Before I start in on the top tier finishers I thought it would be worth mentioning a couple Canadian GMs and unknown Australian who had some good games in this event.
First up is Duncan Suttles, age 29 at the event. He was born in San Francisco but his family moved to Vancouver when he was child. He was a bit of a teen-age prodigy in Canada playing at a national master strength. In the early 1960’s he breaks into the Canadian scene winning the British Columbian Championship in 1963 at age 17 and then again 1966. He was playing at GM strength by 1968 but due to Cold War politics, he was denied the title due to a technicality. Because he played too many games that got published, several prominent European players complained of his “Ugly” games. He finally was titled GM in 1972 following his performance at the San Antonio Tournament where he scored a ½ point against Tigran Petrosian. Leading up to Lone Pine 1975, he won a couple of Canadian championships.
The game I would like to draw your attention to in this event happens in round 8 as white against Samuel Reshevsky. Reshevksy’s Performance at Lone Pine was a little passed his prime. The game opens up as a clash between English opening and Modern defense.
The fight for control of d5 and e5 is paramount. In the book, David Levy opines that Suttle’s style was developed by years of playing in the old style of King’s Gambits and that he had to learn how to Walk his King before he learned to walk. ( Thus the “ugly” duckling name his games often received under critical European eyes). In this case it was effective with f4 advanced. Reshevsky tries to gain control of some dark squares for his Queen and tosses a pawn away. This only invites Duncan for an Early Queen exchange. One last ditch effort to gain tempo in the endgame has Black tossing another pawn on the fire. By then, White had enough of an advantage to bring home the point.
With 5 ½ points he finishes in the top 20 of this strong event. His biggest legacy to chess is his contributions to the Modern Defense. Funny, how what was once considered “Ugly” is now a looked up to as a contribution to opening theory. He played into the early 1980’s when he dropped out of competition and started up a Software Company focused on the Stock Market ( Microstat Development) and then ventured into other areas such as Grandmaster Technologies. Now he’s president of Magnetar Games, a software based company focused on Internet Gaming community. http://www.magnetargames.com/Company/Team.htm
Abraham Yanofsky, 50 year old at the event, had the honor of being Canada’s first titled GM in 1964. He beat Botvinnik back in 1946 as well as other prominent players of the time like Sammy Reshevsky and Larry Evans. He was never a professional Player, rather he practiced law in Winnepeg and even was Mayor of a suburb. This Canadian Lawyer-politician did have an interesting first round victory over Hungarian GM, Istvan Csom. Though he submitted this game with light annotation for a brilliancy prize for the round, it was eclipsed by the upset with Kushnir over Evans.In the Game, Yanofsky opens up the king side in this Sicilian and keeps pressure on Csom’s king to remain in the center. Next he opens up the center and holds onto a Bishop pair for the endgame. Like the practicing lawyer, he builds his case with more evidence in the form of pawns and rests the defense with a closing statement of two connected passed pawns on the 5th and 6th rank.
Yanofsky Earned the international Arbiter title in 1977. He played in his last Canadian Championship in 1986 at the age of 61 which qualified him for another interzonal appearance ( since 1946 he’s represented Canada several times) but ceded to a younger player. He passed in 2000 but since then, an annual Memorial Tournament has been held in Winnipeg to honor his contributions.
Lastly, a 29 year old Australian, David Parr is brought to your attention. The eldest son of Frank Parr, another prominent Chess Player from a chess playing family ( His brother Peter, was also of Master Strength). He played internationally for England for a few years and spent some time in Australia playing in Championships. However, he withdrew from one event in 1974 complaining “his opponents were so weak that he could not concentrate”.
Looking for strong competition, David found it at Lone Pine. In this second round victory against GM Forintos, we see an aggressive style of play for this untitled player. Popularized by Fischer at the time, the Austrian Attack was in style against the Pirc. The idea is to get quick development and control of e5. Black is allowed e5 and then Parr weakens his king side even more with a risky advance f4-f5. Black gains control of the now semi-open g-file and dark squares. Parr looks for his only hope in simplification and seizes a opportunity to exchange queens and pieces to benefit a playable endgame. Using pins and initiative, he walks his king up to a favorable position to pick up the h-pawn. The outside passer was all he needed and he gets the point.
He dies the same year as his father in 2003. There is a David Parr memorial in Australia conducted by the Correspondence Chess League of Australia in his honor.
3 comments:
Oooh, a Pirc!
In that game, I'm still trying to figure out why Black played 23. ... Nd5 instead of Nd7.
Great post! I love that Yanofsky game and think that it is a good example of exchange theory. Knowing when and how to trade a piece is an art and he surely enjoyed the advantage of the two bishops and pawn in the end. Thanks for digging into history a little bit and providing us a good overview of the times as well as the games themselves.
Always fun to read about lesser known players who upset more known GMs. Although the name Parr i had heard before, dont know anymore where and when.
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