The Critical Eye

Chess Books Examined 

by Richard Forster

The "Critical Eye" is a collection of notes and observations on chess publications of historical interest. They are highly critical, occasionally subjective, completely independent, intentionally selective and free of exclamation marks. In other words, these notes have even less to do with formal book reviews than most others appearing on the Web.

Previous items: 1) Kasparov, 2) Hübner on Fischer, 3) Kasparov.

9) Fathering a Chess Book

Chess Fathering a Nation: Adolf Albin (1848-1920) and Georg Marco (1863-1923) by O. Urcan, Moravian Chess, Olomouc 2004.

From the introduction, which manages to convey the subsequent content remarkably well (page 1):

“The fact that nationalities from the respective area have their own chess histories and traditions as they have their own future is still a dimension that needs to be recovered. This aspect is one of the main objectives of this volume. The purpose is to make a contribution to our chess memory by highlighting some less covered dimensions of a nation’s chess past: the Romanian case.

Another task which the author undertakes is regarding the short biographies of Adolf Albin and Georg Marco as well as their collection of best games; a mission which was not seriously assumed by any chess historian up to this moment.

… As a corollary, this book intends to go further than just highlighting the major headlines of the two recognized Romanian chess masters in order to offer an interpretation of their chess effort on behalf of their people. This is certainly historical justice done from the author’s perspective. There is a lack of unjustified carelessness about our own chess heroes, and this sentence is dedicated to the Romanians’ ears of the chess oriented. Unfortunately, the Romanian chess tradition and its 1890-1920s chess traditions had been eclipsed by a diversity of opposed trends.”

Not unrevealing (pages 5-6):

“Firstly, we must maintain that [Georg Marco] was not the only Romanian who discovered European culture; and met with European personalities while being a student in the largest capitals of the European states.”

The dangers of chess professionalism (page 7):

“Considering the enormous value of the chess elite’s existence in Vienna at that time, this decision [to become a professional] was not an easy task and it did not offered too many sunny prospects about the prospects of wealth. Today, the black legend of the XIXth century chess masters who died in cold poverty after they chose to become professional chess masters or even world chess champions as Stenititz [sic] did is shocking for the contemporary eye living in the third millennium.”

A remarkable career start and some maths (page 8):

“This represented a good opportunity for Marco while Bauer died and Englisch and Weiss were not as involved in the game as they did before.

In 1893 Marco lost his first match to C. Schlechter as he did not manage to score a victory and all the 10 games ended in draws. The second encounter between the two would be one year later, in 1895…”

A well-timed birth (page 9):

            “1897 was decided as the time for a Viennese chess magazine to be born.”

And a sample game (typography and spelling as in the original):

1. e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bxe7 Qxe7 7.Nb5 Qd8 8.c3 a6 9.Na3 c5 10.f4 Nc6 11.Nf3 b5 12.Nc2 c4 13.Be2 0–0 14.0–0 Nb6 15.Qd2 a5 16.Ne3 Ra7

“Trying to give the Rook more defensive missions in close relation with the King Side where the White will unfold his attack.”

17.Rae1 f6

“Of course, this is not a serious attack of the White center, rather a way to find some perspectives for Bc8 via e8-g6 and offering the possibility to defend g7,h7 for the Ra7.”

18.Bd1!

“The Bishop was the only piece that was not looking for the King Side and this thing is quickly repaired now as it is heading to c2.”

18…Bd7 19.Bc2 Be8 20.exf6 gxf6 21.Ng4

“The night is coming quick now. The wind started to blow into a perfect silence as the upcoming storm is heading upon the village...”

21…Qc8 22.f5!

“To get back to the rainy image from just above, we ask forgiveness for its extension now, but to us the Black Knights from c6 and b6 are looking just like two horses located on the hill next to the village and they are watching how the village is destroyed by storm while they are enjoying their grass!”

22…exf5 23.Bxf5 Qd8

“If 23...Qxf5 then 24.Nh6+”

24.Qh6 Rg7 25.Ng5!!

25…Bg6

“25...fxg5 fails to 26.Be6+ and 27.Rxf8+”

[Unless Black chooses to defend with the obvious move 26…Bf7. Or White to give mate in three with 26.Bxh7+. – Critical Eye]

26.Ne6 Qe7 27.Nxf8 Qxf8 28.Nxf6+! 1–0

Source: Bachmann’s Schachjahrbuch, 38, Bdchen [sic], 1923, p.337.

From Marco to Albin. The latter's motto reminds us of how the times are a-changing (page 109):

“Today to create is not an easy-done task by everyone.”

And a not-so-well-timed birth (pages 109-110):

“Gun powder, political manifestos … all these were the ingredients of highly explosive context whereby Albin was to be born. … A child born in some hospital from Bucharest, his first cries witnessed the cry of the deceased soldiers’ mothers. Albin’s birth at the end of the Revolution was a sign of a slight prophecy, as his life will never be one of perpetual peace but of a never ending struggle.”

Of Albin’s 1899 book in German we are lucky to learn the title, or at least a version thereof (page 124):

“Schach-Aphorism und Reminiszensen”

Finally, a short interlude for the French-speaking (typography exactly as in the original, page 203):

The “lack of unjustified carelessness” (see introduction) about Marco and Albin has definitely been remedied by the present work.

8) Don’t besmirch the holy bible

Volume two of Kasparov's On My Great Predecessors was published at the end of last year. Some have professed surprise that certain reviewers were so highly critical of volume one. There can be no doubt that in a number of respects the book compared favourably to many average works. However, given that the author has been the leading player for twenty years and given the unique effort put into the promotion of the series (both by himself and a number of so-called independent journalists such as Michael Greengard and the ChessBase staff), nobody should be surprised that expectations were higher than usual.

The Kasparov defenders have been working hard to convince us all that this series is a gift from the god(s) to innocent and unschooled amateurs, with well-informed criticism being neither fair nor appropriate. Accordingly, the “Critical Eye” refrains from wasting its time and energy on the follow-up volumes, just as it ignores such other international classics as Anatoly Karpov’s Disney's Chess Guide. Instead, it wishes all the faithful a good time worshipping the holy chess gospel according to Kramnik's predecessor, undisturbed by any of the books' defects and in blissful ignorance of the real history of the game.

Should, contrary to all expectation, anybody desire to add knowledge to belief, they are directed to Robert Hübner’s excellent and detailed review in Schach 11/2003 and 12/2003. Of course, prospective reviewers of the follow-up volumes better forget this last sentence quickly, for it might mean – Heaven forbid – that they would have to get acquainted with some secondary literature first…

7) An Update

Item four of this column dealt with John Watson's Chess Strategy in Action. One reader to write in was Macon Shibut, who sent his interesting review of Watson's earlier book. Here is "Modern Chess Anarchy?", reproduced with the author's permission from issue 1 of the Virginia Chess Newsletter 2000.

6) Lasker's Games

World Champion Emanuel Lasker / Weltmeister Emanuel Lasker. CD-ROM edited by André Schulz, with various contributors. ChessBase, Hamburg, 2002. English and German.

ChessBase's forays into chess history do not always distinguish themselves by real research. One of their sloppier products is the Lasker CD. The contributions by the different authors (Pötzsch, J. Fischer, Fruth, Heedt, Knaak, K. Müller, H.-D. Müller, Rogozenko, Stohl and Schulz) vary greatly in quality, but the overall impression remains poor. In particular, proper use and/or acknowledgement of first-hand sources seems to be an unknown concept to several of these writers.

Now consider this introduction to the "All Games" database:

This database contains all available games of Lasker. Not every game could be dated, however, the game dates at hand give a fascinating picture of Lasker's eventful travelling life. 

However: we cannot guarantee that each game was really played by Emanuel Lasker in this way. The fact alone that a relatively strong player like Edward Lasker had the first letter of his christian name in common with the world champion will certainly have caused some mix-ups. For example, one very famous game is often attributed to the world champion, however, it was played by Edward Lasker (if it is not a fake at all, i.e. a game which wasn't played this way): 

Then there follows the well-known Ed. Lasker–Sir George Thomas game. Why the author of those lines doubts the veracity of the game is beyond me. To my knowledge he is the first one to do so; contemporary sources do not point in this direction. Moreover, Sir George Thomas would certainly have protested against such an abuse of his name (by the way Chess Notes 11 and 383 discuss the possibility that Emanuel Lasker had played the same game too, but it seems very unlikely).

However, there is a much more serious flaw. Let us return to the database at hand, which is claimed to contain "all available" games and fragments of Lasker, 1182 in total. A proud number, but then think of this:

• 1182 includes nine games actually played by Edward Lasker at Scheveningen 1913. At the last moment somebody at ChessBase seems to have noticed this elementary mistake and marked the games as deleted. However, the producer was then too lazy actually to physically remove these games from the database. It takes no more than five seconds.
• The Collected Games of Emanuel Lasker by Ken Whyld (Nottingham, 1998) contains 1390 games and fragments. That is more than 200 extra specimens, published four years earlier (and not counting the further additions which appeared in the Quarterly for Chess History). Of course, a comparison with Whyld quickly reveals that the CD often has wrong information about players, dates, moves etc.

If even such a standard work as Whyld's lies outside the search horizon of the ChessBase research engine, what is the point of publishing an historical CD?

5) Bavarian Chess

Der Bayerische Schachbund. Aufbruch in das dritte Jahrtausend by Alfred Diel (ed.), Beyer Verlag, 2000.

Bavarian chess history is certainly not everyone's main interest, but local chess chroniques usually have a special charm of their own. Moreover, this one is an excellently produced hardback. An essential feature is the index at the back of the book (pp. 283–295), but in this case the index immediately spoils the positive first impression. Much of its amusing effect can be attributed to insufficient mastery of automatic word-processing, but from the following examples the knowledgeable reader will easily conclude that there are further problems:

Achatz, Hans Karl, 274
Achatz, Karl-Hans, 92, 104, 238
...
Alapin, Simon, 261
Alapin, Simon, 41, 42, 45
...
Albin, 31
Albin, Adolf, 49, 276, 281
...
Anderssen, Adolph, 19
...
Arpad, Walter, 113 
...
August, Karl, Walbrodt, 261
...
Bagirow, 168
...
Berger, Johann, 19, 23, 24
Berger, Johann, 23
...
Bier, Martin, 23
...
Bird, Harry E., 23
...
Blackburn, Harry James, 23, 31, 281

And so on. The better known a player, the higher the chances that his first name was forgotten (Bronstein, Chalifman, Charousek, Donner, Gipslis, Golombek, etc.). 

Below follow some further unexpected entries:

Carl, Schlechter, 24
Freiherr, Walter, von, Holzhausen, 51, 56, 109, 276
Heidelberger, Gesellschaft, der, Schaffzabelspieler, 17
José, Raoul, Capablanca, 74
Karl, August, Walbrodt, 31
Mall, Geistliche, Rat, Sebastian, 18
Nelson, Harry, Pillsburry, 263, 281, 281
Ossip, S. Bernstein, 24
P. Michell, Reginald, 136
Raoul, José, Capablanca, 63, 64, 275, 277

A record is held by Friedrich Köhnlein, with four consecutive entries in his honour:

Köhnlein, 191
Köhnlein, Franz, 37, 39
Köhnlein, Franz, 49
Köhnlein, Friedrich, 43, 45, 49, 103, 121, 122, 193, 250, 274, 275, 276

And the ultimate favourite:

Paul, Grossmeister, Keres, 239

Only Garry, World Champion, Kasparov is missing.

4) Watson's Chess Strategy

Chess Strategy in Action by John Watson, Gambit Publications, 2003.

The sequel to John Watson’s highly acclaimed Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy (1998) has already received a number of highly favourable (deservedly so, for the most part) reviews. This is not the place to repeat the praise – justified as it would be in many respects – but to concentrate on the historical perspective, which even though not of foremost importance to the book’s author, is the focus of these pages.

Looking at the players’ index (for this type of book a technical index would be very useful, by the way), the reader quickly notes that Watson focuses almost entirely on modern chess, often from the last five or ten years, while historical examples are quite rare. There are good reasons for concentrating on present day chess, but in my opinion the attitude towards the players of the past is somewhat unsatisfactory. Watson emphasises again and again how these days certain ways of playing have become common-place and part of every master’s arsenal, while a few decades ago the same ideas would have been considered outrageous and almost unthinkable. Only rarely do we learn about the actual roots of these modern stratagems, which quite often did indeed lie in the play of Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca and their contemporaries. It would have been nice if Watson had taken the trouble to illustrate not just modern chess in great detail but also how it came to be and how some ideas can be tracked back to the old masters. As it is, the reader is often led to underestimate the inventiveness and clear-sightedness of the players of the past.

As noted by Watson in the introduction, it is not possible to give general rules or guidelines for most of the topics discussed in his book, and thus he relies heavily on examples. On the other hand, when judging the art of the past masters, Watson often resorts to their writings (such as Réti’s and Tarrasch’s textbooks) which of necessity were often based on over-simplification and did not fully reflect the thinking processes of these masters in actual play. In fact, their games often portray a much more differentiated picture than their writings.

I believe that for most of the topics in Chess Strategy in Action it would be worthwhile to investigate their roots and development further back than Watson does. There follow a number of such observations.

The Queenside Majority Myth

On page 150 Watson notes that only rather recently did the old notion of the advantage of the queenside majority lose its relevance. He goes on to expound on how in reality the queenside majority is very often even a disadvantage. Watson is right to expose this old myth, but he overlooks the point that the myth of the queenside majority is itself rather a myth. True enough, the “advantage of the queenside majority” was a central part of Steinitz theory, but it is wrong to assume that Steinitz’ successors had the same blind belief in it. How often did Lasker, Capablanca or Alekhine refer to that concept? Hardly ever. Furthermore, a statistical look at the games of the top twenty masters from the 1880-1915 period reveals that they showed no inclination towards the queenside majority and were equally disposed to play with or against it. Thus, while in some post-Steinitz textbooks the concept has indeed been reiterated until recently, it has been absent from many others as well as from practical play at the highest level. It was definitely far from the sacrosanct “rule” that Watson and others want to make us believe it was. Such a scholar and Steinitz disciple as Tarrasch even disagreed explicitly with Steinitz’ opinion (see pp. 216–217 of the 1935 edition of The Game of Chess). Thus it can be concluded that – even though it might not have been reflected in all the textbooks – many of the leading players had dismissed the queenside majority myth a very long time ago.

The Modern King’s Gambit

On page 135 we read that the modern approach to the King’s Gambit, emphasising positional gains over all-out attack, gained currency with David Bronstein’s adoption of the opening. This may be correct in some respects, but it neglects the fact that, among many others, Steinitz and Rubinstein had included the Gambit in their repertoire, and clearly these masters used it as a positional weapon. Just remember the Steinitz Gambit 1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 f4 exf4 4 d4 Qh4+ 5 Ke2, which is perhaps the most positional opening idea on record. Also, it may serve as a remainder that at all times the leading players have been inventive and ready to experiment with “absurd” moves, and not just recently.

The Doubled Pawns

In Chapter 2.2 (pages 107ff.) Watson claims that the treatment of doubled pawns has become much more complex in recent years. “In many situations, players no longer view doubled pawns as weaknesses to be compensated for but as natural or even positive features of the position.” One impressive example that he gives (inspired by a Peter Wells article in ChessBase Magazine) is Rogozenko-Morozevich, Istanbul 2000:

Here Morozevich played 21...Qf6! 22.Qxf6 gxf6 and went on to win the endgame after 23.h5 h6 24.Rh4 c5 25.Be2 Bb3! etc. Although Watson gives a fair number of notes to this game, he does not seem to have researched it too well. For instance, he overlooks the fact that Rogozenko himself had annotated it in depth for ChessBase Magazine. He claims that 25.b4! would have kept the balance, an observation which should definitely have been included in the notes – independently of whether it is true or not.

The point here, however, is to show that such a remarkable idea is not the exclusive property of modern players. The following example is at least as impressive:

W. Winter – G. Maroczy, London 1932

From this clearly inferior position Maroczy saved himself with a totally unexpected manoeuvre:

24...Qf8!? 25.Qc2 Bf6!

Just as in the previous example, Black does not mind his pawn structure being gravely impaired since in return an important defensive piece is exchanged (here the Bd4, in the previous example the white queen). An additional benefit in this position is that the queen can be activated via h6.

26.Bxf6 gxf6 27.Rc8

The most natural continuation, gaining access to the seventh rank. After the restrained 27.e3 both the passive 27…Qd6, followed by 28…Qe5, and the active  27...d4!? come into consideration. For instance, 27...d4 28.Rc8 Rd8 29.Rxd8 Qxd8 30.Qd3 (after 30.Qd2 d3 Black also seems to generate enough counter-play) Qc7 31.exd4 Qc1+ 32.Bf1 Bh3 33.d5 Kf8 and Black appears to hold.

27...Rd8 28.Rc7 Qh6! 29.f4

After 29.Rxa7 Rc8 30.Rc7 Rxc7 31.Qxc7 Qd2 Black has enough counter-play (Alekhine in the tournament book). The critical line appears to be 29.e3, and if 29...d4 30.Qd3, when Black’s defensive task remains difficult.

29...Qh5 30.Bf3?

Alekhine recommended 30.Rxa7 Rc8 31.Qd2 as “decidedly in White’s favour”. Still, after 31...Qf5 Black maintains considerable counter-play against White’s king and good practical chances for survival. In many variations Black’s king turns out to be better protected than White’s – owing to the “ugly” doubled pawns.

30...Bg4 31.Bxg4 Qxg4 32.Rxa7 Re8

Black’s initiative now secures an easy draw. If 33.Kf2 Qh3.

33.Qc7 Qe6 34.Rb7 Qe3+ 35.Kh1 Qe4+ Drawn.

The following examples may also serve to show that the leading players of the past were much less dogmatic about doubled pawns than might be believed:

J. Noa – S. Winawer, Berlin 1881

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d3 d6 5.Nc3 Bg4 6.h3 Bh5 7.Be3 Bb4 8.a3 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 h6 10.Bb5 Bxf3 11.Qxf3 Qf6 12.Qxf6 gxf6!?

There was nothing wrong with 12...Nxf6, but Winawer preferred the undogmatic text move. Note that he will not be able to undouble these pawns by ...f6-f5.

13.c4 a6 14.Ba4 Nge7 15.g4 0–0–0 16.c3 Rdg8 17.Kd2 Nd8 18.Bd1 Ne6 19.Be2 Nc6 20.Raf1 Kd7 21.f4 Ke7 22.fxe5 fxe5 23.Rf5 Rh7 24.Rhf1 b6 25.h4 Nb8 26.Rh5 Rgh8 27.Rhf5 Nd7 28.d4 Rg8 29.R1f2 Rg6 30.Kd3 f6 31.Kd2 Rg8 32.Rf1 c5 33.d5 Nd8

and Black had a very solid position.

F. Marshall – S. Tarrasch, Nuremberg, 1905

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bc5 4.d3 d6 5.Na4 Bb6 6.Nxb6 axb6 7.f4 Be6 8.Bxe6 fxe6 9.fxe5 dxe5

and Black won in a famous endgame.

H. von Gottschall – F. Marshall, Düsseldorf, 1908

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 d5 4.exd5 Nxd5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.h3 Nb6 7.Bb3 Be7 8.0–0 a5 9.a3 a4 10.Ba2 

(see Diagram)

10...Be6 11.Bxe6 fxe6 12.Nc3 0–0 13.Ne4 Nd5 14.Be3 Qe8 15.Kh2 Qg6 16.g3 Rf5 17.c4 Nxe3 18.fxe3 Raf8 19.Qe2 h5 with double-edged play.

C. Schlechter – S. Tarrasch, Hamburg, 1910

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Bb5 Nge7 5.0–0 0–0 6.d4 d6 7.h3 a6 8.Be2 exd4 9.Nxd4 Nxd4 10.Qxd4 Bc5 11.Qd3 Nc6 12.Qg3 Be6 13.Bg5 f6 14.Bh6 Qd7 15.Rad1 Kh8 16.Be3 Bxe3

(see Diagram)

17.fxe3!?

Daring to play such a move against a player of Tarrasch’s calibre deserves admiration. The latter did not approve of it in his notes (cf. Deutsche Schachzeitung 1910, pages 262–264) but added that after 17.Qxe3 f5! 18.f4 fxe4 19.Nxe4 Rae8 Black also had a pleasant game.

17...Ne5 18.Bd3 Rae8 19.Rf4 Bf7 20.Rdf1 Ng6 21.R4f2 Re5 22.Ne2 Rfe8 23.Nf4 Rg5 24.Nxg6+ hxg6

Since 24...Rxg6! would have prevented the following queen sacrifice, Schlechter should have inverted his 24th and 25th moves.

25.Qxg5 fxg5 26.Rxf7

and White was able to hold his own.

C. Jaffe – D. Janowski, New York match, 1916

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 dxc4 4.e3 a6 5.a4 Bg4 6.Bxc4 e6 7.Nc3 Be7 8.0–0 0–0 9.b3 c5 10.d5 exd5 11.Nxd5 Nc6 12.Bb2 Nxd5 13.Qxd5 Bf6 14.Qxd8 

(see Diagram)

Here 14...Bxd8 would have been perfectly playable, but Janowski showed no fear of the doubled pawns and continued with 14...Rfxd8!? 15.Bxf6 gxf6. White won in the end, but the idea was remarkable.

  J. Mieses – A. Rubinstein, Berlin 1918

1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qc4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Be7 6.Be3 0–0 7.0–0–0 Ng4 8.Qe2 Nxe3 9.Qxe3 d6 10.f4 Bf6 11.Nf3 Bxc3 12.Qxc3 

(see Diagram)

12...Qf6!? 13.Qxf6 gxf6

Black has a solid position and obtained a clear advantage in the further course of the game:

14.Bb5 Ne7 15.f5 a6 16.Bd3 Nc6 17.Ng1 Ne5 18.Nh3 Bd7 19.Nf4 Bc6 20.Nh5 Nd7 21.g4 Rfe8 22.Rde1 Re5 23.Re2 Rae8 24.Rhe1 Kf8 25.Kd2 b5 etc.

A. Rubinstein – C. Schlechter, Berlin, 1918

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6 3.c4 Bg4 4.Nc3 Nbd7 5.h3

A similar form of this modern idea is discussed by Watson on pages 125-127. The present game shows that even back in 1918 a leading master had no qualms about accepting the doubled pawns. In fact he even provokes them.

5…Bxf3 6.exf3 e5 7.Be3 c6 8.Be2 Be7 9.0–0 0–0 10.Qc2 Qc7 11.Rad1 exd4 12.Bxd4 Rfe8 13.f4 with an advantage to White.

Turning to another opening, I would like to point out that in the Exchange Variation of the French Defence players nowadays seem to be much less inclined to accept doubled pawns on the kingside after Bxf6 gxf6 or ...Bxf3/gxf3 than in the nineteenth century (more on this topic appeared in my December 1999 Late Knight column).

O. Bernstein – A. Alekhine, Moscow, 1918

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d3 d6 5.Be3 0–0 6.Bxc5 dxc5 7.Nge2 Be6 8.Bxe6 fxe6

(see Diagram)

9.0–0 Nh5 10.Qd2 Nc6 11.f3 Qe7 12.Nd1 Rad8 13.Ne3 Nf4 14.g3 Nh3+ 15.Kg2 Ng5 16.h4 Nf7 17.Rf2 Nd6 18.b3 Nd4 19.Ng4 Nf7 20.f4 exf4 21.Nxf4 e5 22.Ne2 Qe6 23.Ne3 Nd6 24.Raf1 Rxf2+ 25.Rxf2 Nxb3 26.Qc3 Nd4 27.Qxc5 Nxe2 28.Rxe2 Rf8 29.Qd5 Qxd5 30.exd5 e4 31.d4 Nb5 32.c3 Rf3 33.Nd1 Rd3 34.Nf2 Nxc3 35.Rc2 Nxd5 36.Rb2 Rxd4 37.Rxb7 Rd2 38.Kg1 e3 39.Ne4 Rd1+ 40.Kg2 e2 41.Ng5 Kf8 42.Rb8+ Ke7 43.Nf3 e1Q White resigned.

 Flohr – Lasker, Nottingham, 1936

1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 Qd6 7.Bxf6

(see Diagram)

7...gxf6

A highly impressive choice, even if it turns out to be a dubious one.

8.Qc2 Nc6 9.e3 Ne7 10.a3 Bxc3+ 11.Qxc3 f5 12.g3 Bd7 13.Ne5 Be6 14.Nd3 0–0 15.Be2 Rad8 16.0–0 Bc8 17.Rac1 c6 18.Qc5 Qxc5 19.Rxc5 Kg7 20.b4 a6 21.a4 Kf6 22.Rc2 Ke6 23.b5 axb5 24.axb5 Kd6 25.bxc6 bxc6 26.Nc5 Rde8 27.Ra1 Be6 28.Rca2 Rb8 29.Ra7 Rb6 30.Bh5 Rfb8 31.Bxf7 Rb1+ 32.Rxb1 Rxb1+ 33.Kg2 Nc8 34.Rb7 Rxb7 35.Nxb7+ Ke7 36.Bxe6 Kxe6 37.Kf3 Ne7 38.Nc5+ Black resigned.

The above examples show that many interesting "modern" ideas can also be found in the play of the old masters. Perhaps they did not use them quite as frequently and  successfully as the masters of today, but their pioneering efforts surely deserve more attention. John Watson's indifference to historical matters in his otherwise valuable work is therefore a great pity.  

All diagrams created with ChessBase 8.0.

www.chesshistory.com.
Copyright Richard Forster. 2001-2004.