Father William

The American grandmaster William Lombardy died last week (4 December 1937–13 October 2017). He was an amazing talent in his youth, winning the Junior World Championship of 1957 with a 100 per cent score. During the early 1960s Lombardy had the potential to rival the American genius Bobby Fischer, but he decided instead to abandon chess and become a Catholic priest, though he also later renounced that vocation. As a chess-playing man of the cloth, Lombardy was the strongest since the Revd John Owen in the 19th century, who was a regular opponent of Paul Morphy.
 
Having abandoned his religious calling, Lombardy returned to chess but never quite recaptured the promising sparkle of his youth. This week’s game demonstrates that he nevertheless remained a formidable competitor against high-class opposition.
 
Lombardy-Polugaevsky: Reykjavik 1978; English Opening
 
1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 e6 3 Nf3 Bb4 4 Qc2 c5 5 a3 Ba5 6 g3 Nc6 7 Bg2 0-0 Polugayevsky had previous experience with this variation namely in the game Polugayevsky-Korchnoi, Sochi 1966, where Korchnoi played 7 … d5 and went on to lose.