MARK RUBERY CHESS
Charles De Villiers is one of our greatest players and even in his 60s he is still rated among the top players in the land. He has won the South African Chess Closed six times; in 1975 (with Piet Kroon), 1977 (with David Walker), 1981, 1985 (with Clyde Wolpe), 1987 and 1989.
Thirty eight years ago he was approaching the peak of his powers and he would certainly have attained the International Master title had he chose to play abroad. The following game against the then emerging talent, Donald MacFarlane, was played during the 1981 Western Province Closed where De Villiers came first with a convincing 10,5/11.
Macfarlane,Donald - De Villiers,Charles [A20]
Western Province Closed ch Cape Town, 1981
1.c4 e5 2.g3 c6 3.Nf3 e4 4.Nd4 d5 5.cxd5 Qxd5 6.Nc2 Nf6 7.Nc3 Qh5 8.d3 exd3
9.Qxd3 Nbd7 10.Bg2 Ne5 (Commencing a hair-raising adventure only a superbly confident player would dream of.-K Kirby SA Chessplayer, Feb 1981) 11.Qe3 h6 (This quiet move, preventing the exchange of queens quite startled the onlookers, surely Black will lose a piece sooner or later-K Kirby. 11…Bc5 12 Qg5 Neg4 is a strong alternative) 12.Ne4 (12 f4 Nfg4 13 Qe4 Bf5)… Nxe4 13.Qxe4 Be6 14.0–0 Ng4 15.h4 (15 h3 Nf6 16 Qf3
Qxf3 17 exf3 is also pleasant for Black) … 0–0–0 16.Ne3 Bc5 17.Bf3 Rd4 18.Qc2 Qe5 19.Nxg4 Rxg4! (With the threat of…Qxg3+)
20.Bf4 Qxf4 (20…Rxg3+ 21 Bxg3 Qxg3+ 22 Bg2 Bb6 23 Qe4 g5 is a more speculative line. De Villiers instead prefers to inflict a difficult ending on his young opponent) 21.Qxc5 Qd4 22.Qxd4 Rxd4
(Although material is equal the pawn on a2 does not allow White to successfully contest the d file, and the resulting passivity soon
proves lethal for White) 23.e3 Rd2 24.b3 Rhd8 25.Rfd1 Kc7 26.Kf1 Rb2 27.g4 f6 28.Ke1 Rxd1+ 29.Bxd1 a5 30.Be2 g6 31.f3 g5 32.h5 Bd5 33.Kf2 a4 34.e4 Be6 35.Ke1 a3! (35…axb3 36 axb3 Bxb3 37 Ra8 gives White some hope, wheras now it is all over)
36.Kf2 b5 37.Ke3 Kb6 38.Kd3 c5 39.Bd1 Ka5 40.Kc3 Rf2 41.b4+ cxb4+ 42.Kd4 Rxa2 0–1
A superb performance by De Villiers, who on this form looks to be the strongest player in the country-K Kirby 1981
Indeed Kirby was stating the obvious as De Villiers was the preeminent of that decade.
Kenneth Kirby was a strong player in his own right and represented the country at a number of Olympiads; in Tel Aviv 1964 he had the honour of playing Mikhail Botvinnik when South Africa faced Russia. Perhaps his most enduring claim to fame are his remarks that were quoted in Fischer’s book ‘My 60 Memorable Games’ in the preface to R Byrne-R Fischer US Ch 1963:
“The Byrne game was quite fabulous and I cannot call anything to mind to parallel it. After White’s eleventh move I should adjudicate his position as slightly superior, and at worse completely safe. To turn this into a mating position in eleven more moves is more witchcraft than chess!”