CHESMAYNE

Philidor Francois Andre

Philidor Playing Blindfold at Parsloe’s
Engraving from the Sporting Magazine, 1794.

1726-1795. Author - leading player of the 18^th century - ahead of his time. His keen insight was that the mps were an important force in themselves and not just as a compliment to the MPs. He was a court composer in Versailles and a refugee from the French Revolution. Skilled at blindfold chess. His bicentenary was celebrated in 1995. His father was the royal music librarian who had 20 children by marrying a second wife 50 years his junior! Those interested in finding out more about Philidor should write to: 53 Abbots Drive, Waltham Abbey, Essex EN9 3HH. England. Phone: 01992 715589.

Francois-Andre Danican Philidor - 1726-1795

Although Philidor was the greatest chess player of his time, he professed to be just a musical composer (of which he was great in his day), because chess was not fully understood by the masses.

He was the first great blindfold chess player, playing three opponents while blindfolded. He did this three times. In the 18^th century, this almost amounted to witchcraft. He was the first to understand the value of playing the pawns correctly and hence wrote the first real strategy book on chess. He invented the Philidor’s Defense:

His musical skills were of the highest order. In his career, he composed more than 20 operas. At the age of six, he became a member of the Chapel-Royal choir in Versailles. This is where he learned chess, as musicians in those days were very knowledgeable in chess, or at least, more than the average person. He learned by watching others play. There were other great players that learned chess this way: Morphy, Capablanca, Karpov, etc.

At the age of 11, his first musical composition was played before King Louis XV. That is definitely big time stuff. When he was 14, his voice changed, and he had to leave the Chapel-Royal choir.

At 15, he was tutored in chess by France's greatest chess player of the day, Sire de Legal. Three years later, he quit instructing Philidor, because he became stronger than he was. At 18, Philidor had become the strongest chess player in the world, with no one to tutor him anymore.

At this time (1744), Philidor played two chess games blindfolded simultaneously in public in Paris. He said he learned how to do this when he could not sleep at night and played chess without sight of a chessboard. This was the first time blindfold play against two opponents was ever recorded.

Philidor became quite famous with his chess abilities at this time. He played chess against Voltaire and Rousseau. And, of course, he creamed them.

At the age of 19, Philidor went to Rotterdam, Holland to present his musical compositions. But the concerts were cancelled and he was stranded in Holland with no money. He then supported himself by teaching and playing chess and Polish checkers, especially to English army officers at The Hague.

At the age of 21, he travelled to London, England and beat the two best English chess players of the day, Stamma and Sir Janssen, at Slaughter's coffee house.

Philidor was at the top of the world at this point. Phillip Stamma was the best English player, and Philidor challenged him to a ten-game match with an extraordinary set of rules. Philidor insisted that Stamma play White in all of the games, and that any draw would count as a win for Stamma. This is either cocky or stupid. Nevertheless, Stamma accepted the terms (who wouldn't?) and Philidor won 8 games and lost 2, one of the losses being a drawn game. He also beat Sir Janssen 4 wins and 1 loss.

At 22, Philidor wrote L'analyze des Eschecs (Analysis of Chess). Some of the early subscriptions were: Lord Sandwich (10 copies), Duke of Cumberland (50 copies), English army officers (119 copies). This made Philidor and the publishers quite wealthy.

At 23, 433 copies of his book were published in London, England. It was the first chess book translated into Russian, and was one of the favorite books of Thomas Jefferson. This was the first chess book that organized the chess openings.

He was invited to the courts of Europe to play chess in front of the royalties. He played in King Frederick's castle at Potsdam. He played for the Duke of Mirepoix. In 1755, he beat the great Legal in a match at the Café del la Regence in Paris, France.

He spent the next 40 years of his life intermixing chess and composing music. In 1795, at the age of 68, he died in London, England. The newspaper obituary read, "On Monday last, Mr. Philidor, the celebrated chess player, made his last move, into the other world".

Terry Crandall

Francois-Andre Danican Philidor - 1726-1795

Francois-Andre Danican Philidor was born on September 7, 1726 in Dreux, France. His father Andre (1647-1730) was the keeper of the music for King Louis XIII of France. In 1725, Andre introduced the public concert. Andre had 20 children and was 79 when Francois-Andre was born. Francois was the last child of Andre and the first son of his third wife. Andre’s third wife was in her 20s.

In 1731 at the age of six, Francois-Andre entered the choir of the Chapel-Royal in Versailles. As a pageboy in the royal chapel, he studied music with Andre Campra. Philidor’s father had died earlier and was living on a royal pension. The young Philidor was recognized as a musical prodigy among the 80 musicians.

In 1736 at the age of 10, Francois-Andre was exposed to chess by the musicians who played chess during spells of inactivity. Cards were forbidden to pass the time, so chess was played. He learned the game by watching the band members play. He later visited the Cafe de la Regence in Paris and spent much of his time playing chess there.

In 1737, at the age of 11, his first music composition, a religious piece, was played before King Louis XV. He left the Chapel Royal choir in 1740 when his voice changed. In 1740 he went to Paris where he earned a living by copying music and giving music lessons.

In 1741 Philidor was being instructed by M. de Kermur, Sire de Legal (1702-1792), the leading French chess player. Legal initially gave Philidor RO odds. For the next three years Kermur taught Philidor until Philidor was too strong for his teacher.

In 1744 Philidor played two chess games blindfolded simultaneously in public in Paris. He said he had learned how to do this when he could not sleep at night and played chess without sight of a board. This was the first time blindfold play against two opponents was recorded. This performance was chronicled in the article on chess by the Chevalier de Jaucourt for the great Encyclopedie of Diderot and D’Alembert in 1751. Philidor played chess with Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, both persistent but weak chess players.

In December, 1745, Philidor went to Rotterdam to assist in presenting concerts with Geminiani and Lanza. The musical tour involved a 13-year old girl who played the harpsichord. However, she died during the concert tour. Later, the concerts were cancelled because of the girl’s death and he was stranded in the Netherlands with no money. He supported himself by teaching and playing chess and Polish draughts (10 by 10 checker board), especially to English army officers at The Hague. The English officers suggested that Philidor could make a living playing chess in England.

In 1747 he went to London and started playing chess at Slaughter’s coffee-house. There, he beat Phillip Stamma and Sir Abraham Janssen (1720-1795), two of England’s top chess players, in chess matches.

Philidor challanged Stamma to a 10-game match and he stipulated that Stamma was to have White in all games and that draws were counted victories for Stamma. Philidor won 8 games, lost 1, and drew 1. He also beat Janssen with 4 wins and 1 loss. From that time on, Philidor was the unofficial champion of the world.

In 1748 Philidor, age 22, returned to Holland and wrote L’analyse du jeu des Eschecs (Analysis of the Game of Chess). Philidor went out to find subscribers for the book before it was published to pay for publishing costs. Lord Sandwich subscribed to 10 copies. The Duke of Cumberland subscribed to 50 copies. The English army officers subscribed to 119 copies. The moves were written out as full sentences.

In 1749, 433 copies of his ‘Analysis of Chess’ were published in London. Two more reprints occurred in 1749 and an English version followed in 1750. The book was the first chess book translated into Russian (1824) and was one of the favorite books of Thomas Jefferson. The book analyzed 4 games and 10 variations of games. Philidor favored the BSs Opening and frowned upon the King's Knight Opening as weak. The book has gone through more than 100 editions, 4 in the first year.

Philidor’s chess book was the first chess book that organized the openings, that explained the middlegame, the overall strategy of chess, and the importance of PA formation. In his book he made the observation that ‘Les pions sont l’ame du jeu’ (the PAs are the life of the game). This phrase has become “the PAs are the soul of chess”. His book was also the first to examine the RO+BS versus RO endgame. It also had some analysis of 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6, the Philidor’s Defense.

By 1750 Philidor was considered the strongest player in France, England, and the Netherlands. The French Ambassadaor, the Duke of Mirepoix, invited Philidor for his weekly chess dinners.

In 1751 Philidor left England for Prussia, playing before KI Frederick (Frederick the Great) at Potsdam. He then visited Berlin where he played three blindfold games simultaneously, winning them all. He then returned to England.

In November 1754 he returned to France after being gone for 9 years. He started composing music again. He did not return to England until 1772. He applied unsuccessfully for the post of court composer at Versailles. A rumor had started that nobody could be a chess master and compose good music, so his church music was not really his own. His church music was not accepted by the French royalty because Philidor added an Italian influence to it, so he turned to comedy opera.

In 1755 he beat Legal in a chess match at the Cafe de la Regence.

On February 13, 1760, at age 33, he married Angelique Richer (1736-1809). He had 5 sons and 2 daughters with her.

In 1761 he composed the opera ‘Le Marechal ferrant’.

In 1764 he composed the opera ‘Le Sorcier’.

In 1765 he composed the opera ‘Tom Jones’ for the theater based on Fielding’s novel. It was his 11^th opera that he had composed since 1759.

In 1771 and 1773 he made brief trips to London to play at the Salopian coffee house, Charing Cross, and the St. James Chess Club. He returned for seasonal chess lectures in 1775 and 1792.

In 1774 the Parsloe’s chess club on St. James Street, was formed in London, with a distinguished membership limited to 100. A fund was raised to enable Philidor to spend from February to June at the club. Philidor visited the club as resident master for 20 years. He gave lessons for a crown each.

In 1777 he published a second edition of his book under the patronage of the London Chess Club at Parsloe’s. There were 283 subscribers, including Lord Sandwich. Philidor added six other games to the original four games that he analyzed. In this book he described the rule for castling as we know it now. However, there was a footnote: “The old way of castling in several countries, and which still subsists in some, was to leave to the player’s disposal, all the interval the KI and the RO, inclusively, to place there these two pieces”. So, as recently as 1777, you could put the KI and RO anywhere you wanted on the back rank. The book was dedicated to the Duke of Cumberland.

In 1779 he produced his major choral work, the ‘Carmen saeculare’, while in London. In 1780 he composed ‘Persee’.

On May 27, 1782, Philidor played two games blindfolded simultaneously at the Parsloe’s, drawing one (to Count Bruhl) and losing one (to Mr. Bowdler).

On May 27, 1783 Philidor played three blindfold games simultaneously, winning two and drawing one. In nine blindfold performances, Philidor won 10, drew 4, and lost 6. In 1783 a new chess club was established in Paris under the patronage of Louis XVIII with Philidor invited to teach and play chess.

In 1785 he composed ‘Themistocle’.

In 1790 a third edition of Philidor’s book was published, under the patronage of the London chess club.

In December 1792, at age 65, he left France for England, never to return. His music was banned from France after the French Revolution for political reasons. He had to leave his wife and children behind.

In 1795 he published a third edition of his book, dedicating it to his friend and patron, Count Bruhl (1736-1809). He wanted to return to France, but he was considered an imigre and would have been arrested or executed.

Philidor’s last blindfold performance was on June 20, 1795 at the London chess club. He played two games blindfolded and a third game with sight of the board. One of his opponents was George Atwood (1746-1807), the mathematician and churchman.

On August 24, 1795, at age 68, he died in London. The newspaper obituary read, “On Monday last, Mr. Philidor, the celebrated chess player, made his last move, into the other world”. He is buried at St. James Church in London.

Only 68 games from his last years have been recorded, either played blindfolded or at odds. Philidor was in his 60s when the games were recorded.

Philidor wrote over 21 operas during his musical career.

In 1835 George Walker published A Selection of Games at Chess: Actually Played by Philidor and his Contemporaries. It contains 47 of Philidor’s games. It is based on the note-taking of George Atwood.

In 1863 George Allen published ‘The Life of Philidor, Musician and Chess-Player’.

His bust is carved into the Opera House in Paris, where it can still be seen along with his family coat of arms, which has a chessboard in it.

Jean-Jaques Rousseau’s Confessions mentions Philidor with reference to music and chess.

Siegbert Tarrasch

The great chess player Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch was born in Breslau, Germany on March 5, 1862, the site of Dr. Lasker’s great two BS sacrifice in 1887 (in Lasker’s first Masters tournament). He was born with a club foot, but he noted once that it did not hinder his progress.

Tarrasch was a great scholar, excelling in all subjects but mathematics. At 15, he learned the game of chess. He was mostly astonished that there were books written about chess.

Young Tarrasch devoured in an unsystematic but efficient way, all of the chess literature available to him. Breslau was perfect for thi - the immortal Adolph Anderssen had been born in Breslau and taught at one of the universities there. Tarrasch displayed a marked aptitude for chess from the very start, and became so absorbed in the game that he had little time left for such trifles such as homework. He made up for the lost time with more diligent study. He graduated in the study of medicine, and then went to the University of Berlin to complete his studies.

His first attempt in a “Hauptturnier”, to become chess master (only the winner gets the title of master), failed in 1882. In 1883, however, he won first prize at the Hauptturnier at Nuremberg and the title of Master in scintillating style.

By the time Tarrasch sent in his entry for the International Tournament at Hamburg in 1885, he had passed all examinations and was a full-fledged physician. Then, and later, he was to know how taxing it is to combine tournament chess with the practice of another profession. At Hamburg, Dr. Tarrasch ended up in a 5-way tie with Blackburne, Englisch, Mason and Weiss, all Internationally known players, ½ point behind the winner Gunsberg. Both Steinitz and Zukertort acclaimed the 23-year old player’s chess prowess.

At Frankfort, 1887, he only tied for 5^th prize. But it was a strong tournament. In 1888 he came in last at Leipzig, after winning a small tournament at Nuremberg. But things changed in 1889. He came in first at Breslau, 1889; Berlin, 1889; Manchester, 1890; Dresden, 1892; and Leipzig, 1894. He tied a match with the legendary Tchigorin in 1893.

At this point Tarrasch earned the right to be reckoned with, and sure enough, received an offer to play Wilhelm Steinitz in a match for the World Championship. Tarrasch declined to play because of his medical practice. Steinitz, in dire need of monies, then queried Dr. Emanuel Lasker, who accepted the World Championship match offer. Dr. Lasker won in 1894, and was Chess World Champion for 27 years. While Dr. Lasker was alive, Dr. Tarrasch would be never more than second fiddle, since Dr. Lasker was his chess superior in every way, and one of the greatest chess players that ever lived.

At the famous Hastings tournament of 1895, Dr. Tarrasch came second to the great Pillsbury, and at the great Nuremberg tournament of 1896, Dr. Tarrasch came second to Dr. Lasker. He won first prize in the marathon tournament at Vienna in 1898, but Dr. Lasker didn’t participate. In 1905, he beat the US Champion Frank Marshall overwhelmingly in their match, and in 1907, Dr. Tarrasch won the Ostend Championship in classy style. In 1914, he beat his then theoretical archrival Nimzowitch in a famous two BS sacrifice, and went on to be one of the five original Grandmasters named by Czar Nicholas (Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall).

From that point on, he basically spent his chess time writing chess books, some of the most lucid ever written. In his last book, ‘The Game of Chess’, he wrote the following passage…….

“Chess is a form of intellectual productiveness. Therein lies its peculiar charm. Intellectual productiveness is one of the greatest joys - if not the greatest one - of human existence. It is not everyone who can write a play, or build a bridge, or even make a good joke. But in chess everyone can, everyone must, be intellectually productive and so can share in this select delight. I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of chess, just as I would pity the man who has remained ignorant of love. Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy”.

Terry Crandall

EMANUEL LASKER - 1868-1941

Lasker was a great man... Mathematician... Chess World Champion... A great man... Great.

He was born on Christmas Eve, December 24^th, 1868, in Brandenburg, Germany. One of my favorite music pieces is Johannes Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.

Emanuel’s older brother, Berthold Lasker, taught Emanuel chess at the age of 11. In 1889 in Breslau, at the age of 21, Emanuel won the German title of Master of Chess. But, most important, it was he that introduced the two-BS sacrifice. This is the earliest example of that great chess strategy!

Only Five years later, in 1894, Lasker challenged Steinitz for the World Chess Championship. Lasker won! He was to remain the World Chess Champion until 1921. The great chess player Steinitz who had been World Champion for 28 years was famous for his introduction of strategy to chess. Lasker is most famous for seeing that chess is a struggle between two minds. In practicing that theorem he smashed Steinitz, Pillsbury and Tchigorin.

But before that, Lasker had terrific results. In 1890 in Berlin, he defeated Curt von Bardeleben and Jacques Mieses in a match and he and his brother tied for first place in a tournament as well.

Lasker then visited the United States in 1893 where he won the New York International. He defeated the American Champion, Jackson Showalter, with 6 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses. And in 1894 Dr. Lasker realized his desire to challenge Wilhelm Steinitz for the World Championship in New York. Lasker won with 10 wins, 4 draws, and 5 losses. Emanuel Lasker had become the second World Chess Champion at age 25.

Lasker contracted Typhoid fever and was still recovering in 1895 when he took third place in Hastings, England behind Pillsbury and Tchigorin. The German version of his book, ‘Common Sense in Chess’ was published in 1896 and the English version was published in 1897. The book was based on a series of lectures that Lasker had previously given in London.

In January, 1896, Lasker won a tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia, ahead of Steinitz, Pillsbury and Tchigorin. Also, in 1896, he won at Nuremberg with 12 wins, 3 draws, and 3 losses. That same year there was a rematch between Lasker and Steinitz for the World Championship in Moscow. Lasker retained his title with 10 wins, 5 draws, and 2 losses.

In 1902 Dr. Lasker received his PhD in Mathematics from Erlangen University. His mentor was the famous great mathematician, Hilbert. Lasker’s research centered on geometrical calculus and ideal numbers used in algebra and remains relevant to this day. There is a theorem in the theory of vector spaces that is still known by his name. This theorem deals with prime numbers. Lasker was not only good friends with Dr. Albert Einstein, but in the 1930’s they shared an apartment and exchanged ideas during their frequent walks. Dr. Einstein spoke of Lasker: “Emanuel Lasker was undoubtedly one of the most interesting people I came to know in my later life”. About this time he was seriously and totally devoted to breeding pigeons for the Berlin Pigeon Fair.

At the London tournament of 1899, Lasker finished four points ahead of the rest of the field with 18 wins, 7 draws, and only 1 loss to Blackburne. In 1900 Lasker won the Paris tournament with 14 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. The next tournament Dr. Lasker played in was the Cambridge Springs Tournament in 1904. Dr. Lasker tied for second with David Janowski. Frank Marshall came in first place. In 1906, Dr. Lasker played in the 19^th New York State Chess Championship. He won first place; of course he won first place.

In 1908, Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch challenged Lasker for the ‘Chess World Title’. Lasker was convinced that Tarrasch had hypnotic powers and therefore wanted to play the match from a different room. Lasker again prevailed with 8 wins, 5 draws, and 3 losses.

In 1909 Lasker tied with Akiba Rubinstein at St. Petersburg, winning 3, drawing 5, and losing 2. That same year Lasker was given 7,000 francs to play two exhibition matches against David Janowski. Lasker won one and drew one.

Lasker was again challenged to defend his title in 1910 against the great Carl Schlecter in Vienna and Berlin. Lasker tied the match by winning the 10^th and final game. Schlecter would have become World Champion if he had drawn the 10^th game but Lasker retained his title with one win, 8 draws, and one loss. Lasker received 1,000 marks for each game played. Later that same year, Lasker defeated David Janowski in a match in Berlin. Dr. Lasker won with 8 wins and 3 draws.

In 1911 Lasker married Martha Kohn. They stayed together until Martha’s death in 1939.

Dr. Lasker’s next great tournament was at St. Petersburg, Russia, 1914. This was a great tournament. Lasker came in first place, ahead of Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, and Marshall.

Then World War I started…….

Lasker had plans to play Akiba Rubinstein for the ‘Chess World Title’. Capablanca planned to play the winner.

In 1918, after World War 1, Lasker played a chess tournament in Berlin in 1918, and came in first place.

In 1920, he resigned his world title to Capablanca with a letter written to him in Spanish. No one in history has ever done this before. This shows what a great gentleman Dr. Lasker was. In 1921, in Havana, Cuba, he played Capablanca who won four games and drew ten games and became the new World Champion.

In 1924, at the great New York International Tournament, of course Dr. Lasker came in first, Capablanca came in second, Dr. Alehkine came in third.

In 1927, Dr. Lasker returned to Berlin and learned Bridge and GO. He became an International player and ‘Life Master of Bridge’. He was the team leader of the German team at the Bridge Olympics. Because Dr. Lasker and his wife were Jewish, they fled to England in 1933 after their property was confiscated by the Germans. They lived for a short time in the USSR and finally settled in New York in 1937.

Dr. Lasker came in 5^th in Zurich in 1934, 3^rd in Moscow in 1935, 6^th in Moscow in 1936, and 7^th in Nottingham in 1936. After moving to Manhattan, New York in 1937, Lasker began teaching chess and bridge and writing philosophical articles including, Struggle, Understanding of the World, The Philosophy of the Unattainable and The Community of the Future.

Dr. Emanuel Lasker died in Manhattan on January 11, 1941. Dr. Lasker’s winning percentage is the highest of any World Champion: 66%. He won 52, drew 44 and lost 16 games and scored 74 points in 112 games. He defended his chess World Championship title seven times in the 26 years he was World Champion. His calculated peak ELO rating is 2720. In his stellar career he played in ten international tournaments; he came in first [place] eight times, 2^nd once and 3^rd once.

Terry Crandall

Harry Nelson Pillsbury

To me, the most interesting chess player was the American, Harry Nelson Pillsbury (1872-1906). He only lived 34 years, which means that although he lived two years longer than musical composer Franz Schubert, he lived one year less than Wolfgang Mozart.

Pillsbury grew up in Philadelphia and made a name for himself at the Franklin Chess Club. (By the way, the first chess book published in Russia was in the 18^th century, it was Benjamin Franklin’s “The Morals of Chess”).

He was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Dec 5, 1872, but didn’t learn the chess moves until Thanksgiving Day 1888, when he was 16.

Only two years later, in 1890, while he was not quite 18, Pillsbury played a series of Evans Gambits with the veteran Baltimore expert, H.N. Stone, one of the inventors of the Stone-Ware defense in the Evans, and smashed him 5-2. The point is that within two years of learning how chess was played, he played an enormous opponent, and historical chess figure, and crushed him at his own opening.

In April 1892, the World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz, paid a visit to Boston, and played a three game match against Pillsbury, now the strongest player in America. Steinitz gave him PA and Move odds. Pillsbury won 2-1.

There were somewhat lackluster results in the next few years, but in 1894, he championed the Brooklyn Chess Club to victory in the Metropolitan tournament in New York, and, as Paul Morphy 38 years before, he had wealthy admirers that financed his trip over the Atlantic to play the greatest in the Old World.

In this case, it was the great tournament in Hastings, England, 1895. He was only 22 years old. The great World Champion, and favorite, Dr. Lasker was there, the ex-champion Wilhem Steinitz was there, and the champions from England, France, Russia and Italy were all there for him to meet. He won the tournament, brilliantly.

During this time in Russia, Pillsbury contracted the syphilis disease.

His play was spotty from here on through his life.

In 1896 he played so-so at Nuremberg, but rejoiced when he beat Lasker, Steinitz and Tchigorin in successive rounds. His problem was that he prepared for those three, and beat them, but lost to most of the weaker players. His score gave him a tie for III/IV with Dr. Tarrasch, still not bad. Lasker won the tournament.

Pillsbury returned to America and was (get this) challenged by the American Champion Showalter. Showalter knew that Pillsbury, with his European record, made his own American championship title superfluous. They engaged in a chess match, and Pillsbury won.

Showalter remained American Champion, however, because Pillsbury insisted that he didn’t want the title. So I now quote Pillsbury from the “New Englander” at the time: “I was not seeking the match, and even if I should win I shall leave Showalter in possession of the title; I am not in search of any title but one”. He still had aspirations for a match with Dr. Lasker.

Showalter had huge backers, and a rematch (for 3 months) was set in New York in 1898. Pillsbury won seven games to Showalter’s three. This was an official championship match, so Pillsbury was officially American Champion, even though he resented having that title.

From 1890 to 1900 Pillsbury worked the automaton Ajeeb in Coney Island, New York. In 1900 he went on a seven month nation-wide tour in which he gave over 150 exhibitions and travelled 40,000 miles.

Pillsbury then went back to Europe, because that was where the best players were. He did pretty well in all of the tournaments he played in, but Dr. Lasker consistently came in first.

Although his disease was debilitating him, he was always so awesome, that even the World Champion was always scared of him.

(In 1896, Lasker beat Pillsbury in a Ruy Lopez, with a tremendous RO sacrifice. See the game. In 1904, the last year that he played active chess, Pillsbury beat Lasker, with the same opening, but with a different 7th move at Cambridge Springs, PA, USA. He waited eight years to do that. It is one of the most classic chess games to date. It is also one of the greatest retaliations on record. Dr. Lasker, who was always so precise, was completely taken off guard.

Pillsbury died in July 1906, of syphilis at the age of 34. He was considered one of the top ten checker players in the country, and definitely the best chess player.

One more note: Pillsbury, during his age, was the best blindfold chess player in the world. His highest limit was 21 opponents. But what makes him so interesting to me, (although his career was great), was what he could do in one evening. This is what raises Pillsbury to an immortal level.

Pillsbury would give simultaneous exhibitions playing ten chess players and ten checker players, while playing whist. But read on…….

Once, right before performing this feat, he was given a list to memorize by 2 university professors: Antiphlogistine, periosteum, takadiastase, plasmon, ambrosia, Threlkeld, strepococcus, straphylococcus, micrococcus, plasmodium, Mississippi, Freiheit, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, athletics, no war, Etchenberg, American, Russian, philosophy, Piet Potgelter’s Rost, Salamagundi, Oomisellecootsi, Bangmanvate, Schlechter’s Nek, Manzinyama, theosophy, catechism, and Madjesoomalops.

After a few minutes he was able to recite the list forward and backward. He was able to recall the list forward and backward the following day. An amazing man.

-----Terry Crandall

Akiba Kivelovic Rubinstein (1882-1961)

Akiba Rubinstein was born December 12, 1882 in Stawisk, Poland. He first learned chess in school where he played his classmates. He gave up theological studies for a professional chess career in 1903 when he placed 5^th at a tournament in Kiev.

As you study his many historical achievements, keep in mind that Akiba Rubinstein had a nervous disorder known as anthropophobia (fear of people and society) for his entire life. His poor mental health was clearly an extremely difficult disability for him to contend with and caused him enormous suffering throughout his life. But, in spite of his disability, Akiba Rubinstein was able to compete brilliantly for many years with the best chess players in the world and his games are studied and treasured to this day.

Rubinstein was a powerful force to contend with between 1907 and 1912. In 1910 when Schlecter challenged Lasker for the World Champion title, many considered Rubinstein to be the best chess player in the world. In those days the challenger to the World Champion was required to raise the money and finance the match. The World Champion alone would decide which challenger to play and this was largely based on the funding available. Rubinstein never had a chance to play for the Chess World Championship but he is considered the strongest player who did not have the opportunity to compete for the title.

Rubinstein was increasingly troubled by his mental illness and in 1911 he complained of a fly that continually disrupted his concentration during tournaments. When asked if he was all right he said, “Oh I’m fine, I just need to see a doctor about this fly”. Also during this time it was difficult to visit Rubinstein in his home. His wife warned many potential visitors, “Do not stay long, for if you do stay too long he will leave by way of the window”.

Watson: “You are afraid of something?”

Holmes: “Well I am - I think you know me well enough Watson, to understand that I am by no means a nervous man. At the same time, it is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you. I must further beg you to be so unconventional as to allow me to leave your house presently by scrambling over your back garden wall”.

The Final Problem
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

In 1912 Rubinstein achieved an amazing feat; he won five consecutive international tournaments. This had never been done before in the history of chess! Fifty years later Bent Larsen won five tournaments in a row, however it took him three years to achieve this while Rubinstein won at San Sebastian, Pistyan, Breslau, Warsaw and Vilna all in the same year.

In 1914 Nicholas II, the Czar of Russia, organized a tournament in St. Petersburg and invited all the greatest players in the world. The top five finishers would be given the title “Grandmaster”. Tragically, Rubinstein failed to qualify in the top five.

After World War I, Rubinstein continued to play in tournaments with moderate success but he did not revisit his former high level of play until he won the Vienna tournament in 1922, ahead of Alexander Alekhine and Richard Reti.

After 1932, Rubinstein never competed in chess tournaments again, although he was invited to do so. His lifelong struggle with his mental health worsened and he spent time in a sanitarium. However, there was a bright side to this because it is possible that this protected him from the Germans during World War II and he was left alone.

Two of his most famous games were played against Emanuel Lasker and Jose Capablanca in tournaments that the latter two eventually won. In both games he made exactly the same move, to win, RC1 [R-QB1]. What are the odds of this happening?!

Among the chess players who deserve our highest reverence, Akiba Rubinstein stands out as a unique contributor to chess. His noble career and life of great suffering stands as a beacon of light to all who study the game of chess as well as those who study life itself.

-----Terry Crandall

Famous Rubinstein Games

Rubinstein's Immortal Game, Lodz, Poland in 1907
This is one of the great classics. Rubinstein, playing a formidable opponent, sacrifices his QU then a RO, then totally crushes him.

Rubinstein vs. Dr. Lasker (World Champion), St. Petersburg, Russia, 1909
Except for the famous game that Pillsbury won from Dr. Lasker in 1904, this was Lasker’s worst defeat in his career.

Rubinstein vs. Jose Capablanca (future World Champion), San Sebastian, Spain, 1911
This was Capablanca’s only loss in the tournament. Incredibly, Rubinstein used the same move RC1 (R-QB1) that he used against Dr. Lasker in 1909 to win against Capablanca.

Rubinstein vs. Dr. Alekhine (future World Champion), Karlsbad, 1911.
The first time he played Alekhine he beat him.

The very first time Rubinstein played Dr. Lasker, Capablanca and Dr. Alekhine he demolished them. That’s three World Chess Champions he beat the first time he played them. Obviously it was the fly on Rubinstein’s forehead that intimidated them.

Rubinstein Tournament Results

Return to the biography

“The passed PA is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient. The passed PA has a lust to expand”.

Aron Niemzowitsch

Aron Niemzowitsch was a great chess player. His invention of the ‘Hypermodern Chess Theory’ revolutionized chess. Shortly after, Reti, Breyer and Tartakover all joined in. His chess ideas changed forever how chess is played at the highest levels. Now, even the highest rated Chess Grandmasters in the world use Niemzowitsch’s chess ideas found in his book, ‘My System’. ‘My System’ is written in a poetic and dramatic style that can even be enjoyed by non-chess players.

The main strategies that Niemzowitsch came up with are (1) instead of occupying the critical center squares with pawns and/or pieces, to attack them from far away with knights or fianchettoed bishops, (2) to blockade isolated pawns with knights (3) Over-protection. These three ideas were so radical at the time that only a few chess players took them seriously. But after seeing Niemzowitsch win tournament after tournament, chess players took notice. I have included a few of his famous contributions, including the Nimzoindian Defense, the Nimzo-Larsen Attack and the Nimzovich Defense.

There were two people that hated Niemzowitsch most, however. Dr. Tarrasch hated him because Aron, who considered Tarrasch the leader of the ‘Classical School of Chess’, constantly berated him in his writings. In 1914 at St. Petersburg (where Tarrasch became one of the initial five Grandmasters), Tarrasch beat Niemzowitsch with a two-BS sacrifice à la Lasker . The other that hated Niemzowitsch was Alekhine. Alekhine was a funny figure in that he was more than classical, maybe even hypermodern himself. But when they played, Alekhine ALMOST ALWAYS won. There are books that I have read that state sadness that Niemzowitsch never got a World Champion Match with Alekhine before his death in 1935, but I tell you, he would have lost anyway.

As is true of most chess players, Niemzowitsch had his eccentricities. He would enter a tournament room, go to the corner and stand on his head until his game started. He even managed to break his leg while playing chess when his leg became entangled in the leg of his chair. His business card read: A. Niemzowitsch, Candidate for the World Championship of Chess and Crown Prince of the Chess World.

I want to quote from W. H Watts, November 1936…….

“After the lamented death of the Master, Aron Niemzowitsch, I was almost persuaded to drop the idea of publishing an English translation of his Praxis (‘My System’), but a well-known player of the highest rank assured me that a very great advance in the strength of English players would follow its publication here. This remark made such a great impression on my mind that eventually I resolved to make some investigation for myself. My knowledge of German was limited to a few words and phrases and just a smattering of chess terms, so that nothing short of a translation would be of much use. When this became available I examined the work carefully and was immediately convinced of the correctness of the prophecy: there is nothing like it in the whole of chess literature. No other author or player has so scientifically reduced chess playing to the application of a number of clearly defined principles and rules. Compared with this, chess playing has heretofore been without system - just a haphazard exhibition of natural aptitude or skill or the want of it. Chess players were born, not made, but now that era is finished; Niemzowitsch has systematised chess play”.

Niemzowitsch’s most famous game was against Samisch, and is called the Immortal Zugzwang Game (courtesy of David Hayes). Zugzwang is when the opponent has to make a move, and every move loses. It is the greatest coup in chess. It is a German word and is pronounced “Tsutsvonk”. Niemzowitsch’s finest victory came in Karlsbad in 1929 ahead of Capablanca, Spielmann, Rubinstein, Vidmar and Euwe.

Niemzowitsch’s Tournament Record (courtesy of Phil Hughes).

-----Terry Crandall

JOSÉ RAOUL CAPABLANCA Y GRAUPERA was born in 1888 and died in 1942. When Capablanca was four years old, he learned the moves of chess by watching his father play. The way we know this is because he once giggled during a game that his father was playing with a friend. When asked why he giggled, the young boy replied “because you moved your KT to an incorrect square”. Capablanca’s father immediately started to take José to the Central Chess Club of Cuba in Havana, where they had to stack books on the chair so he could reach the chess board. When he was 11, he became Chess Champion of Cuba, beating Juan Corzo, in 1900.

Capablanca refused to study chess and he never read chess books or studied chess openings. Unbelievably, he became the World Champion in spite of this. He therefore was obviously the greatest natural chess player that ever lived.

In 1905 at the age of 17 he entered the Columbia University and visited the Manhattan Chess Club and beat its champion. In 1906 the World Chess Champion, Dr. Lasker, played a simultaneous exhibition there and José won his individual lightning game against him.

In 1908, Capablanca went on a tour of the USA for the first time and broke all records both by results and the speed of his simultaneous play. He played 168 games in ten consecutive sessions before losing his first game. Altogether, his score was 703 wins, 19 draws, and 12 losses.

Then, in 1909, Capablanca totally freaked out the chess world. (And me, and I wasn’t even born yet!). He played the American Champion Frank Marshall, and won 8-1, with 14 draws.

The San Sebastian Tournament of 1911 was historic for two reasons. (1) Only at the final hour was Jose Capablanca invited to the tournament; this was his first International Chess Tournament. (2) Nimzowitch complained that such a weak player as Capablanca should not have been invited. Capablanca not only beat Nimzowitch in the first round, but won the tournament! This made Capablanca the most serious contender to challenge Lasker’s world title.

In 1913 Capablanca obtained a post in the Cuban Foreign Office with the title of “Ambassador Extraordinary Plenipotentiary General From The Government Of Cuba To The World At Large”. This title was bestowed to him for the sole purpose of allowing José Raoul to travel the world and participate in chess tournaments. But sadly, after his divorce from his first wife, her family had him demoted to the post of “Commercial Attaché”.

To illustrate his powers, he once had the mayor of Havana clear a tournament room so that no one would see him resign a game against Frank Marshall in 1913. He even once refused to pose with a beautiful film star saying, “Why should I give her publicity?”.

Although Dr. Lasker won the great St. Petersburg tournament of 1914, Capablanca came second, and was therefore, one of the five initial Chess Grandmasters named by Czar Nicholas. In the eight years between 1916 to 1924 the first game that Capablanca lost was to Richard Reti at the great New York International Tournament of 1924. The loss to Reti was a game that went around the world. This eight-year feat is the greatest of the greatest. This is the immortal of the immortal.

Two interesting events occurred during the Great Moscow Tournament in 1925. In a simultaneous exhibition, Capablanca won every game except he drew against a bespectacled twelve year old boy who he told after the game, “One day you will be champion”. That boy was Mikhail Botvinnik. Botvinnik not only beat Capablanca at AVRO thirteen years later, but eventually did become World Champion. At one point during the tournament, Capablanca’s beautiful wife entered the tournament hall and he was apparently so enamored that he left his KT en prise. He lost the KT and the game.

In 1927 the non-studying chess genius, Capablanca, lost his world championship title to the ever-studying chess genius Dr. Alekhine. With a record breaking 25 draws, Alekhine won 6-4. It is the longest world championship match in the history of chess.

The sad thing is that in those days the world champion had a say-so about who he would play against for the title. Although Capablanca was the obviously entitled challenger to the world championship, Alekhine refused to accept his challenge and instead played Bogoljubov and Euwe for the title. This was totally 100% absolutely unfair. (I am pounding the table with my fist right now!)

Capablanca lost only 36 games out of 567 in his whole career. He did not lose a single game from 1916 to 1924. Capablanca never had a chess set at home. He died while analyzing a chess game in the Manhattan Chess Club. That is probably the way he wanted to go. General Batista, President of Cuba, took personal charge of the funeral arrangements.

-----Terry Crandall

Richard Reti

Of all the great hypermodern chess founders, the most interesting is Richard Reti. Although born a Hungarian in 1889, he later was deemed a Czechoslovakian after World War I when they moved the country boundaries around. But he always felt himself to be Viennese, since he went to college in Vienna. So he was a 3-country man.

The four famous hypermodern chess founders are Breyer, Reti, Nimzowitch, and Tartakower.

Reti was both a mathematician and a chess player. He once explained that mathematics was of a purely speculative character, while the over the board struggle in chess, where he could force his opponent to acknowledge the truth of his chess ideas, was more alive. This is what makes him most interesting.

In his early years, 1907-1911, he was a good but not great player. It was in 1918 that he burst on to the international scene. In 1918, he won at Kaschau, with Vidmar, Breyer, Asztalos, Havasi and Mieses in that tournament. He shared 1^st prize at Budapest in the same year, was 1^st at Rotterdam, Amsterdam in 1919 and Vienna in 1920, and above all, he won 1^st prize at the great international tournament of Gothenburg in 1920.

Reti then spent the time to write ‘Die neun Ideen im Schachspiel’. A year later, an English edition appeared called ‘Modern Ideas In Chess’, which all chess players own today.

In 1922 he returned to active international play and was equal 1^st at Teplitz-Schonau; in 1923 he was twice 2^nd at two important tournaments - at Mahrisch-Ostrau and Vienna.

When 1924 came around, the great World Champion Jose Capablanca hadn’t lost a single game in ten years!! In the great 1924 New York tournament, where Capablanca, Dr. Lasker (the eventual winner), and Dr. Alekhine took part, it was Reti that drew first blood against Capablanca, in A Game That Went Around The World. Reti was the first person that beat Capablanca in ten years!! Later in the tournament, totally shaken and obviously feeling mortal, Capablanca lost to the great Dr. Lasker.

After this tournament, Reti went to South America and set a World Blindfold Exhibition record of 29 games. He won 20 and lost only 2 (drawing 7). Reti was a great blindfold player, and so was Dr. Alekhine (whose record he broke that day). Dr. Tartakower relates an amusing incident with reference to this: at London, 1922, Dr. Alekhine and Reti were indulging in some blindfold analysis and had apparently come to a full stop of disagreement on a position. Whereupon the great Alekhine said: “Since we are, of course, the two best blindfold players in the world, I think it would be better if we had recourse to a chessboard and men”.

Reti didn’t play too well for a few years, but he came back to be a great star in 1927. He was 2^ndat Bad Homburg and he scored well in the International Team Tournament that year on top board for Czechoslovakia.

In 1928 he obtained 1^st at Vienna and Giessen, and equal 1^stat Brno, and a 2^ndat Dortmund. Clearly, he was world class.

His last tournament was in January 1929 in Stockholm, Sweden. He came in 1^st against Lundin, Stoltz and Stahlberg.

After his great masterpiece, Masters of the Chess Board was prepared for publishing, he died of scarlet fever on June 6^th, 1929 in Prague, at the age of forty.

Spielmann’s obituary of him in ‘L’Echiquier’ for 1929 said: “Perhaps his strength did not reside so much in the discovery of a new move or of a tactical finesse hitherto unknown as in a new strategy. Very frequently and only after a few moves, I would find myself settling down against him with a lost position without knowing exactly how it could possibly have happened”.

-----Terry Crandall

Sawielly Grigoriewitsch Tartakower (1887-1956)

Chess Grandmaster, Sawielly Grigoriewitsch was one of the founders of the Hypermodern School of Chess, along with Richard Reti, Julius Breyer, Aron Niemzowitch, et al. He was a writer, poet, romanticist, gambler and patriot. Tartakower received a Doctor of Law degree in 1909, and was an officer in both World War I and World War II.

Sawielly Tartakower is the original spelling of his name in the English alphabet. His last name can be found often as Tartakover, and sometimes as Tartacover. His first name is very often Savielly and sometimes Xavier, all three first names meaning “little Saul”.

Tartakower was born in Russia and moved to Vienna, Austria to study law in 1904. While living in Vienna with his brother, both his parents were murdered in Rostov-on-Don in 1911, due to Jewish persecution. Vienna was a wonderful place to grow up as a chess player. Tartakower loved elegance and frequently joined noblemen, bankers, lawyers and other gentlemen at dinner, after he trounced them at the chess tables of the elite chess clubs, such as the famous Wiener Schachklub.

In 1914, Dr. Tartakower was a lieutenant in the Viennese House-Regiment of Infantry, Hoch-und-Deutschmeister Nr. 4, where he was employed at the Russian front. He was wounded by a bullet in the stomach and he had to march a long distance to a first aid station, aided by two privates. Despite his condition, he managed to consume a dish of dumplings and recovered. He had an iron constitution, the teeth of a voracious animal, the muscles of a gladiator and the stomach of an ostrich - whatever entered it was mercilessly digested. It was joked that if a doctor attempted to pump Tartakower’s stomach, he would lose the pump.

He was quite the gentleman and would never take advantage of anyone in a shady deal. Some rich admirers, knowing how badly he needed money, once arranged a speed tourney with an exceptionally high first prize, feeling certain that Tartakower would win. But when the Hungarian master Alexander Takacs came first, the organizers started a fierce argument with him in Hungarian, and then announced that Takacs had lost a point because of some technicality. Bowing, the chairman presented Tartakower with the first prize, a nice pile of hard cash. Bowing back, Tartakower tore the money to shreds, barely avoiding throwing the pieces in the chairman’s face.

When that new country of Austrai lost its independence, his citizenship was transferred, probably as an act of clemency, to Poland. He spoke no Polish, but he knew French, a language highly esteemed but little spoken in Poland, and that made his compatriots put aside their traditional hatred of all things Russian or German and deal with him in those languages. He proved to be a valuable acquisition for Polish chess. That country, under his leadership and of GM Akiba Rubinstein, won the Chess Olympiad in Hamburg 1930. When they lost it the following year to a team from the United States, whose members were predominantly of Polish-Russian ancestry, Tartakower made the famous remark, “We have branches everywhere”. In the early 1920s, around the time that he became a Pole by citizenship, Tartakower became a Frenchman by residence. After a quarrel with his Austrian publisher, a Russian, he angrily blamed Austria for wronging him and moved to Paris, which became his permanent home. During World War II he escaped the German occupation, served under de Gaulle (as Lieutenant Cartier), and was subsequently granted French citizenship - his fourth nationality.

“What really made him outstanding was his fascinating personality. With Tartakower among the participants, any tournament had color and life. The European custom of keeping the players together in their spare time and having them stay in the same hotel, even having them eat in a dining room all to themselves, gave Tartakower plenty of opportunity to shine as the splendid and highly original conversationalist and raconteur that he was. He could make a rather serious complaint and explain his case from many different angles in all earnestness and, without making any jokes at all, keep his audience bent over with laughter with his scintillating way of reasoning, the elegant somersaults of his logic, and his unexpected conclusions. He liked to play with words, metaphors, conclusions, and contradictions as if they were chess pieces. Once, at the inaugural meeting of a tournament, when an unusual suggestion that no one liked was about to be rejected, Tartakower rose and supported it so eloquently that the motion carried with only a single opposing vote –Tartakower’s” - GM Hans Kmoch.

Tartakower wrote several chess books, including, “My Best Games of Chess 1905-1954 (S.G. Tartakower)”, “500 Master Games of Modern Chess”, “100 Master Games of Modern Chess”, “The Hypermodern Game of Chess”, and “Modern Chess Strategy”.

One of the first games I ever saw in a chess book that I actually memorized (I was ten years old or so) was the game Reti - Tartakower. Reti wins on the 11^th move, one of the shortest games ever played by Masters.

Caro Kann Defense
R. Reti - S. Tartakower, Vienna 1910

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Qd3 e5 6. dxe5 Qa5+ 7. Bd2 Qxe5 8. O-O-O Nxe4 9. Qd8+!! Kxd8 10. Bg5++ Kc7 11. Bd8#! ... or 10. Ke8 11. Rd8#!

Tartakower contributed many new ideas to the chess openings literature, including the rather silly “Orangutang Opening”, also known as the “Polish Opening Tartakower Gambit”, viz., 1. b4. The story behind the name is described by Tartakower in his collection of Best Games…….

“This move, which has so bizarre an aspect, occupies a place of honour amongst the ‘freak’ openings. Later, at the New York Tournament of 1924, I termed this the ‘Orangutang’ Opening, not only because I employed it there against Maroczy - after a previous consultation with a young orangutang (during a visit by all the masters to the New York Zoo on the eve of the game in question) but also since the climbing movement of the pawn to b4 and then b5 is reminiscent of that inventive animal. The name has stuck” - Tartakower.

Tartakower’s other lasting chess opening contributions are…….

Tartakower is probably most beloved by his witty sayings, sometimes hilarious, sometimes facetious, sometimes pessimistic, sometimes optimistic, but most of the time uncannily true. There is no anthology of chess quotes which does not include at least some of his famous quotes…….

“The winner of a game is the one who has made the next to last blunder”

“It is always better to sacrifice your opponent’s men”

“There is really only one mistake in chess - underestimating your opponent”

“Chess is a fairy tale of 1001 blunders”

“Sacrifices only prove that someone has blundered”

“Ich mache Fehler - also ich existiere!” - I make errors, therefore I am!

“Das Schach ist nur durch die Fehler existenzberechtigt” - The existence of chess can only be justified by the necessity of making errors

“Moral victories do not count”

“All chessplayers should have a hobby”

“Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do; strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do”

"De ce nombre ‘grand V’, la valeur qu’il se donne, Soustrayons ‘petit v’, ce qu’il vaut pour de bon. Il en ré, ce que l’algè ordonne : ‘Grand V’ moins ‘petit v’ - é Illusion” (“Let ‘S’ be the strength that a player professes, And ‘s’ represent what in fact he possesses, From a small calculation we reach the conclusion that ‘S’ minus ‘s’ must equal Illusion”)

“Some part of a mistake is always correct”

“To avoid losing a piece, many a person has lost the game”

“The blunders are all there, waiting to be made”

(Note: In translating the original German using http://babelfish.altavista.com, I produced the following computer English translation: “The errors are all lie that they wait for of being store clerks!”

“The great master places a KT at e5; mate follows by itself”

“Some KTs don't leap - they limp”

“A chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope you have the advantage, the second when you believe you have an advantage, and the third - when you know you’re going to lose!”

“A draw can be obtained normally by repeating three moves, but also by one bad move”

“Reti studies mathematics although he is not a dry mathematician; represents Vienna without being Viennese; was born in old Hungary yet he does not know Hungarian; speaks uncommonly rapidly only in order to act all the more maturely and deliberately; and will become the best chessplayer without, however, becoming world champion”

In the cold winter season of 1919-20, when Vienna was suffering from a severe shortage of fuel, he was asked him how he could do any writing when his room was without heat. “I just keep the window open”. (If you’re like me, you’ll have to reread this over about five times before you get it).

Possibly my favorite of his quotes was when he once lost five games in a row in a tournament and was asked why…….

“I had a toothache during the first game. In the second game I had a headache. In the third game it was an attack of rheumatism. In the fourth game, I wasn’t feeling well. And in the fifth game? Well, must one have to win every game?”.

-----Terry Crandall

“Chess will always be the master of us all”.

--Alexander Alekhine

ALEXANDER ALEKHINE (1892-1946)

World chess champion 1927-1935, 1937-1946 (17 years total).

Dr. Alexander Alexanderovich Alekhine was born on October 31, 1892 (Halloween) in Moscow. He was not only one of the greatest chess players that ever lived, but he was also one of the most brilliant. His combinatorial chess is a legend.

His father was a wealthy landowner, a Marshall of the Nobility and a member of the Duma. His mother was an heiress of an industrial fortune. His older brother, Alexei, played chess and was able to draw Harry Nelson Pillsbury when the latter gave a simultaneous blindfold display in Moscow on 22 boards. Until World War II, Alexander spelled his last name Aljechin. We have evidence of this, especially during his tournaments in the early 30’s and his World Championship matches with Dr. Max Euwe in the mid-30’s.

Alexander learned chess from his mother and brother around 1903 when he was 11. By 1904 he was playing correspondence chess, that is, chess by mail, the same way the great Paul Keres developed into a chess giant. At age 16 he was at the Imperial High School for Law in Moscow and played lots of chess.

He played a match with Benjamin Blumenfeld in 1908 and won with 7 wins out of 10 games. In early 1909, Alekhine won the Russian Master title in St. Petersburg. In the summer of 1910 Alekhine played in the 17^th German Congress in Hamburg and ended up in 7^th place. In 1911 and 1912, Alekhine did not have many good results, for lack of play, but he did win a minor tournament in Stockholm, Sweden in 1912.

He didn’t win his first major chess tournament until 1914 in St. Petersburg, Russia, when he tied for first place with Aron Niemzowitch. This was his “coup de grace”, a term he used so profusely in his chess writings. A few months later, after tying with Nimzo, he played in the famous 1914 St. Petersburg Tournament of the same year (1914) where the five finalists would be bestowed the title of “Grandmaster of Chess” by Czar Nicholas II of Russia. These would be the very first Grandmasters of Chess. Alekhine came in third, behind Dr. Lasker and Capablanca, but ahead of Dr. Tarrasch and Marshall. This was a great accomplishment, since the field contained stellar chess players, including Akiba Rubinstein.

In the tournament of Mannheim, Germany in 1914, Alekhine was leading an International Tournament with 9 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw, when World War I broke out. Being a Russian, he was captured as a prisoner of war. They released him a month later. During the war, after his release from prison, he served the Russian Red Cross in Austria.

While he was hospitalized after being wounded (a contusion of the spine), he became the strongest blindfold chess player in the world. That’s how great this guy was. I mean, when normal people go to the hospital, they are totally sad and in pain. Instead, he devoted himself to blindfold chess and became the best in the world in an extremely short period of time. You have to love this guy.

After the war, he served as a magistrate for the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department. He was a lawyer at heart, but would become one of the greatest chess players that has ever lived.

In 1919 he traveled to Odessa and was briefly imprisoned in their death cell suspected of being a spy.

In 1920 Alekhine returned to Moscow and married a Russian baroness several years older than he. He had already fathered an illegitimate daughter in 1913.

Alekhine started working in a film studio intending to be an actor. In October 1920 Alekhine won the first USSR chess championship in Moscow, ahead of Niemzowitch.

In 1921 Alekhine joined the Communist Party and became a translator for the Communist International and the secretary of the Communist Education Department. He then left his wife and the Soviet Union and settled in Paris where he married a Swiss common intern delegate, Anneliese Ruegg. A few months later he abandoned his older second wife and went to Berlin. He won three straight tournaments in Triberg, Budapest, and The Hague. In Budapest he popularized what is now called the Alekhine’s defense.

In 1922 he took second in London, behind Capablanca, and first at Hastings. In 1923 he tied for first at Carlsbad with Bogoljubov and Maroczy. In 1924 he took 3^rd place in New York, behind Lasker and Capablanca. In 1925 Alekhine won a tournament in Baden-Baden. This was the first international tournament in Germany since World War I.

In 1925 Alekhine became a naturalized French citizen, entered the Sorbonne Law School, and wrote a thesis on the Chinese prison system, becoming Dr. Alekhine.

In February 1925 Dr. Alekhine broke the world blindfold record by playing 28 games blindfold simultaneously, winning 22, drawing 3 and losing 3. He then took first place at Baden-Baden with 12 wins and 8 draws.

In 1926 Dr. Alekhine beat Dr. Max Euwe in a match and challenged Capablanca for the world championship. Dr. Alekhine had just married for the third time to another person much older than him, Nadezda Vasiliev. She was the widow of a high-ranking Russian officer.

In March 1927 Dr. Alekhine took second place, behind Capablanca, in New York, with 5 wins, 13 draws, and 2 losses. In July he won at Kecskemet 1927. He was now ready to meet Capablanca for the world championship after putting up $10,000 in gold. Jose Capablanca accepted the challenge and began their world championship match in Buenos Aires on September 16, 1927. By November 29, 1927 Dr. Alekhine beat Capablanca with 6 wins, 25 draws, and 3 losses. The only time-out was when Dr. Alekhine had six teeth extracted during the match. Dr. Alekhine became the 4^th official world champion of chess after Steinitz, Dr. Lasker, and Capablanca. All the games in Buenos Aires took place behind closed doors. There were no spectators or photographs.

Dr. Alekhine avoided Capablanca’s challenge of a re-match and took on Bogoljubov at Weisbaden in September 1929. Dr. Alekhine won with 11 wins, 9 draws, and 5 losses. He avoided Capablanca by insisting that the winner get $10,000 in gold, just as he got in Buenos Aires. But after the stock market crash, there were no backers.

At the 1930 Chess Olympiad he scored his first 100% score when he won all nine games as board one for France. From 1929 to 1932 Dr. Alekhine took first place at San Remo (performance rating of 2812), Bled, London, and Pasadena. Dr. Alekhine was also giving large simultaneous exhibitions. In 1932 he was playing up to 300 opponents simultaneously from New York to Paris. In 1933 he played 32 people blindfold simultaneously in Chicago, winning 19, drawing 9, and losing 4 games. He traveled the world giving simultaneous exhibitions, including Shanghai. He was made an honorary Colonel in the Mexican army and appointed as chess instructor for the Mexican army.

In 1934 Dr. Alekhine married for the 4^th time to a lady, Grace Wishart, 16 years older than he. She was the widow of an Englishman and retained her British nationality. He had met her at a minor chess tournament which she had won. Her prize was one of Dr. Alekhine’s books. She asked him to sign the book and their relationship developed from that moment.

In 1934 Dr. Alekhine defeated Eufim Bogoljubov for the world championship in Baden-Baden with the score of 8 wins, 15 draws and 3 losses. He then accepted a challenge from Dr. Max Euwe. On October 3, 1935 the world championship match between Dr. Alekhine and Dr. Euwe began in Zandvoort for $10,000 to the winner. On December 15, 1935 Dr. Euwe had won with 9 wins, 13 draws, and 8 losses. This was the first world championship match to officially have seconds (a second was an assistant who stayed up all night analyzing an adjourned chess position and who gave advice to the champion as to the next move).

In 1936 Dr. Alekhine played in Nottingham, England which was won by Capablanca and Dr. Botvinnik. Dr. Alekhine ended up in 6^th place. His game with Capablanca was the first time they had met since the world championship match in 1927. Dr. Alekhine asked for a rematch and got it in 1937 where Dr. Alekhine defeated Dr. Euwe in Holland with 10 wins, 11 draws and 4 losses. The story is that Dr. Alekhine quit drinking and smoking and really practiced for the rematch. A review of the games of that match support that theory.

At the 1938 AVRO tournament in Holland, the top eight players in the world participated. This was the strongest tournament ever held. First place was $550. Dr. Alekhine, for the first time in his life, came ahead of Capablanca. Capablanca, for the first time in his life, scored below 50%. Flohr, the official challenger to Dr. Alekhine in the next world championship match (called off because of World War II) came in last place without a single win in 14 rounds.

Dr. Alekhine was representing France on board 1 at the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires when World War II broke out. As team captain of the French team, he refused to allow his team to play Germany. He returned to France to enlist in the army and became an interpreter. When France was over-run he tried to go to America by traveling to Lisbon and applying for an American visa. To protect his wife and their French assets, he agreed to cooperate with the Nazis. He wrote six articles critical of Jewish chess players and participated in a Nazi chess tournaments in Munich, Salzburg, Warsaw, and Prague. When asked about the German siege on his apartment, he said, “The Germans have scientifically ransacked my apartment”.

By 1943 Dr. Alekhine was spending all his time in Spain and Portugal as the German representative to chess events. After World War II he was not invited to chess tournaments because of his Nazi affiliation.

In 1946 he was about to accept a match title with Botvinnik. On the evening of March 23 or early March 24, 1946 Dr. Alekhine died in his hotel room in Estoril, Portugal. Some say he died of a heart attack. Others say he choked on a piece of meat. The body was not buried for three weeks as no one claimed the body. Finally, the Portuguese Chess Federation took charge of the funeral. Less than a dozen folks showed up for his burial.

In 1947 the FIDE Congress voted for Dr. Euwe to be the world champion since Dr. Alekhine died. However, the Soviet delegation was late for this vote. The next day, after protest from the Soviet delegation, the title was rescinded in favor of a match-tournament which Dr. Botvinnik won.

In 1956 the USSR and French Chess Federation agreed to transfer his remains to the cemetery in Montparnasse, Paris. FIDE provided the tombstone. It is in the shape of a chessboard made out of red granite and there is a bust of him made out of marble. The birth and death dates on Dr. Alekhine’s tombstone are wrong, however.

The tombstone reads…….

ALEXANDER ALEKHINE
1^ST NOVEMBER, 1892
25^TH MARCH, 1946
CHESS WORLD CHAMPION
1927-35-37 TO THE END.

In world championship play, Dr. Alekhine won 43 games, drew 73 games, and lost 24 games for a total of 140 games, with a 56.8% win ratio. He was world champion for 17 years, playing in five world championship matches. Dr. Alekhine played over 1000 tournament games, scoring 73 percent in his games. His historical ELO rating has been calculated to be 2690.

-----Terry Crandall

Mir Sultan Khan

One of my favorite chess players is Sultan Khan, who went by the name of “Mir Sultan Khan”.

He went to England from India in 1929. (Now a part of what is called today as Pakistan). He returned to Pakistan in 1933. It was his master’s wish (Sultan Khan was merely a servant), his master was a Maharaja.

In the four years in England, Khan won the British Championship, defeated ex-World Champion Jose Capablanca, and played first board for England during the World Chess Olympiads in 1931 and 1933. You can’t get better than that. Here’s a quote from a famous Britain chess author…….

“(1905-1966) Sultan Khan won the British championship in 1929, 1932 and 1933, and represented England in three Olympiads. He had a great natural talent for the game which brought admiration from Capablanca who called him a genius”.

The great Paul Morphy played for 3 years, 1857-1859. The great Mir Sultan Khan played for 4 years, 1929-1933. How do they do that and be so good?

-----Terry Crandall

Miguel Najdorf

GM Miguel Najdorf was a flamboyant poet of the chess pieces who was one of the most celebrated grandmasters never to play for the world championship.

GM Najdorf is perhaps best known for the opening variation that carries his name, the popular Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defense. The formation, championed by Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov among others, arises after 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cd 4 Nd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6. He also played the famous Polish Immortal Game in 1935, which went around the world. In that game, he sacrificed all of his minor pieces.

‘It is one of the most hotly contested methods of starting games today’, said GM Robert Byrne, the chess columnist for ‘The New York Times’. ‘It is aggressive, adventurous and capable of turning the tables with little warning’.

GM Najdorf (pronounced NIGH-dorf), who was born in Warsaw, Poland and began playing chess at age 12, traveled to Buenos Aires in 1939 with the Polish national team for a tournament. Two weeks after he arrived, Germany invaded Poland. You can probably guess what happened next…….

Unable to return safely to his family in Poland, Najdorf, who was Jewish, stayed on in Argentina. He thereby escaped the Holocaust, but he lost his wife, child, father, mother and four brothers in concentration camps.

In the 1940’s, GM Najdorf gave an exhibition of blindfold play, or play without sight of the board. He took on 45 players at one time, carrying all the games simultaneously in his head. He won 39, drew 4 and lost 2. In 1972, he recalled in an interview: ‘I did this not as a stunt. I hoped that this exhibition would be reported throughout Germany, Poland and Russia and that some of my family might read about it and get in touch with me’. But none did so.

When Najdorf died on July 4 in 1997 at the Malaga University Hospital in Malaga, Spain, he was 87 and was survived by his second wife, Rita, and daughter Mirta Najdorf. The cause of death was complications from surgery. He had been staying at a hotel in the Spanish resort Marbella and underwent the surgery on July 4^th.

GM Najdorf became an Argentine citizen in 1944 and went on to be a leading tournament contender after the end of the war, a status he held for more than 20 years.

Though he never managed to qualify for a championship match, he compiled an impressive record. He won 52 international tournaments; he won the Argentine chess championship eight times; he repeatedly headed the Argentine national chess team, and in 1948 he was considered one of the world’s ten best players. He was also a longtime chess writer.

GM Najdorf, a short dapper man with a big voice, was a delight to spectators because of his imaginative attacking games. He was also a high-strung competitor with the odd habit of buttonholing other players in the tournament room, while his opponent was thinking, and asking them, ‘How do I stand?’.

Of course, it is against the rules to solicit others’ opinions during a game, but GM Najdorf was never challenged. On one occasion, however, the player he questioned simply stood there, shy and speechless: GM Najdorf had absentmindedly addressed his opponent in that day’s game, the noted Soviet chess theoretician GM Isaac Boleslavsky.

Although Najdorf is credited with inventing the Najdorf defense, others may have got there first. ‘He did most of the creative development of it,’ GM Robert Byrne said, ‘but he was anticipated by various Czechoslovak masters, particularly Karel Opocensky. That is not unusual in chess, where the flowering of an idea often outweighs its origin’.

GM Najdorf is said to have been one of the world’s richest chess players, not from chess but from business, as a representative of insurance and finance companies.

He loved to play friendly games with people far more famous than he, including Fidel Castro, Winston Churchill, Che Guevara, Nikita Khrushchev, the Shah of Iran and Juan Peron.

GM Najdorf also exchanged letters with a passionate chess player in Rome. As a result, Argentine fans who followed the Najdorf column in the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarin were able to ponder a chess problem contributed by the enthusiast in Rome, Pope John Paul II.

-----Terry Crandall

The great Sammy Reshevsky was born in Poland in 1912. By the time Sammy was only eight years old, he toured the world to display his prowess as a child prodigy of chess, giving exhibitions in Europe and the United States.

I quote Reshevsky from his autobiography…….

“Wherever I went, great crowds turned out to see me play. For four years, I was on public view. People stared at me, poked at me, tried to hug me, asked me questions. Professors measured my cranium and psycho-analyzed me. Reporters interviewed me and wrote fanciful stories about my future. Photographers were forever aiming their cameras at me.

It was, of course, an unnatural life for a child, but it had its compensations and I cannot truthfully say that I did not enjoy it. There was the thrill of travelling from city to city with my family, the excitement of playing hundreds of games of chess and winning most of them, the knowledge that there was something “special” about the way I played chess, although I didn’t know why”.

--S. Reshevsky, Reshevsky on Chess, 1948.

Reshevsky’s philosophy
when as an 8-yr-old and as a 36-yr-old

In the following quote from his autobiography, Reshevsky describes his chess philosophy, both from the point of view of an 8 year-old child as well as an accomplished adult player. Note that chess has changed more than a dozen times since Philidor of the 18^th century, and so the winning philosophy changed also. So Reshevsky’s philosophy wouldn’t work in today’s chess world. But it did when he was alive. So here is the quote from his autobiography published in 1948…….

“When I was a child touring Europe and the United States as a chess prodigy, my performances were the subject of much speculation. Everyone was curious to know “how an eight-year-old boy could beat gray beards at their own game”. People continually pestered me for an explanation. I could not answer their questions then, nor can I do so now. Chess was, for me, a natural function, like breathing. It required no conscious effort. The correct moves in a game occurred to me as spontaneously as I drew breath. If you consider the difficulty you might have in accounting for that everyday action, you will have some inkling of my dilemma in trying to explain my chess ability.

Today, spectators feel another kind of astonishment. It is my practice to spend the major part of my allotted time on the first fifteen or twenty moves of a tournament game. As a consequence, I am often forced to play at breakneck speed to avoid overstepping the limit. After such a game, I am frequently asked why I took so long considering “obvious” moves. That’s a question to which I am able to give a partial answer.

To a chess master, there is no such thing as an “obvious” move. Experience has shown repeatedly that wins or draws are thrown away by thoughtless play. Careful planning is the essence of chess strategy. Every move must be scrutinized with care. Each must be analyzed in the light of the plan under consideration. Nowhere is waste of time more severely punished than in chess”.

In 1924, at the age of 12, Reshevsky’s parents stole him away from chess and he went to school for the first time of his life. A tutor helped him to graduate high school level, which Reshevsky had no problem doing. Reshevsky then went firstly to University of Detroit, and then to University of Chicago, where he obtained his degree in Mathematics in 1933.

I quote from his autobiography…….

“While I was at school I played very little serious chess. Among musicians, it is a rule, rather than the exception, that the child prodigy of one generation is the mature artist of the next.

There are fewer cases in chess. This much, however, is clear: if one decides to make chess a profession, a childhood devoted to the game cannot possibly be a handicap. In my own case, chess has always been the medium in which I feel most at home: at a chessboard I express myself in my mother tongue”.

In 1932, Reshevsky came in a tie for third in the tournament in Pasadena, California (my birthplace) and lost to the great World Chess Champion, Dr. Alexander Alekhine. In 1933, the mature 21-yr-old Reshevsky returned to serious chess for the first time after that loss.

In 1934, after Reshevsky tied for first prize at the Western Championship at Chicago, he won first prize without a loss of a game in the International Tournament at Syracuse, NY. Here is when he earned the right to play in the tournament that contained Capablanca. In 1934 is where he beat the great, THE GREAT, Jose Capablanca, whose record is 416 wins, 19 losses in his career, at Margate, England. Reshevsky actually came first prize in the tournament.

If you add up all of his wins in the US Chess Championships, US Open Championships, Western Championships, and American Championships, no one else even comes close.

In the great 1936 Nottingham Tournament, Sammy was only ½ point behind the lead. For years this was considered the greatest and strongest chess tournament in history.

He then dropped out of chess, but came back to win the US Chess Championship in 1938, and then skipped a year, and defended it in 1940. He then dropped out of chess again, but played GM Isaac Kashdan for the US Championship in 1942, which Reshevsky won.

Reshevsky played in the great 1951 Candidates Tournament that Bronstein won. In 1961 he played a drawn match against the most famous chess prodigy, Bobby Fischer. When he was almost 60 years old he qualified for the Inter Zonal at Mallorca and scored 9½ points out of a possible 23. He even won a tournament in the 1990’s in Iceland, before his death.

-----Terry Crandall

“Later, ... I began to succeed in decisive games. Perhaps because I realised a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but also my opponent."
- GM Mikhail Tal

The great Mikhail Tal, “the Magician from Riga”, was one of the greatest attacking geniuses in the history of recorded chess. His attacking style consisted of beautiful displays of multiple, cascading fireworks, where the true nature of the positions during the execution of his combinations was unfathomable by his opponents, even Tal himself!, in the scant time limit imposed in human over-the-board chess games.

Unlike the smooth, almost effortless style of a Capablanca, Tal purposely played moves that created the maximum complications for both sides. He once said, “One doesn’t have to play well. One only needs to play better than his opponent”. Dr. Lasker would have loved that quote, for he too deemed the game of chess as a struggle between two minds, as opposed to each player blindly making “correct” moves.

Born in Latvia in 1936, Tal was relatively unknown to the chess world compared to his famous Soviet compatriots, viz., Botvinnik, Smyslov, Keres, Bronstein, Spassky, Petrosian, etc., until the late 1950’s, when his name shot around the chess world when he won the Championship of the Soviet Union both in 1957 and 1958, and then winning the World Championship Interzonal Tournament in 1959 to become the official challenger to Botvinnik’s chess throne. In the 1959 tournament, he even scored 4-0 against the young, but brilliant future World Champion, Bobby Fischer. Tal’s style mesmerized the chess world, and GM Ragozin explained the reason best: “Tal does not move chess pieces by hand, he uses a magic wand”.

Tal was so intimidating in those years that he made seasoned Grandmaster opponents shudder with fear. A case in point is a game played between GM Tal (as Black) and Hungarian GM Pal Benko (as White) at the Interzonal Tournament in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1959. This was the third cycle (the first two were played in Bled and Zagreb, respectively), and Benko was starting to think that Tal had been hypnotizing him due to his poor record against him so far. So Benko took with him sunglasses and wore them while at the chessboard. But Tal, who had heard of Benko’s plan to wear sunglasses before the game started, borrowed enormous dark glasses from GM Petrosian. When Tal put on these ridiculously enormous glasses, not only did the spectators laugh, but other participants in the tournament did, as did the tournament controllers, and finally even Benko himself laughed. But unlike Tal, Benko did not remove his glasses until the 20^th move when his position was hopeless.

After winning the 1959 Interzonal, skeptics still thought that Botvinnik was such a solid, positional player, that Tal’s attacking style, somewhat purposely flawed by Tal’s design, would not be able to penetrate Botvinnik’s granite-like defense. But in 1960, when Tal played Botvinnik for the World Championship, he won the 6^th game with an outrageously complicated and risky piece sacrifice, because Botvinnik couldn’t navigate through all of the complicated variations that Tal created on the board. Tal then went on and won the match and was crowned the 8^th Chess Champion of the World.

However, Tal faded away as quickly as he sprang out of anonymity. Not that he started playing badly or sloppily; he remained one of the strongest chess players in the world until his death in 1992. But in 1961, he played against Botvinnik in the obligatory return match and found that Botvinnik had spent the time since the first match doing his homework and systematically finding ways to take advantage of the kinks in Tal’s incredibly complicated attacking style. Botvinnik retained his World Championship title, and Tal never reached the pinnacle ever again, due to the succession of chess geniuses Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov.

But we all learned so, so much from Tal, that it will be only rarely in the forever future of the Game of Chess that mankind will see the likes of him in other players.

In 1988, I played in the American Open in Long Beach, California, USA, and Tal was playing in the same tournament. He spent little time at the board, however, because they didn’t allow smoking in the tournament hall, and he was almost always standing out in the corridor, dressed in disheveled clothing, chain-smoking away, while all of his fans, including me, would be inside staring at his current game’s position. He would casually stride in between cigarettes; make a dazzling reply (usually very quickly); and then return back to his little smoking area outside. It was very exciting for me to see such a character live in action like that. He will always remain one of my favorites. One of my all-time favorite chess stories is the famous “Hippopotamus Game” that Tal divulges in his Autobiography. To illustrate what a chess player can actually be capable of thinking during play, he created a hypothetical (hippothetical?) dialogue between a journalist and himself. I will quote the story by Tal straight from the Autobiography…….

Journalist: It might be inconvenient to interrupt our profound discussion and change the subject slightly, but I would like to know whether extraneous, abstract thoughts ever enter your head while playing a game?

Tal: Yes. For example, I will never forget my game with GM Vasiukov on a USSR Championship. We reached a very complicated position where I was intending to sacrifice a KT. The sacrifice was not obvious; there was a large number of possible variations; but when I began to study hard and work through them, I found to my horror that nothing would come of it. Ideas piled up one after another. I would transport a subtle reply by my opponent, which worked in one case, to another situation where it would naturally prove to be quite useless. As a result my head became filled with a completely chaotic pile of all sorts of moves, and the infamous “tree of variations”, from which the chess trainers recommend that you cut off the small branches, in this case spread with unbelievable rapidity. And then suddenly, for some reason, I remembered the classic couplet by Korney Ivanovic Chukovsky…….

“Oh, what a difficult job it was. To drag out of the marsh the hippopotamus”.

I don’t know from what associations the hippopotamus got into the chess board, but although the spectators were convinced that I was continuing to study the position, I, despite my humanitarian education, was trying at this time to work out: just how WOULD you drag a hippopotamus out of the marsh? I remember how jacks figured in my thoughts, as well as levers, helicopters, and even a rope ladder. After a lengthy consideration I admitted defeat as an engineer, and thought spitefully to myself: “Well, just let it drown!” And suddenly the hippopotamus disappeared. Went right off the chessboard just as he had come on - of his own accord! And straightaway the position did not appear to be so complicated. Now I somehow realized that it was not possible to calculate all the variations, and that the sacrifice was, by its very nature, purely intuitive. And since it promised an interesting game, I could not refrain from making it.

Journalist: : “And the following day, it was with pleasure that I read in the paper how Mikhail Tal, after carefully thinking over the position for 40 minutes, made an accurately-calculated piece sacrifice ...”.

Anyway, records show that GM Mikhail Tal (as White) against GM Evgeny Vasiukov (as Black) in the 1964 Soviet Union Championship at Kiev, won in 58 moves.

-----Terry Crandall

Francois Andre Danican-Philidor

The best chess player of his day was Francois Andre Danican-Philidor, born in France on September 7, 1796. The name Philidor was passed on through his grandfather from King Louis XIII, a tribute to this family of royal musicians. During years of waiting to perform in the chapel of Versailles, the young Francois learned the moves of chess and became the best player in the chapel. Philidor supported himself by giving music lessons, arranging and copying music. Spare time was spent at the Cafe de la Regence in Paris. There he learned from the strongest player in France, M. de Kermur, Sire de Legal. Legal had heard that old Italian masters could play without sight of the chessboard. Philidor said he often did the same when he could not sleep at night. In 1745, Philidor went to Rotterdam and then to London accompanying a music company. Due to unexpected cancellation of the concerts, his focus shifted to chess to earn a living. During 1747, he played a 10-game match with Phillip Stamma one of the strongest players of his time. He gave him odds of a move and the drawn game would count as a win for Stamma. Philidor trounced Stamma with a score of 8 wins; 1 draw and 1 loss. When he was in his prime, few opponents could challenge him without receiving odds or placing him under a blindfold. Often he would play two or three blindfolded at the same time. His published chess strategy, “L’Analyse du Jeu des Echecs”, stood for a hundred years without significant addition or modification. He preached the value of a strong PA center, an understanding of the relative value of the pieces, and correct PA formations. We still remember his motto, that “PAs are the soul of chess”. Unfortunately, none of his games from his prime exist today. Philidor died in London, after being denied a passport to return to France for a demonstration match. The newspaper obituary read “On Monday last, Mr. Philidor, the celebrated chess player, made his last move, into the other world”. His death occurred at the end of August 31, 1795.