MARK RUBERY CHESS
Last month South Africa lost one of its greatest players when Frank Korostenski (1949-2023) passed away in Kremze, Czech Republic.
He became the SA Closed Champion 1979 and was certainly one of the more colourful characters to grace the chess scene. His style over the board was marked by aggression, spiced with an element of fantasy, making his games always entertaining to watch.
Frank was the most affable of players, and he could usually be seen analysing, beer-in-hand, demonstrating his imaginative sacrifices and dubious gambits amid a crowd of admiring spectators. He had a love of chess studies and compositions, many of which are published, as well as a life-long devotion to Alekhine’s Defence (1 e4 Nf6). He represented South Africa on numerous occasions concluding with the Nice Olympiad in 1974, the last international event for the Springboks before South Africa was readmitted into FIDE in 1992.
The following game illustrates the power and imagination of his play when he was at his peak…
Korostenski,Frank - Fienieg,John [A04]
32nd SA Closed, Tollman Towers, Johannesburg, 1979
1.Nf3 c5 2.b3 Nf6 3.Bb2 g6 4.e4 Bg7 5.e5 Nd5
6.h4 (Frank was fond of pushing his h-pawn long before Alpha Zero made it respectable. As Black against GTD Jones at the Café Wien Open the game began 1 g3 h5!?)… h5 7.Qc1 e6 8.Na3 d6 9.exd6 Bxb2 10.Qxb2 Qf6?! (The desire to exchange queens merely gives White’s attack more momentum) 11.Qxf6 Nxf6 12.Nb5 Na6 13.d4 cxd4 14.Nbxd4 Nc5 15.c4 Nce4 16.Nb5 0–0 17.Ne5 a6 18.f3 axb5 19.fxe4 Rd8 20.c5 Nxe4 21.b4 Ra3 22.Rh3! (Deliberately wrecking his pawn structure to extinguish any counter play)…Rxh3 23.gxh3 f6 24.Nxg6 Kf7 25.Ne7 Bd7 26.Bg2 f5 27.Bxe4 fxe4 28.Kd2 Kf6 29.Rf1+ Ke5 30.Rf8!
… Be8 (Instead 30…Rxf8 31 Ng6+ Kf6 32 Nxf8 Bc6 33 Ke3 Kf7 34 d7 Ke7 35 d8=Q+ Kxd8 36 Nxe6+ win easily) 31.Kc3 e3 32.Ng6+ Ke4 (Acquiescing to a pretty mate whereas 32... Kd5 33.d7 loses more prosaically) 33.Rf4+ Kd5 34.Rd4+ Kc6 35.Ne5# 1–0 (Fienieg sportingly remarked that nobody had ever displayed such creativity against him as Korostenski had in this game.)
‘The basic format of solving events is rather like that of a school examination in several parts. Each participant sits at his own desk with a chess set (or more than one, if you prefer) and at the beginning of each round the papers are handed out, face down. When the start is announced, you have to turn the paper over and solve the problems within the allotted time. To get full marks you must give full solutions, including all the main variations. When the time is up, you must stop writing and the papers are collected and marked. (GM John Nunn)