The California Chess Reporter

(Volume XV, #4: January-February 1966)

TARJAN WINS KING'S GAMBIT TOURNAMENT AT CITY TERRACE

Thirteen-year-old J. Tarjan walked off with the Spielmann Memorial Gambit Tournament held at the City Terrace Club in February. The young chessplayer from the Valley made a perfect 8-0 score. Tournament director Frank Metz finished second, 1.5 points behind.

We see few special events like the gambit tournament nowadays. The tournaments with pre-arranged opening moves used to be very popular, and many of the lines in the opening books came from those tournaments. The gambit tournament is meant to be a romantic affair - an effort to avoid the staleness of modern openings. (Unfortunately, with correct play the attacking lines peter out, the pieces are exchanged, and the strategy is to play for the end game.) In the City Terrace event, the opening moves were: 1.P-K4, P-K4; 2.P-KB4, PxP; 3.Kt-KB3, P-KKt4.