That year the US slipped into a recession and inflation was rampant, but it had no effect on our family because my father held onto his job as a section foreman with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Under executive orders from President Eisenhower, troops from the 101st Airborne Division were deployed to ensure that black children (the Little Rock Nine) were allowed to attend classes at the previously segregated Little Rock (Arkansas) Central High School.
In a war that was to affect me many years later, US Army Special Forces Captain Harry Cramer became America's first combat death in Vietnam. Between 1955 and 1975, there were 211,454 US casualties in Vietnam. All of then were in vain because on March 29, 1973, the last US military unit fled Vietnam in what was a complete debacle.
Leroy Burner, the US Surgeon General, issued a report on the evils of smoking that linked cigarettes and lung cancer. It was the year the words Asian flu, clip art, computerize, disco, doggie bag, fanny pack, happy camper, kooky, launchpad, loungewear, mainframe, opioid, RAM, refried beans, sin tax, Sputnik, and townhome all appeared in print for the first time.
Trolley service in both New York City and Kansas City ended. The Soviet Union inaugurated the Space Age by launching Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite.
In the year 1957, bubble wrap, Purina dog chow, Dream Whip, Formula 409 cleaner, Sweet’n Low, Tang (an orange drink mix), styrofoam coolers and Burger King’s Whopper all appeared on the market for the first time.
In the chess world on April 27, 1957, Vasily Smyslov defeated Mikhail Botvinnik to become the world champion.
Correspondence GrandmasterHarald Malmgren (1904-1957) died in Uppsula, Sweden at the age of 52. Analyst Hans Haberditz (1901-1957) died in Vienna at the age of 56. Max Pavey (1918-1957) died of leukemia in New York at the age of 39.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology a chess program fo an IBM computer eass writtem It could execute 42,000 instructions per second. It did a 4-ply (2 moves) search in 8 minutes.
Nobel Prize winner in economics and leader in AI and cognitive psychologist Herbert Simon said that within 10 years a computer would be the world champion. It took 40 years (1997) before a computer (Deep Blue) could defeat a world champion (Kasparov).
Samuel Reshevsky played Donald Byrne in a match in New York. The match struck a snag in the first game. Reshevsky, who had failed to notice that Byrne’s flag had fallen, offered a draw which Byrne accepted and the result stood.
In the second game Byrne’s flag fell again and guess what? Reshevsky did not notice it. Then Reshevsky's flag fell, but Byrne failed to notice it!
Reshvsky’s wife was sitting in the audience claimed the win for her husband! Byrne pointed out that only the player on the move could claim a time forfeit. Since it was now Byrne’s move, he claimed the win on time even though his flag was also down.
An appeals committee was organized to settle the dispute, but Byrne objected. The committee declared that the game was drawn and Byrne then walked out. He later returned and lost decisively by a score of 7-3.
Bobby Fischer played two games against former world champion Max Euwe at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York, drawing one and losing one. Euwe was paid $65 (a little over $600 today) and Fischer was paid $35 (not quite $400 today).
The 14-year old Fischer tied for 1st-2nd (scoring 10-12) with Arthur Bisguier at the 58th US Open in Cleveland, Ohio. He won on tie-break, making him the youngest US Open Champion ever.
The World Junior championship was held in Toronto and William Lombardy took 1st place with a perfect score. Finally, the first women's chess Olympiad was held in Emmen, Netherlands. It was no surprise that the USSR took first place.
Ludek Pacjman won the Czech Championship and the theme of the following game for both sides is the advance of the f-Pawn.
After the partial blockade of the Q-side it was clear that the K-side was going to be the main theater of battle. Both sides were striving for the advance of their f-Pawn, a tactical motif often seen in the K-Indian.
[Event "Czech Championship, Prague"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1957.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Ludek Pachman"]
[Black "Jiri Kopriva"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E94"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 16"]
[PlyCount "77"]
[EventDate "1957.??.??"]
{E94: King's Indian Defense} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O
6. Nf3 e5 7. O-O c6 8. Re1 {Black's main choices are now 8...Na6 and 8...Nbd7}
Qe7 9. Bf1 {An odd looking move, but white anticipates the possibility of
playing d4-d5 and ...cxd5 after which he will recapture cxd5 and black can
then play ...Nc5 attacking the e-Pawn. So, white chooses to overprotect his
e-Pawn now.} Bg4 10. d5 c5 {Not the best. Closing the center allows white to
exploit the position of black's B on g4. 10...Nbd7 was good.} 11. h3 Bd7 12. a3
(12. g3 Ne8 13. a3 Na6 14. Ra2 Kh8 15. b3 f5 16. Bg2 Nac7 17. a4 {is equal.
Nikolaidis,K (2354)-Banikas,H (2531) Patras 2001}) 12... a5 13. Bd2 Na6 14. Rb1
b6 15. g3 {After the partial blockade of the Q-side it's clear that the K-side
will become the main theater of battle. Here both sides must strive to advance
their f-Pawn. However, for black it is very difficult to force its advance.} h6
{Part of black's plan to play ..f5} 16. Nh4 Kh7 17. Kh2 Ng8 {Black has cleared
to way for his f-Pawn, but as will be seen, he cannot yet play it. For his
part, Pachman thought for him 18.f4 would be premature.} 18. Bd3 (18. f4 exf4
19. Bxf4 Be5 20. Nf3 f6 {White is better, but black's position is quite solid.}
) 18... f6 {With this move black makes it considerably easier for white to
carry out the advance f4. Black's best try was to hunker down and play the N
maneuver ...Nc7-e8-f3 and hope to defend.} (18... f5 {is tactically faulty.}
19. Nxg6 Kxg6 20. exf5+ Bxf5 21. Qg4+ Kh7 22. Bxf5+ Kh8 23. Qg6 {and white is
winning.}) 19. f4 {[%mdl 32]} Qd8 {Played in order to avoid losing the
exchange after 21.Ng6} 20. f5 g5 21. Ng6 Rf7 {Black is counting on being able
to capture the N after ...Be8 and then moving the R, but in the meantime white
opens up the h-file and gets a strong attack.} 22. h4 Be8 23. Rh1 Rb7 24. Kg2 (
24. Qh5 {is playable, but it's not quite as effective. It also results in some
complicated play where it might be easy to go wrongs.} Ne7 25. hxg5 Nxg6 26.
Kg1 Nf4 27. g6+ Nxg6 28. fxg6+ Bxg6 29. Qh4 Qe7 30. Bxh6 Kg8 {Technically
white is winning, but there is no forced win.}) 24... Bxg6 25. fxg6+ Kxg6 26.
hxg5 fxg5 27. Be2 {[%mdl 32] A surprising move that blocks the Q's path to h5.
The idea is that after the continuation in the game white's B comes into play
and the position of the black K will become untenable in spite of the extra
Pawn.} (27. Qh5+ {Pachman thought this was not playable, but it actually is
slightly better that his 27.Be2...and a bit more complicated.} Kh7 28. Be2 {
This has to be played anyway.} Bf6 29. Rbf1 Qe8 30. Qh3 Qg6 31. Bh5 Qg7 {
White should win this, but he is going to have to bring the N into play with
Nd1-e3 etc. and figure out a way to break through.}) 27... Kh7 28. Bg4 Nc7 {
Now the other N rushes to the defense of the K, but thanks to the excellent
coordination of all his pieces white has no difficulty in building up his
attack on the open h-file.} 29. Bf5+ {Vindicating his 27th move.} Kh8 30. Qh5
Ne8 31. Rh2 (31. Bxg5 Nef6 32. Qh4 Qe7 33. Rbf1 Rf8 {Black has successfully
defended his K and now white has to switch gears and find another way to win.})
31... Bf6 32. Qg6 Rg7 33. Rxh6+ Nxh6 34. Qxh6+ Kg8 35. Be6+ {Just a reminder...
white's 27th move was a good one!} Kf8 36. Rf1 {The pin decides matters
immediately.} Raa7 (36... Ke7 {This attempt to flee runs into} 37. Rxf6 Qd7 38.
Bxg5 Kd8 39. Bxd7 Kxd7 40. Rf8 Rd8 41. Rxe8 Rxe8 42. Qxg7+ Re7 43. Qxe7+ Kc8
44. Qa7 a4 45. Qxb6 Kd7 46. Qd8#) 37. Bxg5 Raf7 38. Nb5 {It would have been
pointless to take the exchange because now black does not have a single
reasonable move at his disposal.} (38. Bxf7 Kxf7 39. Bxf6 Nxf6 40. Nb5 {
This has to be played anyway.} Rg6 41. Qh7+ Rg7 42. Qf5 Rg6 43. Qe6+ Kg7 44.
Nxd6 Qc7 (44... Qd7 45. Qxd7+ Nxd7 46. Rf7+) 45. Rxf6 Rxf6 46. Ne8+) 38... Ke7
39. Rxf6 {[%mdl 512] Black resigned. Nearly flawless play by Pachman.} (39.
Rxf6 Nxf6 40. Bxf6+ Rxf6 41. Qxg7+ Ke8 42. Nc7+) 1-0
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