In 1967, Ireland sent a team to the World Student Team Championship, or “Student Olympiad”, in Harrachov, Czechoslovakia. As described here ten years ago, the Student Olympiads were very strong events, with far fewer weak teams than in Olympiads, and Ireland found the going very tough. Gerry McCurdy (½/11 on board 1), Noel Kerins (1/8) and Michael Roberts (½/8) had tournaments to forget, J. B. (Brian) Tomson scored a relatively respectable 2½/9, but the top scorer was John Gibson, with 3/8.
The excellent OlimpBase report of the event is missing one of his wins, and it is not currently available in the ICU games archive or in any other database that I’m aware of. I found it in two clippings (see here and here) in a package I received from John himself back in September, and as far as I know, it appears here for the first time outside those reports.
It’s a spectacular win as Black, against the Dutch player Gerben van Manen, 1946-2021, later a correspondence chess IM (1986).
25. ?
In the diagrammed position, White has been thoroughly outplayed and is already lost. To meet the threat of … Rc2, the most natural move seems to be 25. Nde3, but after 25… Nxe3 26. Nxe3 Rd8! (threat 27… Nxe2+!!) 27. Kf2, Black has the spectacular 27… Nf3!!, winning after 28. exf3 Rxd3 29. Re2 Bd4 30. Qe1 Qd5; there must be other wins as well.
In the game, White surrendered more tamely via 25. Nd6 Qa7 26. Ne4 Rc2 27. Ra1 Qxa1! 28. Qxa1 Nxe2+ 29. Rxe2 Bxa1 30. Kf2 Bd4+ 0-1.