Thursday, February 09, 2006

Stoyko - Weeramantry, NJ International 1987


diagram

Stoyko - Weeramantry
White to play and win after 24...Nxg7.

Among the cool things that I found in the recently renovated Kenilworth Chess Club closet was a stack of the old Atlantic Chess News. The ACN was a high-quality state publication back in the 1980s under the editorship of Glenn Petersen. And to judge from the New Jersey chess news it reported (in issues that sometimes ran to 24 pages or more), there was a lot of high quality chess being played in those "good old days." In the mid-eighties, in fact, there were even several international tournaments held here so that local players could qualify for FM and IM norms. Such events used to be more common throughout the U.S., and it is good to see them being revived to some extent in Chicago.

The game Stoyko - Weeramantry, New Jersey International 1987 was one of the more interesting games played in the 1987 tournament and featured our club champion at his best. It also featured Stoyko's favorite Botvinnik Attack in the English, with which he had great success during this period. In the diagram above it is Stoyko to play and finish things quickly. It's surprising how little Black can do to save himself despite being up a full four pawns! The solution can be found in the game, which is also available to download in PGN format.

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