2016 Year in Review
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The Gambit Nebraska State Chess Archives Nebraska State Chess 2016 The Year in Review. XABCDEFGHY 8Q+-+-mK-mk( 7+-+-+-+-' 6L+-sn-+-+& 5+-+-+-sN-% 4-+-+-+-+$ 3+-+-+n+-# 2-+-+-+-+" 1+-+-+-+-! xabcdefghy White to play & mate in 2 moves. (Composed by Bob Woodworth) Hint: After White’s keymove & depending on Black’s reply, find all of the ‘long-distance’ checkmates. Gambit Editor- Kent Nelson The Gambit serves as the official publication of the Nebraska State Chess Association and is published by the Lincoln Chess Foundation. Send all games, articles, and editorial materials to: Kent Nelson 4014 “N” St Lincoln, NE 68510 [email protected] NSCA Officers President John Hartmann Treasurer Lucy Ruf Historical Archivist Bob Woodworth Secretary Gnanasekar Arputhaswamy Webmaster Kent Smotherman Regional VPs NSCA Committee Members Vice President-Lincoln- John Linscott Vice President-Omaha- Michael Gooch Vice President (Western) Letter from NSCA President John Hartmann January 2017 Hello friends! Our beloved game finds itself at something of a crossroads here in Nebraska. On the one hand, there is much to look forward to. We have a full calendar of scholastic events coming up this spring and a slew of promising juniors to steal our rating points. We have more and better adult players playing rated chess. If you’re reading this, we probably (finally) have a functional website. And after a precarious few weeks, the Spence Chess Club here in Omaha seems to have found a new home. And yet, there is also cause for concern. It’s not clear that we will be able to have tournaments at UNO in the future. We still have a number of important yearly events that need to be organized. And we have all of four active tournament directors in the state, and four active organizers. I do not want to be alarmist, but the simple fact is that we lack a deep bench of directors and organizers. NOW IS THE TIME TO GET INVOLVED. If you want to see more tournaments for kids, let me know and I’ll help you get started. If you want to see more tournaments for adults, I can help you there too. And if you just want to talk and see where you can be of help, get a hold of me at your leisure. My email address is [email protected] and I read it regularly. Chess can only grow if we have leaders to shepherd that growth. My hope for 2017 is that you – yes, you! – will commit to helping chess grow. How can I help you with that? See you out there over the board! John Hartmann President Nebraska State Chess Association From Kent’s Corner Welcome to another issue of the Gambit. I must admit this is not one of my better issues but it is an issue, nonetheless. It took awhile to finish this one. Nowadays, time is short and everything is a struggle to get things done. Once again, I appreciate the support of my wonderful contributors, each of whom, I wish to thank individually. Hats off to Alex Golubow who wrote an article that provides some thought provoking ideas on the way we view and approach chess. Alex worked very hard on his article and many thanks to him for writing it and for his patience with online publication. Nebraska State Chess Historical Archivist, Bob Woodworth, has written entertaining articles, which is reproduced here for your enjoyment. Bob’s article are always a delight to read in my opinion and many thanks to Bob for being someone I can count on with any chess related issue. Dr. John Tomas, currently living in Chicago has provided another wonderful article for your pleasure. I don’t know what I enjoy more, having the Chicago Cubs win the 2016 World Series or having John’s article for Gambit publication. I love both. Thanks John! Mr. Tony Dutiel, my friend and faithful Gambit contributor has written a very detail article on a recent tournament he won. It is very detailed and accurate with outstanding game notes. Tony, much thanks to you for providing much needed material to complete the issue. Special thanks to NSCA President, John Hartmann, for his database of games and his letter to you from the previous page. It might be awhile before another issue of the Gambit is produced, at least from me. I want to finish my Howard Ohman book and the development of a new NSCA web site is still pending.—Yours in chess-Kent Table of Contents News and Notes………….………………………………….1 Resigning?! Clear, Objective thinking required! by Robert Woodworth………………………………………………….2 A Very Pretty, Very Clever Chess Composition! by Robert Woodworth………………………………………………….6 The Full Chess by Alex Golubow………………………….8 1972-3: The Beginning of the End by Dr. John Tomas….22 Games Galore!......................................................................34 2016 Tournament Summaries and Results………………66 “My Terrific Tournament” by Tony Dutiel………………76 While Strolling my King Through the Chessboard one day...by Kent Nelson………………………………………98 Tournament Announcements……………………………101 Historic Chess Photo……………………………………..102 Notes………………………………………………………104 News and Notes 1. The Solution to the cover problem is 1.Bd3 If 1. Nxg5 then 2.Qa1# If 1. Ne5 then 2. Qh1# If 1. Ne4 or 1. Nf5 then 2.Kf7# If 1. Ne8 then 2. Nf7# 2. Apologies to Ben Fabrikant, the current Nebraska state closed chess champion, for omitting his name from the field of players who qualified to play in the 2016 Nebraska State Closed champi- onship. I mentioned all other players but simply overlooked to mention Ben. 3. Speaking of Ben, he will defend his state championship title sometime this Spring. His competitors are the top finishers in the 2016 Player of the Year competition which includes POY winner Steve Cusumano, with Henry Le and Ying Tan. There will be a three-way playoff in February between Nathan Klatt, John Linscott and John Hartmann to determine the final two qualifiers for the state closed. 4. Congratulations to Harry Le for his 2nd place finish during the 4th grade National championship division tournament in Nashville. Harry scored 6.5 points out of 7 possible points. There was a whopping 205 players that competed in that section. Way to go Harry! 5. Many of you may remember Joseph Wan. Joseph played in Nebraska for a number of years before moving to Iowa City, Iowa. I recently learned Joseph has earned his master’s rating and continues to have impressive performances in Iowa tournaments. Congratulations to this teenage superstar. 6. Congratulations to Nathan Klatt for earning this expert’s rating and for winning both the Omaha and Lincoln City Chess championships in 2016. A true historical accomplishment. Well done Nathan, well done! °1° RESIGNING?! CLEAR, OBJECTIVE THINKING REQUIRED!! by Robert Woodworth As chessplayers, we have all experienced that ‘sinking feeling’ when our opponent plays an apparent game-winning move! Many times this will occur later in our games when both players are tired & stressed. It can be very , very difficult to overcome the shock & realization that our game may be lost! To overcome this shock plus retaining clear & accurate thoughts can be extremely hard. Our minds must be cleared and refocused on the game position with all mental blocks removed. The fear of losing can also cripple our objectiveness. The following game position occurred between 2 very notable, strong players where checkmate was threatened with the potential loss of a piece plus the game. XABCDEFGHY 8-+-+-+k+( 7vlp+-+pzp-' 6p+-+-+-zp& 5+q+L+-+-% 4-+-zPQzP-+$ 3+-+-+-zPl# 2PzP-+-vL-zP" 1+-+-+-mK-! xabcdefghy White (GM Salo Flohr), one of the world’s top players at the time, resigned here not seeing any reply to the mate threat on f1 by Black (Henry Grob)!! The White queen cannot defend the f1-square since she must protect the bishop on d5. Still there was a defense. Can the reader see it? In the next example (which was taken from a composed ending), it very much appears that the position is absolutely hopeless for the White side! °2° XABCDEFGHY 8-+-+-+-+( 7+-+-+-+-' 6K+-+-vL-+& 5+-+k+-+-% 4-+-zp-+-+$ 3zp-+-+-+-# 2-+PzP-+-+" 1+-+-+-+-! xabcdefghy If this were an actual game, White would probably resign as the Black a-pawn cannot be stopped from ‘queening’. But there is an amazing hidden resource with 1.d3!! which looks completely illogical. There follows 1..a2 and White plays 2. c4+ followed by 2..Kc5 (to keep protecting the d-pawn). 3.Kb7 (to avoid the coming check by the new queen) 3..a1(Q) but now comes the very shocking move 4.Be7 check- mate!!! Absolutely unbelievable! As one writer stated this is “a mate in the wild, apparently impossible. Chess beyond the final frontier”!! Question, would anyone as a player have found this hidden resource?? This next example looks to be from an actual game. If I, the writer, were playing the White-side, I would certainly resign since there is absolutely no way to stop the Black e-pawn from queening. Still, there is a hidden theme here whereby White can actually avoid the apparent loss! So, it is White to play as shown below: XABCDEFGHY 8-+-+N+-+( 7+-+-+-+k' 6-+-+-mKpzp& 5+-+-+-+-% 4-+-+p+-+$ 3+-+-+-+-# 2-+-+-+-+" 1+-+-+-+-! xabcdefghy °3° 1. Kf7!, e3 2. Nf6+, Kh8 3. Nd5, e2 4. Nf4,e1(Q) 5. Nxg6+, Kh7 6. Nf8+, Kh8 7. Ng6+ and it is a drawn game due to the perpetual check. Amazing!! So here again we see another game saved but only if we have our minds ‘open’ and not jumping to the quick conclusion that all is lost. This doesn’t mean that every apparently lost position can be saved but it requires the utmost effort by the player to at least give these positions a chance.