A couple of us were sitting in front of the barracks one night watching him laying rubber up and down the street. It ended when the transmission blew sending shrapnel our way. I don’t know what GTO really stood for, but he used to say it was Gas, Tires and Oil.
Besides the Beatles, bell bottom pants were all the rage; I never got into either. On a sad mote, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were killed when a fire broke out in their Apollo spacecraft during a launch pad test.
Opposition to the Vietnam War was growing and large-scale anti-war protests took place throughout the year in places like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, DC.
I was discharged in July and during that month and August race riots erupted in over 150 US cities. Race was not an issue in the Marine Corps. There was, however, a big fight in the NCO Club on the base that resulted in the Base Commander shutting the club down for a week or so. It had nothing to do with race, just some drunk Corporals and Sergeants getting into a fight. Fortunately, I wasn’t there that night. I might have been playing chess.
Until I reached “short-timer” status chess was the furthest thing from my mind. There was a chess club on the base, but the players weren’t very good.
In my final few months I was assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines and was watching television one night when a guy showed up who was with one of the grunt companies (infantry, I think the Army calls them) from down the street and he heard I played chess.
We used to get together a couple nights a week and play. That was several weeks before I got discharged.
I don’t know what ever happened to him, but at least he didn’t get his name on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. A Google search of his name turned up dozens of people with the same name so tracking him down was impossible Only four of our games have survived and this is the best one.
[Event "Camp Lejeune, North Carolina"]
[Site "CAMP LEJEUNE"]
[Date "1967.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Opponent"]
[Black "Tartajubow"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D94"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 17"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[EventDate "1967.??.??"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "IND"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ENG"]
{D94: Gruenfeld Defense} 1. c4 Nf6 2. d4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e3 {Solid, but passive.} O-O 5. Nf3 d5 {At the time I was greatly influenced by Botvinnik and Reshevsky and Reshevsky had written that he liked this defense because of its fighting qualities.} 6. Bd3 c5 {I vaguely remembered having seen this in (I think) having been played by Kashdan in a similar position. The usual move is 6...c6, but Stockfish likes the text.} 7. O-O Nc6 8. cxd5 (8. h3 Nb4 9. cxd5 Nxd3 10. Qxd3 Nxd5 11. Rd1 cxd4 12. exd4 Bf5 {is equal. Michalek,M (2158)-Rachela,M (2351) Banska Stiavnica 2006}) 8... Nxd5 9. Nxd5 {Again, this is Stockfish's first choice.} (9. Qb3 Nb6 10. dxc5 {½-½ Simecek,A (2138)-Oresky,J (2191) Prague CZE 2014}) 9... Qxd5 10. e4 Qd8 {In other games black has tried different Q moves, but all of them lead to equality. While there is nothing wrong with the text, undeveloping the Q makes little sense.} 11. d5 {Well played. After 11...Nd5 or even 11.Ne5 the chances would be equal/} Nb4 {...but not after this because white could have gotten a bit of an advantage.} 12. Qb3 (12. Bc4 Bg4 13. Be3 Bxf3 14. gxf3 {This is perfectly safe because vlack has no K-side attacking prospects.} Qd7 15. a3 {with a good game.}) 12... Nxd3 13. Qxd3 Bg4 14. Nd2 Rb8 15. Nc4 b5 16. Ne3 {Somewhat netter would hve been 16.Qg3} Bd7 17. Rb1 {Thanks to white's passivity the last couple of moves black can now undertake a counterattack on white's center.} f5 18. b4 {Better would have been 19.b3 hindering the advance of black's c0Pawn.} cxb4 {While hardly bad, instead of getting a P-majority on the Q-side getting a protected passed P with 18...c4 was better.} 19. Rxb4 a5 20. Rb3 fxe4 {This gives white an isolated d-Pawn, but also gives him equality because I now have a weak e-Pawn. It's hard to believe, but there is a clever tactical shot here that I mossed.} (20... b4 {Threatening a pin on the Q and R with ...Bb5} 21. Re1 Bb5 22. Qd2 Ba4 23. Bb2 (23. Rb1 Bc3 {wins.}) 23... Bxb3 24. Bxg7 Kxg7 25. axb3 {Black has won the exchange.}) 21. Qxe4 Bf5 {Better was 21...Qb6} 22. Nxf5 Rxf5 23. Rd1 Qd7 {White's next move is an imprecise one because the exchange of Qs shields my e-Pawn. 34.Bb2 was good enough to keep things equal.} 24. Qe6+ Qxe6 25. dxe6 Rbf8 {\This attack on the f-Pawn is irrelevant. Getting the Q-side Ps moving with ...a4!, ...Bc3 etc. was the correct strategy.} 26. Rf3 {Surrendering a P, while not fatal, was a poor idea. 26.Be3 was a perfectly good move,} Rxf3 {Harder for white to meey was 26...Re5, but even then b;ack's advantage would br minima;.} 27. gxf3 Rxf3 {[%mdl 4096] This ending is equal.} 28. Bg5 Rf8 {Although this ending is still a draw, white's e-Pawn now had me concerned/} 29. Bxe7 Re8 30. Rd8 {[%mdl 8192] Give this move a ?? It's obvious to me now that this loses and that 30/R8 holds the draw, but at the time it wasn't.} (30. Rd7 Bf8 31. Bxf8 Kxf8 32. Rb7 b4 33. Rf7+ Kg8 34. Ra7 Rxe6 35. Rxa5 {is a simple draw.}) 30... Rxd8 {Black wins...or should have.} 31. Bxd8 Kf8 {Now we are back to a draw. The e-Pawn is no threat.} (31... a4 {would win! However, the winning process was, no doubt, beyond the capabilities of a couple of amateurs!} 32. Ba5 (32. e7 {simply loses the e-Pawn.} Kf7 33. Ba5 Kxe7) 32... Kf8 33. Kf1 Ke7 34. Ke2 Kxe6 35. Kd3 Kd5 36. f3 Be5 37. h3 Bd6 38. Bd8 b4 39. Bg5 Be5 40. Be7 b3 41. axb3 axb3 42. Bb4 Ke6 43. f4 Bf6 44. Bc5 h5 45. Bb6 Kf5 46. Bc7 b2 47. Kc2 Ke4 48. Bb8 Bd4 49. Bc7 Be3 50. Kxb2 Bxf4 51. Bd8 Kf3 52. Kc3 Kg3 53. h4 Kh3 54. Kc4 Bg3 {[%eval -433,30]}) 32. Bxa5 {The position is equal.} Ke7 33. Kf1 Kxe6 34. Ke2 Kd5 35. Kd3 {Draw agreed. After this black's K cannot penetrate white's position. Weighted Error Value: White=0.74/Black=0.57} 1/2-1/2
