In honor of my chess teacher - 2025

In January GM Boris Spassky died [1], in February GM Robert Hübner [2], in May GM Vlastimil Hort [3], and in between my uncle, at 91 year old, and my chess teacher died in April. I had the fortune to visit him every day during three weeks and share some chess anecdotes. During those three weeks he had lost interest in the world and had been mostly without emotions but something remarkable happened. A few days before he died, when he already could no longer speak, I told him a fun anecdote, which I had read on the Internet. GM Miguel Najdorf and GM Alexander Kotov were playing in a tournament. At one point Najdorf happily swapped off the last pawn leaving Kotov with just two knights against a long king. With joy in his eyes Najdorf looked at Kotov but Kotov said : "Have you not heard that some chess players in Siberia have found out how to force checkmate with two knights versus long king ?". Najdorf's face became completely pale. Kotov smiled and said it was a joke. When I told that story my uncle's face was full of happiness. After I left, on the way home, I thought to myself, "This anecdote is something that my uncle told me decades ago". And that was correct. It was the little chess booklets written by IM Hans Bouwmeester that provided those anecdotes and made chess more joyful.
As a teenager I was fascinated by the chess games that my uncle showed me, the stories about the Spassky - Fischer match in 1972, and the countless chess anecdotes and jokes. One thing that I will never forget is the Damiano defense lines that my uncle showed me. It shows that pushing the f pawn can have its disadvantages. The bishop takes b7 tactic was something that did strike me like something fantastic!
Last year I visited my then 90 year old uncle at home. He showed me a chess game from himself from decades ago (He was club champion several times at two chess clubs) without consulting the notation paper. Impressive! My uncle has been my chess hero since decades and I can imagine this will stay the same for some time.

I'm sharing some variations from the Damiano defense :

[1] Frederic Friedel about GM Boris Spassky
https://en.chessbase.com/post/boris-spassky-1937-2025

[2] In Dutch, GM Paul v/d Sterren about GM Robert Hübner
https://maxeuwe.nl/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/MEC_Mag_110.pdf

[3] To honor GM Hort I'm sharing a video where you can see and hear him with GM Pfleger from German TV.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=KTRWdLU2Rho