| Jun-11-03 | | Infohunter: The reader will note that Black, having committed himself to a forceful Queenside attack with Pawns, decides to sacrifice the Exchange for a mere Pawn at move 22 in order to keep said attack from running out of momentum. True enough, a couple of moves later it yields Black an advanced passed Pawn, but he is not out of the woods. Now here is why this game stands out in my mind: At move 26, Black plays 26...Rg6. After the tournament, Siegbert Tarrasch, playing his by then well-established role of <Praeceptor Germanicae>, ridiculed this move, recommending 26...Qxe5 in its stead. Dr. Tarrasch went on at length about how this move was so superior to the one Black chose, and gave many variations to support his contention. From this one gets the impression that Black probably could have, and should have, won this game, rather than losing it with the "inferior" 26...Rg6. Well, no one questioned Dr. Tarrasch's post mortem analysis of this game for seven years. Then, in 1914, the Book of the Tournament was finally published. Written by a superb analyst, Georg Marco, and to my knowledge still untranslated into English, it shows just how wrong Dr. Tarrasch was in his assertion. For if 26...Qxe5, there ensues a mate in four: 27.Qxh7+ Nxh7 28.Re8+ Nf8 29.Rh8+ Kxh8 30.Rxf8#. Alternately, at move 29 White could play the more prosaic 29.Bh7+ Kh1 30.Rxf8#. All this goes to show that the experts are not infallible--they just make fewer mistakes than the rest of us do. |
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Nov-01-06
 | | Phony Benoni: Edward Winter, in Chess Notes #3711, does some debunking here. While Tarrasch did publish the faulty analysis (in November 1907, about two months after the game was played), the mistake was corrected in the same periodical in the April 1908 issue. And a minor point: the tournament book was published in 1911. Winter also found no evidence that anyone else copied Tarrasch's faulty analysis, as Horowitz and Reinfeld asserted in "Chess traps, pitfalls and swindles." However, that point remains uncertain. |
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Nov-03-06
 | | tpstar: Marco's 26 ... Qxe5 27. Qxh7+! line is a nice exception to the rule that you can't get mated with a Knight on f8. The underlying theme is Black's weak back rank, which was another consequence of the exchange sacrifice. |
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Nov-03-06
| | Phony Benoni: You know, that might make for an interesting collection: games where a player gets mated despite having a knight on f8. For example, La Bourdonnais vs MacDonnell, 1834 |
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| Jun-04-13 | | phil6875: <Infohunter> I hate to be picky but the quickest mate is in 5, with Black's queen blocking the first check 27. Qxh7+ Nxh7 28. Re8+ Qe8 29. Rxe8+ Nf8 30. Bh7+ Kh8 31. Rxf8#. |
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| Dec-19-17 | | JimNorCal: Sad that a one move blunder spoiled a promising scrap!
But that's tournament chess for you. Makes you treasure the well played games even more |
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| Jan-29-20 | | Infohunter: <phil6875> You're right, I did indeed overlook that unhelpful interposition of the Queen at move 28. |
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| Jan-29-20 | | JimNorCal: <InfoHunter>:
Since your 2003 note the Marco tournament book was translated to English. A superb book by Caissa Editions. https://www.chess.com/blog/SLBM1959... |
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| Jan-29-20 | | Infohunter: And a belated "Thank you" to you <Phony Benoni> for the followup research. |
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| Jan-29-20 | | Infohunter: <JimNorCal> Thanks for the tip. That will be the next entry on my chess bookshelf. |
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| Feb-01-20 | | Olavi: <Phony Benoni: Edward Winter, in Chess Notes #3711, does some debunking here. While Tarrasch did publish the faulty analysis (in November 1907, about two months after the game was played), the mistake was corrected in the same periodical in the April 1908 issue. And a minor point: the tournament book was published in 1911.
Winter also found no evidence that anyone else copied Tarrasch's faulty analysis, as Horowitz and Reinfeld asserted in "Chess traps, pitfalls and swindles." However, that point remains uncertain.> Horowitz and Reinfeld's book was published in 1954. Vidmar wrote in his Goldene Schachzeiten (1961) that the faulty analysis was indeed widely copied, mentioning where. Of course, Winter would not have liked to see anything suggesting that H & R ever got anything right. |
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Feb-01-20
 | | MissScarlett: I hate to be picky but the quickest mate is in 5, with Black's queen blocking the first check 27. Qxh7+ Nxh7 28. <Rd8+> Qe8 29. Rxe8+ Nf8 30. Bh7+ Kh8 31. Rxf8#. |
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| Feb-02-20 | | Infohunter: <MissScarlett> Not to be outdone, I see. Nice touch! |
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Kibitzing
