Dublin 1957

The closeness of the venue would have been a great attraction with regards to deciding whether Scotland should have a representative at this Zonal tournament.

William Albert Fairhurst, English-born but resident in Scotland since the early 1930s and the strongest player in the country, made the journey to Dublin.

Typical of the Zonal tournaments of the time, there were 17 rounds to be played between May 11 and June 1. This was a hard tournament for Fairhurst, who was approaching his 54th birthday. He had several very long games: a 69 move loss to van Scheltinga; a 53 move draw with Llado; a 75 move draw with Plater; a 70 move loss to the Italian Giustolisi and a 54 move loss to Schmid. Hhis four wins were scored against the tail-enders.

A short win from the 1st round against the South African (formerly of Germany) Kurt Dreyer. An interesting 2nd move from Fairhurst, one that had been tried by Kmoch v Alekhine at Semmering 1926.

W.A. Fairhurst - K. Dreyer [A80]
Dublin 1957, Zonal (1)

1.d4 f5 2.Qd3 g6 3.e4 fxe4 4.Qxe4 Nf6 5.Qh4 Bg7 6.Nf3 b6 7.Nc3 c5 8.Bh6 0-0 9.Bxg7 Kxg7 10.0-0-0 e6 11.dxc5 bxc5 12.Bd3 Bb7 13.Ng5 h6 14.Nh3 Nc6 15.Qg3 Qe8 16.Nf4 Ne7 17.Nb5 Ne4 18.Bxe4 Bxe4 19.Nd6 Qb8 20.Nh5+ Kh7 21.Nxe4 gxh5 22.Qxb8 1-0

An interesting draw with Gligoric.

S. Gligoric - W.A. Fairhurst [C73]
Dublin 1957, Zonal (4)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 d6 6.Bxc6+ bxc6 7.d4 exd4 8.Nxd4 Bd7 9.Nc3 Be7 10.h3 0-0 11.Re1 Re8 12.Qf3 c5 13.Nf5 Bxf5 14.Qxf5 Qc8 15.Qf3 Qb7 16.b3 Nd7 17.Nd5 Bf6 18.e5 Kh8 19.Bb2 Bxe5 20.Qxf7 Rf8 21.Qxd7 Bxb2 22.Rad1 Bd4 23.Ne3 Qe4 24.Qg4 Rf4 25.Qe2 Raf8 26.Ng4 Qxe2 27.Rxe2 h5 28.Nh2 Rxf2 29.Rxf2 Bxf2+ 30.Kf1 ½-½

Sources:
British Chess Magazine, p 169 crosstable;

Alan McGowan
Historian, Chess Scotland