[BrianWall-ChessList] Spassky-Lombardy 1960 Leningrad, Russia

[Brian Wall]

If you make a mistake, fix it.

Grandmaster William Lombardy graced me with an email and there were mistakes in
my reply. Lombardy is no longer a priest. I thought I read that Lombardy had
beaten Spassky in 1955, the year of my birth, to win the World Junior Title. My
database says Spassky won the World Junior in 1955, Lombardy in 1957. I thought
I read that Lombardy beat Spassky when he won the World Junior, I thought it
was a complicated Najdorf. That may be, I don't know, but I do see a later game
from the 7th World Championship Under 26 Team tournament, Leningrad, Russia
1960. There is a mistake in this game which I announce and correct here,
although a very easy one to spot.

Let us look at this game, using modern tools.


William James Lombardy (born December 4, 1937) is an American Grandmaster of
chess.

In 1957, he became the first American to win the World Junior Chess
Championship. He represented his country in several Chess Olympiads and served
as the official "second" to Robert James Fischer during his World Championship
match in 1972 against Boris Spassky. A former Catholic priest, Lombardy is now
retired and lives in New York City.



[Event "WchT U26 07th"]
[Site "Leningrad"]
[Date "1960.??.??"]
[Round "13"]
[White "Spassky,Boris V"]
[Black "Lombardy,William James"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Eco "B94"]

Exclams by Fritz, please don't yell at me for including them. I use it as a
guideline both for judging the computer and the players.

White - Boris Spassky, 1955 World Junior Champion and future World Champion.

Black - William Lombardy, 1957 World Junior Champion and future second to Bobby
Fischer in the first famous Fischer-Spassky match.

I always wondered whether Fischer and Spassky chose their seconds for
pscyhological reason because Geller had a plus score against Fischer and
Lombardy had a plus score against Spassky. In the Ponomariev-Ivanchuk match,
the opening ceremony was a shock for Ivanchuk because Ponomariev revealed that
Topalov was his second. Topalov does well against Ivanchuk.

Geller is stupid - Fischer, supposedly said during the World Championship match
1972.


1.e4! c5 2.Nf3! d6 3.d4!  cxd4! 4.Nxd4!  Nf6! 5.Nc3! a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7! 7.Bc4 Qa5!
8.Qd2!

Clearly best.


8 ... e6!  9.0-0!

The Russian does have many juicy options at this point, including 9 0-0-0. I
believe Tal said that castling Kingside for White in the ... Nbd7, ... Qa5
Najdorf was one of his favorite opening positions in those days.


9 ... Be7


One thing I noticed when I played the Sicilian a lot is that if you free your
game too fast, it drizzles into a dead equality but if you let White misplace
his pieces first and then break out, you win.

9 ... b5!  10 Bd3! b4!  11 Nce2! d5! is the thematic Najdorf counterplay but
Spassky would still be better. The basic winning Najdorf plan for Black is
catch up in development and then utilize your extra center pawn. The White
strategy is to do something daring and dynamic before you go down the drain
positionally. Boris Spassky never gets the chance to show his brilliant
attacking prowess this game.

Black Sicilian Najdorf game plan - bring your pieces out to preprogrammed
locations and then look around and see how poorly White has utilized his many
development options.


10.a3?

45 years after mountains of Najdorf theory, the Russian's play seems to be
interesting but incorrect. The idea is to create a nest for the c4-bishop as
well as slowing down the American freight train, ... b7-b5-b4.

Analysis by Fritz 8 :

1. ² (0.44): 10.Rfe1
2. ² (0.41): 10.Be2
3. ² (0.38): 10.Rfd1
4. ² (0.38): 10.Rad1
5. ² (0.34): 10.Rae1


10 ...  h6

Supposedly Fischer is reported to have been pondering whether ... h6 is correct
or not in some position for thirty years. Could this be it?

Fritz 8 thinks Black should bail out with
10 ... N:e4  11 N:e4  Q:d2  12 B:d2  d5  13 B:d5  ed  14 Nc3
with the clearly better endgame for White but the future
priest has more faith in Black's position than that.


11.Be3!

I feel certain these young geniuses with such bright futures both examined
11 Nd5!?  Q:d2  12 Nc7+  Kf8  13 B:d2  Rb8  14 Nd:e6+  fe  15  N:e6+ and found
it wanting for White.


11 ... Ne5!

11 ... Qc7! is about the same, giving Black
an option of ... Nc5 as well as ... Ne5.


12.Ba2?

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little
statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
US essayist & poet (1803 - 1882)

12 Ba2 suggests itself because it seems to utilize the a3-pawn move and set up
peekaboo Kingside action later. The problem is that it gets stuck out of play
soon. 12 Be2!! may not be creative or glamorous, but it keeps the advantage on
this side of the net.


12 ...  Qc7

A very young William Lombardy passes on  ... Neg4!! twice but he plays it to
good effect two moves later.



13.Qe2?

An artificial time-wasting idea, copied uncritically later by Lutikov and
Jimenez. Humans replay published games to spare themselves time and thinking
pain, but computers cheerfully whirr away. I have seen this in hundreds of
openings by thousands of players, humans always choosing the move already
played rather than thinking to find the right move.

Perhaps Spassky had read Tarrasch's dictum that, " I simply cannot play without
my light-squared bishop. "


13 ...  b5

A year later,  Lutikov-Polugaevsky Moscow, 1961 continued 13 ... Bd7. Fritz says
the earlier Lombardy move is better than the later Polugaevsky move. A year
after that, in 1962, Najdorf lover Polugaevsky refined the position even
further with 13 ... Neg4!!  against Eleazar Zerquera Jimenez in Havanna. After
the Jimenez game, mankind gave up on 13 Qe2? forever.


Analysis by Fritz 8 :

1. = (0.12): 13...Neg4
2. = (0.12): 13...b5 14.f4 Neg4 15.Rad1 Nxe3 16.Qxe3 0-0 17.f5 e5 18.Nf3
3. = (0.16): 13...Rb8
4. = (0.22): 13...b6
5. ² (0.28): 13...Bd7
6. ² (0.31): 13...0-0 14.Rad1 Neg4 15.Bc1 d5 16.f4 dxe4 17.h3 e5 18.fxe5





14.f4

I am trying to pinpoint Boris Spassky's error. Fritz finds nothing wrong with
White's game at this point, just the normal White micro-advantage after  14 f4
or 14 Rad1! Things go south for the Russian quickly so I am paying special
attention to this part of the game.


14 ... Neg4! 15.h3

This seems to be a turning point. The positions before this move favor Spassky,
the positions after this move favor Lombardy. 15 Rad1 would keep a micro-edge
for Boris.

15 ... Nxe3!  16.Qxe3!  0-0! 17.Rae1

Looks logical, helping to guard the e4-pawn and promoting the e5-push. Fritz
likes 17 Rad1 a hair better with close to equality after 17 ... Rb8!!, ... e5!
or ... Bd7.  17 Rae1 and 17 Rad1 look very similar but the choice might be the
subtle difference between a draw and a loss for Boris. The point is that after
17 ... e5!!, Spassky's rook is not doing much on e1 but might hold the fort on
d1.

Spassky's loss can be attributed to his unwillingness to play Rad1 on
moves 10, 14,15 or 17. Lombardy's victory may be attributed to hundreds of blitz
games with Bobby Fischer on both sides of the Najdorf. I am speculating here but
in any case, the American shows he knows what to do in Bobby's favorite opening.



17 ... e5!!


Like e4! for White in the Colle, Lombardy's ... e5! is stronger because of the
delay. The rest is misery for the future World Champion Spassky.

Positionally, 17 ... e5  freezes Spassky's rooks from gaining more activity by
preventing Boris from playing e5 himself. At the same time, 17 ... e5!! opens
up dark squared vistas for Lombardy's ... Be7. Boris has no dark-squared bishop
any more, his light-squared bishop is playing reindeer games on a2, his rooks
look like chained and trained Doberman Pinschers waiting to be uncollared and
Bill's position is flowering, which is the whole point of playing
the Najdorf.


18.Nf5!

A funny moment because Fritz says  18 Nb3!!, insulting Spassky's  a2-bishop may
work out better but what Chessplayer on earth could make such a move?  The idea
of the absurd looking 18 Nb3 is to prevent ... d5 and ... Bc5 at all costs,
which would be the refutation of  18 Nf3 or 18 Nde2.

Of course even after the tactically sound and positionally obscene 18 Nb3!!
Bobby's friend would have a dream Sicilian after 18 ... Be6, ... Bb7, ... Re8,
... Rb8  or  ... Bd7.

Boris decided that Bondarevsky's lecture would be too harsh after 18 Nb3!?!,
there wouldn't be much to discuss after  18 Nf3 d5!  or  18 Nde2 d5!  so he
takes his chances with  18 Nf5!  but then he is faced with more unhappy
choices.


18 ... Bxf5! 19.exf5! d5!

An easy move to make because of the threat of 20 ... Bc5, pinning Spassky's
Queen to his King. Boris has to choose between annoying inferior continuations.

1 - 20 Kh2  d4  21 Q:e5  Q:e5  22 R:e5 B:a3
2 - 20 Qd2  ef  21 N:d5  N:d5  22 B:d5  Rad8
3 - 20 Kh1  d4  22 Q:e5 Q:e5  23 fe  dc  24 ef B:f6  25 bc  B:c3
4 - 20 Q:e5

Boris has no clear path to equality. Due to Black's superior pawn formation in
the Sicilian, Tal once said, " If the position is equal, Black is better. "
Almost everyone who plays the White side of the Open Sicilian knows how easy it
is to do nothing very wrong but drift smoothly and silently into a bad game,
without any shots being fired. Under pressure both from the position and
possibly the clock as well, Boris goes from a somewhat inferior game to a
completely lost game in 3 moves.


20.Qxe5 Bd6!  ( only good move )

21.Qe2!   ( only good move )  Bxa3!!

A simple winning shot, 21 ... b4!  or  21 ... Rac8! would keep a normal Black
Sicilian advantage for the young American.

It's a bad sign if you are White in a Sicilian and your Kingside play is nowhere
while Black's Queenside attack is in full swing.



22.Nd1?

This moves the game from probably lost to definitely lost. 22 N:d5! is the best
chance. 22 N:d5  Qc5+  23 Q:f2  Q:f2+  and 24 ... Bb2 is a bad ending for the
young Boris Spassky but things get even worse now. I wonder if Lombardy
remembers today if there was time pressure back then, 45 years ago.

22 ... Rae8

A good move, keeping the win, but missing a strong shot, 22 ... Bc5+!!  23 Kh2
Qa5!!  threatening  24 ... Q:a2 as well as  24 ... Rae8. The point is that on
a5 Lombardy's queen would be pressuring the squares a2 and e1 simultaneously
with no good defense for Boris. Notice also that with a bishop on c5 and a
Queen on a5, Boris cannot defend his a1-rook after ... Rae8, because Qd2 or Qf2
drop his queen.

Fritz doth makes fools of us all - Brian Wall.

There may be some time pressure here because Boris misses the same theme on his
next move but by now, the future priest has picked up on it. The best try is 23
Qd2 which looks bad walking into  23 ... Ne4 shots, but it does keep the 1957
Junior World Champion's queen out of a5. Lombardy would have many good lines to
choose from even after the best move from Spassky.

1 23 Qd2  R:e1  24 R:e1  Bc5+  25 Kh2  Rd8
2 23 Qd2  Bc5+  24 Kh2   Re4
3 23 Qd2  Bd6

All lines much better for the American.


23.Qf3? Bc5+!!

Bill may have noticed how strong this would have been one move ago and now he
makes amends.

24.Kh1!  Rxe1!! 25.Rxe1!  Qa5!!

Yup, there it is, a double attack on a2 and e1 with no defense.

26.Nc3!

The alternative is 26 b4!, just tossing a pawn away with a bad game anyway.
26 b4  B:b4  27 c3  Q:a2  28 cb  Qd2  or
26 b4  B:b4  27 c3  B:c3  28 N:c3  d4  are miserable for the Russian.

Maybe Bobby picked Bill in 1972 so that Spassky's dreams would be filled with
these choices.


26 ... b4!

This move is erroneously given as 26 ... Bb4 in all the world databases. It
makes the end of the game look silly.

[26...Bb4?  27.Nxd5? Qxa2? 28.Nxf6+! gxf6! 29.Qc6??   Qc4? 0-1]

27.Nxd5! Qxa2! 28.Nxf6+!  gxf6! 29.Qc6!

The best move but it's been over for a while now. Future Grandmaster William
James Lombardy can play 29 ... Bd4, ... Qc4, ... Bf2 or ... Qa5, staying a
piece ahead.



29 ... Qc4 0-1

Spassky resigns. A very solid performance by Lombardy.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spassky,B - Lombardy,W
WchT U26 07th Leningrad (13), 1960

 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Bc4 Qa5 8.Qd2 e6
9.0-0 Be7 10.a3 h6 11.Be3 Ne5 12.Ba2 Qc7 13.Qe2 b5 14.f4 Neg4 15.h3 Nxe3
16.Qxe3 0-0 17.Rae1 e5 18.Nf5 Bxf5 19.exf5 d5 20.Qxe5 Bd6 21.Qe2 Bxa3 22.Nd1
Rae8 23.Qf3 Bc5+ 24.Kh1 Rxe1 25.Rxe1 Qa5 26.Nc3 b4 [26...Bb4 27.Nxd5 Qxa2
28.Nxf6+ gxf6 29.Qc6 Qc4] 27.Nxd5 Qxa2 28.Nxf6+ gxf6 29.Qc6 Qc4 0-1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Event "URS-ch28"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "1961.??.??"]
[Round "0"]
[White "Lutikov,Anatoly S"]
[Black "Polugaevsky,Lev"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Eco "B94"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Bc4 Qa5 8.Qd2 e6
9.0-0 Be7 10.a3 h6 11.Be3 Ne5 12.Ba2 Qc7 13.Qe2 Bd7 14.f4 Neg4 15.Kh1 Nxe3
16.Qxe3 0-0 17.Rae1 Rac8 18.e5 dxe5 19.fxe5 Nh7 20.Nce2 Qb6 21.b4 Bb5 22.c3 Bh4
23.Nf4 Bxf1 24.Rxf1 Bg5 25.Bb1 Bxf4 26.Rxf4 Qc7 27.Rf3 Rfd8 28.h4 Rd5 29.Qe4
Nf8 30.Re3 Qc4 31.Kh2 Ng6 32.Rg3 Qc7 33.Nf3 Rd1 34.Ba2 Qb6 35.h5 Ne7 36.c4 Qf2
37.Bb1 Qf1 38.Kh3 Qh1+ 39.Nh2 Nf5 40.Rg4 Rcd8 41.Rf4 Qe1 42.Rxf5 Qxe4 43.Bxe4
exf5 44.Bxb7 R8d3+ 45.Nf3 Rxa3 46.c5 Rc1 47.c6 Rb3 48.Bxa6 Rxc6
0-1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Event "Capablanca mem"]
[Site "Havana"]
[Date "1962.??.??"]
[Round "16"]
[White "Jimenez Zerquera,Eleazar"]
[Black "Polugaevsky,Lev"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Eco "B94"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Bc4 Qa5 8.Qd2 e6
9.0-0 Be7 10.a3 h6 11.Be3 Ne5 12.Ba2 Qc7 13.Qe2 Neg4 14.h3 Nxe3 15.Qxe3 0-0
16.Kh1 b5 17.Rad1 Bb7 18.Qe2 Rac8 19.f4 Qb6 20.Nxe6 Rxc3 21.bxc3 fxe6 22.Bxe6+
Kh8 23.Bf5 Qc6 24.Rd3 Bd8 25.Re1 Bc7 26.Qf3 Qc5 27.Qg3 Bc6 28.Rde3 Be8 29.Qh4
Bb6 30.Rd3 Bc6 31.e5 Nd5 32.Be4 Nxf4 33.Rf3 dxe5 34.Bxc6 Qxc6 35.Rxe5 Ng6
36.Rxf8+ Nxf8 37.Qe1 Qd6 38.Rf5 Kg8 39.g4 Ng6 40.Qe2 Kh7 41.Rf3 Qxa3 42.c4 Qc5
43.Rf1 Qc6+ 44.Qf3 Qxc4 45.Qf5 Qc6+ 0-1
-----------------------------------------------------------------

The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 event (players must have been
under 20 years old on the 1st of January in the year of competition).

Four winners, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Viswanathan
Anand, have gone on to win the FIDE World Chess Championship.

1957 Lombardy, William (USA)
1955 Spassky, Boris (USSR)

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Mistake
Zen Master Seung Sahn

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kyong Bong Sunim was a very famous Zen Master who lived at Tong Do Sa temple in
Korea. Because of his fame many students would come to visit him. He was
renowned for asking three kong-an questions. Whenever anyone visited him he
would take their hand, hold it palm up and slap it. Then he would say, "Catch
this sound and bring it to me." At that time what can you do? Next: At other
times when people visited he would ask them where they came from. When they
replied he would ask them, "How many steps did you take to get here?" And
lastly he would ask, "Everybody has two eyes, two nostrils, one mouth, and two
ears. Everybody-two, two, two-but only one mouth. That's a mistake. Whose
mistake was it? Your mistake, Buddha's mistake, God's mistake... whose mistake?
That's the third question. These questions are very important. So those are his
famous kong-ans. If you correctly understand these three questions, then your
practice is no problem.

Whole World is a Single Flower, Case 233:

Zen Master Kyong Bong, sitting before an assembly, hit his Zen stick on the
rostrum and said, "All Buddhas and all eminent teachers made a big mistake,
because opening one's mouth is already a mistake. So how do you correct all the
Buddhas and eminent teachers? If you make their mistake correct, this stick will
hit you thirty times. If you do not make their mistake correct, this stick will
also hit you thirty times. What can you do?"

After holding the stick a moment in silence, he said:

The geese with no shadows
Fly in cold moonlight
Stone lion running east,
North star moving west.

After another moment of silence he shouted, "KATZ!" then commented, "And this is
also a big mistake."

That's a very famous speech. All the Buddhas, eminent teachers have made a big
mistake. Our Zen school has a famous poem which comes down to us from Sosan
Taesa:

Before the ancient Buddha appeared
One thing was already perfectly clear
Shakyamuni Buddha never understood it
How could he transmit it to Mahakashyapa?

That means that Shakyamuni Buddha and all eminent teachers made a big mistake
because they opened their mouths. If you open your mouth it's a big mistake.
Our true self is complete, it's silent and before thinking. So all Buddhas and
eminent teachers made a mistake. How can you correct the Buddhas' and eminent
teachers' mistake?

Our practicing means: fix the mistake. Why did you come into this world? Why
were you born? Being born is already a big mistake. People don't understand why
they came here. How do you make this big mistake correct? If you make it
correct, then you can open your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind. Then you
can see the truth, then you will understand your job. But most people don't
understand themselves. They only understand thinking; they only understand I...
I... I... but what is "I"? Mistake! Mistake is no problem. How do you make it
correct, that's very important.

The geese with no shadows
No shadow, this no shadow is a point. OK? No shadow. Why no shadow?
Fly in cold moonlight
That's almost midnight.
Stone lion running east,
How does the stone lion walk around?
North star moving west.

This is a 270 degree style poem. 270 degrees means 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180
degrees, 270 degrees. 270 degrees is the realm of magic. Magic means "universal
energy." Universal energy means that you can do anything. Universal energy is
like electric energy. Water comes down from a high dam and generates electric
energy. This energy can be used for many things; it is a kind of nothingness.
Sometimes it makes light, sometime it runs an electric train, sometimes it
makes a fan go around or runs a microphone, television or telephone. It has
many functions. So energy has no name or form. If some situation or condition
appears, it can do anything. So energy means, universal energy. Electric energy
is also from universal energy. Where does this universal energy come from?
Universal energy comes from you! You have a lot of energy. If you cannot find
your true universal energy, then you cannot use your energy. You must find your
original energy, that's the universal energy. But if you don't find your
universal energy, you won't understand. So a long time ago Buddha said, "The
whole universe covers my body, but my mind covers the whole universe." So our
minds are very big. Also, this universe is our mind, OK? So our mind means
universal energy. So your mind can do anything. But if you have I, my, me mind,
then you must attain "no mind." If you attain no mind, then you can do anything.
Everything at that point is complete freedom. Complete freedom means that there
is no life or death. So our practicing means, don't make anything, then you get
everything. That's the point, OK?

1. Where is all Buddhas' and eminent teachers' mistake?

So where's Buddha's mistake? That means, where is your mistake.

2. What does the Zen Master's poem mean?

We already talked about that.

3. At the end he said, this is also a big mistake. What does this mean?

Zen Master Kyong Bong said something, so that's also my mistake. If you take
away this world, that's also my big mistake. Then everything is the same, all
dharmas are alike; that's Zen style.

COMMENTARY: This stick has already hit Zen Master Kyong Bong thirty times. Aigo,
aigo, aigo!

The commentary already appears in this "hit". Aigo, aigo, aigo means that
already aigo is not aigo. "Aigo" is already teaching us, teaching us our
direction and our job. So if you attain aigo, you attain pain. If somebody hits
me, then, if I'm Korean, I say, "Aigo, aigo". That is our direction, that is our
job. So, everybody already understands our direction and job: save all beings
from suffering. Thank you.

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