to see who stands better there, but in actual practice we so often see a preponderance of .ft.s in the center doing well for the possessor that Nimzovich's wisdom gets blunted in our minds, and we are ready to fall into error. Perhaps everyone ought to brush up My System every few years, but even in Nimzovich's own book you will find nothing to bring the truth home to you as sharply as the really wonderful game I hereby introduce.
It was played in the world correspondence championship between the present leader, Dr. Mario Napolitano, and the player who started as favorite, Dr. Edmund Adam. It was Napolitano's only loss.
These two are colossi of the correspondence chess-playing world. Dr. Adam won the correspondence championship of Europe when it was last held-before the war. Dr. Napolitano crushingly won his section in the current world championship, the same section in which international master Barcza only notched three draws in six games.
The winner's play has all the polish, precision, and depth that the best correspon dence play should have.
The comments are ours, but we have the benefit of Dr. Adam's own notes from Caissa.
Napolitano (ltaly) Adam (Germany) Sicilian Defense (in effect)
1. Nt3 c5
2. c4 Nf6
3. b4
Napolitano's opening play is rich in ideas, and in this tournament they have paid good dividends; this is his only defeat so far. Here Napolitano aims at a Wing Gambit in which his c- .ft. will be already at c4, helping him to command the center. Only by extraordinarily deep play-virtu ally impossible over the board-does Adam refute the idea.
3. 4. d4 5. cxd5 cxb4 d5! Nxd5!
Subtly stronger than 5. .. Qfd5, which White probably expected. White then con tinues with 6. Nbd2 and e4, afterwards play-
ing his �-,il strongly to c4. It is that last move that Black is concerned to prevent; it would just make all the difference to White's �-side attack. White's next move makes the game essentially a "Sicilian."
6. e4 Nb6!
Black's �-side is weakened in a sense by the 4:)'s flight, but White's attack is also weakened: (a) for the reason mentioned; (b) because White's e- .ft. will not have a 4:) to hit if it ever goes to e5.
7. d5
Apparently very cramping, as it virtu ally prevents 7. .. e6 (8. Bb5f Bd7 9. dxe6! with a powerful attacking position). White's game could easily become overwhelming against routine play.
7. • • • e5!!
This deeply thought-out return of the .ft. looks almost suicidal by old-fashioned standards because of the huge preponder ance of .ft.s granted to White in the center.
8. Nxe5 9. Bb5t
Bd6 N8d7
Not ... Bd7, presenting White with "the two Bishops" ( 10. Nxd7).
10. Nd3 0-0
11. 0-0 f5!
Black must do this before White plays f4 himself with steamroller effect. Remem ber .. .j5 as the normal anti-roller move.
12. Bf4
A sad renunciation. White dreamed of Bb2, but if 12. j3 to prepare that, ... Q!t4!
Ne6.
12. ... Qc7
If 12 ... Bxf4, the recapture threatens 13. Bxd6
14. f3
Qxd6 a6
Having immobilized White's center the chief need-Black now forces White to develop Black's pieces for him.
If 15. Ba4?, Black wins the h- ft by an obvious sequence.
15. Bxd7 16. Nd2
Bxd7 Rac8
Perhaps you'll admit without dispute that Black has the advantage, but how do you account for it? If you say he has it in spite of White's "strong center," you land in a complete morass. No, the truth is that Black is stronger in the center than White, though he has no fts there to White's two. Indeed, if one of Black's fts were in the center, say on e5 or d6, Black would not stand quite so well. Complete absence of fts in the center sometimes makes for great
freedom of movement, always provided that if the enemy has fts there they can be absolutely fixed, like White's here.
Let us turn now to Nimzovich's My System, p. 160.
It dawns upon us then, that control of the center depends not on a mere occupa tion, i.e., placing of pawns, but rather on our general effectiveness there .... Certainly pawns, as being the most stable, are best suited to building a center. Nevertheless, centrally posted pieces can perfectly well take their place.
Obstruction! that is the dark side of occupation of the center by pawns. A
pawn is by nature, by his stability, his, so to speak, conservative spirit, a good cen ter building, but alas, he is also an ob
struction.
Here, a different piece setup could eas ily make White's game superior. If instead of one of his �s he had a dark-squared �' his deplorable weakness on the dark squares would vanish. Yet note also that if Black's � itself were on dark squares instead of light, his game would be even better than it is. And yet his light-squared � is far from "bad," despite the white fts, because it can get an excellent diagonal by going behind them, as it were, with ... Bb5.
It is the fixity of White's fts that is his trouble. Of course, as the board is now, a phalanx ( fts abreast) could not be main tained, but one can see now that White made an error in voluntarily breaking the phalanx he once had; his Z d5 was wrong, even if there was but one way, and a very surprising way, to refute it.
17. Re1 fxe4
Well-timed, now the )"! has left that file. It did so to forestall the pin, ... Bb5.
18. fxe4 Na4
20. Khl
Forced; if Ne3, .. .Nc3 wins the e-ft.
20. • • • Qd4!
This move is curiously decisive. It proves that White must have had some more resistant 19th move, but there was probably nothing to save him permanently. Black now has two threats: firstly ... Bb5 winning a piece(!) because the 4J has no escape, and the support Re3 would be a broken reed because of ... Rxfl f; secondly, ... Nc3 winning the e- ft . White is reduced to a desperate throw. 21. d6 22. Qb3t 23. e5 Nc3! Kh8
Black would refute 23. Nxb4 by 23 ... Nxe4!Philidor' s Legacy, which is then threat ened starting with ... Nf2 f, cannot be stopped by 24. Rxe4, since then 24... fJ!a 1 wins,
-
while 24. h3 would lose after ... Rc3! (E.A.) [Ed. Note: But first 24 .. . Nj2f 25. Kh2 as if 24 .. . Rc3, then 25. Rxe4 fJ!e4 (25 .. . Rxh3f 26. fJ!h3 fJ!a 1 27. fJ!d7 Rxf! f 28. Kh2 Rhlf 29. Kg3 Qs3f 30. Kf2 and nothing happens) 26. fJ!c3}.
23 . • . .
24. e6
Qxd3 Rce8!
If now exd7?, it's soon mate. And if 25. Rd1, ... Nxd1 26. fJ!d3 Nj2fregaining the ¥tl with overwhelming interest.
25. Ng3 Qd2!
Threat ... Bc6. If 26. Rad1 Nxd1 27. Rxd1, the reply is 27. .. Rxe6!Everything dovetails.
26. Resigns.
Kmoch calls the game "a dream of the Sicilian." Dr. Adam's other results in this event have not done him justice. A bout of ill health affected him, and he was a little too daring in a few of his openings.