Chess
Puzzles: Fooling the Gullible Chess World
By GM Lubomir Kavalek
Identity theft in chess is rather common. Sometimes a full chapter is lifted
from a book, other times a player claims credit for a single move that wasn't
his. Here is one such story.
It was a furious attack launched against me at the 1965 Student Olympiad in
the Romanian mountain resort of Sinaia, a perfect onslaught by a local player
that even Bobby Fischer would have approved of. For the first 11 moves of the
Sicilian Najdorf, I was under fire from the 30-year-old Romanian student Traian
Stanciu. By move 12, my black pieces were in crossfire. Suddenly, a funky defense
crossed my mind and I realized I was not only safe, but my chances to turn the
game around were excellent. For the next 25 years, my discovery over the board
was a sleeper. Nobody paid attention to it, nobody played it, nobody wrote about
it.
It resurfaced in 1990, after the well-known journalist Leontxo Garcia pointed
it out to the Spanish TV-viewers. They were challenging Garry Kasparov in a
two-game match that lasted two years. In April 1993, Kasparov described the
experience from that match and included my move in his article for the Chess
Life magazine. I showed it to Nigel Short in my house during our preparation
for the 1993 world championship match against Garry. By now the knowledge about
my counterpunching defense was widespread. It was known in Spain, in the United
States and to Kasparov's army of coaches and seconds. Soon it was the top suggestion
of computer engines and my game with Stanciu was featured in major databases.
Everything was going well for my move 12...d5, but in 1996 it was stolen. In
the VSB tournament in Amsterdam, Nigel Short used my discovery to defeat Veselin
Topalov and promptly claimed it as his novelty. It fooled the chess world. When
Sharyiar Mamedyarov played it in this year's elite Sparkassen tournament in
Dortmund, Germany, ChessBase.com
presented it as Short's refutation and fantastic novelty. The usually reliable
daily Internet newsletter, Chess Today, thought it originated in the
game Topalov- Short.
Today, I declare my authorship of the move 12...d5 and reclaim my identity
back.
Let's see the game that brought back the memories.
Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to
follow the game.
Original
column here – Copyright
Huffington Post
Chess Puzzles: Henri Rinck's Magical Rooks
Last week in his HuffPost
column GM Lubomir Kavalek presented two brilliant creations by French chess
study composer Henri Rinck – both using two rooks as the attacking pieces.
Here are the solutions.
Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to
follow the game.

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