Oisín McGuinness’s recent comment on the Simuls page here talks of a simul the West German grandmaster Hans-Joachim Hecht gave at Collegians C.C. (Kiely’s of Donnybrook) on April 17, 1974.
A report of the event appeared in the Irish Times (April 19, 1974 p. 4). There were 39 players, and Hecht recorded 28 wins, 7 draws, and 4 losses, to Ray Byrne, Tony Dennehy, David Dunne, and Wolfgang Eulitz. This has now been added to the Simuls page, along with the simul he gave in Wexford the following day (+22 =0 -0).
Actually, Seán Terry (of Oxford City C.C. and DisinformatorTM) sent me information about the Collegians simul some considerable time back [January 18, 2012, now that I look at the date of his email], including his game.
The game reached the following position, with White (Hecht, of course) to move. How would you evaluate this position and what would you play as White? This is not at all trivial and is well worth your time.
Hans-Joachim Hecht – Seán Terry
Simul, Dublin 1974
White to play
Answer, plus full game, in a couple of days.
[Updated July 22, 2018, with corrected name of fourth player to win.]
[July 23, 2018: see comment for solution. Click for full playable game.]
The 4th winner was W ( Wolfgang) Eulitz also a collegians member and former Double Bass player in the RTE Symphony Orchestra.
Solution: The game continuation was 42. f3? f4? 43. h3 h4 1-0, since 44. Kd4, etc., wins easily.
But Black could have drawn via 42… g4!, when White must be accurate even to split the point. After 43. f4 (43. fxg4? hxg4, 43. h3? g3, and 43. Kb5? e5 all lose; 43. h4 is the only other move that draws) 43… h4 44. g3 h3 45. Kb5 e5 46. fxe5 f4 47. e6 f3 48. e7 f2 49. e8=Q f1=Q+, the game ends in a perpetual.
From the diagrammed position, the only pawn move that wins is 42. h3!. Then 42… g4 43. hxg4 fxg4 44. g3 leads nowhere for Black, and there’s nothing else either.
In addition, 42. Kb5! wins from the diagrammed position, with the pawn on f2 (drawn if the pawn was on f3 instead).