MICHIGAN CHESS ASSOCIATION

Information compiled by Ed and Pat Mandell

Harold E. Steen has a volunteer history of active coaching and teaching of chess to over 300 youths in Detroit area locations. He taught at Brewer Elementary School for five years, Friends School at Detroit for four years, Highland Park High School for one year, Cooley High School for three years and is currently teaching there and at Bates Academy, where he has been teaching for three years. He also currently teaches at St. John's Presbyterian Church and has done so for the past six years. Harold sponsored 36 young people at Hart Plaza Open Chess tournaments. In addition to these teachings, Harold has been involved in working with youth in scouting as a Cub Master, coached Little League and American Legion baseball and bowling.

Harold has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Michigan, has been married for 43 years and is the father of 2 children. He served in the Michigan National Guard, U. S. Army Reserves, and upon discharge had earned the rank of First Lieutenant. He retired in 1994 from Daimler Chrysler Corporation. Harold has taken many, many teams of young chess players to state and national chess tournaments, and he has been an outstanding leader and role model for numerous youths throughout Michigan.

Here are a couple of Harold’s games:

Harold Steen (1760)
Bernard Parker (877)
Hart Plaza Open, Round 4
Detroit, 1991

Réti, A04

Notes by Tim McGrew

One of the joys of playing over a collection of Rubinstein's games is the occasional shock of finding a basically positional player overwhelming his opponent with tactics. This game of Harold Steen's is a Rubinstein. Both sides build up slowly, and it looks like we should settle in for a slow siege. But White suddenly shifts over to the kingside, opens lines, sacrifices a piece and blitzes his opponent. Black must have felt about like Janowsky did when Rubinstein blew apart his castle with a dazzling display of pyrotechnics at Marienbad in 1925.

1.Nf3 e6 2.g3 b6 3.Bg2 Bb7 4.0–0 c5 5.d3 Nf6 6.e4 d6 7.Nbd2 Nbd7 8.Re1

White's setup is a standard King's Indian Attack, and it is not difficult to find thousands of games where the White pieces form this array. Black's development is more fluid and more difficult to characterize. I have some doubts that his pieces have ended up on the most useful squares, however. Wouldn't the knight on d7 look more natural on c6, where it would give Black more control of the d4 square?

8...Qc7 9.b3 Be7 10.Bb2 e5

Black wants to stifle White's bishop, and he pays a heavy price for it in the rigidity of his pawn formation. The square d5 fairly screams for a White knight, and after a bit of tacking Harold does in fact pass through that point. The f5 square is also an attractive outpost if Black castles king-side. A third idea is to slip the rook back to f1 and play for f4-5 with the sort of king-side attack normally found in a King's Indian with colors reversed.

11.Nc4 b5 12.Ncd2

Where is this knight going? To d5, as it turns out. But in that case, 12.Ne3 was probably better right away.

12...0–0 13.a4 a6 14.c4 bxa4 15.Rxa4 Bc6 16.Ra1 a5 17.Nf1 Nb8 18.Ne3 g6 19.Nd5 Bxd5 20.exd5 Na6 21.Ng5 h6 22.Ne4 Rfb8 23.Nc3 Nb4 24.Nb5 Qd8 25.Rf1!

This move shows good judgment. The queen-side is stabilized: White cannot, with any plausible rearrangement of his pieces, break through or make progress there. Harold therefore turns his attention to the king-side and with a few sharp blows he cracks open the long dark diagonal and the f-file with alarming consequences.

25...Ne8 26.f4! exf4 27.Rxf4

What a transformation a few moves can make! White's pieces have both scope and targets now. Even his central pawns are happier, as the d4 break is possible if White cannot find anything better to do. Never mind -- Harold does find something better!

27...Nc7 28.Qf1!!

This catches Black at a very bad time. His queen is the only piece within defensive reach of the f7 square, but she is momentarily tied down to the defense of the knight at c7.

28...f5

Since this gets refuted, one's first impulse is to give it a question mark. But actually there is nothing better. 28...f6 weakens the king-side pawns too much, e.g. 29.Nxc7 Qxc7 30.Bxf6+- and Black falls apart. Black can try to defend things systematically by 28...Nxb5 intending 29.cxb5 Qf8!, but surprisingly White is not obliged to recapture the piece: 29.Rxf7! Nd4 30.Bxd4 cxd4 31.Re1 Bg5 32.Re6! Be3+ 33.Kh1 and Black is stuck for a good way to defend the ruins of his castle, e.g. 33...Qg5 34.h4! Qxg3 35.Rg7+! Kh8 (35...Kxg7 36.Re7+ Kg8 37.Qf7+ Kh8 38.Qg7#) 36.Rh7+! Kxh7 37.Re7+ and White mates in two.

29.Rxf5!!

This is a superb sacrifice, the more beautiful for being unusual. Once the queen enters the attack, Black goes under with frightening speed.

29...gxf5

As it turns out, Black cannot save himself by declining the rook. 29...Nxb5 30.cxb5 gxf5 31.Qxf5+-

30.Qxf5 Nxb5 31.Qg6+ 1–0

It's mate in three more moves.

Harold Steen (1602)
Toshio Imai (1400)
Michigan Open Reserve, Round 1
Lansing, 2001

Indian: East Indian, A48

Notes by Tim McGrew

Harold starts out mildly with the Colle System, but he rapidly shows his true intentions. In playing over his games I found it difficult to come to grips with his style. Often his openings are relatively unambitious, but once his mobilization is complete he may turn even the most innocuous position into an attacking platform. Memo to Harold -- would you consider playing gambits from the outset?

1.d4 c5 2.e3

A very calm decision. David Moody would undoubtedly play 2.e4 and offer a Smith-Morra Gambit.

2...g6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Bd3 Bg7 5.0–0 cxd4?!

There's an unwritten rule in these positions that he who breaks the tension first gets the short end of the positional stick. Black would do better to leave the tension there a bit longer, perhaps throwing in ...b6 and ...Ba6!? to swap off White's light-square bishop.

6.exd4 0–0 7.b3

Since the pawn structure in the center has already been clarified, White can dispense with the fianchetto and bring the bishop out to a more active square like f4 or g5, perhaps aiming to swap off Black's fianchettoed bishop. Harold may have been afraid of ...Qb6 targeting the newly-weakened b-pawn, but if White plays c3 first and then develops the bishop he can meet that with Qd2.

7...d5 8.Bb2 Nc6 9.a3 a6 10.Nbd2 b5 11.Ne5 Qc7 12.f4

Suddenly the game takes on the character of a Stonewall Attack. White intends to swing a rook up to the third rank and over into the assault.

12...e6

This self-blocking move falls in with White's plans. 12...Bf5 is probably a better way to cope with White's growing pressure. After 13.Bxf5 gxf5 Black has enough control of e4 to drop a knight there, which would certainly help a lot.

13.Rf3 Nd7 14.Rh3 f5

This reinforces e4 and creates a very solid wall against the light-square bishop. But it also makes the e6 pawn critically weak and abandons the possibility of ...f6 at some point to evict White's knight. On balance, it seems to be a failure.

15.Ndf3 Ndxe5 16.fxe5 Bb7

Black is understandably eager to link his rooks, but now the weakness of e6 comes back to haunt him.

17.Ng5

Oops! That's a fork.

17...Rae8

It may be too late for advice, but this looks like the wrong rook since White's next two moves come with a gain of time.

18.Nxh7 Rf7 19.Ng5 Rfe7

Now the rooks are out of harm's way, but they also create a wall that shuts in the Black king and prevents Black from defending the pawn at g6.

20.Qe1 Bh8 21.Qh4 1–0

© 2003 Michigan Chess Association

Last updated: March 11, 2003