The Other Guy Has All The Luck
In 1967, Svetozar Gligoric was near the peak of his form, generally recognized as one of the strongest Grandmasters in the world. He only had one problem, and his name was Leonid Stein. Grandmaster Stein, from the Ukraine, had no problem with Gligoric at all: in fact, between 1962 and 1967, they had contested six games, and Stein won them all.
We are talking world-class grandmasters here! Guys who hardly ever lose, and even on a bad day, will make a draw – but Gligo had lost six in a row to this particular opponent, someone very good but no better than himself – he could not even make a draw in six tries.
Was number seven lucky for him? Let’s take a look.
Gligoric – Stein (E92)
Moscow 1967
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0–0 6.Be2 e5 7.d5 a5 8.0–0 Na6 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bh4 g5
Creates a permanent hole (a square that cannot be defended by pawns) on f5. Later Efim Geller found 10…Qe8! which is still considered the best move: Black slides out of the pin without weakening his pawn structure. Notice the counterplay Geller gets against our good friend Gligoric: 10...Qe8 11.Nd2 Nh7 12.f3 Bd7 13.a3 h5 14.Rb1 a4 15.Nb5 Bh6 with mutual chances in Gligoric - Geller, Sochi 1968.
11.Bg3 Nh5 12.Nd2 Nf4 13.Bg4!
Gligo observes that only Black’s white squared Bishop is defending f5, and so stabs the lone defender to death!
13…Nc5 14.f3 c6 15.Qc2 cxd5 16.cxd5 b5 17.a4 bxa4 18.Nc4 h5 19.Bxc8 Rxc8 20.Nxa4 Qc7 21.Ne3
Stein has been outplayed, and only has tricks left: the White Knight is headed for f5 with decisive effect.
21...Qa7 22.Bf2 Ncd3 23.Qd2 Nxf2 24.Rxf2 g4
Black should be dead here, but remember what I said about tricks? White should carefully play 25.Kh1 (avoiding the trick in the game) and then after 25… Bh6 26.Nf5 Bg5 play 27.Rff1 (avoiding the trick …Nh3) and now Fritz rewards White for his careful behavior with a big fat +-, and Gligoric would have been rewarded with a full point. But … he couldn’t wait! So eager to defeat Leonid Stein for the first time in his life, and knowing he had a winning position, Gligo rushed with:
25.Nf5?
And was hit by …
25...gxf3!
When to his horror Gligo realized he could not recapture with the Rook because of the pin, and the pawn capture, while legal, allows …Nh3+!
So he got off the pin, and then …
26.Kh1 Qxf2!!
OH NO!! Where the hell did that come from? The game went on for a while, but the lucky seven was all for Leonid Stein.
27.Qxf2 fxg2+ 28.Qxg2 Nxg2 29.Kxg2 Rc2+ 30.Kf3 Rb8 31.Ke3 Rb3+ 32.Nc3 Rbxb2 33.Ra3 Rxh2 34.Kd3 Rh3+ 35.Ne3 Bh6 36.Ncd1 Rb1, 0–1.
Now that is a difficult opponent! He’ll beat you even from a lost position!
The phenomena of the difficult opponent is quite common: almost everyone has someone they just can’t score against, even though he might have the same rating. I have such a person myself, the Armenian/American IM Andranik Matikozyan. Now Andranik is a very nice guy, and I have nothing against him personally: but the fact that I had played him nine times and scored exactly one draw and eight losses drove me crazy!
So as a form of “home therapy” I decided to write this next series about the difficult opponent in general, and my games against Matikozyan in particular, and see if I could find the way out of this morass of defeat!
I’m going to concentrate on games in which I had the advantage, or even decisive advantage, yet somehow failed to win – I want to know why! And if I can figure out why, then I can figure out a way to win.
With that thought in mind, I began work on this article – but before I even finished it, I played Matikozyan one more time, the tenth time – and for the first time in my life, I won! That game will appear in the last column of this series – for now, let’s concentrate on the eight losses and one draw!
There is luck in chess. So let’s start with a game in which Andranik avoided loss due to phenomena outside the chessboard! Here is my only draw.
Matikozian – Taylor (B30)
Los Angeles, 2004
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Nf3 g6 4.Bc4 Bg7 5.0–0 Nc6 6.Re1 e6
Matikozyan likes this quiet system. My sixth move is fine, but simpler is 6...Nf6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 0–0 9.Bb3 reaching a comfortable line of the Dragon.
7.Bb5 Nge7 8.d4 cxd4 9.Nxd4 0–0 10.Be3 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 e5 12.Be3 Be6 13.Qd2
13…a6?
And so I perpetrate the sort of bone-headed move I make so often against this difficult opponent! Of course, Black should try to free his backward d-pawn, and the following variations are not difficult to calculate:
13...d5! (best) 14.exd5 (14.Bc5 d4 15.Nd5 Nxd5 16.exd5 Qxd5 17.Bxf8 Rxf8 with good compensation) 14...Nxd5 15.Bc5 Nf4 16.Qe3 Qg5 17.Qg3 (17.g3 Rfc8, =) 17...Qxg3 18.hxg3 Rfc8 19.Bd6 Nd5 20.Nxd5 Bxd5 21.c3 a6 22.Ba4 e4 with dead equality.
The important question is WHY did I not make this obvious move? As I recall, I think I saw that he was winning the Exchange in one line, and just gave up on the move (even though it was positionally necessary) without checking to see if I have compensation, which a second look shows I do.
In other words, I had no faith in my position!
14.Ba4 Qc7 15.Bb3
The Bishop gets back to the key diagonal and I am positionally crushed.
15...Rac8 16.Rad1 Bxb3 17.axb3 Rfd8 18.f3
OK, OK, I have a terrible position and I know it! Bad Bishop, backward d-pawn, I’m going to lose again, O woe is me, etc. (at this point I had lost about four games to Matikozyan and had yet to get on the scoreboard).
18...d5!?
Why not? I’m lost anyway!
19.exd5 Nf5 20.Qf2 Nd4 21.f4 b5 22.fxe5 Nxc2 23.Qxc2
Simplest is 23.Bb6 Qb7 24.Re2, which wins the Exchange for nothing!
23...b4 24.Qf2 bxc3 25.Bb6 Qb8 26.Bxd8 Bxe5
Now I'm down a whole Rook, but I have some sort of play – but if White just gives back a little material with 27.Rxe5! Qxe5 28.Bf6 the game immediately ends with another big zero for me!
27.Bf6 Bxh2+ 28.Kh1 Bg3 29.Qd4
Again, White can win easily by giving back a little material: 29.Qe3 Bf4 (29...Bxe1 30.Qh6) 30.Qe4 c2 31.Rc1 Bxc1 32.Rxc1 Qxb3 33.d6 Qb5 34.Qf3 Qd7 35.Qh3 Qxh3+ 36.gxh3 and it’s all over.
Maybe this clinging to material is a clue as to how to defeat this difficult opponent?
29...c2 30.Rc1 Bxe1 31.d6 Bf2 32.Qxf2 Qxd6 33.Bc3 Rc5 34.Kg1 Qd1+
And if White answers this check with 35.Qe1! then the Queen is protected which means White is still winning! (35...Rd5 36.Rxc2 ).
35.Qf1??
And now I – sort of – seized my chance!
35...Rd5!
Suddenly Black has a decisive advantage! The variations are clear: After 35...Rd5 White can try:
* 36.Rxc2 Qxc2 37.Qf6 Qd1+ 38.Kh2 Rh5+ 39.Kg3 Qd3+ 40.Kg4 Qf5+ 41.Qxf5 Rxf5 and Black easily wins the Exchange up ending.
* 36.Rxd1 cxd1=Q 37.Be1 Qxb3 38.Qe2 Qb6+ 39.Bf2 Qd6 40.Be3 Qe5 41.Kf2 Rb5 and Black wins the Exchange up middlegame.
* 36.Kh2 Qh5+ 37.Kg3 Rg5+ 38.Kf2 Rf5+ 39.Kg1 Rxf1+ 40.Rxf1 Qd1 and Black pins and wins.
* 36.g3 Qxc1 37.Qxc1 Rd1+ and Black wins by fork.
Tactics 101! So what happened?? At this point, in a dead won position, I offered a draw, and my difficult opponent accepted.
Now stop calling me a fish and listen! Let me explain: here is the background of this long regretted draw offer. Both players were in time pressure in this G/40 game. We had about two minutes apiece. I was terrified that I would lose by making some ridiculous mistake, even though I knew my advantage was decisive.
And there was another factor, much more important: this was the last round of a tournament I really needed to win, for financial reasons (well, anyone who reads this column knows I always need to win, I just don’t always actually win!)
I had 4 points going into this round, Matikozyan was half a point behind with 3 1/2. No one else could catch me. So all I needed for clear first was a draw – and I didn’t want to tempt fate, since I also knew I had been lost all through the late middle game.
However, had I needed to win for the prize, I would have played on, regardless of my fears. But I didn’t need to win, but only to draw. So I offered, he accepted, I took home the money.
And as the losses piled up, I regretted that draw offer literally for a year! But back to the game: was there a game, or only luck? I was fine, then lost, then more lost, then dead busted, then winning, then – 1/2-1/2.
Does this game teach us anything other than that there really is luck in chess?
