On 14 May 1937 Grigory Levenfish won the 10th Soviet Championship, defending the title he had won two years earlier at the 9th Soviet Championship in 1935. In 1937 Levenfish also drew a match against Botvinnik and hoped to play in the 1938 AVRO tournament. At that time Levenfish was probably one of the best players in the world, but the Soviet authorities stifled his career. To mark the 86th anniversary of Levenfish's victory that made him a two-time Soviet Champion Eugene Manlapao looks at the tragic life and career of this fascinating player. | Photo source: <a href="https://dgriffinchess.wordpress.com/">Douglas Griffin</a>.
Leinier Dominguez won his round-7 game in the U.S. Championship after only ten moves. The opening debacle prompted Jon Speelman to locate similar examples both in a book by Yakov Neishtadt and in the database of his own games. And he also remembered to give the solution of the proof game from last week!
When dealing with a complex tactic there are usually two outcomes: a leap of intuition leads us to a Eureka epiphany, or we fail miserably, with the engine telling us what the move was, but we remain no closer to knowing how to solve it the next time. Here we analyze a less than obvious solution and how one might reach it through meticulous logic and internal debate.