Chess Club Draws Princeton Without High-Rated Freshmen

Missing its six best players, the Harvard chess club nonetheless, battled a Princeton team to a tie in a four-board match at Princeton Sunday.

Highlight of the morning was a decisive upset scored by Mike Corey on board three. Bruce Leverett on board one and Hugo Cunningham on board four both led throughout their games, but had to settle for draws.

Only Eric Anderson went down in defeat. "I crushed the guy," he said. "Except that I hung a piece at the end. It was dumb."

Sweet Victory

Corey said yesterday that the quality of the play made his victory much sweeter. "That game's got to be one of my favorities," Corey said. "There weren't say real blunders by either side; it was a demonstration of a strategy, not technique." Corey played a Sicilian Defense (. . . . P-QB 4) and took full advantage of a weakness in opponent Jon Edward's pawn structure.

Corey came in second in the Booster Section (for players rated below 1600) of first month's Boston Open.

On first board, Leverett conducted a successful defense and maintained his advantage over Dong Zaeh throughout the game. But he was unable to stave off a perpetual check, and Zaeh forced a draw.

Only four members of the Harvard club made it to Princeton, but the gallant Princeton players agreed not to require a forfeit of two of the six boards originally scheduled.

Leverett, president of the club, has a rating of 1943. Before the influx of near-masters in this star-studded freshman class he was one of the highest ranked players at Harvard. Leverett came through the rigorous open section of the Boston Tourney with a 3-1 record.

Late Night Revels

Cunningham maintained an advantage over Princeton's Danny Williams throughout, but their game also ground to a draw.

"I had a win, sort of," he said, "but I suppose I was too lazy to see it through (you can guess what I was doing the night before) so I offered a draw."

Cunningham admitted, however, that the Princeton players were probably in equally poor shape the morning after the night of Princeton's football victory.

Cunningham said he played better than usual in his game, a Sicilian defense that departed from the book on the second move.

Anderson's game, also a Sicilian defense, included a next gambit, sacrificing a bishop on the 17th move. But the steam went out of him when he found he's he missed his ride back to Cambridge. "I ended up having to hitch," he said.