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ViW ■ ■ ■ ■AW7h*hmh*bChir#mt?By Kevin Burnett-National MasterMemorial ImpressionsThey called it “the biggest tournament west of the Mississippi,” and the organizers of last weekend’s Memorial Day Classic weren’t just whistling Dixie. 491 players turned out for the three-day event at the Sheraton-Universal Hotel. The top prize was shared by four of California’s finest international stars, Grandmasters Larry Christiansen and Walter Browne and International Masters Jack Peters and Nick deFirmian (all with totals).The rest of the good (and the lucky) competitors who partook of the $23,000 prize fund are too numerous to name here. Instead, your humble correspondent (who did not partake) would like to offer hearty congratulations to the prize-winners and their bank accounts and proceed to relate some of the incidents and sensations that made the tournament a memorable one.The first and foremost sensation was the play of high-schooler Karl Yee. The tournament hall buzzed with excitement in the second round as he demolished GM James Tarjan in just 26 moves. Yee went on to clobber two more strong masters with his fierce attacking play before faltering in the later rounds. Round two saw another upset when Senior Master David Strauss lost on time in a winning position to Expert Mario Spinosa.Veteran Expert Sid Rubin had a good tournament as well, knocking off Senior Master Victor Frias and taking GM Peter Biyiasis to the very limit before losing in long and complicated endgame.Indeed, this was quite a tournament for exciting endgames. Co-winner Christiansen, for one, played a pair of dazzling endgames against Ivars Dahlberg and William Batchelder. Thus inspired, in the very next round, Batch-elder miraculously turned a probable loss into a win with some fighting endgame play. But the most talked-about finale of all was an eight-hour, fifth-round marathon which had held up the last-round pairings for an hour and a half. When the tournament director could wait no more, he looked at the position and saw (correctly) that Black had • an easy win. So he made and announced the pairings. Fifteen minutes later, to his horror and to the groans of hundreds of players, Black lost his mental bearings just four moves from victory and gave White a draw. This necessitated new pairihgs and, though the directors scrambled like veteran short-order cooks, a further half-hour was lost.Before we leave this exciting tournament behind us, let’s mention just one more sensation, albeit an aborted one. Fearless attacker Robert Hurdle of Los Angele was at his fearless best in his fifth-round donnybrook against eventual co-winner Browne. He had Browne on the ropes and then’ made a slight and seemingly innocuous move-order mistake that turned a potential brilliancy into a frustrating defeat. And the chess gods above intoned something about “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. ” Wait ’til next year.Book ReviewEncyclopedia of Chess Middlegames: Krogius Livschitz et. al.; Chess Informant; 351 pp.; $25.To quote one old master: “Chess is 99% tactics. Another added; “And it's 99% of the fun.” This book is all tactics, 1817 diagrams’ worth, arranged in two parts, one for the intermediate player, the other containing more advanced positions. All examples are drawn from master practice and arranged in sixteen thematic chapters (“Pinning,” “Clearance,” “Blockade,” etc.). This writer highly recommends regular tactical “drill” for any player wishing to improve his game. And this quality volume from Chess Informant will provide years of instruction and enjoyment. Available for $23.85 including tax and postage from Labate’s Chess Collection, Box 1961,South Gate, 90208, 213-5674476.mm± mmtrnm mtmmw mmmmta m mm®Alapin-Schiffers (1902)Black to play and win (solution below)Game Of The Year —1977U.S.DAI Shiao-her m; law dlt; Methocommfromt of Chi from school Fqu:paniesenroll: iversii sorBt a tou Amer Shei an Ai New!“Tb in ealt; overt two c rated that under ca,th law, idifferAt the end of the 1977 Las Palmas (Canary Islands) tournament, Anatoly Karpov was awarded his fourth consecutive Chess Oscar as Player of the Year And the following game was voted Game of the Year by the Chess Informant judges. Draw your own conclusions.White—StefanoTatai Black—Anatoly KarpovLas Palmas 1977 ' English Opening1 N-KB3 P-QB4 2 P-B4 N-KB3 3 N-B3 P-Q4 (Black avoids the Maroczy Bind —‘ where White has pawns on his KAand QB4 — yet will presently flanchetto his KB.) 4 PxP NxP 5 P-KN3 P-KN3 6 B-N2 B-N2 7 Q-R4+T? (This $ ah aggressive atterripf to disturb the coordination o! Black's pieces and perhaps pick off a Q-side pawn.) 7... N-QB3 8 N-KN5 P-K3 9 KN-K4 N-N3! (Karpov lets lt;White pick up the pawn and begins to organize his counterplay. A practical decision since 9... Q*K2 loses material to 10 NxN PxN 11 N-B3.) 10 Q-N5 P-B5 11 N-R4 (Giving up his fine KB to win the pawn would be risky: 11 N-B5 0-012 BxN PxN 13 QxP(6) P-K4.) 11 ...0-012 NxN PxN 13 QxBP (In return for the pawn, Black has the better development, a potentially mobile pawn center, open lines for his pieces, and an immediate target for his activity — the exposed white Q.) 13... P-K4 14 Q-B2 (White gees before he is chased by 14 ... B-K3 and... N-Q5 or... N^N5 ) 14... N-Q5 15 Q-N1 P-B4 16 N-B3 P-K5 17 P-Q3 P-QN4 18 B-K3 P-N5 (Now that White’s KB Is blocked off, Black will dislodge the only other active piece — the N. Note that18 P-QR3 loses to 18 ... P-N519 PxNP? RxR 20 QxR N-B7+.)19 N-Q1 R-K1 20 PxP PxP 21 BxN (White exchanges one of Black’s active pieces apd another replaces it. 21 BxKP? is a blunder because of 21 ... RXB 22 QxR B-B4 and 23... N-B7+.) 21,..OxB 22 P-QR3 B-N5 23 Q-B2 Q-Q6I! 24 PxQ (Karpov considers 24 Q-Q2 the best, but after 24... QxQ+ 25 KxQ QR-Q1+ 26 K-K1 R-QB1 or 26 ... B-KB6 White will be overrun in (he endgame.) 24... PxP+ 25 K-Q2 R-K7+ 26 KxP R-Q8 + 27 K-B4 RxQ+ 28 KxP R7-Qf 29 P-B3 (The only way to save the QNP.) 29... B-KB1+ 30K-R5 (If the K goes to a white square; then 30... QB checks and 31... RxB.) 30... B-Q2! White resigns since defending the B allows 31... B-QB4 arid 32... R-R1 mate.Solution; Even with reduced material sudden attacks re possible: 1,.. QxNJ 2 PxQ K-N2! And the rook-file late can’t be defended.
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Santa Ana Orange County Register Evening
Santa Ana, California, US
Sun, May 31, 1981
Page 30
Full Page
Clipped by
Los A.
CA, USA 25 Jan 2023
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