Saturday, 26 November 2016

The one Castro game?

With the passing of Fidel Castro, I did a quick search to see if he had played any recorded games of chess. Turns out I could only find a single game, and one in which both players seemed to play poorly. Usually the existence of a single game for a person rings some alarm bells as well, as games like this often turn out to be faked. However I've seen the same game in a couple of sources, and while not ruling out that they both came from the same source,  I've decided to show it here.
It looks like it was played during the 1966 Olympiad in Havana, although not as part of the Olympiad. Castro had black and was losing for most of the game. But whether by luck, or his opponent realising who he was playing, the game turned on a single move, when his opponent allowed a mate in 1!


Terrazas - Castro,Fidel [C34]
Havanna, 1966

Start positionPrevious MoveNext MoveEnd positionPlay movesStop playing
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 Bd6 4. d4 h6 5. e5 Bb4+ 6. c3 Ba5 7. Bxf4 g5 8. Bg3 Qe7 9. Be2 d6 10. exd6 cxd6 11. Qa4+ Nc6 12. d5 Bd8 13. dxc6 b5 14. Qxb5 a6 15. Qa4 g4 16. c7+ Bd7 17. cxd8Q+ Rxd8 18. Qd4 gxf3 19. Qxh8 Qxe2# 0-1

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