Lubomir Kavalek
Chess Puzzles: A Vodka Escape
I began my escape from the communist Czechoslovakia 42 years ago, on Sunday, September 1, 1968. According to Wikipedia, I bought several crates of vodka with my winnings at the Akiba Rubinstein Memorial in the Polish spa of Polanica Zdroj, bribed the border guards and drove to West Germany.
At that time, I was supposed to play the first board on the Czechoslovakian team at the Lugano olympiad, having won the strongest national championship in history ahead of Smejkal, Hort, Filip, Pachman, Jansa, Janata and others. During the summer I added a first place finish at the IBM tournament in Amsterdam ahead of David Bronstein and I was just in the middle of the race with the former world champion Vassily Smyslov in Poland, when the Soviet and other Warsaw pact armies invaded my country on August 21. During the next 10 days it became clear to me that I had to go west. I played a few simultaneous exhibitions in Poland, the last one in Wroclaw.
The city, previously known under the German name Breslau, had special meaning for me. Not only did I begin my journey to the West there, but it was the birthplace of Adolf Anderssen, one of the strongest players in the 19th century, an attacking genius known for his creation of the Immortal game against Kieseritzky and the Evegreen game against Dufresne.
Everybody loved Anderssen and his combinations, but he was also a gifted problem composer.
I have chosen two of his works from his book Aufgaben fur Schachspieler.
Adolf Anderssen
White mates in three moves
The next puzzle is well-known masterpiece, in which white eliminates all threats of stalemates.
Adolf Anderssen
White mates in four moves
Solutions will appear next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment