January 9, 2010 Featured Game

I was elected President of the ICA for the first time back in 1984. On October 27, 1984, I was at the Rick's College Autumn Open held in Rexburg, Idaho where I met Robert Tanner, President of the Utah Chess Association. It was there that he and I discussed the possibility of reinstating an annual tradition, a match between Idaho and Utah (which happened more or less annually between 1950 and stopped in 1963). So in 1985, we reinstated the annual tradition. We held 5 events from 1985 to 1993, and then the matches stopped again just as they had in 1963. But the matches produced some very interesting games and great sporting opportunities for the players of that time to compete.

This week's game is from Round 2, Board 6 of the 1985 Idaho vs. Utah Match which was held in Burley, Idaho on July 13, 1985. Utah won this match by a score of 24 to 6. I had won the first round with White. Now I had to face the same opponent who was now White and who now wanted revenge! My opponent was rated 164 points higher than I was. A very well played game resulted, and the final position is very interesting. It is a stalemate where each side has 6 pawns, but White's King got trapped between his own pawns and mine and he simply couldn't get back out. This was no doubt intentional, as there was just no way for either side to make progress.