Chess News

Malcolm Pein on…Remembering Kavalek

Malcolm Pein

February 17, 2021

Malcolm Pein pays tribute to Grandmaster Lubomir Kavalek in today’s Daily Telegraph chess column.

In remembering Kavalek, Malcolm examines a famous game with a curious balance of material, with Black’s pawns lasting almost the entire game without any of them being captured.

Malcolm Pein on…Remembering Kavalek

Sad news from the USA where it was announced that GM Lubomir Kavalek passed away three weeks ago after a short illness at his home in Reston, Virginia, at the age of 77. Kavalek was a highly influential figure who assisted Bobby Fischer during his match against Spassky in 1972 and helped mastermind Nigel Short’s rise to become the next western world title challenger.

Kavalek was born in Prague in 1943, and at the age of 19 became the youngest player ever to win the Czech Championship. He decided to flee the Soviet invasion of 1968 and settled in the USA. As the tanks rolled in, Kavalek used some recent tournament winnings to purchase beer and vodka, which he loaded into his Skoda and used to bribe the border guards.

Kavalek played his signature game when he was only 18.

E. Gufeld – L. Kavalek
Ninth World Student Teams, Marianske Lazne, 1962
Ruy Lopez

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.c3 f5 5.d4 fxe4 6.Ng5 Bb6 7.d5 e3! (7…Nce7?? 8.Ne6) 8.Ne4 Qh4 9.Qf3 Nf6 10.Nxf6+ gxf6 11.dxc6 exf2+ 12.Kd1?! (12.Kf1 dxc6 13.Be2 Rg8 14.Qh5+) 12…dxc6 13.Be2 Be6 14.Qh5+ Qxh5 15.Bxh5+ Ke7 16.b3 Bd5 17.Ba3+ Ke6 18.Bg4+ f5 19.Bh3 Rhg8 20.Nd2 Bxg2 21.Bxg2 Rxg2 22.Rf1 Rd8 23.Ke2

23…Rxd2+!! (The pawns will romp home unimpeded) 24.Kxd2 e4 25.Bf8 f4 26.b4 (Trying to block the huge bishop on b6)

26…Rg5!! 27.Bc5 Rxc5! 28.bxc5 Bxc5 29.Rab1 f3 30.Rb4 (30.Rxb7 e3+ 31.Kd3 e2 32.Rbb1 Kf5 33.Rh1 is today’s puzzle) 30…Kf5 31.Rd4 Bxd4 32.cxd4 Kf4 33.Rxf2 e3+ 34.Ke1 exf2+ 35.Kxf2 0–1

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Black to play and win.
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33…Be7! 34.Rhf1 Bh4.

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Malcolm Pein

Malcolm Pein is a British International Master, chess organizer, author and journalist. He was a child prodigy and a former British Junior Champion. He qualified for the International Master title in 1985. Malcolm is a distinguished writer, journalist and editor. He has been a chess correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for over 30 years, has written numerous chess books and is the Executive Editor of CHESS Magazine. In 1992, he founded the London Chess Centre, a games store in central London and the UK's only chess shop. He is also the founder and CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, a UK charity whose aim is to introduce chess to state schools and has taught the game to over 250,000 children since its inception in 2009. Malcolm is also well-known for his chess event management. He was responsible for the pre-planning of the World Chess Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in London 2000. In 2002 he was appointed as Technical Director of the 'Brains in Bahrain' match between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Fritz. In 2009, Malcolm devised and organized the 1st London Chess Classic - the UK's first world-class elite all-play-all tournament since the 1980s which ran annually until 2019. Malcolm is also very active with the English Chess Federation. In 2016, he was appointed as the Manager and Captain of the England national team. He was also appointed as English Chess Federation delegate to the European Chess Union and FIDE and is the Director of International Chess. In 2018, he also stood for the post of Deputy President of FIDE. In 2021, Malcolm joined the ranks of Chessable authors by bringing the highlights of his column in the Daily Telegraph in the form of an interactive Chessable course, titled Telegraph Tuesday. Profile photograph © Lennart Ootes