Due to their proximity and relative isolation from other major chess centres, there has always been a (generally!) friendly rivalry between players from British Columbia and the state of Washington. For many years this rivalry had an official outlet in the annual B.C. vs. Washington match; the following picture is a memento of one such match, played in the Legion Hall at Whiterock on July 16th, 1961.
Seated closest to the camera is B.C.'s board one, Dr. Elod Macskasy, who eventually went on to win the B.C. championship six times; considering his move next to Macskasy is the 15 year-old future grandmaster Duncan Suttles. Looking over Macskasy's shoulder is Gerhard Neufahrt, while the standing figure on the extreme left is Jack Taylor. All the other figures are at the moment unidentified - if you recognize any of these individuals, please let us know!
On this occasion Macskasy was playing one of the major chess personalities of the Pacific Northwest, "Onkel Vik" Pupols. Coincidentally, their game was published in Canadian Chess Chat, so we are able to reproduce it here, complete with the original annotations:
Viktors Pupols - Elod Macskasy
{Canadian Chess Chat, August 1961, 183-184}
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 g6 4. Nc3 d6 5. Bg5 Bg7 6. e4 a6 7. Bd3 Nbd7 8. f4 {8. Nf3 or 8. Nge2 came strongly into consideration.} 8...h6 9. Bh4 Nh5 10. Nge2 g5! {A pawn sacrifice which gives Black a superior position; in view of this move White's strategy seems to be unsatisfactory. 10. Qd2 g5 would have led to a similar position as happened in a game of J. Patty - Macskasy match, 1959, in Vancouver.} 11. fxg5 hxg5 12. Bxg5 Ne5 13. Kd2 {Despite the open King-rook and King-knight files, 13. 0-0 would have been better.} 13...Rg8 {The threat is 14. ...Nxd3 followed by Bxc3.} 14. Be3
[ The board position in the photograph ]
14...b5! {Black opens an attack against White's king without delay.} 15. Nc1 Bg4 16. Qf1 b4 {A difficult decision because 16...bxc4 followed by Rb8 was also promising.} 17. N3e2 Qa5 18. Kc2 Qa4+ 19. b3 Qa3 20. Rb1 O-O-O! {Black has time for castling because it is difficult to find a constructive move for White.} 21. Qf2 f5! {White's position has scarcely become consolidated on the Queen-side and now Black opens the b1-h7 diagonal which eventually leads to White's collapse.} 22. Ng3 Nxd3 23. Kxd3 Nxg3 24. Qxg3 fxe4+ 25. Kc2 Bd4 26. Qe1 Rdf8 27. Bxd4 cxd4 28. Rb2 e3 29. Kb1 Bf5+ 30. Ka1 Be4 31. Rg1 Rf4 32. Rf1 Rgf8 33. Rxf4 Rxf4 34. g3 Rf2 35. Re2 d3 0-1 {Divinsky}
For the record, here are the board-by-board results in the 'A' division:
| B.C. | 16½ | 13½ | Washington | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elod Macskasy | 1 | 0 | Viktor Pupols |
| 2 | Duncan Suttles | 0 | 1 | James McCormick |
| 3 | Gerhard Neufahrt | 1 | 0 | W. Brandel |
| 4 | Jack Taylor | ½ | ½ | C. Joachim |
| 5 | John G. Prentice | 0 | 1 | D. Kendall |
| 6 | David Hladek | 1 | 0 | D. Eilmes |
| 7 | Alfred Schulz | 1 | 0 | Max Mage |
| 8 | Colin D. Aykroyd | 1 | 0 | E. Knapp |
| 9 | Fred Wuntschek | 0 | 1 | D. Chin |
| 10 | David M. Shiu | 0 | 1 | D. Greenwood |
| 11 | Gustav Ackermann | 1 | 0 | M. Miller |
| 12 | Frank Atnikov | 1 | 0 | Mrs. D. Eilmes |
| 13 | Leonard A. Rooza | 1 | 0 | H. Raymond |
| 14 | Alexander Mushey | 1 | 0 | R. Miller |
| 15 | T. Stewart | 1 | 0 | J. Pattie |
| 16 | A. Engleman | ½ | ½ | C. Lecompte |
| 17 | H. Enns | 1 | 0 | N. Abrahamov |
| 18 | C. Littlewood | 1 | 0 | F. Howard |
| 19 | Alfred Schick-Ferber | ½ | ½ | K. Warren |
| 20 | A. Engleman jr. | 0 | 1 | J. Reh |
| 21 | Geoffrey G. Powis | 0 | 1 | D. Buttler |
| 22 | M. Esau | ½ | ½ | P. Husby |
| 23 | L. Noske | 0 | 1 | T. Davidson |
| 24 | George Bryant | 1 | 0 | J. Benedikt |
| 25 | S. Prokop | ½ | ½ | W. Blackmore |
| 26 | P. Moser | 1 | 0 | R. Brown |
| 27 | John A. McCharles | 0 | 1 | N. Dahlquist |
| 28 | Default | 0 | 1 | |
| 29 | Default | 0 | 1 | |
| 30 | Default | 0 | 1 |
In the `B' division Washington won by default as B.C. could not field enough players.
The preceding is a by-product of an ongoing research project into chess in B.C. being conducted by Stephen Wright. If you have access to early chess magazines or unpublished games scores and/or information about major B.C. tournaments of the past, Stephen would be very happy to hear from you:
Stephen Wright, 5661 Elm Street, Vancouver, B.C., V6N 1A3
604-221-7148 swright2@telus.net
www.chess.bc.ca/snapshot.html 2003-10-11 0:03:10