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ChessimpleBy SHELBY LYMANDeveloped imagination and clarity in calculation are in-tnnsic to good chess.imagination is vitally necessary. For it is the bright lightthat alerts os tc derisive strategic and tactical possibilities that throw the balance. But without clarity, imagination isoften best left unencouraged.Else it ran be the pitiless black fiend that hoodwinks usup the darkly primrose path.Fortunately,imagination and clarity are complements that can be developed through experience and effort Apparently “aptitude alone is a dubious concept to explain much of what appears as per-lormance on the chessboard.Most chess players would be wise to admit that the oppressive old saw thatgenius is % per cent perspiration plies to chess. Howa usting!Many innocent^ could easily our tirst position. It isK) igram 0BlackI)n8736ihm4HI! 3MO NO no 0 N 8X NX «XIIWHtTF tOf**r 1/isnthe limited yet tricky possi bilities.*»not uncommon to be taken in by Us simplicity, and not clearly think out (or suspect)What a lugubrious spectacle if white should foolishly play l. K-B5?? and lose! Black's reply 1. . K-Q5 would defend the attacked black pawn and attack white’s own pawn. White, on the move, would be in zugzwang. He would have to move his king abandon that pawn.Undeniably, white could win easily by plating 1. K-B6! Alter 1. . .K-Q5 (what else), white would play 2. K-B5 and it is black who loses a pawn through Zugswang.A very ordinary, well-known, and easy to mishandle position!Our next position, much more difficult, had a curious resolution not unlike the firstBLACKPETROSIANMO NO SO 0 X ax NX MXQH QNOB Q K KB KN KRKORCHNOIWHITEOoui 1 B*N win?it?BxN. After 1. . .PxB: 2. KxP, K-R1- 3. K-B5. KxRP; 4. P-N6!. PxP; 5. KxP. . the kingside pawns wrere liquidated and the race to theone. Viktor Korchnoi suspected a possibility, calculated precisely and went on to win a crucial game in hiscandidates match with exworld champ Tigran Petrosian.Korchnoi played the tempting but possibly inadequate lqueenside began. White was a move ahead; but could he win?Korchnoi’s trained ability to calculate allowred him to see that the position in diagramthree would be reached. And he must have at first been(Diagram iiBLACKPETROSIANBO NO ao 0X BV NX BNOR ON OB 0 K KB KN KRKORCHNOIWHITEWmte *»nl ho*fpainfully disappointed.An immediate capture of either pawn does not win!Fhtoss?pawm aoes himself will simply capture a w'hite pawn, andget a queen just in time to draw. But familiarity with positions such as our first one helped Korchnoi to see the possibility K-N5!!, which does win.Black is in rugswang. He must move away from one of the white pawns and allowwhite to capture a blackcapture apawn while protecting his other pawn. Then the win iseasy.A poetic finish which justified Korchnoi’s apparent advantage.
Newspaper Details
Pomona Progress Bulletin
Pomona, California, US
Sat, Jul 06, 1974
Page 4
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