Restless Knights
Contents:
A game of consequence: When King Ferdinand wagered America
The Man who Beat the World's Best Chess Player and Censored Shakespeare
The Man who Lost the Immortal Game
One of the "Best Forgotten" Masters in Chess History
Tal the magician wins a splendid victory in the first Reykjavík Open!
A game of consequence: When King Ferdinand wagered America
According to a Spanish legend, it was thanks to a victory in a chess game that Columbus discovered America. King Ferdinand of Spain had the habit of playing a game of chess every day with a friend.
For a long time, Columbus had asked the king for help in discovering new territories, but without much luck. He had however managed to persuade queen Isabella to support his cause. The day had come for Columbus to get a clear answer from the king.
When the queen heard that Columbus had arrived to the palace and waiting for his answer, she made a fresh attempt to talk with the king about the matter. But the king was deep in thought, playing a chessgame with his friend.
He was angry that the queen had disturbed his chessgame and reprimanded her for this. He also said some unpleasant things about sailors in general, but especially about Columbus.
Now I shall give him an answer based on the result of the game. If I win, I shall give him financial support for the journey.
The queen sat next to the king and paid great attention to the chessgame. Suddenly she whispers to the king that now is the opportunity to checkmate his opponent.
The king considered the advice, and saw that the queen was right. He won – and America was discovered.
The Man who Beat the World’s Best Chess Player and Censored Shakespeare
There is a chess player whose name has found it’s way into the dictionaries at the expense of the greatest writer in the English language. Dr. Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825) took on the task of censoring none other than William Shakespeare, changing words and phrases he felt unsuitable for women and children to hear.
An example of this is Ophelia’s drowning, which in Bowdler’s version is merely accidental, so that Hamlet wouldn’t be accused of driving her towards suicide.
Bowdler’s The Family Shakespeare was very popular in the 19th century, but for it he gained a somewhat dubious place in the dictionaries. The verb to bowdlerise (or bowdlerize) has associated his name with censorship not only of literature but also of motion pictures and television programmes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bowdler).
His “bowdlerising” made him famous, but without it he would still have his place in history for a truly magnificent game of chess that he played against Henry Seymour Conway in the year 1788. In this game we have the earliest recorded double rook sacrifice, which must have been an inspiration for Adolf Andersen in his famous Immortal game from 1851.
Chess wasn’t on a very high level in the 18th century. The French composer and chess wizard Francois-André Danican Philidor was the chess giant of the century, and usually played with a handicap, giving the opponent at least a pawn’s odds (meaning that he started the game with less material than the opponent). He sometimes played blindfolded against his opponts, which was thought to be almost magic in those days.
Bowdler and Philidor played eight games, and it shows the doctor’s chess strength that he won two games, lost three and drew three.
Bowdler was a physician, and came from a wealthy family, but he devoted himself to the cause of prison reform, besides of course bowdlerising Shakespeare.
Bowdler’s game against Conway in 1788 is not just one of the greatest games of the 18th century, but of all time. Seeing is believing:
The Man who Lost the Immortal Game
There are those generals, and not few, who only make history for battles lost. In chess history there are unquestionably those who are most famous for losing.
First among equals, so to speak, is a man who has no less of a name than Lionel Adelberto Bagration Felix Kieseritzky, born in Tartu (the second largest city of Estonia) on the first day of the year 1806.
His name will be now and forever remembered in chess records for a game that he played against Adolf Anderssen in the year 1851. Said game made people gasp in admiration, and to this day is still worthy of the name that it was given: the Immortal Game.
The fact that Kieseritzky will be remembered for a lost game is in fact rather fitting. He did not charm his contemporaries, instead he was considered bad-tempered and eccentric. No doubt was he though keen-witted, and completely refused to become a barrister like his father, choosing instead to learn mathematics.
In 1839 he travelled to France, making Café de la Régence his home. There he taught chess for five francs an hour or played one game of chess for the same amount.
Lionel Kieseritzky was a good chess player. A manifestation of this are his results against Adolf Andersen, who for a long time was one of the best chess players in the world, loved and adored for his colourful and aggressive style of play and for his unwavering courage. A total of fifteen games between Kieseritzky and Anderssen have been preserved, and Kieseritsky has the better score.
For a period of time Kieseritzky published a chess magazine, and designed a system to print chess games. In those days there was no standard method to deliver chess games in newspapers and books, and so it commonly puzzled readers how this or that game had been played.
The simple yet thought-out system that we use today had not yet come into existence. Kieseritzky’s system proved to be a closed book for most, and his magazine gave up the ghost. The same thing happened to his three-dimensional chess which he designed, because he couldn’t explain to anyone how it worked, and so that secret died with him.
Kieseritzky was knowledgeable about chess openings, had a very good memory and a vivid imagination. All this gave him good victories, and for a while he was probably among the five best chess players in the world. Kieseritzky certainly did not lack self-confidence and called himself the “Messiah of chess”.
He died in 1853, but sadly few mourned. This nonconformist, rather ill-tempered genious was buried in a pauper’s grave, and is remembered only for one lost game.
Here is the game:
One of the “Best Forgotten” Masters in Chess History
In 1958 Lev Polugaevsky and Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov sat down and played a game of chess. “What’s so special about that?”, you might say (and “who is this Nezhmetdinov?”) . Well, it’s safe to say that it’s one of the best chess games of all time.
The game (see link below) was played at the 18th Russian Championship in Sochi, and is considered an attacking masterpiece. 24...Rxf4!! might at first glance seem like desperation, since the queen is lost anyway, but it’s actually the best move in the postition, and it’s winning. Today’s computers confirm this.
Incidentally, Nezhmetdinov won the tournament and became Russian champion for the fifth time. Anyone who’s faintly familiar with 20th century chess will understand that it takes a special talent to do this.
Despite being perhaps a little forgotten today, Nezhmetdinov is considered one of the best chess players in history. Besides what is already mentioned, he made it to the finals of five USSR championships. He didn’t take part in many tournaments outside the USSR, but when he did, he did well. An example is Bucharest International in 1954, where he finished second, behind Korchnoi, but ahead of players like Filip, Wade, Kholmov and others.
Nezhmetdinov was born in Aktubinsk, then part of the Russian Empire, now in Kazakstan, into a poor peasant family of Tatar ethnicity. He was orphaned at a young age, and moved to Kazan (now in the Republic of Tatarstan) where he learnt chess.
In his chess career Nezhmetdinov beat Tal, Spassky, Petrosian and other masters of the Soviet Chess School. His style of play was of the attacking kind, so much in fact that it could even make Mikhail Tal, that great magician, seem like a positional player. Enough said!
Let’s take a look at the 1958 masterpiece:
Tal the Magician Wins a Splendid Victory in the First Reykjavík Open!
The first Reykjavík Open was held in 1964. Thorsteinn Skúlason wrote an interesting article about it in the magazine Skinfaxi that spring. This is a translation of part of his text, which he wrote in his native Icelandic:
This is the second strongest tournament ever held in Iceland. The strongest was the World students team championship which took place in the summer of 1957. Mikhail Tal was also among the competitors then, earlier that year he had become a chess superstar by winning the Soviet Championship.
In the students’ tournament he was the sensation and achieved the best score. This time around the same thing happened, but it didn’t surprise anyone.
He played with vigour and audacity and beat amongst others his two main rivals, grandmasters Fridrik [Ólafsson] and Gligoric. 12,5 points out of 13 is a score that satisfies even the strongest.
Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric, who came second with 11,5 points, has been one of the leading chess masters of the past decade. He celebrated his 41st birthday on the day of the last round, and so the result of the tournament was a pleasant birthday gift.
This was his first stay in Iceland, but he had wanted to come for a long time, although he couldn’t find the opportunity for it until now. Gligoric has other talents besides being a chess genius.
He is an educated man, has studied English in university, and speaks it very well, besides knowing other languages as well. He’s also good with a pen, and a book of his is being published in his home country. It is about the things he’s seen and the people he’s met on his travels around the world. Glicoric mentioned that he might write something about his journey to Iceland when home again.
Tied for third place with 9 points each were Fridrik Ólafsson and the Norwegian Svein Johannessen, who is an international master. This is not Johannessen’s first visit to Iceland.
He took part in the Eggert Gilfer Memorial tournament in 1960. He then ended in 5th place out of twelve competitors and did not perform as well as was expected of him since he was then the Scandinavian champion.. This time around he played much better, and he is entitled to be content with being along side one of the strongest grandmasters in the world.
Fridrik played the first seven rounds of the tournament very well, but then relaxed a bit too much, resulting in a performance which was below what his compatriots had hoped for and expected.
In 5th place came the New Zealand international master Robert Wade with 7,5 points. Wade started off slowly, had only two points after six rounds, but in the last seven rounds he got no less than 5,5 points, beating both Fridrik and Ingi [i.e. Ingi R. Jóhannsson] in the process.
Wade has been to Iceland before. It was in the year 1947, when he and Canadian Yanovsky both played here. Those chess enthusiasts who remember further back than others should therefore know him.
Gudmundur Pálmason, who came in sixth with seven points also had a rough start, but gained momentum when the tournament was about half way through. When he played against Tal in the seventh round he had only 2,5 points. His draw against Tal was understandably quite a boost for the ego, and he consequently played with great confidence throughout the rest of the tournament.
Ingi R. Jóhannsson came in 7th place, which was also the last place to win a prize. He got six points. This was his first tournament after being nominated international master. His performance was a disappointment to the Icelanders, but it must be remembered that everyone, even the best of champions, can have a bad tournament.
It should also be stated that he wasn’t lucky with colours. He was black against most of the strongest players (Tal, Gligoric, Ólafsson, Johannessen, Wade).
In 8th place were Magnús Sólmundarson and Nona Gaprindashvili, women’s world champion, with five points each. It had been predicted that Magnús would finish the tournament in last place, but he had other ideas, playing most of his games with confidence. He could just as easily have gotten even more points.
Nona started off well, but relaxed as the tournament progressed. Fatigue is likely to be blamed. She had just come from a strong tournament in Hastings. Except for Tal, she was the most talked about competitor, which isn’t surprising, since it doesn’t happen every day that a woman is such a stiff competition in the manly world of chess.
The Icelandic Chess Federation and Reykjavík Chess Club jointly organized the tournament. They did an honorable job. I would like to mention one thing in particular in this regard, which was very popular, this was that after each round, all the games were printed and handed out.
The foreign competitors praised both the playing venue and Hotel Saga, where they stayed during the tournament.
It is the intent of the organizers to have this tournament every two years henceforth, and to invite foreign champions like they did now. The time chosen for the tournament is particularly favourable because then the international tournaments of Hastings and Beverwijk have just ended and thus it is not to hard to get some of those competitors to come.
This intention of the Icelandic Chess Federation is most commendable, because without a doubt these tournaments will strengthen chess in Iceland.
Mikhail Tal
Svetozar Gligoric
Friðrik Ólafsson
Nona Gaprindashvili
Articles translated from Icelandic with permission from http://caissa.blog.is/blog/caissa/