MARK RUBERY CHESS

The late American Grandmaster, William Lombardy (1937-2017), wrote a book where he shared his thoughts about the royal game grandiosely titled ‘Understanding Chess-my System, My games, My Life’. Regarded as the strongest priest to devote himself to the game since Ruy Lopez, the tone of the book is set by the picture of the author himself on the cover aptly described by Hans Ree as ‘an angry man you’d better not pick a fight with’. Lombardy rose to fame when he won the 1957 World Junior with a magnificent 11/11, and though he was soon to be eclipsed by Fischer he remained a very strong grandmaster. In 1979 he was the guest commentator at the Oude Meester Grand Prix in Johannesburg and I recall his unique pronunciation of the prelate as a ‘beershop’.

Here is an extract from his book where he reveals some unconventional views on castling:

‘The problems posed by the decision to castle are much misunderstood and thereby underrated .... So, my new advice on castling: it is castling is to be considered a waste of time wrongly expended when there is almost always something more important to achieve. Thus castling is a passive move that nurtures the hope of king safety. I believe that a player who learns how and when to delay castling will certainly improve his/her play. Very often that cherished hope of safety is ill founded. I therefore believe that the maneuver of castling is the most dangerous of all moves and the decision thus requires more attention to delicate judgment. Not only should one not rush to castle, but should delay that passive maneuver for as long as good judgment relates that there are more urgent, if only slightly better, tasks to accomplish.’

One must remember this is not an amateur’s view, but rather one of somebody who has scaled some of the highest peaks in chess. My own perspective is that a number of years ago Lombardy could be seen playing chess a lot on the Internet, although only against computers-perhaps he had picked up something we had all missed…?

Spassky,boris V - Lombardy,william James [B94]

Wcht U26 7th Leningrad (13), 1960

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Bc4 Qa5 8.Qd2 e6 9.0–0 Be7 10.a3 h6 11.Be3 Ne5 12.Ba2 Qc7 13.Qe2 b5 14.f4 Neg4 15.h3 Nxe3 16.Qxe3 0–0 (Certainly in no rush to castle even then!) 17.Rae1 e5 18.Nf5 Bxf5 19.exf5 d5! 20.Qxe5 Bd6 21.Qe2 Bxa3! 22.Nd1 Rae8 23.Qf3 Bc5+ 24.Kh1 Rxe1 25.Rxe1 Qa5 26.Nc3 Bb4 27.Nxd5 Qxa2 28.Nxf6+ gxf6 29.Qc6 Qc4 0–1

BLACK TO PLAY AND DRAW