Naming rights: Star chess players live on in memorial events

For some players, great and maybe not-so-great, the name lives on long after they have punched the final chess clock.

Ukrainian star Vassily Ivanchuk last week won the Capablanca Memorial Tournament in Havana, the 51st edition of the annual tournament honoring the great Cuban-born world champion.

Annual memorial tournaments are regularly staged to honor other great players of the past, including champions and near-champions such as Tal, Keres, Gaprindashvili and Najdorf. In just three years, the tournament honoring Azeri GM Vugar Gashimov, who tragically passed away in 2014 from complications of epilepsy, has become one of the strongest on the calendar, with world titleholder Magnus Carlsen winning the first two Gashimov Memorials over elite fields.

Even some lesser players can claim a small piece of immortality with tournaments regularly played in their honor, including such local heroes as Spanish master Josep Lorente, Tatar-born Soviet star Rashid Nezhmetdinov and the Dutch master Daniel Noteboom.

The Vidmar Memorial that wraps up Sunday in Bled, Slovenia, presents a perfect excuse to honor the legacy of the great Slovene master Milan Vidmar, an engineer and amateur player who nevertheless was one of the world’s strongest players in the 1910s and 1920s. Although he took few top tournament prizes (typically finishing second or third), he defeated virtually all of the great players of his era and was so respected in the game that he was recruited to serve as chief referee for the great 1948 world championship tourney.

One event he did win was the Berlin Four Masters, a double round robin held in the final months of World War I. His win over Akiba Rubinstein in the tournament was one of the few times the great Polish grandmaster looked completely outclassed at the chessboard.

Vidmar said later that his opening choice — one of the first appearances of the Budapest Gambit — was a last-minute decision, knowing his opponent’s prowess in conventional 1. d4 defenses. White reacts well as first to the newfangled gambit but errs on 12. Nd4 0-0 13. e3?, when 13. f3! followed by 14. e4 would have solidified White’s center.

Black makes a surprising decision to repair White’s pawn structure, the point being that after 13…Nxd4! 14. cxd4 Ne4 15. Qc2 Qa5+ 16. Ke2, the White king is marooned in the center and vulnerable to another blow: 16…Rxf4! 17. exf4 Bf5 18. Qb2 Re8 19. Kf3 Nd2+ and the king must flee.

There’s no refuge from the Black mating attack — 20. Kg3 Ne4+ 21. Kh4? (losing, but on 21. Kf3, Black has 21…h5! 22. h3 h4, with a powerful attack in lines like 23. Rd1 Ng5+! 24. fxg5 Be4+ 25. Ke3 Qxg5+) Re6 22. Be2 Rh6+ 23. Bh5 Rxh5+ 24. Kxh5 Bg6+, and White resigned as both 25. Kh4 and 25. Kg4 are answered by 25…Qh5 mate.

Today’s diagram sets the scene for Vidmar’s most famous combination and one of the greatest in the history of the game. Against future world champion Max Euwe of the Netherlands, Vidmar as White escapes what seems an unstoppable mate with a string of brilliantly conceived sacrifices. From the diagram, White played 31. Nxd6!! Bxg2+! 32. Kxg2 Rc2+ 33. Kh1 (Kg3 Be5 mate) Qf4 34. Re8+ Bf8, and there seems to defense the coming 35…Qh2 mate.

But Vidmar had seen further, finding the wonderful 35. Rxf8+!! (far more than a spite check) Kxf8 36. Nf5+ Kg8 37. Qf8+!!, and Black had to concede as 37…Kxf8 (Kh7 38. Qg7 mate) 38. Rd8 is mate. An amazing escape!

Rubinstein-Vidmar, Berlin Four Masters, April 1918

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Nc6 5. Nf3 Bb4+ 6. Nc3 Qe7 7. Qd5 Bxc3+ 8. bxc3 Qa3 9. Rc1 f6 10. exf6 Nxf6 11. Qd2 d6 12. Nd4 O-O 13. e3 Nxd4 14. cxd4 Ne4 15. Qc2 Qa5+ 16. Ke2 Rxf4 17. exf4 Bf5 18. Qb2 Re8 19. Kf3 Nd2+ 20. Kg3 Ne4+ 21. Kh4 Re6 22. Be2 Rh6+ 23. Bh5 Rxh5+ 24. Kxh5 Bg6+ White resigns.

• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.