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Ariel Mengarini vs Samuel Reshevsky
United States Championship (1951), New York, NY USA, rd 7, Aug-12
Sicilian Defense: Dragon. Levenfish Variation (B71)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Feb-17-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: A momentous game in U.S. chess history! Prior to this, Reshevsky had not lost in U.S. Championship tournament play since round 4 of the 1936 event--a streak of 82 games.
Feb-17-07  Wolfgang01: Then we cheer to Mr. Mengarini as streak-breaker.
Apr-25-08  Petrosianic: <Phony Benoni: A momentous game in U.S. chess history! Prior to this, Reshevsky had not lost in U.S. Championship tournament play since round 4 of the 1936 event--a streak of 82 games.>

Not only that, it's the game that eventually gave Evans the title (if Reshevsky had won this game, he'd have tied for first), making Evans the first person to beat Reshevsky for the US Title. (Previously others had won the US Title only when Reshevsky failed to defend it).

Definitely one of the most significant games in US Championship history, along with Denker-Fine 1944, Fine-Reshevsky 1940, Reshevsky-Denker 1942 and Horowitz-Denker 1942.

Jun-03-11
Premium Chessgames Member
  GrahamClayton: 15. f5! is a key move, stopping the Black Queen from getting "onside" with 15...♕f5.
Sep-14-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: Mengarini beat Reshevsky like a drum.
Feb-14-18  BwanaVa: Horowitz-Denker 1942-can you please describe the game and its importance? Chessgames.com does not seem to have said game in its database.
Nov-13-20  BwanaVa: I did some looking, and believe that Petrosianic is refering not to Horowitz-Denker 1942 but to Reshevsky-Horowitz 1942, which was a last round game where Horowitz could not put Reshevsky away and allowed a draw which put Reshevsky into a tie with Kashdan for first. Reshevsky won the playoff.

The story: http://tartajubow.blogspot.com/2015...

Feb-22-21
Premium Chessgames Member
  MissScarlett: Interesting that Reshevsky couldn't find <9...Ng4> as a better defence than <...Nd7>. It's not straightforward, of course, but he had plenty of time to go into the tank.

It's a little reminiscent of Fischer vs Reshevsky, 1958

Sep-13-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  marcusantoinerome: Of course, 9. ...dxe5 loses to 10. Nxc6!
Oct-10-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  Eggman:


click for larger view

10.♘e6 is another interesting try, since if 10...♕xe3 then 11.♘d5 threatens both 12.♘xe3 and 12.♘dc7#. Nevertheless, after 10...♕xb2 11.♘xg7+ we see a simple transposition to the actual game.

By the way, many have commented on the impressiveness of Mengarini's win here, on account o' it ended Reshevsky's U.S. Championship unbeaten streak. In this vain one might also point out that Reshevsky (according to Chessmetrics) was ranked 2nd in the world at this time!

Aug-06-24  Granny O Doul: Stockfish indicates that White did not follow a smooth path to victory. One improvement is 12. Nb5, with White sometimes playing Ne8! to force Black to capture the trapped knight on a more dangerous square, or sometimes Ne6+ to give Reshevsky the same pawn structure as he would later achieve in that famous debacle vs. Fischer.

After 15. f5 (?; 15. Rc1 is still a big edge) Nxe5! White seems to have nothing better than 16. f6+ exf6 17. Bh6+ Kxh6 18. Qh4+ with a perpetual.

Finally (as I'm not writing a whole article here), 10. Ne6 is confirmed as a slight improvement for White, and either 9...Ng4 or ...Nh5 a more significant one for Black, though White is still doing quite well.

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