At 10:32 AM 4/29/2005 -0600, Brian Wall wrote:
On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 19:15:00 GMT, (Sam Sloan)
wrote:
Benko clearly invented the Benko Gambit. Nobody played the Benko
Gambit before Benko did, yet the Soviets refused to call it that,
perhaps because Benko was a defector, so they called it the Volga
Gambit.
Sam Sloan
The epilogue on page 6 of the aforementioned chess pamphlet states:
"Milan wishes everyone to know that it was he, and not Pal Benko , who was
first to use what is now called the Benko Gambit. He met and played Benko in
Atlanta and it was during the next round that Momic used it against a high rated
player. He (Momic) calls it the Volga Gambit. ' Benko saw me make the first
move and said it was not a good opening; after that he started using it, and
everyone called it Benko Gambit! If you are going to call it Benko Gambit, why
not Momic Gambit , because he saw me use it first!"
Another point about this I just remembered.
This reference to a chess tournament in Atlanta undoubtedly refers to
the 1967 US Open in Atlanta which was won by Benko.
It so happens that in 1995 Eric Schiller hired me to type the entire
tournament bulletins for the 1967 US Open in Atlanta into PGN Format.
This brings up another subject. I am deeply thankful to Eric Schiller
for hiring me and giving me work when I was absolutely flat broke. If
I ever do get elected to the USCF Executive Board, one of my first
motions will be to reinstate Eric Schiller who is now on persona non
grata status.
The 1967 US Open in Atlanta was played in August. The American Open
where the first published game of the Benko Gambit took place, which
was Laver-Benko, American Open 1967, took place in November, two
months later.
Milan Momic was a high 2300 player. In fact, it was once reported in
Chess Life that he had never lost a rated game. If he had played the
Benko Gambit in the 1967 US Open, the game would have been in the
tournament bulletins and I certainly would have noticed it when I
retyped those bulletins.
By the way, Bill Goichberg played in the 1967 US Open in Atlanta and
finished with one of the top scores. Pehaps he remembers this.
Sam Sloan