Archive for July 2nd, 2015

A sign of a great book is that you can find something new in it upon each return and so once again Cafferty & Taimanov have caught your author’s attention with a curious tale concerning the 38th Soviet Chess Championship held in Riga from Nov. 25th to Dec. 28th 1970

The note of interest concerns the game between Vladamir Tukmanov and Doroshkevich who repeated a blunder for the third time in his career during the game below. Here is the game:

1. c4 e5

2. Nc3 Nc6

3. Nf3 f5

1

After 3. …f5 (I take black here)

4. d4 e4

5.Bg5 Nf6

6. d5? exf3

2

After 6. d5? exf3

7. dxc6 fxg2

8. cxd7+

3

What should black play here?

8. …Nxd7! Not obvious but after which white has two hanging bishops and a rook and black is obviously threatening to queen!

RESIGNS

You had to be super-strong to play in the Soviet Championships at the time, it makes you wonder how one of its participants could lose in 8 moves with white three times in his career in the same line! Very odd indeed. Doroschkevich went on to finish 13th out of 22.

38th USSR Championship, Riga 1970
November 25 - December 28

Riga, Soviet Union (Latvia), 25 November - 28 December 1970

1st Korchnoi 16 /21 * 0 ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1

2nd Tukmakov 14½/21 1 * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1

3rd Stein 14 /21 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 0 ½ 1

4th Balashov 12½/21 0 ½ ½ * 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 0

=5th Gipslis 12 /21 0 ½ ½ 1 * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 1

=5th Karpov 12 /21 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½

=5th Savon 12 /21 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 ½

=8th Averbakh 11 /21 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½

=8th Podgaets 11 /21 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 0 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1

=10th Bagirov 10½/21 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ * 1 ½ 0 1 ½ 1 0 0 0 1 1 ½

=10th Dementiev 10½/21 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 1 ½ 0 * ½ ½ 1 0 0 ½ 0 1 1 ½ ½

=10th Liberzon 10½/21 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ * 0 ½ 1 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½

=13th Doroshkevich 10 /21 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 1 ½ 1 * ½ 1 1 ½ 0 1 1 1 1

=13th Kholmov 10 /21 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 0 0 0 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1

=15th Antoshin 9½/21 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 0 ½ * 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½

=15th Zaitsev 9½/21 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 1 0 ½ 1 * ½ 0 1 1 ½ 1

=17th Vaganian 9 /21 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ * 1 0 ½ ½ 1

=17th Mikenas 9 /21 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 0 * 1 0 0 1

19th Karasev 8½/21 ½ ½ 0 0 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 1 0 * ½ 1 1

20th Platanov 7½/21 0 0 1 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ * 1 1

21st Tseitlin 6 /21 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 0 1 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 0 0 * 0

22nd Moiseev 5½/21 0 0 0 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 1 *

The tournament itself was famous for Karpov’s first appearance. His very first win in the Soviet Championships was against Bagairov from Baku, who unfortunately died from a heart attack at the chessboard. On a more positive note, it is a truly beautiful game by Karpov, one of my favourite Karpov games. It should be noted that he had one loss and ten draws prior to the game.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1022951

4

White (Karpov) now plays 37 Nc7

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Some rather blasé journalism can be found in ‘A Chess Move’, which I feel gives an unfair account of the state of chess in Bedford at the time. If you’ve read ‘Chess in Bedfordshire’ (1933), you will most likely suspect that the author of ‘A Chess Move’ is following the book without performing adequate research.  Please click on the images for a better view.

beds1

beds2

The aforementioned Stevenson Cup and the match played that season can be found here:

beds3

beds4

The player on board 2 Ivanoff is mentioned by G.H. Diggle in Newsflash in Feb. 83. Edward Winter, has added it to his wonderful site on the following page, http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter85.html, scroll down to 7223.

Bedford weren’t as weak as was suggested in ‘A Chess Move’, is made out as is shown below.

beds6

beds5

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A funny one from Troll Chess (facebook)

11219324_1604778349782525_2232068443783577984_n

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