Comparisons

 

A frequent correspondent points out to us this note about the Netanya "Shach-kayit" tournament (Ma'ariv, 20.5.1960, p. 12). The article notes that abroad, "famous spa towns organize large tournaments with well known players," and adds that while Israel hadn't reached this point, "the renewing 'Schach-kayit' ('chess-vacation') tournament in Netanya does so, if "in smaller dimensions." As usual, the problem is financial: "Israeli chess, built on the volunteer work of motivated people, needs to be happy with any organized event with many players in a competitive setting." 

A Nice Attack

 From La'Merchav, Feb. 14th, 1958, p. 6, sent to us by a dedicated correspondent:

Ido Aviner - Beno Levi 

Sicilian Dragon [B71]

1958? 

Source: see above

Annotator: Eliyahu Fasher

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.f4 Nc6 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.e5 Ng4 Black chose here a variant which, he said, Euwe recommended. Black forces White to open his KS, but paralyzes his own QS. 9.h3 Nh6 10.g4 To prevent Nf5 after White's next move. e6 11.Be3 d5 12.Bg2 Stops the advance of the pawns on Black's QS. (12.g5? Nf5) 12...Be7 13.O-O Ba6 14.Ne2 Self-pinning the N for a long time, but done to keep the f1 square free for the rooks. 14...Qa5 15.b3! Bc5 16.Bxc5 Qxc5+ 17.Kh2 Better than 17. Kh1, as will be clear in the 21st move. 17... Rd8 18. Qd2 Ng8 White's threat was f5 ad then f6. 19. Rf3? Wants to free the N, but doesn't notice Black's next move, which both frees and attacks. 19...h5! 20.Nd4! Keeps the position intact. 20...Qb6 20...hxg4 21.Rc3 with complications. 21. Kg3! c5 21... h4+ 22. Kh2 22. Ne2 Ne7 23. Nc3 Qc7 Of course not 23...d4? 24.Ne4. 24.Re1 Nc6 25. Bf1 hxg4 26. hxg4 Qe7 Threatening mate never hurts! 27.g5 Qb7 28.Rf2 Nd4 29.Bh3 Qb4 30.Na4! Black avoids a queen exchange in an equal position, i.e., trying to win by force. But this costs the paralyzation of the queen. 30...Nb5? 30... Nxc2? White doesn't fear this, due to 31. Rc1 31.c3 Qa3 

32.f5! gxf5 33.Bxf5! White exploits the black queen's paralysis to break through. The bishop sacrifice cannot be accepted due to e6 with a crushing attack. But Black manages to find a way to defend by opening a way to his queen. 33...c4 34.Bg4! Keeps the material advantage. 34.g6 Qe7 35.gxf7+ Kf8 and Black wins. 34...Bc8 34...cxb3 35.axb3 Qxb3 36.Qf4 wins; 34...Qe7 35.Ref1, followed by 36.Rf6, 37.g6, etc. 35.Ref1 Qe7 36.Rxf7 Qxf7 37.Rxf7 Kxf7 38.Qf2+ Ke8 Best under the circumstances. 38...Kg8 39.Qf6 Re8 40.Qg6+ Kf8 41.Bh5 and wins. 39.Qf6 Kd7 40.Bxe6+! Kc7 41.Bxc8 Simplest. 41...Rxc8 41... Kxc8 42. Qc6+ Nc7 43. Nc5 etc. 42.Qe7+ Kb8 43.Nc5 Nc7 44.Qd6 and Black resigned (1-0) due to mate in a few moves, e.g. 44...Rcd8 45.Na6+ Kb7 46.Qxc7+ Kxa6 47.Qc6+ Ka5 48. b4#. 

The First Palestinian Report of Capablanca

 

In Marmorosh's chess column from Sept. 17th, 1939 (p. 4), brought to our attention by a frequent correspondent, we read two interesting notes. The first is that Kniazer became champion of the Tel Aviv Lasker club with 6.5/9 - two full points ahead of the next player, Weil (who at the time of the report had one more game to play, with Labounsky, 3 pts.) Interesting is also the report of the 'A-level' (secondary) tournament, with 16 players, which gave the first three the right to play in general Tel Aviv Championship. 

More interesting, perhaps, is the note that 'due to the serious international situation' - later known as the second world war - there are 'no telegraph reports' from the Buenos Aires olympiad, so at the moment all Marmorosh can report is Czerniak's draw with Capablanca in the match with Cuba. A pawn down, 'in a losing position', Czerniak sacrificed a pawn 'for a desperate attack' and drew. They note also Porat (then Foerder) drew (with the unmentioned Cuban 2nd board, Acre Lopez). 

Tel Aviv - Jerusalem Match, 1923

 

An earlier item this time: a frequent correspondent notes this report from Doar Ha'Yom (October 10th, 1923, p. 4) of the Tel-Aviv - Jerusalem championship in the "E. L." (Emmanuel Lasker) club in Jerusalem. (It was brought to my attention by a frequent correspondent.) The Jerusalem paper's chess columnist - Mohilever - notes that Tel Aviv won 21.5 - 14.5, and explains that the Jerusalem players didn't prepare well, and some were simply too weak for such a tournament. The author notes in particular Labounsky from Tel Aviv as a promising young player. 

A Day in Palestinian Chess

 

The same column just mentioned in the previous post - brought to our attention by a frequent correspondent - has reports on the Jerusalem championship, Tel Aviv's championship, and (pictures above) reports on the championship of Hadera, and a simultaneous display by Marmorosh in Haifa. This shows the rise in chess activity in Palestine before the "lean years" of WWII and the war of independence. 

The Hadera championship had 20 players, and was won by Menachem Susmann with Aharon Feigenbaum (ph. spelling in both cases) second. The prizes, 'by the culture committee', were books by Ha'Shomer - that is, by the kibbutz-based publishing house which later became one of Israel's largest publishing houses, Sifriyat Poalim (literally 'the workers' library'). 

The simultaneous display ended  +15 =1 -4 in Marmorosh's favor, and lasted two and a half hours.

"Knight Endings are Pawn Endings"

 

The quote from Botvinnik applies well to this game. It is from the 1938 Jerusalem championship, Czerniak (White) playing against Zilberman. (The source is Marmorosh's chess column in Ha'Aretz, March 11th, 1938, p. 11).  The game continued: 

Is left as an exercise in Hebrew.  מ = מלך = king, פ = פרש = knight, and מה = מלכה = queen...

The Cordonsky Attack

A frequent correspondent had generously given us some games from Czerniak's 64 Mishbatzot (64 Squares) which we have been missing. One, from pp. 329-330 (date?) between Cordonsky (Czerniak's spelling) and Zalman, shows some example of the nice treasures one can find about theory in old magazines. 

Surely no modern player will go to old reports of the IDF's 1957 championship, of all places, looking for theoretical novelties. And yet Czerniak notes that Black, due to one inaccurate early move, is lost after the 8th move in an extremely popular opening variation - but that, this opportunity being missed, White executing the very idea two moves later already loses! 

Czerniak - somewhat tongue in cheek - dubs this combination the "Cordonsky Attack."

Cordonsky - Zalman

Sicilian Paulsen [B94]

IDF Championship, Israel, 1957

Source & Annotator: see above

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 White threatens to take on f6, prevents the Dragon setup, and forces e6 or Nbd7. 6... Nbd7 7. Qd2 Qc7 The Paulsen variation. The idea is to develop counterchanges on the QS, even without solving the KS issues. 8. O-O-O b5?

Instead of this careless move, better is to first secure the KS with, e.g., 8... h6 9. Bh4 g6 and 10. Bg7. 9.g3? White missed an opportunity to win immediately. The combination he executed in the 11th move should have been done at once: 9. Bxf6 Nxf6 10. e5! dxe5 11. Ndxb5! axb5 12. Nxb5 Qb6 13. Qc3! and wins. 

9... Bb7 10. Kb1 White needs to move the king from c1 for his planned combination. 10... g6! Did Black realize this moves saves him? 11. Bxf6 The beginning of a nice combination, which came too late. 11... Nxf6 12. e5!? dxe5 13. Ndxb5!? axb5 14.Nxb5 Qb6 14... Qc8 (or Qc6) 15. Na7! and 16. Bb5+; 14... Qc5 15. Qb4! 15. Qe3 Now it is clear why the White king had to move from c1. 15... Qa5 16. Qa3

This move should have been - according to White's calculations - the winning move. He threatens a queen exchange and immediate mate. For example:

16... Qxa3 17. Nc7# 

16... Qb6 17. Nc7+! Qxc7 18. Bb5+ 

16... e6 (still) 17. Nc7+!

16... Bh6! A surprising save. 16...Re8! also puts White's victory in question as well, but now, when Black's king has an escape square at g7, White has no way to continue the attack, especially as Black is threatening mate on a2. 17. Qxa5 Rxa5 Black is now safe, and won due to his material advantage (0-1).

From the Israeli Film Archive

 

The above is a cut from the Israeli Film Archive (requires registration, but it is free) search for the term "Chess" (in English). There are quite a few newsreels of many Israeli tournaments, in particular the 1964 Olympiad held in Tel Aviv, naturally featuring many well-known players (the USSR team, in particular). There is also a 1935 Marmorosh Simul already posted on this blog, Najdorf's visit (1961), and much more. 

Czerniak's Fighting Spirit

A frequent correspondent reminds us that Moshe Czerniak's 64 Mishbatzot (you guessed it - "64 Square") had strong opinions expressed in the editorials. One particular one is Czerniak's dislike of avoiding battle - either by not joining a tournament at all or by early draws. As one of his pupils told us, he would tell younger players who agreed to such a draw: 'why did you agree to a draw? Don't you like playing chess?'.

Another example of this in an editorial in the May-June, 1957, editorial (p. 225). Czerniak notes that:

The fact that only one master played in the semi-final [of the Israel 1957 championship] is no coincidence. It is true that some were abroad, some could not leave work, and some are no longer, due to their age, able to stand the stress of such a tournament. But still is no justification for the absence of some of our masters. Could their regretful distancing form combative chess be seen as fear of defeat? If so, are they worthy of bearing the title of 'master'? 

Indeed!  

By the way, 64 Mishbatzot came out regularly for about 3 years, and had as editors, apart from Czerniak, also the masters Porat, van Amerongen, and Dr. Oren, as well as Zehavi. It was a great leap in both quality and quantity from previous Israeli, or Palestinian, chess magazines.