Sunday 13 December 2009

Not quite straight away

Back in early 1983 I was a spectator at the Australian Open being held in Sydney. On one of the evenings after the days play was finished there was a lecture given by various members of the 1982 Olympiad team. I was only 16 years old at the time, but as I was just getting into chess I sat through the whole lecture, willing to brave the dangers of late night Sydney public transport to get home. (I actually shared the bus ride to Central Station with Stephen Solomon, but at the time I had no idea who he was and assumed he was just some random, but large, chessplayer).
One of the games shown in the lecture Ian Roger's win over Alon Greenfeld. At the time Ian was experimenting with 1.c3 (the Saragossa Opening) and as the lecturer was quite proud of his win. One of the key points came on move 7, where after a number of preparatory moves, Ian triumphantly declared "Now I can play e4". At this point his co-lecturer, Darryl Johansen, pointed out that if it was so important, then surely move 1 would have been the time to do so.

Rogers,Ian (2365) - Greenfeld,Alon (2385) [A00]
Luzern ol (Men) Luzern (6), 1982

1.c3 Nf6 2.Nf3 b6 3.Qc2 Bb7 4.d3 g6 5.Bg5 Bg7 6.Nbd2 0-0 (D)
7.e4 c5 8.Be2 Nc6 9.0-0 d5 10.Rfe1 Qd7 11.Bf1 e5 12.a4 h6 13.Bh4 Rae8 14.Rad1 d4 15.Nc4 Nh5 16.Qb3 Ba6 17.Bg3 Kh7 18.Qa3 Nxg3 19.hxg3 f5 20.exf5 gxf5 21.cxd4 Bxc4 22.dxc4 cxd4 23.g4 a5 24.Nh4 Nb4 25.Nxf5 e4 26.Qh3 d3 27.b3 Rf6 28.Nxg7 Kxg7 29.g5 Rfe6 30.gxh6+ Kh8 31.Rxe4 1-0

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