MARK RUBERY CHESS
The following extract is from a remarkable story found in Tim Krabbe’s article, “Migrating to the south” and features an astonishing game between one of South Africa’s finest players, Wolfgang Heidenfeld, and the enigmatic Dutch player, C Roele.
‘Roele was born around 1918 and from the latest pre-war years until 1955, he was one of the prominent players in Amsterdam. Misbehaving in the war, he played under a pseudonym for some years afterwards to evade purging. In that period he gave up his job as an office clerk to pursue his real calling which was that of a tramp. During the day, he played for stakes in the Amsterdam chess café, and when his acquaintances arrived home late in the evening, they sometimes found Roele waiting on their doorstep, dying with hunger, and hoping for a place on a mat where he might sleep. Around 1960, he disappeared without a trace. A rumour has it that he befriended a band of gypsies, and followed them to southern France to partake in their election for a new king, and that he stayed with them. But most of his old chess friends I was able to contact believe he went to Paris to live the life of a down-and-out under the bridges, and that he froze to death there one winter.
The following position arose during a training match in Utrecht where Roele turned the tables on the South African Champion.
Heidenfeld, Wolfgang – Roele, CH [C29] Utrecht 1954
32 … d3! 33.cxd3 c3! 34.Qc5 Rxf3 35.h6 Rf6 36.Qg5 Rf2+ 37.Kh3 Nf4+ 38.Kg4 Rg2+ 39.Kf5 Rxg5+ 40.Kxg5 c2 41.h7 c1=Q 42.h8=Q Nxd3+ 0–1
An interesting communication by Christoff Mans, adds some details to this game. It was the fourth and last game of a match won by Roele with 2½ – 1½. In the April 1954 issue of ‘The South African Chessplayer’, Heidenfeld described it as “a hair-raising game in which I had won the hostile queen by a very long combination in the course of which my opponent’s king had to travel all over the board – and then could not reconcile myself to the fact that it was he and not I who had winning chances. I do not begrudge my opponent his win: the fun alone was worth the money.”