
Every Chess Game Tells a Story
By GM Lubomir Kavalek
At the 1978 Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires the US team was in the lead with three rounds to go. The gold medals we won in Haifa in 1976 were again within our reach. But in the match against Israel I misplayed the opening against Roman Dzindzichashvili on the first board and had to give up a piece for two pawns to stay in the game.

Roman "Dzindzi" Dzindzichashvili in 1993 (photo by Bill Hook)
Other games also didn't bring anything decisive at the adjournment. Jim Tarjan's opponent built a fortress and could not lose, and Walter Browne was slightly better. To save time and energy, the US captain, Pal Benko, offered the Israelis a deal: Browne wins, I lose. Fortunately, they declined the deal and my resignation.
We pick up the position with White sealing the move. In 1978 the games were still being adjourned and you sealed your next move in an envelope. We still had more than a dozen years to go before computers did away with the adjournments and games had to be played in one session.
I was not surprised to see the adjourned position in Daniel Naroditsky's two-page endgame column in the Chess Life last August. He usually selects dramatic endgames. He called this one "breathtaking and jaw-dropping." In October, another page was devoted to corrections by a reader, Allen Van Gelder. The game was previously analyzed by Dzindzichashvili in the Chess Informant.
42.Nxd5+! cxd5 43.Kxd5 g5 44.Kc6 44.f4!? g4 45.Kc6 Nc5 46.Kxb6 Ne4 46...Nxb3 47.Bc4 Nd2 48.Bd3 Ne4 49.Kxa5 Nxg3 50.Kb5+- 47.Kxa5 Nxg3 48.Bg2 Ne2 49.Kb6 Nxf4 50.Bb7 44...Ne5+ 45.Kxb6 Nxf3 46.Kxa5 Nd2 47.hxg5+? 47.Bg2 47...Kxg5 48.Bg2 48.Kb6 Nxf1 49.a5 Nxg3 50.a6 h4 51.a7 h3 52.a8Q h2 48...Kg4! 49.Kb6? 49.Bd5 Kxg3 50.Kb6? 50.b4! f4 50...Ne4 51.b5 Nd6 52.b6 f4 53.Kb4 f3 54.Bxf3 Kxf3 55.a5+- 51.b5 f3 52.b6 52.Bxf3 52...f2 53.b7 f1Q 54.b8Q+ Kf2 54...Kh3 55.Qc8+ Kh2 56.Qc7+ Kh3 57.Qc3++- 55.Qf4+ Ke1 56.Qxf1+ Nxf1 57.Kb4 50.Kb4 Ne4= 50...Ne4= 49.Kb4! Kxg3 50.Bh1! f4 51.a5 f3 52.Bxf3 Nxf3 53.a6 h4 53...Nd4 54.Kc5! Nxb3+ 55.Kc4 Na5+ 56.Kd5+- 54.a7 h3 55.a8Q h2 56.Qg8+ Kf2 57.Qh7 Kg2 58.Qg6+ Kf1 58...Kh3 59.Qh5+ Nh4 60.Qd5+- 59.Qh5 Kg2 60.Qg4+ Kf2 61.Qh3+- 49...Kxg3 50.a5 Kxg2 51.a6 h4 52.a7 h3 53.a8Q+ Ne4 54.Qg8+ 54.Qd5 h2 55.Qxf5 Nf2= 54...Ng3 55.Qd5+ Kf2 56.Qd2+ Kg1 ½–½
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Dzindzichashvili,R | - | Kavalek,L | - | ½–½ | 1978 | | Buenos Aires (ol) | |
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Komodo has seen the draw in Let's Check
With this draw and Browne's victory, we defeated Israel 2.5-1.5. But in the next two rounds we only tied matches against Poland and Switzerland and ended up with the bronze medals, as recorded in Wojciech Bartelski's Olimpbase. Surprisingly, the gold medals went to Hungary, the Soviets finished second.
In the last round I played Viktor Korchnoi. He arrived in Buenos Aires straight from the World Championship match he lost to Anatoly Karpov in Baguio City, the Philippines. With a win, I would match Viktor's result, but I lost and Korchnoi had the best result on the first board. My score of 7.0/11 equaled the score of Boris Spassky. But the team benefitted from Tarjan's amazing performance. He scored 9.5/11.
World's youngest writer
When I read Naroditsky's first book "Mastering Positional Chess," published by New In Chess in 2010, I envisioned the author to be a bearded wise man and not a 14-year-old boy. It was well thought out, well written and analyzed. The author, a former Under-12 World and U.S. junior champion, became the youngest chess writer in the world.

His second book "Mastering Complex Endgames," published in 2012, was a brilliant essay on difficult endgames. This book landed him the Chess Life job as an endgame expert, replacing the indefatigable Pal Benko, 86, who ran the column for 41 years.
U.S. Team in the Worlds
Naroditsky, 19, will be the youngest player on the U.S. team at the World Team Championship in Tsakhkadzor, Armenia. It will be played April 18- 29. Other team members are Sam Shankland, Alex Onischuk, Varuzhan Akobian and Alex Lenderman. The final lineup will be influenced by the upcoming 2015 U.S. Championship in Saint Louis (March 31-April 14).
Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, currently rated number 3 and 8 in the world, will not play for the team. According to the team captain John Donaldson, Gata Kamsky decided several years ago that he would retire from playing for the national team at the age of 40. He reached this milestone last year.
Original column here – Copyright Huffington Post

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