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.