A Benko Gambit gamble
Could an individual game in the single round robin event between Loris Nathoo, an improved 1700 player, and Taffin Khan, a 2000 FIDE competitor, signal the switch of the Guyana National Chess Championship title?
Khan boldly chose the Benko Gambit with the black pieces, giving up a pawn for rapid development. When a second pawn was offered from as early as the 4th move, Nathoo (white) pushed forward, a slightly unusual continuation. Up to move 30 white was a pawn up, and added to that, Black’s d-pawn was doubled. On move 30. white played the heavy Rb3! which earned an exclamation mark in my eyes. Black had one defender guarding his outpost to prevent checkmate. And white attacked that defender. From that point forward, the game was lost for black and black inevitably resigned. The score of the game was recorded for replay and the benefit of chess enthusiasts.
I came across a similar Benko Gambit that was played by Guyana’s Maurice Broomes against Guillermo A Estevez of Cuba during the Caribbean Chess Championships of 1975. I am familiar with the game because I was the official scorer of all the Board One games. Broomes (black) lost to Estevez in a compelling 64-move sequence. Instead of pushing forward on the 5th move as Nathoo did, Estevez took both pawns and subsequently held on to the extra pawn until black resigned.
No one can forget the hard fought firstround game on Board One of the Barbados-Cuba encounter and the excitement it evinced. Estevez had about 15 moves to make with just about one minute remaining on his clock. It appeared that the Cuban champion would lose by time forfeit to Barbados’s player Phillip Corbin. But that was not to be. Estevez completed the required number of moves before his flag fell. And after two adjournments, he executed checkmate on the 81st move. The only other person to so extend Estevez was Broomes.