s position is the more promising. Dickenson,N (2300)-Bisby,D (2311) Hinckley ENG 2014}) 10. O-O {Other moves that have been played here are 10.Nd2, 10.Qc2 and 10.Bg5} Ne8 11. Qc2 Nc5 12. Nh2 {A better plan was 12.a3 to be followed by b4} f5 {[%mdl 32]} 13. f3 f4 { Black has achieved a promising position with prospects of a K-side attack whereas white's prospects on the Q-side are clearly limited.} 14. Bf2 Qg5 { A promising idea was ...Bf6 and Bh4 eliminating white's dark square defender.} 15. Kh1 {Very good! It's a handy defensive move.} Bd7 16. Rg1 Nf6 {[%mdl 160]} 17. g4 {It's difficult to suggest anything other than passive defensive moves (17.b3 or 17.Nf1) for white, but this move results in what should have been a serious weakening of his K's position.} fxg3 18. Rxg3 Qh6 19. Nd1 Nh5 (19... Bxh3 {This is not as risky as it appears as there is no way white can take advantage of the position of black's Q.} 20. Rg1 Nh5 21. Bf1 Bxf1 22. Rxf1 Nf4 {with what should amount to a decisive advantage.}) 20. Rg1 Bxh3 21. Be3 Nf4 22. Nf2 Bf6 {[%mdl 32]} 23. Rg3 {Because the N on f5 is pinned white threatens 24.Rxh3} Bd7 24. Nfg4 Bxg4 25. Rxg4 Qg7 26. Rag1 {It appears all is well for white as he has survived black's operations on the K-side, but Stockfish is indication a decisive advantage for black.} Be7 {Necessary in the event white plays Bxf4} 27. Qd2 Rf7 28. R1g3 (28. Bxf4 Rxf4 29. Rxf4 exf4 30. Qxf4 { leaves white even worse off after} Qxb2 31. Ng4 Qxe2 (31... Rf8 32. Qe3 Bf6 33. Nxf6+ Rxf6 34. f4 Qxa2 35. e5 Rf8 36. e6 {and white has more play than he deserves.}) 32. Nh6+ Kh8 (32... Kg7 33. Nf5+ {draws} (33. Qf7+ Kxh6 34. Qxe7 Qxf3+)) 33. Nf7+ Kg7 34. Qh6+ Kg8 {and white has no followup.}) 28... Raf8 29. Bxf4 Rxf4 30. Rh3 Qf7 31. Rgg3 {It appears that with hsi f-Pawn solidly defended black can make no headway, but Stockfish is indicating slightly over a 3 Pawn advantage for black and a decisive advantage. Because its evaluations tend to run on the high side I also ran Komodo 14's "Human" engine here and it shows black to be "clearly better" with a two Pawn advantage.} Bh4 32. Rg4 Bf2 33. Bd1 {[%mdl 32768] Draw agreed.} (33. Bf1 {Stockfish's lengthy analysis runs as follows:} Bd4 34. Rg2 Nxe4 35. fxe4 Rxf1+ 36. Nxf1 Qxf1+ 37. Kh2 Bg1+ 38. Rxg1 Rf2+ 39. Qxf2 Qxf2+ 40. Rg2 Qf4+ 41. Rgg3 Qxe4 42. b3 Qe2+ 43. Rg2 Qf1 44. Rgg3 a4 45. Rg4 Kg7 46. Rg2 e4 47. Rhg3 Qf5 48. Kg1 Qf4 49. Rg4 Qf3 50. R4g3 Qd1+ 51. Kh2 axb3 52. axb3 Qf1 53. Re3 Qf4+ 54. Rgg3 Kf6 {[%eval -380,25]} 55. Kg1 h5 56. Rh3 h4 57. b4 Ke5 58. Ra3 g5 59. c5 Qc1+ 60. Kh2 Qd2+ 61. Kg1 dxc5 62. bxc5 bxc5 63. Kf1 Kd4 64. Ra4+ c4 65. Raa3 g4 66. Rxh4 {[%eval -620, 29]} Qc1+ 67. Kg2 Qxa3 68. Rh2 g3 69. Kh3 gxh2+ 70. Kxh2 Qf3 71. d6 Ke3 72. Kg1 Qg4+ 73. Kf1 cxd6 74. Ke1 Qe2#) 1/2-1/2