Dutch Treat
by Hans Ree

FROM THE RUINS

The German booklet "Schach blht aus den Ruinen" (Chess
Flowers from the Ruins) has an index only for names, not for
general subjects. In a general index the entries smoking and
tobacco would have figured prominently."Without cigarettes
nothing works" is the title of one of the chapters, which describes
how the participants in the German championship of 1947 lighted
their last cigarette in a critical position, only to extinguish it when
they had found the right move, to save an all-important butt for the
zeitnot period.

Friedrich Smisch had been imprisoned for a while during the Nazi
years because he could not keep his mouth shut. When asked about
this time of imprisonment he used to reply: "There was nothing to
smoke." At a tournament in Celle in 1948 the city counselors had
promised food-parcels and cigarettes to the participants, to
encourage them to fight hard. The local population protested and
so the chessplayers' rations were reduced to two cigarettes per day.
Smisch, walking along the boards to watch the games of his
rivals, saw two cigarettes on the table of a notorious non-smoker
and pinched them. The victim complained to the arbiter Alfred
Brinckmann, who said: "Smisch? You can't do anything against
him, he falls under monument preservation!"

When the Germans were allowed to travel again and could
participate in the Dubrovnik olympiad of 1950, they were
pleasantly surprised that the Yugoslavs had seen to it that all
playing tables were abundantly stocked with cigarettes. It is a pity
that Smisch couldn't profit from it; he was not strong enough
anymore to play in an olympiad and almost in the final phase of his
career, in which he lost all his games by exceeding the time limit.

"Schach blht aus den Ruinen," the book from which I have
learned all this, is a collection of articles, brought together by the
Dutch journalist Frits Barkhuis, that originally appeared in the
German chess magazine "Caissa," that was edited by Barkhuis
from 1946 till 1955. Barkhuis tells us that during the war he came
to Berlin as a journalist and stayed there after the war because his
marriage with a German woman was at that time not recognized in
the Netherlands. In 1946 he started "Caissa," and that grew through
the years from a simple information sheet to a real chess magazine.
When Barkhuis returned to the Netherlands in 1955, he sold his
magazine to the "Deutsche Schachzeitung."

The things that current readers would like to know are often
different from those that must have been interesting to the
subscribers of yore. About the tales of food scarcity one is inclined
to think: 'ah well, in due time they got fat anyway' but at the time
they were not able to indulge in such sunny dreams. To the reader
of 1948 the point of the anecdote about Smisch and Brinckmann
that I told earlier is probably eccentric Smisch's tobacco-mania.
But there is a different point to be made: the peaceful co-existence
of political criminals with their victims in post-war Germany.

Brinkmann had been a Nazi and had held important functions in
the Nazi chess federation. Smisch had been in prison.
Brinkmann's jolly remark in 1948 about Smisch enjoying the
protection of monument preservation has, on second thought, an
unpleasant ring. How did the Nazis and the others get on in the
German chess federation after the war? From these articles one
gets the impression that all was well and forgetful reconciliation
reigned. Both Smisch and Brinckmann were valued contributors
to "Caissa." In 1950 Germany was re-admitted to FIDE. An
important role was played by the Dutch representative Van Steenis,
who made an impassioned anti-fascist speech and then pleaded for
the acceptance of the two Germanys.

In 1951 West Germany played team matches again. First against
Switzerland, then against Yugoslavia and after that against the
Netherlands. It seems that especially the match against the
Netherlands, where anti-German sentiments were supposed to be
stronger than elsewhere, was considered to be a great success for
the emancipation of German chess life. When even the Dutch were
willing to play Germany, the rest of the world could not be far
behind.

After 21 rounds of German championship play, the German
players, with only one rest day in between, went ahead in the
struggle against the Netherlands. The match ended 10-10. On first
board Euwe beat Unzicker 2-0. Unzicker had not participated in
the grueling German championship, but nevertheless in the first
round it appeared as if he took a moment's sleep at the board.

Diagram:
White: Kg1, Qd3, Ra1, Rf1, Na4, Bb2, Be2; pawns - a3, b5, e3, f4,
g2, h2
Black: Kg8, Qd8, Ra8, Rf8, Nf6, Bc5, Bg4; pawns - a5, b7, d5, f7,
g7, h7

White: Euwe Black: Unzicker. Unzicker executed a "petit
combinaison" that failed horribly: 18...Bc5xe3+? 19. Qd3xe3
Rf8-e8 20. Bb2-e5 and black resigned. What is the genesis of
blunders like this? It is not likely that Unzicker would have
thought that Euwe had missed the simple 20. Qg3 Bxe2. Probably
Unzicker had calculated this variation: 20. Bxf6 Qxf6 21. Qxe8+
Rxe8 22. Bxg4 and now with 22...Qd4+ black wins white's knight
on a4. Only because white had this defence, which would fail,
black could miss the simple 20. Be5, which won on the spot.

White: Unzicker Black: Euwe, second round 1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2.
Ng1-f3 Nb8-c6 3. Bf1-b5 a7-a6 4. Bb5-a4 Ng8-f6 5. 0-0 Bf8-e7 6.
Rf1-e1 b7-b5 7. Ba4-b3 d7-d6 8. c2-c3 0-0 9. h2-h3 Nc6-a5 10.
Bb3-c2 c7-c5 11. d2-d4 c5xd4 12. c3xd4 Qd8-c7 13. Nb1-d2
Bc8-b7 14. Nd2-f1 Ra8-c8 15. Bc2-d3 d6-d5 A pawn sacrifice that
was very much en vogue at the time. 16. e4xd5 e5-e4 17. Bd3xe4
Nf6xe4 18. Re1xe4 Bb7xd5 19. Re4-e1 Qc7-b7 20. Nf1-e3 Bd5xf3
21.Qd1xf3 Qb7xf3 22. g2xf3 Na5-c6 23. Ne3-d5 Be7-h4 24.
Re1-e4 Rc8-d8 25. Nd5-c7 Nc6xd4 

(See Diagram) 26. Kg1-g2? Euwe indicated that 26. Be3 Nc2 27.
Rb1 Nxe3 28. fxe3 Bf6 29. Nxa6 Td2 would have led to a position
with chances for both sides. 26...Bh4-f6 27. Bc1-f4 Nd4-e6 28.
Nc7xe6 f7xe6 29.Bf4-e5 Rd8-d2 30. Be5xf6 Rf8xf6 31. b2-b4
Rd2-d3 32. Ra1-c1 This gets the approval of Euwe, who
apparently considered passive defence with 32. Re3 insufficient.
32...Rd3xf3 33. Rc1-c8+ Kg8-f7 34. Rc8-c7+Kf7-f8 35. Re4-e2
h7-h6 36. Re2-d2 Kf8-g8 37. Rd2-d8+ Kg8-h7 38.Rd8-d7 Rf3xf2+
39. Kg2-g3 Rf6-f3+ 40. Kg3-g4 h6-h5+ 41. Kg4xh5 Rf2-g2 White
resigned.

This column first appeared in the Dutch newspaper NRC-Handelsblad 
March 3, 1997. Copyright 1997 Hans Ree, All Rights Reserved. 