Bogoljubow – Trott, a Rare Finish

 

    The annual Agnes Stevenson Memorial, an open event, was played in the 1950s and 1960s with Southsea being the venue from 1949 to 1952. Mrs. Stevenson was a British Ladies Champion who met an untimely end in 1935 when she accidentally walked into an airplane propeller. 

    The 1950 tournament was Arthur Bisguier's first international success in Europe and Jonathan Penrose created a sensation by defeating both Tartakower and Bogoljubow. His loss to Bisguier in the eighth round knocked him out of first into a tie for third place. 

    There's also an interesting anecdote concerning Tartakower that relates to a Wesley So incident when he was forfeited in the 2015 US Championship for writing noted on his scoresheet. I think things have gotten ridiculous; it’s not like So was analyzing on his scoresheet. Back in the old days players used to write down their move before making it; now, thanks to the nitpickers, it’s considered taking notes. 

    In TChess Masters on Winning Chess by Fred Reinfeld he wrote, “Tartakower had a fluent pen; he wrote voluminously, often annotating a game for a newspaper or magazine while he was playing it.” 

    Leonard Barden wrote that he witnessed Tartakower making notes during at least one game, at one or more of the Southsea tournaments of 1949, 1950 and 1951. Barden related that in Tartakower's game against Ravn at Southsea, 1951 he (Barden) was curious to see what Tartakower was writing and so crept up behind him and found there were copious notes in small writing on his scoresheet. He went on to say that apparently Tartakower had trouble reading his own notes because he pushed his glasses back on his forehead, squinted and peered closely at what he had written. Nobody objected though; Tartakower was a legend and besides, it wasn't considered consulting written material in those days. That would come many years later. 

 

 

    Bogoljubow's opponent in this game is A.H. Trott. Not a lot is available on Trott. He is referred to in an article in keverelchess. He was an alumni of the Alleyn School in London. The June, 1947 issue of the school magazine mentions that he was playing for the school's chess team. The July, 1951 wrote, “A.H. Trott (tn 1945-47-note: this is apparently a reference to the years he attended) has won the Southern Counties' Chess Championship by finishing first out of the British players in the recent Southsea Tournament. Both The Times and the Observer made favourable comments on his play.” This game where he was defeated by Bogoljubow has a rare finish. Trott's last move was a check and Bogoljubow replied with a move that delivered mate.

 

[Event "Southsea"] [Site ""] [Date "1950.04.20"] [Round "?"] [White "Efim Bogoljubov"] [Black "Arthur H. Trott"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A07"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"] [PlyCount "79"] [EventDate "1950.??.??"] {[%evp 17,78,-50,-39,-89,-98,-110,-56,-54,-10,-126,-18,-26,-27,-52,-48,-58,-34, -59,-64,-69,-73,-79,-62,-66,-62,-47,-65,-64,87,84,82,33,80,79,110,98,126,132, 149,64,118,109,128,113,113,103,174,174,164,178,149,180,319,287,691,663,778,762, 29993,29991,29995,29996,29999] B25: Closed Sicilian} 1. e4 c5 2. Ne2 Nc6 3. Nbc3 d6 4. g3 {In the Closed Sicilian white expands on the K-side without opening the center. Black has little difficulty in equalizing, yet white often gets attacking chances against an unwary opponent. Vasily Smyslov and Boris Spassky both contributed to the theory on this variation. Spassky’s treatment was more aggressive, very often playing with an early f4 followed by Nf3, while Smyslov was more cautious and preferred to develop his pieces with Be3 and Qd2 followed by Nge2. The Closed Variation has pretty much disappeared from the high level competition even though it is a solid line and it leads to a complicated and positional game. Still, at lower levels it is seen occasionally and it’s a good choice for white because most Sicilian players spend a lot of time trying to learn the main lines, but very little on sidelines.} g6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. d3 e6 7. Nf4 {Very rare. White almost always castles or plays 7.Be3 here.} Nge7 8. O-O O-O 9. Re1 {Another rare move. Moves like 9.h4, 9.h3, 9.Bd2 and 9.Nce2 have all been tried here. White can also try the precautionary 9.a3 to hinder a potential advance by black’s b-Pawn.} Rb8 {A reasonable idea, planning to expand on the Q-side.} 10. Nce2 b5 {White has not accomplished much out of the opening whereas black's Q-side play is underway.} 11. c3 Qa5 {This is unnecessary and the immediate 11...b4 was preferable.} 12. a3 b4 13. Bd2 {This withdrawal is a waste of time. It would have been better to play 13.cxb4 and after 13...cxb4 counter in the center with 14.d4} bxa3 {This is the wrong capture; taking the c-Pawn leaves white with two weak Ps.} 14. Rxa3 Qb6 15. Bc1 Bd7 16. Ra2 Rfc8 17. g4 Na5 18. h3 Nb3 19. Be3 e5 20. Nd5 Nxd5 21. exd5 f5 {At the moment black can make no further progress on the Q-side, so he advances on the other side. However, he has no pieces on the K-side with which to support this advance and so in the end this advance is not likely to lead to much of anything even though it forces white to weaken his K-side. For his part, white’s pieces are not especially well placed to initiate K-side operations.} 22. gxf5 Bxf5 $2 {Better was 22...gxf5. Now white gets the initiative on the K-side.} (22... gxf5 23. f4 Kh8 {with some prospects on the g-file.}) 23. Ng3 Rf8 {After this black’s position begins a gradual slide downhill, but other moves seem no better.} 24. Kh2 Rb7 25. Rg1 Kh8 26. Ra3 Bd7 27. Ne4 {There is a storm brewing against black's K.} a5 28. Bf3 {The advance of his h-Pawn must have been in the back of Bogoljubow’s mind when he played this, but the straightforward advance of the h-Pawn would have been even stronger.} Be8 {Suddenly black has to shore up his K-side in view of the potential advance of the h-Pawn.} 29. Rg2 h6 30. Be2 {White pulls his B back because he wants to use the Q for something besides defending it.} a4 31. Qg1 Nd4 {This sacrifice ps not quite sound as black does not get nearly enough compensation in the form of play on the Q-side for it. At the same time, it’s hard to suggest a reasonable plan.} 32. cxd4 Qxb2 33. dxc5 Qxa3 34. Nxd6 Rb8 {Trott’s desire to save his R is understandable, but this leaves him clearly lost. What a pity because despite his difficult position Bogoljubow’s win is not a forgone conclusion.} (34... Qb2 {is trappy!} 35. Nxb7 a3 {White is forced to deal with the a-Pawn.} 36. Qc1 Qxe2 { and black has equalized.}) (34... Qb2 35. c6 {This is the correct response.} Bxc6 36. dxc6 Rc7) 35. Nxe8 Rfxe8 {As is often the case...wrong R! Taking with the other R was, accoring to engines, only half as bad, but still losing.} 36. Rxg6 Rg8 37. Qg4 e4 38. Qh5 Rge8 39. Bxh6 Be5+ 40. Bf4# {An unusual finish.} 1-0