British GM Raymond Keene wrote the following obituary:
“Filip…devoted his professional career to many aspects of the game, as player, author, journalist and arbiter. In every sphere he achieved world class results, though by modern standards he was something of a late starter, his prospects being hampered by the fact that his formative years coincided with the Nazi occupation of his home country and the various deprivations caused by the second world war.
“Filip was born in Prague [on Oct. 27,] 1928, and like his fellow grandmaster to be Ludek Pachman, Filip benefited from the occasional presence of the world champion Alexander Alekhine in the Prague competition during the early 1940’s. It was, however, not until the age of 25 that Filip began to make a serious mark on the post war international chess scene, earning the title of international master from FIDE, the world chess federation, in 1953. His growing prowess had already become clear from his victories in the Czech national championships of 1950 and 1953.
“It was during the seven years from 1955 to 1962 that Filip, at six foot nine inches in height an imposing presence at the chess board, truly became a world force. During this period he twice achieved the notoriously arduous feat of qualifying for the Candidates Tournaments for the World Championship, at Amsterdam 1956 and again at Curacao, 1962. Thus Filip was automatically propelled into the upper echelons of the world elite. It was in this happy time that Filip inflicted defeat on no fewer than three world champions, Dr. Max Euwe in 1955, Vassily Smyslov (the reigning champion) in 1957 and former world champion Mikhail Tal in 1962.
“Filip also won the international tournaments at his home city of Prague in 1956, again at Marienbad 1960 and Buenos Aires 1961. In spite of his glittering achievements and wins against the world’s best in individual encounters, Filip failed in his ultimate ambition to challenge for the world title. Indeed, in his second appearance in the candidates tournament at Curacao 1962, despite scoring a fine counter-attacking victory against Mikhail Tal, he was generally outclassed, both by the established Soviet grandmasters and the new force represented by Bobby Fischer, the mercurial young American. Thereafter, Filip grew less enthusiastic about tournament play, becoming more concerned with avoiding defeat, at which he was an adept, than in scoring wins. As a result he turned his professional hand ever more to authorship, journalism and arbiting.
“He was selected by the World Chess Federation to be arbiter for six subsequent world championship contests, including the controversial Karpov vs. Korchnoi match at Baguio 1978. He conducted the chess column in the Prague daily sports paper ‘Denik Sport’ with great distinction, and wrote books on the candidates tournament of 1956, the world championship of 1978 and the Lucerne Chess Olympiad of 1982.
“His prowess as a player was further confirmed by his results for Czechoslovakia in the Chess Olympiads , where he represented his country on a remarkable 12 occasions, three of those on top board, scoring 114 points from 194 games for a 58.76 percentage. In 1970 he won the individual gold medal for his performance in the Kapfenberg European Team Championship.
“Miroslav Filip was a worthy successor to the tradition of the Prague School, which numbered amongst its alumni Wilhelm Steinitz, the first official world champion, Richard Reti, the pioneeer of hypermodernism and Oldrich Duras , the great tournament competitor.”
Game of the week. Filip’s compatriot Lubosh Kavalek, who also annotates our featured partie, described him as “a solid player, difficult to beat. He supported his active positional style with a deep knowledge of openings and endgames. His victory against the Ukrainian grandmaster Igor Platonov from the 1970 Dutch tournament in Wijk aan Zee is an instructive example of how to play against the Modern Tarrasch defense. The queen maneuvers at the end are remarkable.”
White: M. Filip
Black: I Platonov
Wijk aan Zee 1970
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.d4 c5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e3 Nc6 7.Bd3 Be7 8.0-0 0-0 9.a3 cxd4 10.exd4 Bf6 11.Be4 Nce7 12.Qd3 (Forcing black to weaken the black squares around the king, but 12.Ne5, as played in one of the Smyslov-Ribli games, does the same job. It continued 12…g6 13.Bh6 Bg7 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.Rc1! b6 16.Nxd5 Nxd5 17.Bxd5 Qxd5? [17…exd5 was necessary] 18.Rc7 Bb7 19.Qg4 Rad8 20.Rd1 a5 21.h4! with powerful pressure. White won in 42 moves.) 12…g6 13.Bh6 Bg7 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.Ne5 b6 16.Qd2! (Aiming for the weak dark squares around the black king.) 16…Bb7 17.Rfe1 Rc8 18.Rac1 Rc7?! (Black had to shore up the holes in his position with 18…f6 19.Ng4 Qd7 for a playable game.) 19.Ng4! Kh8 20.Nxd5 Rxc1 21.Rxc1 Nxd5 (21…Bxd5!? was preferable.) 22.Qh6! (White’s pieces descend on black’s position, threatening to win with an astonishing combination: 23.Rc7!! Nxc7 [or 23…Kg8 24.Bxd5 Bxd5 25.Rd7! wins] 24.Nf6! Qxf6 25.Qxf8 mate.) 22…Rg8 23.Ne5 Qe7?! (Defending the seventh rank with 23…Rg7 was mandatory.) 24.Bxd5 Bxd5? (Loses by force. Black had to play 24…exd5, although after 25.Re1 white is better.) 25.Qf4! Kg7 (Black has no time to chase the knight back. After 25…f6 26.Rc7! Qxc7 27.Qxf6+! Rg7 [on 27…Qg7 28.Nf7 mates] 28.Qf8+ Rg8 29.Nf7+ wins the queen.) 26.Nxf7! Qf6 (After 26…e5 27.Qxe5+ Kxf7 28.Rc7 wins.) 27.Qh6+! (A pretty ending. After 27…Kxf7 28.Rc7+ Ke8 29.Qxh7 wins.) Black resigned.
Puzzler.
White — Qc2, Nd3, pawn on d5, Bd6, Re7, Kh3
Black — Bb2, Qc3, Re4, Nf3, Kh8, pawns on d7, f4
White to play and mate in two.
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