Saturday, November 7, 2009

The "Missing" Israeli Championships



Checking my trusty old Chessbase 9 database, I have discovered that, for some strange reason, some of the Israeli championships are missing. I do not know what the reason is -- perhaps lack of easily available English-language sources on certain championships?

One "missing" championship is the 1975/76 championship. Thanks to Eliyahu Fasher's archives, found in Yad Tabenkin, which include the complete run of the tournament's bulletins, I have all the games of this 16-player round robin (15 rounds). While the average ELO was not particularly high, as seen in the players' list above (source: bulletin no. 1, 13.5.1976), there were, as usual, some interesting games. I am putting the games in Chessbase database form (though this might take some time) and hope to find some lost gems thanks to my... er, I mean, Deep Fritz 8's chess insight.

The winner of the tournament was Nathan Birnboim, seen in the photo below (source: Shachmat, vol. 15 No. 6-7 [June-July 1976], cover page), in play with Itzchak Radashkovich. As usual, for consistency's sake, I use Jeremy Gaige's transliteration from Chess Personalia: A Biobibliography, even if it disagrees slightly with rendition in the sources I am giving in the photographs.

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