Mike Nikitin’s Game Versus GM Walter Browne

It was a simultaneous lecture and exhibition put on at a hotel near the Detroit Metro Airport on November 1, 1975. Forty players at once. GM Browne scores 34 – 4 – 2 record this day. Here is my game.

Petrov Defense
GM W. Browne vs M. Nikitin (1311)
1. e4…..e5
2. Nf3…..d6
3. d4…..ed
4. Nxd4…..Nf6
5. Nc3…..c5
6. Bb5+…..Bd7
7. Bxd7…..Nbxd7
Excellent! For some reason I think trading pieces will help me last longer. He is falling right into my trap! Why doesn’t he look worried?
8. Nf5…..Ne5
9. Bg5…..g6
10. Nd5…..Ned7
11. Nfe3…..Be7
12. Nxe7…..Qxe7
13. f3…..h6
14. Bf4…..Ne5
15. Qd2…..O-O-O ?!

My thought process was that I don’t want to castle in front of my advanced king-side pawns. So instead I castle in front of a backward center pawn?? It’s like avoiding a puddle by jumping into a raging river.

At least I made it to the middle game. A couple more moves and it won’t even count as a “miniature” loss.
16. O-O-O…..Rd7
17. Nd5…..Nxd5
18. Qxd5…..f6
19. Rhe1…..g5
20. Bg3…..Rhd8
21. Re2…..Qf7
22. Red2…..Qxd5
23. Rxd5…..Kc7
He sure seems to be getting around to me a lot quicker. Somebody trip him!
24. b3…..b5
25. Kd2…..Kc6
26. Ke3…..Ng6
27. R5d2…..d5!
Weakness fixed and now I make it to an endgame! Just what I wanted. Now to out-play a grandmaster in an endgame at what soon will become a speed chess game as the number of other players is shrinking rapidly. How hard could that be to do?
28. c3…..h5
29. h3…..h4
30. Bh2…..de
31. Rxd7…..Rxd7
32. Rxd7…..Kxd7
33. Kxe4…..Ke6
34. f4.....
I need some pawns on white squares against his dark squared bishop if I have any hopes of GM Browne “begging” me for a draw.
34. ......f5+
35. Ke3…..g4
36. hg…..fg
37. Ke4…..Ne7
38. Bg1…..



Uh..oh. There are only five or six boards alive by this time and I need more time than I am getting to keep from blundering the game away. Hey, wait a minute! Was that HIS plan?

38......Nd4 39. Bxc5...Nxc3 40. Kd3...Nxa2 41. Kc2...a4! 42. Bb6...Nb5 and I hold the draw possibilities, or more because what I played is actually a bigger threat as move 43 than as move 38.

But instead I blunder, then there is more blundering and a mop up. In my defense, it was speed chess at this point.

38. .....h6?? Hoping a grandmaster takes the c-pawn so I can queen? Really???
39. gh…..gh
40. Kf3…..Ng6
41. Kg4…..Kf6
42. Bh2…..c4
43. bc…..bc
44. Bg3…..a5
45. a4…..Nf8
46. Bh4+…..Ke6
47. Kxh3…..Kf5
48. Kg3…..Ne6
49. Kf3…..Nc5
50. Bd8…..Nxa4
51. Bxa5…..Nb2?
Where are you going?
52. Bc7…..Nd1???
Oh, to your death. Nice job wood pusher.
53. Be5…..Resigns

I was the 34th loser and the second to last game to end.