The Master Game 1980 - GM Michael Stean v GM Lothar Schmid

The Master Game chess tournament 1980 (actually recorded in 1979). English player, Michael Stean was a second to Viktor Korchnoi. Germany's Lothar Schmid, as well as being a strong grandmaster, was the chief arbiter at the famous Fischer v Spassky match in Reykjavik in 1972. He also owned one of the largest collection of chess memorabilia in the world.

[@dionlindsay2]

Schmidt's "dionagal" is very sweet.

[@jozefserf2024]

Stean wrote one of thr great chrss books of the 1970s, Simple Chess.

[@johnkececioglu6766]

Somehow a real pleasure to watch these. What a different era!

[@columkenn]

Interesting, and a more charming time

[@fccwebmeister]

Great to see a game from a new series of TMG - More Please!

[@russellfrancis6294]

Yes I agree. Thanks for this Rob.

[@aandykf]

Very interesting game!

[@anthonycollins9758]

Good game! I can’t remember this show on TV - but I was very young at the time.

[@neilmorgenstern6917]

I've put this through Stockfish. White was about +1.7 at one point As was often the problem, there was no money in chess so Michael Stean just took a regular tax consultant job and didn't make it as a "top" grandmaster.

[@omegaamigo]

This is excellent to see. Don't think I've seen this particular one since 1980! Do you have the whole of this series?

[@robclark4626]

I have a few more. I wanted to preserve as I think they would otherwise be lost.

[@omegaamigo]

@@robclark4626 Indeed. Thanks for taking the time to digitize & upload, most appreciated 🙂

[@kylen6430]

@@robclark4626this is great, I’ve only season seasons 6&7 elsewhere

[@franklincarroll6772]

Title is wrong though. This was played in 1979.

[@riveroflifeministry8299]

I thought perhaps Re7 was a mistake. He didn’t seem to have a plan after Rf8,

[@paulepstein9739]

I am going through this game with Stockfish. Re7 wasn't really a mistake from a strictly technical point of view. The first half of the game (up to and including Schmid's draw offer) were played extremely well from both sides. The theoretical truth is that Stean never had such a great position -- maybe very slightly more than the expected White edge. White's max advantage was only around 0.5 pawns. There were some moves on each side that lost about 0.1 or 0.2 pawns but both players played superbly. In particular, when Schmid offered a draw, the position was exactly equal. The error from all four commentators was in assuming that Stean's advantage was much greater than it actually was. It may have looked good but Black can hold it all together with solid defence.

[@112sje]

An Englishman plays the English opening against a German who plays a "foolish" opening and gets into a beautiful position. There could only be one winner !

[@marintanev1675]

Stean is like Caruana in the face!

[@oldmanc2]

Someone tell me how Stockfish would have beaten Schmid. Was Re7 correct?

[@Captain-Cardboard]

It was the best move according to Stockfish. Bf4 and Nd3 saw the evaluation go from 2.5 to 0.1.

[@grantross2609]

anyone ever noticed how much hair these guys have ?

[@mikedee1771]

That's how we looked in the 70's and early 80's.

[@MrCrchandler]

Oddly enough, Schmidt's initial opening has been labeled inferior since Petrosian as white flattened Korchnoi in that line in 1962. But Schmidt varied early from that game.

[@neilmorgenstern6917]

Tony Miles showed us how it's done against Schmid the following year. It was the Dane Bent Larsen who had a totally winning position against Miles then blew it that series. That proved costly. Tony Miles then went on to lose to Nigel Short in the final.