A Tactical Battle

 A frequent correspondents brings out attention to the following game, played in 1959, a really sharp tactical battle. The diagrams show positions not often reached in master games. 

Giora Pilshchik - Ya'akov Mashian

Four Knights' Defense [B00]

Histadrut Championship singles, Rd. 9, 18.3.1959.

Source: Davar, 27.3.1959, p. 8.

Annotator: A. A. Mendelbaum

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. d4 Bb4 5. Nxe5 

5. d5 Ne7 6. Nxe5 d6?! (6...O-O 7. Qd4 Bxc3+ 8. bxc3 Re8 9. Bg5 Persitz - Alexander, 1955) 7. Bb5+ c6?! 8. dxc6 O-O 9. Nd7 Persitz - Silverberg, 1955. 

5... Nxe4?! A sharp continuation. 

5... Qe7 6. Qd3 Nxe5 7. dxe5 Qxe5 8. Bd2 O-O 9. O-O-O d6! with equality. 

6. Qg4 Nxc3 7. Qxg7 Rf8 8. a3 Nxd4!?

 8... Qf6? 9. Qxf6 Ne4+ 10. axb4 Nxf6 11. Nxc6 And White remains a pawn to the good. Relatively best is 8... Ba5 9. Nxc6 dxc6 10. Qe5+ Qe7 11. Qxe7+ Kxe7 12. Bd2 Bf5 13. Bxc3 Bxc3+ 14. bxc3 Bxc2 with a slight advantage for White. 

9. axb4!! Nxc2+ 10. Kd2 Nxa1 11. Kxc3 

The first stage of the face-to-face combat, starting before development ended, has reached a time out. Black is a pawn and exchange to the good, but due to threats like Bg5 or Bh6 and action on the open e-file, Black must immediatelly take counter-measures. 

11... a5! With the idea of exploiting the exposed position of the white king and also protecting the a1 knight. 

11... d6? with the idea of finishing development with Be6, Qd7, and 0-0-0 fails to 12. Bb5+! with a quick mate. 

11... c5? 12. Bc4 and the white king will find safety on d3.

12. bxa5! 

12. Bg5 f6 13. Be2 Qe7 14. Bh5+ Kd8 15. Nf7+ 

15... Rxf7 16. Bxf7 axb4+ 17. Kd3 Qd6+ 18. Ke2 fxg5 19.Qg8+ Ke7 20. Rd1 (20. Re1 Nc2!) 20... b6 21. Qe8+ Kf6 22. Rxd6+ cxd6 23. Qh8+ Kxf7 24. Qxh7+ and Black has three pieces for the queen and counter chances. 

12... Qe7 

12... Rxa5 13. Bg5! f6 14. Bh6 Qe7 15. Qxe7+ Kxe7 16. Bxf8+ Kxf8 17. Nc4! with a better ending for White.

13. Bc4 d5 14. Bxd5? More in the spirit of aggression and the position is 14. Bh6!, keeping the initiative and good winning chances. 

14... Qc5+ 15. Bc4? The crucial mistake. 15. Nc4 is necessary. If 15... Qxd5 16. Bh6 

15... Be6 16. Rd1 Qxa5+ 17. b4 Qa4 18. Rd2 Bxc4 19. Nxf7 Qb3+ 20. Kd4 Bxf7 21. Re2+ Kd7 22. Rd2 Rae8 23. Kc5+ Kc8 24. Qd4 Qe6 

24... Re5+ 25. Qxe5 Qc4# would have been quicker, but this oversight doesn't change the result. White resigns (0-1).

Mashian Annotates

 A frequent correspondent notes that Ya'akov Mashian, 'Persian Champion 1958', had arrived in Israel in 1958 and immediately began to be involved in the chess life of the country. One example is him annotating, in Davar's chess column (ed. Zalman Gurevich) the game Van den Berg - Szabo from the 1958 international tournament in Israel. Here is the game (Davar, Nov. 14th, 1958, p. 10): 

Van den Berg - Szabo 

Ruy Lopez [C89]

1958 International Tournament, Tel Aviv/Haifa, rd. 13

Source: see above

Annotator: Ya'akov Mashian

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3 Better is 8. a4 since after} Bb7 9. d3 $1 d6 10. Nc3 b4 11. Ne2! White has better chances. 8... d5 9. exd5 e4 There is another way, as in Capablanca-Marshall, which is better for White: 9... Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 Nf6 12. d4 Bd6 13. Re2!, defending against Black's KS pressure. 10.dxc6 If 10. Ng5 Bg4 11. f3 exf3 12. Nxf3 Nxd5 13. d4 10... exf3 11. Qxf3 Bg4 12. Qg3 Bd6 12... Re8 Doesn't do much for Black:13. d4 Bd6 14. Rxe8+ Qxe8 15. Qe3 Qxc6 16. f3 Re8 17. Qf2. 13. f4 Re8 14. Re5? A mistake! This move was played before by masters, but only this time the Hungarian grandmaster manages to exploit the mistake. Correct was 14. d4 Nh5 15. Rxe8+ Qxe8 16. Qf2 Qxc6 17. Be3 Re8 and Black doesn't have enough initiative for the pawn.

14... Bxe5!! 15. fxe5 Nh5 16. Qxg4 Rxe5 17. Na3 White has no stronger move. For example: 17. d4 Re1+ 18. Kf2 Nf6 19. Qf4 Qe7 20. Be3 Rxe3 21. Qxe3 Ng4+  wins the queen. 17... Re1+ 18. Kf2 Nf6 19. Qf4 19. Qf3 Rxc1 and wins (due to 20. Rxc1 Qxd2+ - A. P.) 19... Qe7 20. Qf3 Rh1 21. Nc2 Ne4+ 22. Ke2 Nxc3+ 23. Kd3 Rd8+ 24. Nd4 Ne2 White resigns (0-1)

A Snapshot

Source: La'Merhav Feb. 12, 1960, page 8 

A frequent correspondent notifies us of the interesting "snapshot" of the Israeli first league in 1960. We see the "old guard" in Jerusalem's Rubinstein club: Czerniak, Dobkin, Mohilever and others. We see a "mixture" in Tel Aviv's Lasker club: Aloni and Oren, but also the young Domnitz. The IDF's and the students' teams naturally feature young players: Kraidman, Guti, Stepak, and others. Tel Aviv's Reti has the "old timers" Smiltiner and Barav but also the young Persitz in the first board. 

Of particular interest is the Bat Yam club, which has Gereben in the first board, but the article (by La'Merhav's chess columnist, Fasher) notes that he already left the country -- and that Bat Yam also lost Ya'akov Mashian, the Iranian-Jewish master, 'who also left the country'.

Mashian returned to Israel in the mid-70s (at least according to Wikipedia), and -- incidentally -- played with Stepak a 193-move game in the Israeli championship semifinals (Stepak won, 1:0). This game, according to Tim Krabbe, was the longest recorded game ever played for seven years (1980-1987), and is still the longest game in time -- 24.5 hours -- 'a record it will forever hold'.

As for Gereben, he had emigrated to Israel in 1959 and played in the 1959 Israeli championship (coming in second), but left the country soon afterwards, as Fasher already notes. Ha'Tzophe of Oct. 9th, 1959, p. 4, notes our correspondent, says the 'Erno Gereben (Grünfeld)' had come to the country shortly before the championship began. Can any reader explain why 'Grünfeld'?

Edited to add: a frequent correspondent noted that the English-language Wikipedia entry for Gereben has his birth name as "Ernest [or Ernst] Grünfeld' and adds:

This name change, with other survival skills, probably helped him survive the holocaust. It was printed in the Israeli press that during one of the Olympiads, a Hungarian player, in a worse position, whispered to the Israeli player (in Yiddish) 'I am a Jew', and the game was drawn. 

It turned out to be Gereben. Based on the details given by our correspondent, an Olimpbase and Chessbase search reveals the game is probably Gereben - Kniazer, Amsterdam 1954, ending in a draw in the following position:

Keeping the Shabbath

'Sammy Reshevsky -- Three Meals and Dessert'. Ma'ariv, Nov. 9th, 1964, p. 4.

Moshe Roytman notifies us of an unsigned collection of short items from Ma'ariv on the date above, some of them related to the chess Olympiad then taking place in Tel Aviv. It has the following caricature of Reshevsky, by the Ma'ariv caricaturist "Ze'ev" [Ya'akov Farkash, 1928-2002]. 

Farkash was one of the four members of the affectionately called "Hungarian Mafia", a team of four staff members of Ma'ariv who had been in the paper for decades, from the 50s to the 90s. They include himself, the caricaturist "Dosh" (Kariel Gardosh), the journalist Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, and satirist Efraim Kishon. Of them, as we have noted in this blog before, Lapid was inter alia the head of the Israeli Chess Federation, Kishon saved his life during the war by playing chess, and Dosh illustrated covers for chess books; we now add a chess connection for Ze'ev. 

The story is that in the 1964 Olympiad in Tel Aviv, the Saturday round started at 5:30 instead of 4:00, to avoid desecrating the Shabbath (from sundown Friday to Sundown Saturday), but Reshevsky got special permission to start half an hour later than that. It is well known that Reshevsky would not play on the Shabbath and was usually given the option of starting to play after it ended when he played in tournaments. But here all the rounds began later for just this reason. So why would he need an extra half hour? 

The reason given -- how seriously, it is hard to tell -- is that Reshevsky, being a religious Jew, also observed the religious tradition (though not an absolute requirement) of having three holiday meals on the Shabbath, which means he would only be available, not just after the Shabbath had ended at 5:30, but only after he finished his third Shabbath meal. Perhaps; we note, however, that as the Shabbath ended during the time of the Olympiad only a few minutes before 5:30, and religious Jews are not allowed to drive or travel by car, carry money, etc., during the Shabbath, it is likely that it would take Reshevsky a few more minutes to get to the tournament hall from his hotel than a person who does not follow these rules in any case.

The article adds that he played against Ya'akov Mashian  (ne Hushang Mashian) as stated in Gaige's Chess Personalia) and 'of course' won quickly 'as a dessert'. Mashian, a Jew, was playing first board for Iran. He later emigrated to Israel and became an active player there. 

We add that the same issue of Reshevsky and the Shabbath -- including his interesting explanation as to why he does not play on the Shabbath, when playing chess is not in fact (by most authorities) forbidden on the Shabbath, as well as a somewhat similar illustration by Buchwald -- when he came to the 1958 tournament in Israel, as noted here.