Celebrating D.C.’s role as the ‘cradle of Black chess in America’

Note: David R. Sands is taking the week off. The following is a reprint of a column that ran Feb. 22, 2022.

“As a matter of fact, one can claim the greater Washington D.C. metropolitan area was the cradle for Black chess in America.”

Local writer and two-time D.C. chess champion Gregory Kearse made that claim in a seminal 1998 article for Chess Life, which noted that the thriving local area chess scene in the 1960s helped develop the first officially rated African American chess masters — Walter Hill. Ken Clayton and Frank Street — and helped nurture a new generation of strong Black players such as William Morrison, Vincent Moore, Emory Tate and Baraka Shabazz.

As Black History Month winds down, we focus today on two other accomplished Black chess players, D.C.’s own Greg Acholonu and Indiana’s remarkable Bernard Parham and his eponymous Parham Opening.

Acholonu, a longtime master and coach at the U.S. Chess Center and now at his own Maryland-based GCA Children’s Chess, is also a witty writer and annotator. For our first game today, we’re borrowing heavily here from his write-up in the late, much-missed D.C. Chess League “King’s File” of a final-round game he played the 1989 World Open against strong NM Filipp Frenkel, a high-stakes win Acholonu called at the time “my most memorable to date.”

In a Caro-Kann Exchange line, Acholonu as White upsets the dynamic of a fairly balanced struggle with a “tiny sac” — 24. Nxf4 Qxe5 25. Rexe4!?, giving up a rook for knight and pawn but obtaining a position where White can harass the Black position so long as Frenkel’s rooks remain bottled up. White gets a second pawn for the exchange when the game’s critical juncture is reached after 42. Qxa7 Rd7 43. Qb8+ Kf7.

The annotator accuses himself of “wimping out” by not going all in now with 44. Rg4!? Rxd3 45. Qg8+, giving 45 … Ke7 46. Rg7+ Kd6 47. Qd8+ Ke5 48. Qxd3 Rxf2+ 49. Kh3 Qg2+ 50. Kg4 and “White should win.” But sometimes wimpy is the way to go: The computer points out that now Black has killer shot with 50 … Rf3!! 51. Rg5+ (Qxf3 f5+ is the point) f5+! and it’s Black who both should and will win. In this line, White can vary with 47. Qb8+ Kc5 48. Rc7, and it’s still messy after 48 … Rxf2+ 49. Kh3 Rff3 50. Kg4 Kxc4 51. Qxb7 Qxc7 52. Qxc7+ Kd5.

White’s 44. Rxd7+! Qxd7 45. Nf4 e5 46. Nh3 keeps him in the game, but as the annotator noted, Black now has the positional serve, with any queen trade leaving Black’s rook dominant over the pathetic White knight. A difficult battle comes to a tense climax after 51. Qc2 (Qxd5? Rxd5 52. b4 Rd2 53. a4 Ra2, and the rampaging rook will devour the queenside) Ke6 52. Qe2 (see diagram; Acholonu’s comment: “Black to play and lose $3,000) Qf3?? 53. Nf4+! (Black wins on any move but this one) and the trap is sprung. After 53 … Kf5 54. Qxd3+ Qxd3 55. Nxd3 Ke4 56. Ne1 Kd4 57. b4 Kc3 58. b5, Black resigned a hopeless position.

“Close to a perfect game? Ha! — nowhere near,” Acholonu recalled. “But what a delightful struggle! So delightful that I could feel each move eating away at me like acid!”

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Bernard Parham is a national master, a former Indiana state champion, and one original dude. With a math and physics background from Purdue, he developed and refined his own “Matrix” system for playing and recording chess moves — decades before Neo was presented with the red pill/blue pill dilemma.

The Parham Opening, like its progenitor, is sui generis. Purists may shudder, but there is some deep geometric and spatial theory behind the hugely unorthodox early development (2. Qh5!?!) of the queen. Whether it works in theory is not for us to say, but there have been some successful applications in practice, including a nice win by Parham himself against strong expert and onetime U.S. Chess Federation executive Alan Losoff from the 1982 U.S. Open.

As with many offbeat lines, the Parham quickly takes both players out of their comfort zones, and already Black’s 7. d3 Nd4?! (Bxc4 8. dxc4 Nb4 is more forcing) looks a bit off. After 8. Nxd4 exd4 9. Bxe6 dxc3?! (fxe6 10. Ne2 e5, was preferable, though after 11. 0-0, White has the nice f2-f4 break coming) 10. Bh3! Qe5 11. Rb1 Be7 12. 0-0, with two bishops and a safer king, White has clearly won the opening round.

White wins a pawn and then with 20. e6! opens more lines against Black’s trapped king. After 23. Qe2 (the queen returns from her little opening sojourn none the worse for wear, adding to the pressure on the e-file) dxc4 (fxe6 24. Bxe6 Rh6 25. Bxd5 Bc5 26. Bf3 leaves White two clear pawns up) 24. exf7 Bb4 25. c3! Bd6 (Bxc3?? 26. Qe7 mate) 26. dxc4 Kxf7 27. Qe6+, and Black’s game is on the ropes.

There are a few hiccups along the way, but Parham gets a well-deserved point after 27 … Kg6 28. Re3!? (cleaner was the blunt 28. Re5! Bxe5 29. Bf5+ Kh6 30. Qf7, with mate to come) h4 29. f5+? (and here, both 29. Re5! and 29. Rb5!, cutting off the queen, were indicated) Kg5? (Kh7! may wipe out all White’s hard work, as after 30. Qf7 Bc5 31. Qg6+ Kg8 32. Re2 Bxf2+ 33. Rxf2 Qxc3, Black may even claim a small edge) 30. Qf7 Nh5 (no better was 30 … Rh6 31. Qxg7+ Kh5 32. Re4 Bg3 33. Bg4+ Nxg4 34. Qxg4 mate) 31. Qg6+, and Black resigned, not needing to see 31 … Kf4 32. Qg4 mate.

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Everyone else may be on vacation or at the Democratic National Convention this week, but the dog days of August are traditionally a busy time for the chess world, and this year is no exception.

U.S. GM Fabiano Caruana is defending his title at the 2024 Sinquefield Cup that gets underway this week at the St. Louis Chess Club. The strongest and most lucrative invitational on the U.S. chess calendar, this year’s elite 10-grandmaster field includes both Chinese world champion GM Ding Liren and GM Dommaraju Gukesh, the 18-year-old Indian wunderkind who will try to wrest the crown from Ding in their Singapore title match that begins Nov. 20.

And D.C.’s own signature summer event, the 56th annual Atlantic Open will be held over the long weekend from Aug. 23-25 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. We’ll have coverage of both events in upcoming columns.

(Click on the image above for a larger view of the chessboard.)

Acholonu-Frenkel, 17th World Open, Philadelphia, July 1989

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 g6 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. h3 Nc6 7. O-O Bg7 8. Re1 O-O 9. c3 Bf5 10. Bxf5 gxf5 11. Nbd2 e6 12. Nf1 Ne4 13. Bf4 Ne7 14. Be5 Ng6 15. Bxg7 Kxg7 16. Ne5 Qh4 17. Qf3 Nxe5 18. dxe5 Rg8 19. Rad1 Rac8 20. Rd4 Kh8 21. Ng3 Qg5 22. Kh2 Rg6 23. Ne2 f4 24. Nxf4 Qxe5 25. Rexe4 dxe4 26. Rxe4 Qc7 27. g3 Rf6 28. Qe3 Qb6 29. Qe2 Rf5 30. Rb4 Qc6 31. Qe3 Rd8 32. Rd4 Re8 33. Qd3 Qb5 34. Qc2 Re5 35. c4 Qc6 36. Qc3 Kg8 37. Nd3 Rg5 38. h4 Rf5 39. Rg4+ Kf8 40. Qa3+ Re7 41. Rd4 f6 42. Qxa7 Rd7 43. Qb8+ Kf7 44. Rxd7+ Qxd7 45. Nf4 e5 46. Nh3 Rf3 47. Qh8 Kg6 48. Qg8+ Kf5 49. c5 Rd3 50. Qc4 Qd5 51. Qc2 Ke6 52. Qe2 Qf3 53. Nf4+ Kf5 54. Qxd3+ Qxd3 55. Nxd3 Ke4 56. Ne1 Kd4 57. b4 Kc3 58. b5 Black resigns.

Parham-Losoff, 83rd U.S. Open, St. Paul, August 1982

1. 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 Qe7 4. Nf3 d6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Qh4 Be6 7. d3 Nd4 8. Nxd4 exd4 9. Bxe6 dxc3 10. Bh3 Qe5 11. Rb1 Be7 12. O-O h6 13. f4 Qc5+ 14. Qf2 d5 15. Be3 Qa5 16. e5 Nd7 17. bxc3 b6 18. Qf3 h5 19. c4 c6 20. e6 Nf6 21. Rfe1 Rd8 22. Bf2 Kf8 23. Qe2 dxc4 24. exf7 Bb4 25. c3 Bd6 26. dxc4 Kxf7 27. Qe6+ Kg6 28. Re3 h4 29. f5+ Kg5 0. Qf7 Nh5 31. Qg6+ Black resigns.

• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.