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Adolf Albin vs Wilhelm Steinitz
Nuremberg (1896), Nuremberg GER, rd 10, Jul-30
Spanish Game: Classical. Central Variation (C64)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Aug-20-06  paladin at large: This one's a mess - go look at a different game!
Dec-23-13  thomastonk: I don't understand the <paladin>'s statement. Quite entertaining game, though not without mistakes, of course.
Dec-23-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  tamar: Tarrasch was exasperated by this game too. Black takes many liberties in the early middle game, but White does not take advantage.

After move 21...Kh8-g8 (undoing 13...Kg8-h8) Tarrasch writes "The purpose of these moves is not apparent."

And after move 22...Bc6-d7 reversing 18...Bd7-c6 he lets loose with the withering

<Es is schwer, zu sagen, wer eigentlich schlechter steht: nur soviel kann man sagen: gut steht keiner von beiden.>

It is hard to say who is actually worse: you can only say, both sides stand badly.

Dec-24-13  thomastonk: <tamar> Thank you for the response. I've had a look at Tarrasch's comments after I had played through the game yesterday, and I didn't felt anything special there. I think it is Tarrasch's style to emphasize mistakes; very German, in a certain sense. And the comments you quoted are absolutely right: 21.. ♔g8 is a waste of time, and the comment after 22.. ♗d7 indicates what we see on the board: many bad playced pieces on both sides. But I don't see Tarrasch to be "exasperated" by this game.

I called it "quite entertaining" because it has lots of interesting moments. After the first moves one would assume an normal open game, but then 8.♔f1? (which Tarrasch called the best move!?) changed the character of play.

And then for example Steinitz' 14.. ♕e8. Why not d6? White was threatening ♘f3-h4-g6+, but this doesn't work: 14.. d6 15.♘h4 ♘xe5!. A highly complicated position.

Around move 18, White has a lot of interesting decisions to make. He can advance the h-pawn, or exchange on d6. In particular the latter looks quite promising, because White's pieces gain much activity.

I think a very interesting phase begun also with 32.b4!?. White sacs the queenside pawns and fights interestingly for the c2-h7 diagonal, where the ♘e4 is many moves en prise. Etc., etc.

The game is not competiting for a brillancy prize, that's sure. It's a real battle in my view, and I like such games.

Dec-24-13
Premium Chessgames Member
  tamar: <thomastonk> Difficult to determine tone from my rudimentary German translations. What I see as as withering dismissal could just be a case of Tarrasch being witty.

What struck me was he was probably the first to come up with the droll line "Both sides stand badly." Now you hear this by many commentators to indicate poor play.

I use Google Translate to fill in the gaps of my German. It's interesting you mention 28 b4

Here Tarrasch writes, "Weiss spielt damit ein sehr gewagtes Spiel, denn sein Damenflugel wird schliesslich unhaltbar."

I wasn't certain what gewagtes meant, so I cued in Google. It began to type, "White plays a very daring game...", but by the time it saw the rest of the sentence, it switched to "White plays a very dangerous game, because his Queenside is finally untenable."

Probably Tarrasch meant risky, a combination of daring and dangerous.

Dec-25-13  thomastonk: <tamar: Difficult to determine tone from my rudimentary German translations.> Yes, I know this problem, but not so much with German, which is my native language. This and Tarrasch's writings that I know let me think that he did not enjoy the game, but nothing serious.

Gewagt: Once again, one can never be sure. The German language of today and Tarrasch's are different. I think he used this word without any tendency, but if it had a tendency, then I would say in the sense of slightly doubtful.

Oct-05-16  Smothered Mate: Insofar as Tarrasch's remark is meant as criticism of black's 22:

The only thing I can see which looks like it might be _useful_ for black is playing c5, so if ​ 22. ... Bd7 ​ is bad, then I don't see what black should've done on his 21.

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