Friday 10 October 2008

Lucius Endzelins

Lucius Endzelins ranks very high on the list of great Australian CC players. After CJS Purdy won the first CC World Championship, Endzelins was the Australian representative in the 2nd World Championship, and finished in equal 2nd, half a point behind Viacheslav Ragozin
He played in 2 more World Championship finals, finishing 7th in both the 3rd and 5th World Championships.
The 5th World Championship Final was won by Hans Berliner and is most notable for the Estrin v Berliner game, which many consider the best game of chess ever played. Interestingly Estrin, who published a number of books on the Two Knights Defence, defended the White side of this opening not only against Berliner, but also Endzelins. Endzelins chose the Traxler to test Estrin, and held an advantage into the middlegame. However Estrin was able to avoid the worst and the game ended in a draw.

Estrin,Y - Endzelins,L [C57]
5th CC World Ch Final 6568 corr ICCF, 1965
[RR]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 Bc5 5.Nxf7 Bxf2+ 6.Kf1 Qe7 7.Nxh8 d5 8.exd5 Nd4 9.h3 Qc5(D)
10.Kxf2 Nxc2+ 11.d4 Qxc4 12.Na3 Nxa3 13.bxa3 Qxd5 14.dxe5 Qc5+ 15.Be3 Ne4+ 16.Kf3 Qf8+ 17.Bf4 g5 18.Qc1 Nc5 19.Nf7 Qxf7 20.Qxc5 Qxf4+ 21.Ke2 Be6 22.Rac1 Rd8 23.Rhd1 Rxd1 24.Kxd1 Qf1+ 25.Kc2 Qxg2+ 26.Kc3 Qxh3+ 27.Kb2 g4 28.Rc2 Qd3 29.Qxc7 Bf5 30.Qb8+ Qd8 31.Qxd8+ Kxd8 32.Rf2 Be4 33.Rf4 Bf3 34.Rf7 h5 35.Kc3 h4 36.Rh7 h3 37.Kd4 g3 38.Rxh3 g2 39.Rg3 Ke7 40.a4 ½-½

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