Tactics Time Chess Newsletter: Cuban Shuffle

Published: Thu, 03/24/16

Newsletter Issue Cuban Shuffle Tactics Time 
Cuban Shuffle

At this moment the whole country is one mighty chessboard" ~ a Cuban paper on the day the representatives of the 52 participating countries arrived on the island for the 1966 Olympiad.


tactics position x
 
 
T
 
 
 
his position comes from the game Filiberto Terrazas - Fidel Castro, Olympiad 1966 in Havana Cuba.
 
   In the position on the right it is White to move
 
   Answer below.
 

   President Obama and his family arrived in Cuba on Sunday, the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited the island nation since 1928.

   The last and only American president to visit Cuba while in office was Calvin Coolidge, who traveled there in January 1928. (Former President Jimmy Carter visited in March 2011.)  

   I remembered reading that Fidel Castro was a chess player, and found this game online, and some interesting tidbits about Cuban chess.

   Cuba was host to the 17th Chess Olympiad, which  took place between October 23 and November 20, 1966, in Havana, Cuba. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17th_Chess_Olympiad

   52 teams participated in this event.  The Soviet team of  Petrosian, Spassky, Tal, Stein, Korchnoi, and Polugaevsky finished first, with the US team of Fischer, Byrne, Benko, Evans, Addison, and Rossolimo finishing second.

   Wikipedia has a section about Cuban Chess Players, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cuban_chess_players
 
   The most famous Cuban chess player of course is José Raúl Capablanca, who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927, and is considered one of the greatest players of all time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Ra%C3%BAl_Capablanca

 
   Here is the complete game:
[Event "Olympiad"]
[Site "Olympiad"]
[Date "1966.??.??"]
[EventDate "1966.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Filiberto Terrazas"]
[Black "Fidel Castro"]
[ECO "C34"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "38"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 Bd6 4. d4 h6 5. e5 Bb4+ 6. c3 Ba5
7. Bxf4 g5 8. Bg3 Qe7 9. Be2 d6 10. exd6 cxd6 11. Qa4+ Nc6
12. d5 Bd8 13. dxc6 b5 14. Qxb5 a6 15. Qa4 g4 16. c7+ Bd7
17. cxd8=Q+ Rxd8 18. Qd4 gxf3 19. Qxh8 Qxe2# 0-1
   You can play through this game here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1076628
 
 
   Answer:

   11.Qa4+ forks the Black King and Bishop on a5.  If 11...Nc6 12. d5 attacking the pinned piece.

   Despite losing this material (and more!) Castro ended up winning the game. 

   Edward Winter has a photo from this game on his website, which you can see here (it is at the very bottom):  http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/sabadell.html
 
 
 
   Happy Tactics!
 
   Your Friend,
  Tim
 

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