The Book of Chess Master Games. Collection of educational chess games played in the latest Master's Tournaments Fourth part. Edited by J. Mieses ............................................... Leipzig Printed and published by Philipp Reclam jun. ___________________________________________________ [ Foreword by the transcriber Some time ago I bought a chess booklet in "Het Witte Paard" in Amsterdam. It was tiny - 10 by 15 centimetres, or 4"x6" - and just over half a centimetre thick. It was obviously old - the Introduction is dated 1913 - and the last four pages had never been cut. It intrigued me for both chess and printing reasons, and ten Euro was not too high a price at all. This booklet was Jacques Mieses' "Buch der Schach- meisterpartien IV" ("Book of Chess Master Games IV"). The most interesting thing about it is not the analysis, which is often outdated, or the games, most of which can be found elsewhere, but the insight it gives into another era of both chess culture and printing. Let's start with the chess. These games were played between 1906 and 1913, and the analyses written in the same years. This is quite apparent in both. The games are somewhat more tactical than would be found even twenty years later. Spielmann was still the man with the most admired style around. Rubinstein was *the* man of the day; sadly, events of the next four years meant that he would never challenge Lasker for the World Championship, and would never return to his old strength. Both Capablanca and Alekhine (still a Russian) were among the young boys storming onto the scene. The opening repertoire is what you would expect from these players. Fully half of the games are from volume C of ECO, and of those only four are French, the rest being firmly open. There are three games from volume B, one Caro Kann against two Centre Counter - the Sicilian is completely unheard of. There is a scattering of A-openings of various kinds, and quite a lot of games from the closed part of D, but no E-openings at all. An Indian was someone from the English colonies, not a chess opening. What's more, within these openings, the variations played were quite different to the ones that are popular today. In the Queen's Gambit, the majority are Tarrasch. Three out of four Queen's Pawns are the now unplayed Krause. The Old Benoni is played; the Czech variety had, I believe, not even been invented. In the Dutch, no Stonewall (never mind the Leningrader - the city itself was still called St. Petersburg!), it's all Rubinstein. Mieses himself proves no less a proponent of the high tactical style than the players whose games he annotates. He is full of praise for all kinds of attack, and does not approve of "tame" play at all. His analyses abound with words like "spirited" and "energetic". As a result of this mindset, he consistently seems to attach an overly great strategic importance to the possession of "attack", and to underestimate the possibilities of defence. More than once he describes a defender's position as completely lost when a modern player would see more than enough options to bring it to a draw. This shows itself on individual moves, as well. On occasion he recommends moves which these days even a patzer like myself would simply never consider, and sometimes he disapproves of or completely ignores moves which a good player today would make without a second thought. A few times this results in mistakes which would have changed the outcome of the game - he overlooks what for a modern player would be a blunder. But on the whole Mieses' analyses are sound in the aspects which were well- developed in his era, and one cannot hold him to blame for not being acquainted with strategies only invented decades after this booklet was written. The typographical aspects of "BdS" are no less curious. The entire text is set in a black letter, a fraktur, with the exception of the title page, which is in some kind of Schwabacher. So far, that is nothing unusual for a book printed in early 20th century Germany. What is more interesting is that not only is all chess notation set in a roman letter - some kind of Didone - but so are all numbers, both the roman number IV and the arabic numbers used for, e.g., dates. In the sub-headers below, "A." is roman, while "Tournament" is fraktur, and ditto for "B." and "Matches". This distinction is used with such consis- tency, that wherever the name of Dr. Tarrasch appears, "Dr." - being the abbreviation of the *Latin* title Doctor! - is in the roman type, while the name Tarrasch is in the fraktur. The book also uses the German convention of emphasising text, not with an italic typeface, but by d o u b l e s p a c i n g w o r d s. This was necessary in that age, as there is no such thing as an italic fraktur; why some German publishers continue to use it to this day I shall never understand. As is obvious from the above, in a letter not as narrow as a fraktur it is easily becomes illegible. In a monospaced font it is even more unclear, since one cannot use the half-space which is usually employed in such cases. For those reasons, I have chosen not to literally emulate it in this document. Instead, wherever words are enclosed in *asterixes*, the reader may assume italic in English text, and double spacing in the German original. I have omitted these in the accompanying PGN; they would only have been used for the conclusion of many (not all) games, such as "*Resigned*". There is another German (or at least, old German) habit that Mieses has: he Germanises names. In the case of Slavic (mainly Russian) names, originally written in the Cyrillic script, this is no more than reasonable, and is done in English as well: Snoskoborowski is no more wrong than Znosko Borowsky. Mieses does this with other names as well, though: he calls New York "Neuyork". Not even "Neu York" - "Neuyork". (Then again, inhabitants of that city call Köln "Coaloan", so they don't have *much* right of complaint...) Nor is he always consistent: sometimes he calls St. Petersburg just Petersburg, and the same player occurs three times: once as "Fleischmann", once as "Fleischmann(Forgacz)" and once as "Forgacz(Fleischmann)", and that while the correct spelling of his Hungarian name is "Forgács"! This is the English version of this text, with Mieses' text and (in the PGN) game annotations translated to English and my own notes in the original English as well. The latter have all been surrounded by square brackets. Of course, as this is a text-only document, I have not been able to represent all the details of the text. The switches from fraktur to roman and back will have to be imagined, as will the page layout. In the following, I have not kept the original line lengths; what takes one word in German may need a phrase of four in English, and *vice versa*. All personal names I have transcribed to the usual English spelling. Place names have been changed to the "normal" spelling of their own inhabitants, except for Vienna and Vilnius, which are so much more well known than Wien and Wilna that I felt it better to use the Anglified name. (I considered doing the same for Berlin, but decided that it was too much trouble for too little difference.) As for Karlsbad and Breslau, now called Karlovy Vary and Wroclaw respectively, keep in mind that at the time they were part of the Austro-Hungarian and German empires respectively, so were officially called that then. Bad Pistyan is usually so called, even if Mieses leaves off the "Bad". I also took the liberty of writing Oostende; it is, after all, in Flanders, not in Wallonia. As for the translation itself, I have endeavoured, and often failed, to keep the "feel" of the original, pre- World-War-One German while writing correct English. Mieses is frequently, to our 21st century tastes, pompous and circumlocutive, and uses terms which would not be chosen by a native German today. I tried to emulate this; the result is at times odd English, but remember that this stems from both my inability to find the right term and Mieses' odd-for-today German. And with that, I finally return the pen to the old Master himself: ] Introduction ...... Three double volumes of the "Book of Chess Master Games" have appeared in Reclam's Universal Library up to date, the last of which in the year 1906, and which have all found a very friendly reception by the chess audience. The present new double volume contains a selection of the most valuable games from the years 1906-1913, an era which has been extraordinarily interesting and eventful from a chess point of view. Grandmaster Tournaments and matches for the World Championshop have repeatedly moved the friends of chess to lively excitement. A new highly gifted generation has grown up, from which we only want to mention the names Capablanca, Rubinstein, Duras, Vidmar, Spielmann, Alekhine, Bernstein, Nimzowitsch here. On the other hand, death has also torn some sensitive gaps in the line of Masters. In the year 1906 the American Harry Nelson Pillsbury, one of the greatest chess geniuses of all times, departed from life, and in the year 1908 the chess world suffered another painfull loss through the demise of the Russian old Master Mikhail Chigorin. Hereafter we give the most important chess events since the year 1906. A. Tournaments 1906. *International Tournament in Oostende.* Winner of the first prize Schlechter, second Maroczy. 1907. *Tournament in Vienna.* First prize Mieses, second Duras, third, fourth, fifth shared between Maroczy, Tartakower und Vidmar. 1907. *Simultaneously two tournaments in Oostende.* In the one Dr. Tarrasch won the first, Schlechter the second prize; in the other the first and second prize were shared between Bernstein and Rubinstein, the third and fourth between Mieses and Nimzowitsch. 1907. *International Tournament in Karlsbad.* First prize winned Rubinstein, second Maroczy, third Leonhardt. 1908. *International Tournament in Vienna.* The three first prizes were earned collectively by Schlechter, Duras and Maroczy, fourth prize winner was Rubinstein. 1909. *International Tournament in Petersburg.* Both first two prizes fell collectively to Lasker and Rubinstein, the third and fourth were shared by Duras and Spielmann. 1910. *International Tournament in Hamburg.* Schlechter first, Duras second, Niemzowitsch third, Spielmann fourth. 1911. *International Tournament in San Sebastian.* First prize winner Capablanca, second and third prize shared between Rubinstein and Vidmar, fourth prize winner Marshall. - In the youthful Cuban Capablanca a new candi- date for the World Championship has arisen. 1911. *International Tournament in Karlsbad.* First prize Teichmann, second and third shared between Rubinstein und Schlechter, fourth Rotlewi. 1912. *International Tournament in San Sebastian.* The first prize was won by Rubinstein, the second and third shared by Spielmann and Niemzowitsch, fourth was Dr. Tarrasch. 1912. *International Tournament in Bad Pistyan.* Rubinstein first, Spielmann second, Marshall third. 1912. *International Tournament in Breslau.* Rubinstein and Duras shared both first prizes, third prize winner is Teichmann. 1912. *National Russian Tournament in Vilnius.* First prize winner Rubinstein, second Dr. Bernstein, third Lewitsky, fourth Niemzowitsch. - *In the year 1912, Rubinstein has therefore carried away the first prize in four successive strong tournaments.* No wonder, that the chess world anticipates the match for the World Champion- ship between him and Lasker in suspense. B. Matches Here must in the first place be mentioned the *Match for the Championship of the World between Lasker and Tarrasch* which took place in the year 1908. *The former emerged the victor with 8:3 and 5 draws.* No less interest was caused by the *World Champion- hip Match between Lasker and Schlechter, which remained undecided* and which was fought out in the year 1910 in Vienna and Berlin. Each of the players won one game, while eight were a draw. - In Laskers unparalleledly brilliant chess career, this is the first time that he met with an opponent whom he could not conquer. Other important matches were: 1906. *Marshall - Tarrasch.* Result: Tarrasch 8, Marshall 1, draw 7. 1907. *Lasker - Marshall.* Result: Lasker 8, Marshall 0, draw 8. 1908. *Marshall - Tarrasch.* Result: Tarrasch 8, Marshall 1, remis 7. 1909. *Marshall - Mieses.* Result: Marshall 5, Mieses 4, draw 1. 1909. *Mieses - Rubinstein.* Result: Rubinstein 5, Mieses 3, draw 2. 1909. *Capablanca - Marshall.* Result: Capablanca 8, Marshall 1, draw 14. 1910. *Janowski - Lasker.* Result: Lasker 8, Janowski 0, draw 3. 1911. *Schlechter - Tarrasch. This remained undecided.* Result: Schlechter 3, Tarrasch 3, draw 10. *Leipzig, 1913.* J. Mieses __________________________________________________________ Chess Master Games (Fourth part) ________ [ At this point, the games are printed, each with a header stating the number (in letters), event, place and date; opening; and players. It would be impractical to represent these in a text file, partly because of the varying point sizes, the diagrams with each game, and the tabular yet not always regular layout of the moves and annotations; but mostly because of the unequal widths of the text (fraktur) and moves (roman) liberally intermingled within the annotations. The result would be illegible. Therefore, I have put them all in a PGN, annotations in place, with side lines mentioned by Mieses inserted as much as was possible without assuming too much about counter moves. Each game has its players, venue and date (as far as mentioned) moved into the standard headers. The opening, too, has been copied, and, where appropriate, the Variation tag contains a note about what we would now call that opening or variation. This is not always the same as what it would be called in Mieses' days. Sometimes we have changed our ideas about openings (and sometimes we have given a name to a variation which, in his time, was still considered irregular), but in many cases the Variation is simply more precise information. At this point it becomes clear that whoever set this booklet was a meticulous typesetter, but not a chess player, and neither was his corrector. The entire text, annotations, moves, diagrams and all, are peppered with errors. I have only been able to find a single truly textual error in the accompanying material, and no more than a couple in the games (most of those untranslatable and therefore left out in this version), but there are dozens of places where a capture is overlooked, a check is added, moves are switched, pieces are referred to as moving from squares where they were never moved *to*, and so on. I've annotated these, often just with [sic], sometimes with a short explanation. Interestingly, some games are free of such errors, while others are riddled with them - I can't think of a good reason for this except accident. Of course, it is far from unthinkable that I have made gaffes of my own in transcribing these games, and probably even more so in translating the annotations, so any unannotated error you find may be assumed to be mine. The language in the annotations will be found to be considerably more stilted than in the main text. Mieses' own annotations were in many places rather formulaic, and of course the idiom of chess annotation is stylised in any case. I wanted to convey something of Mieses' style in the English translation. If I were to rewrite these lines in my own English they would certainly sound completely different, but writing modern English is exactly what I did not want to do. To be honest, I am myself not always completely happy about the results, but I can find no better way to do handle this. A final few remarks about the PGN file. It was created using WML Software's Chesspad (version 1, which I prefer to 2 - sorry, Mark!), and uses two non-standard NAGs. NAG $146 means "Novelty", while $220 means "Diagram". The former I've used only a couple of times, when Mieses explicitly states that something is new to him; the latter appears in every single game, as there is at least one diagram printed for every game. Also, I've added the (standard, but optional) Annotator and Mode tags. For most games, these just contain "Mieses, J." and "OTB"; the reason for their inclusion should be made clear by the one game where they're different. Here, I'll insert the start of a single game, just to show how they are laid out in the book. Keep in mind that in the original, the lines are all the same length. ] *Fifth game* *Played on the Nordic Chess Congress in Stockholm* 1912. Philidor's Defence. White - Alekhine. Black - Marco 1. e2-e4 1. e7-e5 2. Ng1-f3 2. d7-d6 3. d2-d4 3. Ng8-f6 4. Sb1-c3 4. Nb8-d7 5. Bf1-c4 5. Bf8-e7 6. 0-0 6. 0-0 7. Qd1-e2 7. c7-c6 8. a2-a4 8. h7-h6 This weakening of the kingside is certainly necessary (because of the threat Nf3-g5), if Black wants to achieve the formation Re8, Nf8. Through his fine next move, however, Alekhine prevents this formation, and Black has weakened his king's cover in vain. Perhaps play on the queenside could be attempted with 8... b7-b6 followed by a7-a5 and Bc8-a6 or Bc8-b7. In any case the position is difficult for Black. 9. Bc4-b3! 9. Qd8-c7 9. Rf8-e8 would now be answered with Qe2-c4, after which the rook would have to go back to f8. [ ...and so on, until... ] 30. Rd3n.d6 30. Qg6-g7 31. Be7-f6 31. Ng8n.f6 32. Rf1n.f6 *Resigned.* Alekhine has carried the attack very strongly. __________________________________________________________ Register of the names and noteworthy details. [ In the book, these are in a smaller point size than the rest of the text, and in two columns. It would be possible to copy that layout in this file, but that would rapidly become hard to read. Therefore, I have reformatted them to a single column. Each line below was roughly two lines in the original columns, although as above I have rearranged them as necessary to account for the difference between German and English. The numbers after each name are the page numbers on which each player's games can be found; ask your PGN viewer for the corresponding games. ] Alekhine, Alexander Alexandrovich, born 1891 in Moscow. He is the foremost amongst the young Russian Masters and took part successfully in the international Tournaments of Hamburg 1910, Karlsbad 1911. He won the first prize in the smaller Masters' Tournaments in Stockholm 1912 and Scheveningen 1913. P. 17, 50, 155. Bernstein, O. S., born 1882 in Zhytomyr, Master of the first rank. He shared the first and second prize in the Inter- national Tournament in Oostende 1907 with Rubinstein. In Petersburg 1909 he won the fifth prize. P. 33, 64. Blackburne, J.H., born 1843 in Manchester, champion of England. He won amongst others the second prize in the Viennese Tournament 1873, in Berlin 1881 the first, in Nürnberg 1883 the second, in Hereford 1885 the first. Excellent blindfolded player. P. 12. Burn, A., born 1848 in Hull, next to Blackburne a champion of England. Won the first prize in Amsterdam 1889, in Breslau 1889 the second, in Köln 1898 the first prize. In Paris 1900 he was in the fourth and fifth position. P. 94. Breyer, Gy. Excellent younger Hungarian Master. Prize winner in the tournaments at Bad Pistyan 1912 and Breslau 1912. P. 152. Capablanca, Raoul José, one of the strongest players of the current time, born 1888 in Havana. He won a match with Marshall (see P. 6) and emerged from the Grandmaster Tourna- ment in San Sebastian 1911 as first winner. P. 7, 33, 82, 126. Carls, C., German Master, used to live in Hannover, now in Bremen. P. 145, 151. Chajes, O., American Master, lives in Chicago. P. 109, 128. Cohn, Erich, born 1884 in Berlin, German Master, took part successfully in many tournaments. P. 46, 116. Duras, Oldrich, Bohemian Grandmaster, born 1882, lives in Prague. He has brilliant tournament results. In Vienna 1907 he won the second prize, in Vienna 1908 he shared the three first prizes with Maróczy and Schlechter. In Prague 1908 he shared the first and second prize with Schlechter. In Petersburg 1909 he was third and fourth prize winner, in Hamburg 1910 he earned the second prize. In Breslau 1912 he shared the first and second prize with Rubinstein. P. 14, 19, 41, 46, 84, 101, 139, 148. Dus-Chotimirski, younger Russian Master, now lives in Vilnius. He has taken part in several international tournaments with good results. P. 99. Forgács (Fleischmann), L., Hungarian Master, has repeatedly taken part successfully in large international tournaments. In the Masters' Tournament of Nürnberg 1906 he shared the third and fourth prize with Schlechter. P. 78, 101, 111. Gunsberg, I., born 1854 in Budapest, lives in London. Used to be a Master of the first rank. First prize in Hamburg 1885, in Bradford 1888. Played a match with Chigorin in 1890, which remained undecided. P. 119. Janowski, D., born 1868 in Wolkowysk. Prize winner in the tour- naments in Nürnberg 1896, Budapest 1896, Berlin 1897, Vienna 1898, London 1899. Won the first prize in Monte Carlo 1901 and in Hannover 1902. Played a match with Mieses, which remained undecided, was victorious over Winawer, Walbrodt and Showalter in matches. P. 104, 106, 109. John, W., German Master. P. 89. Johner, P., born 1887, Swiss by birth, now lives in Berlin. Participant in several Masters' Tournaments. P. 84, 123. Lasker, Emanuel, D.Phil., World Champion, born 1868 in Berlinchen in the Neumark, defeated the up to then uncontested World Champion Steinitz in a match in 1894. He won the first prize in New York 1896, in Four Masters Tournament in St. Petersburg 1896, in Nürnberg 1896, in London 1899, in Paris 1900. In St. Petersburg 1909 he shared the first and second prize with Rubinstein. He won a match against Tarrasch in 1908 and in 1910 played a match against Schlechter, which remained unde- cided. P. 24, 28, 31, 96, 104. Leonhardt, Paul S., born 1877 in Leipzig, preeminent German Master and repeated prize winner in international tournaments. P. 54, 67, 121, 137. Levitsky, born in Moscow 1876, preeminent Russian Master, P. 155. Lowtzky, M., born 1881 in Kiev, preeminent Russian Master and Master of the German Chess League. P. 123. Marco, G., born 1863 in Czernowitz, prize winner in many International Masters' Tournaments. P. 17. Maróczy, Géza, born 1870 in Szeged. Master of the first rank. Won the second prize in Nürnberg 1896, in London 1889 he shared the second through fifth prize, in Paris 1900 the third and fourth prize; was first prize winner in Monte Carlo 1902 and 1904. P. 80, 113. Marshall, F., born 1877 in Montreal, first class Master. Shared the third and fourth prize in Paris 1900, won the third prize in Monte Carlo 1904. His main successes were the brilliantly won first prize in Cambridge Springs 1904 and that in Nürnberg 1906. P. 14, 111, 128, 137. Mieses, J., born 1865 in Leipzig. Prize winner in several inter- national tournaments; won the first prize in Vienna 1907. Chess author. P. 69, 87, 89, 152. Nimzowitsch, A., born 1886 in Riga. Preeminent Russian Master and repeated prize winner in international tournaments. P. 56, 67, 82. Perlis, J., D.Jur., born 1880 in Bialystok, died 1913, lived mostly in Vienna; was one of the most important Austrian Masters and often took part in large tournaments with good results. P. 12, 56, 87. Przepiórka, D., born 1882 in Warszaw. Master of the German Chess League, lives in Munich. participant in several International Masters' Tournaments, problem composer of the foremost rank. P. 119. Réti, R., younger Hungarian Master. P. 71. Rubinstein, A., born 1882 in Stawiski in Russia. Grandmaster of the first rank. His main results are: Oostende 1907 first and second prize shared. St. Petersburg 1909 first and second prize jointly with Lasker. 1911 San Sebastian second and third prize shared. San Sebastian 1912 first prize. Bad Pistyan 1912 first prize. Breslau 1912 first and second prize shared. P. 44, 69, 96, 99, 133, 139, 142. Salwe, H., important Russian Master, successful participant in several international tournaments. P. 9. Schlechter, Carl, born 1874 in Vienna, one of the strongest Masters of the present day. First prize winner in Munich 1900, in Oostende 1906. In vienna 1908 shared the three first, in Prague 1908 the two first prizes, won the first prize in 1910 in Hamburg. In the year 1910 he kept a match for the Champion- ship of the World with Dr. Lasker undecided. P. 9, 31, 36, 39, 41, 54, 121. Znosko-Borovsky, E. A., Russian Master, took part in a number of international tournaments with good results. P. 94. Spielmann, R., born 1884 in Vienna, Grandmaster of the first rank. Shared the second and third prize in the Grandmaster Tournament in San Sebastian 1912. Won the second prize in Bad Pistyan 1912. P. 44, 71, 80, 91, 126, 130, 133, 142, 151. [ sic - no white line between S and T - the only error I could find outside the games, and a trivial one at that. ] Tarrasch, S., D.Med., born 1862 in Breslau, Grandmaster, lives as medical practitioner in Nürnberg. Won first prize in four subsequent tournaments, in Breslau 1889, in Manchester 1890, in Dresden 1892, in Leipzig 1894. In Hastings 1895 he earned the fourth, in Vienna 1898 the first prize again, and the same in Monte Carlo 1903 and in Oostende 1907. P. 7, 24, 28, 38, 39, 145. Tartakower, S., D.Jur., preeminent Austrian Master. P. 78, 91. Teichmann, R., born 1868 in Altenburg. Master of the first rank. Repeatedly won high prizes in international tournaments. His main success was the first prize in Karlsbad 1911. P. 19, 50, 64, 148. Chigorin, Mikhail Ivanovich, born 1850 in St. Petersburg, died 1908. Champion for Russia of long standing. Shared the third and fourth prize in the Berliner tournament 1881, in New York 1889 the first and second. In Hastings 1895 he won the second prize, in Budapest 1896 the first. In the year 1893 he kept a match against Tarrasch undecided. P. 74, 116. Vidmar, M., D.Phil., born 1885 in Ljubljana. Master of the first rank. Won the third prize in Prague 1908, shared the second and third prize in the Grandmaster Tournament in San Sebastian P. 74, 106, 113, 130. __________________________________________________________ [ This is followed by an index of the games, and two pages of advertisements, one of related games books, one of other books by the same publisher. The index can be more usefully found in your favourite PGN viewer, and the advertisements I have chosen to omit, assuming that Publishing House Philipp Reclam no longer sells any books for the princely sum of 80 pre-war pence. ]