This 72-year-old Chess Masters' Best Game? - Best Of The 50s - Bernstein vs. Najdorf
The great master Ossip Bernstein had a long and distinguished chess career with numerous international successes in the years between 1900 and 1910, but perhaps his greatest game and one of his greatest successes came as late as 1954, when the 72-year-old master came in second in Montevideo. In this event, he won probably his finest game as he blew the legendary Miguel Najdorf clean off the board.
Top 10 Games of the 1950s
- #1: ???
- #2: ???
- #3: ???
- #4: Bernstein vs. Najdorf, 1953
- #5: Bronstein vs. Rojahn, 1956
- #6: Stoltz vs. Steiner, 1952
- #7: Botvinnik vs. Smyslov, 1954
- #8: Beylin vs. Lipnitsky, 1950
- #9: Keres vs. Szabo, 1953
- #10: Moran vs. Franco, 1955
- See also: Top 10 of the 1960s, Top 10 of the 1970s, Top 10 of the 1980s, Top 10 of the 1990s, Top 10 of the 2000s, and Top 10 of the 2010s
The game opens as an Old Indian, and Bernstein shows that one advantage white has in this line in the Old Indian is that the Exchange Variation is stronger than in the King's Indian Defense. With the knight committed to d7, exchanging on e5 proves effective as the Nd7 cannot easily reach d4. Najdorf misses his one chance to sink a powerful knight into d4 later, and commits to a kingside pawn storm. Bernstein meets this in the most instructive fashion with a breakthrough in the middle of the board and scintillating tactics to bring home the victory!
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