A typical Czerniak Victory... and the "Missing" Tournament Found.

In the third round of the Israeli 75/76 Championship, Moshe Czerniak had shown, once more, why he loved chess so much -- and made others love it. Playing -- as usual -- a quirky opening (the Dutch), he always goes for the most active move, has no fear of prima facie difficult positions, is always willing to sacrifice material for the attack, and always goes for mate -- this time, successfully.

I'm quite sure that, had I bothered to run this game through a chess engine, it would have found many inaccuracies on both sides. Today such games are rare on the highest level -- and mate on the board is practically unheard of. But where is the fun in that?

David Bernstein - Moshe Czerniak

Israeli Championship 75/76, May 15th, 1976, 3rd round. Dutch Defense.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c6 4.e3 f5 5.Ne5 Nf6 6.Be2 Bd6 7.f4 0–0 8.0–0 Nbd7 9.b3 Ne4 10.Ba3 Bxa3 11.Nxa3 Nc3 12.Qd2 Nxe2+ 13.Qxe2 Nf6 14.Nb1 Bd7 15.Nd2 Be8 16.h3 Qa5 17.Rfc1 c5 18.cxd5 cxd4 19.dxe6 Bh5 20.g4 fxg4 21.Ndc4 Qd5 22.hxg4 b5 23.gxh5 bxc4 24.Qxc4 dxe3 25.h6 Qxc4 26.Rxc4 Nd5 27.Nf7 Rae8 28.f5 g6 29.Rd4 Ne7 30.f6 Nf5 31.Re4 Rxe6 32.Rxe6 Kxf7



33.Ra6 g5 34.Rf1 Nd4 35.Kg2 Rc8 36.Rxa7+ Kf8 37.Re1 Rc2+ 38.Kf1 Rf2+ 39.Kg1 Nf3+ 40.Kh1 Rh2#



The source is, as usual for this tournament, Eliyahu Fasher's archives -- which include the bulletins for this "missing" (that is, not in Chessbase) tournament. But -- the internet being what it is -- a quick search in www.chessgames.com, under the players' names, found the games of this "missing" tournament in about 15 seconds.

Oops! Blogger is on the fritz (no pun intended) again

Sorry, folks: two posts have been mashed together. I can't seem to resolve the problem so I'll give a hint on how to read them.

1). The first is the two games from the Israeli championship 1975/1976. It ends after the "solution" of the combination in the second game. It also has all kinds of weird formatting... but I'm afraid to touch it.

2). The second is the background about the said Israeli championship. Its heading and part of the first paragraph have been "eaten" by the first post. To view the complete post, go the "posts" section (on the side) and click on "The Missing Israeli Championship" post.

From the "Missing" Championship, Round 1

As noted in the previous post, I am now in the process of putting the "missing" Israeli championship into chessbase format. In the process, as expected, we find some interesting and instructive games. From the first round, first, a lesson in cool defense, from the game David Bernstein - Shimon Kagan (13-14.5.1976):

Pilpel,Avital 9.3821 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4 c6 5.Be3 a6 6.a4 a5 7.Be2 Na6 8.Nf3 Bg4 9.0–0 Bxf3 10.Bxf3 Nf6 11.Be2 Nd7 12.Qd2 0–0 13.Rad1 Qc7 14.f4 Rad8 15.f5 Rfe8 16.Bh6 Nf6 17.Rf3 Qb6 18.Rh3 Bh8 19.fxg6 hxg6 20.Qe1 Nh7 21.Be3 Bg7 22.Qh4



22. ... Nf8 23.Kh1 Rd7 24.Bh6 Bf6 25.Bg5 Bg7 26.Bh6 Bf6 27.Qg4 Qd8 28.Rf1 e5 29.Bxf8 Rxf8 30.Rxf6 Qxf6 31.Qxd7 exd4 32.Nd1 Nc5 33.Qg4 Re8 34.Rf3 Qe5 35.Nf2 Nxa4 36.Nd3 Qxe4 37.Qxe4 Rxe4 38.Bf1 f5 39.Kg1 Kg7 40.Kf2 Kf6 41.Rh3 Kg7 42.Be2 Re7 43.Rh4 Re4 44.Rh3 Re7 45.Rh4 drawn.

Another example of an amusing game from the first round is the game Shlomo Giterman - Yehuda Gruenfeld (13-14.5.1976):

Pilpel,Avital 9.3821

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.Be2 0–0 9.0–0 Re8 10.Qc2 Na6 11.Re1 Nc7 12.Bf4 Ng4 13.Rad1 f6 14.Bg3 a6 15.a4 Rb8 16.a5 b5 17.axb6 Rxb6 18.Nd2 Ne5 19.f4 Nf7 20.Nc4 Rb8 21.Bd3 Nb5 22.Qf2 Nd4 23.Ne2 Nb3 24.f5 g5 25.Nc3 Na5 26.Ne3 Qb6 27.Ra1 Bd7 28.Ra3 Bb5 29.Qd2 Nb7 30.Rea1 c4 31.Bc2 Nc5 32.Bf2 Ne5 33.Ned1 Qc7 34.Bd4 Ned3

Not the kind of position one sees too often:

35.Bxd3 Nxd3 36.Nf2 Nc5 37.Nxb5 Rxb5 38.Bxc5 Qxc5 39.Rxa6 Rxe4 40.Rc6 Rd4 41.Ra8+ Bf8 42.Qe3 Qxd5

White now wins with a clever combination. Can you spot it?

Solution (highlight area below):

43.Rxf8+ Kxf8 44.Rc8+ Kg7 45.Rc7+ Kh8 46.Qe8+ Qg8 47.Qxb5 1–0