One of the joys of reading old chess magazines is to enjoy the games from old tournaments as if they were new. One can also find many obscure games that many players may have overlooked, forgot, or have never seen.
An example of this is the 3rd Annual Women’s Tournament in Belgrade, 1967. This account was covered by Dr. Petar Trifunovich in the June 1967 issue of Chess Review.
Unfortunately, his article has a disparaging remark at the end of his otherwise excellent article. Writing about the older chess champions who must eventually yield their championships and glory to younger players, and the usual fluctuations in performance in tournament play, he states, “… : today, a woman player puts up a good game; the next day, she hands out gifts. But that phenomenon is easy to understand: the female is more subject to physiological mutations than the male.”
Today, we would like think that the male has more acceptance of the female than ever before. They have, and for the better of both. Is there more work to be done here? Yes, and quite a bit more.
Now it is time to get off the soapbox and back to the article.
This tournament seems to have vanished from history. I have tried to locate other games from this tournament to add to this week’s blog, but I cannot locate the tournament nor any additional games.
If you, the gentle reader, can find this tournament, or games from this tournament, online, please let me know, or email a link or a PGN or text of the games.
Right now, this blog would be only known place to find these games. Unless you have a copy of the June 1967 issue of Chess Review.
Alexandra Nicolau-Edith Bilek
Women’s Tournament
Belgrade, 1967
[Dr. Petar Trifunovich, “3d Annual Women’s Tournament”, Chess Review, June 1967]
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Bc4 c5 4.dxc5 Qa5+ 5.c3 Qxc5 6.Qb3 (Here White begins collecting tempi.) 5…e6 7.Be3 Qc7 8.Na3! (She wins a tempo at this juncture by virtue of the threat of 9.Nb5.) 5…a6 (The text does prevent 9.Nb5 but permits 9.Bb6, which mortifies Black’s whole Queen flank.) 9.Bb6 Qf4 10.Ne2! (Black may well not have expected this move; but of course, this is a position in which one does not count Pawns!)
10…Qxe4 11.O-O! Nc6 (Black cannot win a piece by 11…d5 because of 12.Rad1 dxc4 13.Rd8+ Ke7 14.Qb4+ winning.) 12.f4! (White is threatening to snare the Queen with 13.Ng3.) 12…d5 13.Ng3 dxc4 14.Nxc4 Qd5 15.Rad1 Nd4 (Black lacks any better choice. 15…Qb5 collapses before 16.Nd6+.) 16.Bxd4 Bxd4+ 17.Rxd4 Qc6 18.Rfd1 Kf8 19.Nb6 Rb8 20.Rc4 Qe8 21.Qb4+ Kg7 22.Qd6 Qb5 23.Rb4 1-0
Asenova-WIM Tanja Belamarić
Women’s Tournament
Belgrade, 1967
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Qb3 Bg7 7.cxd5 O-O 8.g3 Nbd7 9.Bg2 Nb6 10.Bf4 Bf5 11.Rd1 Rc8 12.Nge2 a5 13.a4 Rc4 14.Rc1 Rb4 15.Qa2 Qd7 16.d6 exd6 17.b3 Be6 18.Rb1 Nfd5 19.Nxd5 Bxd5 20.Bxd5 Nxd5 21.Bd2 Re8 22.Bxb4 Nxb4 23.Qd2 Qg4 24.h3 Qe4 25.O-O Qxe2 26.Qxe2 Rxe2 27.Rfe1 Rxe1+ 28.Rxe1 Bxd4 29.Rd1
29…Bc5 30.Kg2 Kg7 31.f4 f5 32.g4 Nc2 33.Kg3 Kf6 34.Rd2 Nd4 35.Rd3 h6 36.Kg2 b6 37.Kg3 Nc6 38.Rd1 Nb4 39.Re1 d5 40.Re8 d4 41.Kf3 Nd3 42.Re2 Nb4 43.Re8 d3 44.Re1 d2 0-1
The Gambit Chess Player 