‘Might you reside in attention-grabbing occasions.” The Chinese language contemplate it a curse, however for a memoirist, it’s a godsend.
Lubomir Kavalek, the late, still-lamented Czech American grandmaster, writer, organizer, coach and longtime columnist for The Washington Publish, definitely lived a full life in an attention-grabbing time, as recounted winningly in “Life at Play: A Chess Memoir” (NewInChess, 349 pages, $34.95 hardback). He rose to fame behind the Iron Curtain as a star of a outstanding technology of Czech gamers, escaped to West Germany and finally the U.S. because the Soviet Union was crushing the Prague Spring of 1968, labored as broadcast journalist for the Voice of America, and — amongst different chessboard triumphs — boasted two sole or shared Czech nationwide championships, three U.S. nationwide titles and two West German nationwide crowns.
As a coach and match second, he labored with lots of the greats, beginning with Bobby Fischer for the final third of his epic 1972 title match with Boris Spassky and ending with British GM Nigel Quick (for a time) in his memorable and ill-starred 1993 London world title match with Garry Kasparov. Kavalek appears to have recognized everybody of significance in chess within the postwar period, and “Chess at Play” has dozens of tales about these he met (Vaclav Havel, President Clinton and Oscar-winning movie director Milos Forman are amongst those that have walk-on elements within the guide) and the place he went alongside the best way.
Sadly, Kavalek didn’t stay to see the guide by means of to publication, passing away at his Reston, Virginia, dwelling from most cancers on the age of 77 final 12 months. His widow, Irena Kavalek, and Czech American author Jan Novak helped shepherd the practically accomplished manuscript into print, and added a wonderful assortment of 47 video games and recreation fragments, many based mostly on Kavalek’s personal annotations.
With a pointy, fear-no-complications model, Kavalek picked up a string of brilliancy prizes over his profession. The decisive part of his win over Colombian-born grasp Bernardo Fernandez on the sixteenth Olympiad in 1964 in Tel Aviv begins with a putting queen sacrifice and concludes with a exactly orchestrated king hunt. In an English, White locks up the queenside and the middle, permitting Kavalek as Black a free hand to construct up a raging kingside assault. White is already in determined straits after 24. Be3 f4! opens new strains of assault, and the poor White king is flushed out into the open after 27. Qd2 Ne3+ 28. Kf2 Qg4 29. Ne2 (see diagram; White stops the threatened mate in three after 29 … Qxf4+ 30. Ke2 Bf1+ 31. Rxf1 Qxf1 mate, however Black has one other approach) Qg2+!! 30. Bxg2 Rxg2+ 31. Kf3 Re8!, slicing off the escape route and threatening 32 … Bg4 mate.
The one remaining query is how aesthetic the checkmate shall be, and Black delivers in spades: 32. f5 (the one transfer to offer the king an escape hatch) Bg4+ 33. Kf4 Rf2+ 34. Kg5 Rg8+ (Black has already calculated that each 35. Kh6 and 35 Kxh4 enable 35. Nf5 mate) 35. Kf6 Rxf5+ 36. Ke7 Rg7+ 37. Kxd6 — and now the intelligent coup de grace: 37 … Rfg5!, protecting the White king within the mating matrix and clearing the bishop’s line to arrange the unstoppable risk of 38 … Rd7 mate; White resigned.
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Kavalek picked up one other brilliancy prize in opposition to a significantly extra formidable foe in opposition to the nice Serbian grandmaster Ljubomir Ljubojevic at a 1973 event in Las Palmas, Spain. On the White aspect of an Alekhine’s Protection that he knew properly, Kavalek sacrifices a pawn for the assault and Black rapidly finds himself below strain on 19. Bh6!? Bxc2 20. Bxg7 Kxg7 21. Nd4 Rac8? (“the incorrect rook,” Kavalek remarked later; with 21 … Bb3! 22. Bxb3 axb3 23. Nxb5, Black returns the pawn however avoids a variety of the grief to come back) 22. Rac1!, and all of the sudden Black can go disastrously incorrect in strains reminiscent of 22 … Bb3?? (Bf5?? 23. Nxf5+ results in the identical mixture) 23. Nf5+! gxf5 24. Qg5+ Kh8 25. Nxf7+! Rxf7 26. Rxc8+ and wins.
Black finds the one non-losing transfer — 22 … Be4 — and after 25. Kh2 Nxe4 26. Qxe4 emerges with a rook and pawn for 2 minor items and good possibilities of holding the sport. However there may be nonetheless some poison within the place, and White takes masterful benefit of one other Black inaccuracy.
Thus: 26 … Rc5?! (too intelligent by half; in a protracted evaluation, Kavalek argues Black can nonetheless struggle on with 26 … Nf6 27. Qe3 e6!, when the protection holds barely on 28. f4 [Nxb5 Qd1 29. Nd3 Ra1 30. Nc3 Qh1+ 31. Kg3 Rg1 32. Nf4 g5 33. Nce2 gxf4+ 34. Nxf4 Re1!, with equality] Ra1 29. Nxe6+ fxe6 30. Bxe6 [Qa7+ Nd7 31. Bxe6 Qxe6 32. Nd7 Qf7, and White still must work for the win] Qxe6) 27. f4 f5 28. Nxf5+!? — a transfer that checks an annotator’s objectivity. The trendy engines, as Kavalek famous, discover a faster win with 28. Ne6+!! Qxe6 29. Qd4! Qd6 (Rc8 30. Ng4+ Kf8 31. Bxd5, and any queen transfer permits 32. Qh8 mate) 30. Nd3+, however that might deprive the world of White’s masterful concept that blossoms so fantastically three strikes later.
After all of the pyrotechnics, White transitions to a gained ending with the impressed 28 … gxf5 29. Qxf5 Nf6 (Kavalek additionally says 29 … e6 can’t save Black, giving the principle line as 30. Qg5+ Kf8 31. Bxd5 exd5 32. Qf5+ Kg7 33. Qg4+ Kf8 34. Nd7+, whereas 29 … Qf6 loses to 30. Qg4+ Kh8 [Kh6 31. Nf7+! Qxf7 32. Qg5 mate] 31. Nd7 Qxb2 32. Ne5! h6 33. Qg6) 30. Qg5+ Kf8 31. Nd7+!, a beautiful finesse that forces 31 … Qxd7 (Nxd7?? 32. Qg8 mate) 32. Qxc5 Qd2 33. Qe5, and White is a pawn up and his queen and bishop dominate the ending.
White easily brings dwelling the purpose, simplifying with 38. Qb8! Qd2 (Kg7 39. Qe5+! [Qxe8?? Qxf4+ 40. Kg1 Qe3+ with a perpetual throws away all White’s fine work) 39. Bg4 (threatening 40. Bh5+) Qd6 40. Qxd6 Nxd6 41. Be2 and the rest is a matter of technique for a top GM. In the final position, Black packs it in as 56 … Ng7+ 57. Kf7 Nh5 58. Bd1 Ng3 59. Bg4 Kc4 60. g7 queens the pawn.
(Click on the image above for a larger view of the chessboard.)
Fernandez-Kavalek, 16th Olympiad, Tel Aviv, Israel, November 1964
1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. d3 c5 6. e3 Nc6 7. Nge2 d6 8. O-O Bd7 9. Rb1 Qc8 10. Re1 Bh3 11. Bh1 e5 12. a3 h5 13. b4 h4 14. b5 Ne7 15. e4 Nh7 16. Be3 f5 17. exf5 gxf5 18. Nd5 Nxd5 19. Bxd5+ Kh8 20. f4 Nf6 21. Bh1 Ng4 22. Nc1 exf4 23. Bxf4 Bd4+ 24. Be3 f4 25. Bxd4+ cxd4 26. gxf4 Rg8 27. Qd2 Ne3+ 28. Kf2 Qg4 29. Ne2 Qg2+ 30. Bxg2 Rxg2+ 31. Kf3 Re8 32. f5 Bg4+ 33. Kf4 Rf2+ 34. Kg5 Rg8+ 35. Kf6 Rxf5+ 36. Ke7 Rg7+ 37. Kxd6 Rfg5 White resigns.
Kavalek-Ljubojevic, Las Palmas, Spain, April 1973
1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. Nf3 g6 5. Bc4 c6 6. O-O Bg7 7. exd6 Qxd6 8. h3 O-O 9. Nbd2 Nd7 10. Bb3 Qc7 11. Re1 N7f6 12. Nc4 a5 13. a3 a4 14. Ba2 b5 15. Nce5 c5 16. dxc5 Qxc5 17. Qd4 Qd6 18. Qh4 Bf5 19. Bh6 Bxc2 20. Bxg7 Kxg7 21. Nd4 Rac8 22. Rac1 Be4 23. Rxc8 Rxc8 24. Rxe4 Rc1+ 25. Kh2 Nxe4 26. Qxe4 Rc5 27. f4 f5 28. Nxf5+ gxf5 29. Qxf5 Nf6 30. Qg5+ Kf8 31. Nd7+ Qxd7 32. Qxc5 Qd2 33. Qe5 Qf2 34. Be6 h6 35. Qb8+ Kg7 36. Qc7 Kf8 37. Qd8+ Ne8 38. Qb8 Qd2 39. Bg4 Qd6 40. Qxd6 Nxd6 41. Be2 Kg7 42. g4 Kf6 43. Kg3 e5 44. Kf3 Ke6 45. h4 Kd5 46. fxe5 Kxe5 47. Ke3 Kd5 48. Bd3 Kc5 49. g5 hxg5 50. hxg5 b4 51. g6 Ne8 52. Bc2 bxa3 53. bxa3 Kb5 54. Kd4 Ng7 55. Ke5 Ne8 56. Ke6 Black resigns.
• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at [email protected].
