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The Game that Bobby Remembered
February 19, 2018
ChessBase has an article today about a game from the USSR Chess Championship, Leningrad, 1947.
This from the article:
The tournament hall is packed to capacity. The 15th USSR Chess Championship is in progress. It's the seventh round today. Konstantin Klaman, the local lad is facing Vassily Smyslov, grandmaster from Moscow. Now the rivalry between Leningrad and Moscow is well-known and the public is rooting for Konstantin. Only the other day their hero, Alexander Tolush had lost to Vasily Smyslov.
The local audience have their hopes pinned on Klaman. Not without reason. He is a dangerous tactician and a resourceful player. Only a few days before he has downed Paul Keres in a game in which the Estonian had overreached himself, and punished him for his aggression. But this time he has a tougher task.
At twenty-seven Smyslov is already a veteran of several USSR Championships, finishing right behind Botvinnik on more than one occasion. His style is marked by careful opening preparation, deep middlegame play and impeccable endgame technique. In this tournament he has permitted only two fighting draws and otherwise beaten Tolush, Kan, Aronian and Ragozin in succession. In contrast Klaman's form has been variable, with ups and downs in round after round.
USSR Championship, Leningrad
Round 7, February 12, 1947
Klaman, Konstantin - Smyslov, Vasily
A47 Queen's Indian Defence
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 b6 3.Nc3 Bb7 4.Bg5 d5 5.e3 e6 6.Ne5 Be7 7.Bb5+ c6 8.Bd3 c5 9.O-O O-O 10.Qf3 Nc6 11.Qh3 g6 12.Ba6 Qc8 13.Nxc6 Qxc6 14.Bxb7 Qxb7 15.Qh4 Kg7 16.Bh6+ Kg8 17.Bg5 Kg7 18.Bh6+ Kg8 19.Bg5 Kg7 1/2-1/2
Final position after 19..Kg7
An intriguing encounter! If you are seeing this game for the first time, you wonder why Klaman failed to gain the exchange and play for a win. Shakhmaty V. USSR, a well-known chess magazine in those days, carried a profile of the young player and the article also mentioned the game, claiming he allowed threefold repetition of moves through careless play. It's more likely that he was in serious time trouble, improvising move after move as he did in the game.
When veteran master, Pyotr Romanovsky wrote his book on middlegame planning (it has seen two recent editions, one in Russian and the other in English) he included this game in his work. It caught the attention of young Fischer who was an avid reader of Russian chess literature. In the twilight years of life in Reykjavik he had neither forgotten the game nor Romanovsky's book.
In his recent book on Bobby Fischer, Gardar Sverrisson recalls how the legendary player shared his fascination for this little-known game with him and sought an improvement on Black's play. One can only wonder what he would have found and how it would have enriched our understanding of the game. Sadly, he took it all to his grave.
For the whole article:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-ga...bby-remembered
________
A comment on the Chessbase article:
Abernathy - After reading the fascinating article on Chessbase, I analyzed the Klaman-Smyslov game and posted the improvement that Fischer was looking for on the Chessgames website one month ago.
"The improvement is 10...Nfd7. 11.Qh3 can then be met with f5, and white has no Ba6, Nxc6 tactic."
The analysis given in this article is patently wrong. "He would have reached a level position with 11...h6!" No, he would not have.
12. Bxh6!
"There was a draw with 12...c4!" No, there was not. The continuation is winning for white. 13. Bxg7 Kxg7 14.Qg3+ Kh8 15.Qg4+ Kg7 16.Qg5+ Kh8 17.Qh6+ Kg8 18.f4 cxd3 19.Rf3 Nxe5 20.fxe5 Ng4 21.Rg3 f5 22.exf6 Bxf6 23.Rxg4+ Kf7 24.Qh7+ Ke8 25.Qxb7 wins.
_______
Klaman, Konstantin Alexandrovich (1917-1985), chess player, engineer, Master of Sports of the USSR, member of the championships of the USSR, the RSFSR and Leningrad, Champion of Leningrad. In the early 1960's he participated in the preparation of Boris Spassky. Klaman was buried at the Serafimovskoye cemetery.
February 19, 2018
ChessBase has an article today about a game from the USSR Chess Championship, Leningrad, 1947.
This from the article:
The tournament hall is packed to capacity. The 15th USSR Chess Championship is in progress. It's the seventh round today. Konstantin Klaman, the local lad is facing Vassily Smyslov, grandmaster from Moscow. Now the rivalry between Leningrad and Moscow is well-known and the public is rooting for Konstantin. Only the other day their hero, Alexander Tolush had lost to Vasily Smyslov.
The local audience have their hopes pinned on Klaman. Not without reason. He is a dangerous tactician and a resourceful player. Only a few days before he has downed Paul Keres in a game in which the Estonian had overreached himself, and punished him for his aggression. But this time he has a tougher task.
At twenty-seven Smyslov is already a veteran of several USSR Championships, finishing right behind Botvinnik on more than one occasion. His style is marked by careful opening preparation, deep middlegame play and impeccable endgame technique. In this tournament he has permitted only two fighting draws and otherwise beaten Tolush, Kan, Aronian and Ragozin in succession. In contrast Klaman's form has been variable, with ups and downs in round after round.
USSR Championship, Leningrad
Round 7, February 12, 1947
Klaman, Konstantin - Smyslov, Vasily
A47 Queen's Indian Defence
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 b6 3.Nc3 Bb7 4.Bg5 d5 5.e3 e6 6.Ne5 Be7 7.Bb5+ c6 8.Bd3 c5 9.O-O O-O 10.Qf3 Nc6 11.Qh3 g6 12.Ba6 Qc8 13.Nxc6 Qxc6 14.Bxb7 Qxb7 15.Qh4 Kg7 16.Bh6+ Kg8 17.Bg5 Kg7 18.Bh6+ Kg8 19.Bg5 Kg7 1/2-1/2
Final position after 19..Kg7
An intriguing encounter! If you are seeing this game for the first time, you wonder why Klaman failed to gain the exchange and play for a win. Shakhmaty V. USSR, a well-known chess magazine in those days, carried a profile of the young player and the article also mentioned the game, claiming he allowed threefold repetition of moves through careless play. It's more likely that he was in serious time trouble, improvising move after move as he did in the game.
When veteran master, Pyotr Romanovsky wrote his book on middlegame planning (it has seen two recent editions, one in Russian and the other in English) he included this game in his work. It caught the attention of young Fischer who was an avid reader of Russian chess literature. In the twilight years of life in Reykjavik he had neither forgotten the game nor Romanovsky's book.
In his recent book on Bobby Fischer, Gardar Sverrisson recalls how the legendary player shared his fascination for this little-known game with him and sought an improvement on Black's play. One can only wonder what he would have found and how it would have enriched our understanding of the game. Sadly, he took it all to his grave.
For the whole article:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-ga...bby-remembered
________
A comment on the Chessbase article:
Abernathy - After reading the fascinating article on Chessbase, I analyzed the Klaman-Smyslov game and posted the improvement that Fischer was looking for on the Chessgames website one month ago.
"The improvement is 10...Nfd7. 11.Qh3 can then be met with f5, and white has no Ba6, Nxc6 tactic."
The analysis given in this article is patently wrong. "He would have reached a level position with 11...h6!" No, he would not have.
12. Bxh6!
"There was a draw with 12...c4!" No, there was not. The continuation is winning for white. 13. Bxg7 Kxg7 14.Qg3+ Kh8 15.Qg4+ Kg7 16.Qg5+ Kh8 17.Qh6+ Kg8 18.f4 cxd3 19.Rf3 Nxe5 20.fxe5 Ng4 21.Rg3 f5 22.exf6 Bxf6 23.Rxg4+ Kf7 24.Qh7+ Ke8 25.Qxb7 wins.
_______
Klaman, Konstantin Alexandrovich (1917-1985), chess player, engineer, Master of Sports of the USSR, member of the championships of the USSR, the RSFSR and Leningrad, Champion of Leningrad. In the early 1960's he participated in the preparation of Boris Spassky. Klaman was buried at the Serafimovskoye cemetery.