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By Larry Parr
Chess Life Editor 1984 - 1988
Author
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WORSE
THAN A CRIME?
(Continued)
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Successful
Retreats
After
the Americans and British got run out of Burma in the early stages of World War
II, there was the usual official folderol about successful retreats a
la the Russians before Napoleon. There
were also outright lies such as one newspaper headline that read, “Invading
Jap Force Crushed By Stilwell.” The
reference is to American Gen. Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, commander of
the China-Burma-India theater. But
when Stilwell emerged from the mountains and jungle of Burma for a press
conference in New Delhi he offered his own game annotations.
“I claim,” he told assembled reporters, “we got a hell of a
beating. We got run out of Burma and it is humiliating as hell.”
Thank heaven that chess is kinder than horror-filled military routs.
Retreats in chess are often good things because opponents overextend
themselves. In Letelier-Fischer
(Leipzig, 1960), Black stood well after 1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 0-0 5. e5
Ne8 (retreat with the purpose of counterattack)
6. f4 d6 7. Be3?! c5.
Retreats are also great ways to snag pieces and pawns that have been
blundered. Even great players can
overlook the backward movement of an opponent’s pieces.
One afternoon back in the 1980s, I was observing a speed match between GM
Yasser Seirawan and Steve Brandwein, who was at the time the strongest unrated
player in the United States. As
White, GM Seirawan played Rd7??, and Brandwein picked off the piece with the
retreat, ... Bh3xd7. For several
moves, the Black Queen Bishop had been hiding on the edge of the board at h3, hemmed in by
White pawns on h2 and g3, and it suddenly swooped backwards and snapped off the
White Rook. An important point here
is that White would probably have noticed Black’s Queen Bishop if it had been at g4
rather than on the very rim of the board amid a cluster of pawns.
In the following position White blunders because he overlooked a retreat
from a distant point:
GM
Samuel Reshevsky -
GM
Vladimir Savon
Petropolis, 1973
1.
Qxg6+???
White actually announced mate after this capture.
And then ...
1. ...
Bxg6
... resigned after this capture - a long retreat from b8 to g6.
The tragedy is that White had a forced mate after 40. Rh8+ Kg5 41. h4+ Kxh4 42.
Rxh5+! gxh5 43. Qxh5.
The moral of this story is to search for defenses involving retreats and
not to be one of those fools who rush in where devils fear to tread.
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