To enjoy the game in this video in all its splendor, you must remember at all times that it was played in 1969. There was nothing close, nor remote, to the computer modules that today instantly tell us what the world champion has committed. a mistake. His enormous beauty was generated by Víctor Héctor Ortiz, an obviously very brilliant player who left chess abruptly when he was qualifying for the World Correspondence Championship. A work of art like this, produced in postal chess, requires very deep analysis seasoned by tremendous creativity and unusual love of risk.
There is an idea that runs through the game and that remains valid more than half a century later, although with important nuances. Already in 1969 it was known – perhaps it is better to say it was sensed – that the Latvian Gambit was a very high-risk and scientifically erroneous opening choice, but very dangerous in the hands of very creative and daring players. Today it can continue to be used with those same criteria… but only from time to time because the analyzes of silicon chess players now distinguish with great precision what is beautiful from what is good.
