Monday 21 February 2011

An historical game

Returning to shopping on Ebay, I purchased a set of bulletins from the 1990 Novi Sad Olympiad. I haven't gone through them all, but the ones I've read contain a number of interesting facts. Even though the event was held 20 years ago, there were a still number of familiar names taking part (ie Sam Goundar for Fiji, Greg Canfell & Max Fuller for Australia, Rupert Jones for Botswana!). The tournament also used accelerated pairings, which like 2008 was not a popular decision. And the following game from the first round of the tournament might be considered a bit of history. Why that is I'll leave as an exercise for the reader.

Schmidt,W - Cramling,Pia [E94]
Olympiad Novi Sad, 1990

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.d4 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Na6 8.Re1 c6 9.Bf1 exd4 10.Nxd4 Ng4 11.h3 Qb6 12.hxg4 Qxd4 13.Qe2 Qe5 14.Be3 Nc5 15.f3 Qe7 16.Qd2 Be5 17.Bg5 Qc7 18.b4 Ne6 19.Be3 f5 20.gxf5 gxf5 21.f4 Bf6 22.Bd3 Qg7 23.Rac1 a5 24.bxa5 Bd4 25.exf5 Nxf4 26.f6 Bxe3+ 27.Rxe3 Qxf6 28.Rg3+ Kh8 29.Rf1 Bd7 30.Rgf3 Qd4+ 31.Kh2 Ng6 32.Qh6 Qg7 33.Qd2 Rxf3 34.Rxf3 Ne5 35.Rg3 Qf6 36.Ne4 Qh4+ 37.Kg1 Bf5 38.Bb1 Bxe4 (D)
39.Rh3 Qxh3 40.gxh3 Nf3+ 0-1

2 comments:

Paul Dunn said...

Cramling was the first woman player to represent an Open Olympiad team and this would have been her first game.

Shaun Press said...

Well done that man! According to the bulletins, the Hungarians planned to play Susan and Judith Polgar in the Mens team, and needed to get the regulations changed to allow this to happen. However they played for the Women's team instead, but Sweden used the new rules to put Cramling onto the Mens team. In 1990!