Margate 1935

Jacques Mieses

     Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (born Laszlo Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer with a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts. A New York Times article called him relentlessly experimental because of his pioneering work in painting, drawing, photography, collage, sculpture, film, theater, and writing. Below is a sample of his “art”, dated 1935, titled Chairs at Margate. 

     It’s possible that the participants at Margate could have been entertained by Harry Gold (born Patrick Ricks; 1866-1946) who started a troupe of entertainers in Margate as early as 1903. With many changes of cast, Gold's Entertainers were a fixture at the popular resort right up until the outbreak of war in 1939. Some members of the troupe performed in drag. 

     In the spring of 1935, Margate held the first of five consecutive international tournaments in the spring. Andre Lilienthal had been invited, but he was unable to attend because of illness and so was replaced by Ernst Klein. Klein (1910 – 1990) was an interesting character. 
     He was born in Vienna and emigrated to the UK in the 1930s, had modest successes in a handful of international tournaments at that time and served as Alekhine’s unofficial second in his World Championship match against Euwe in 1935. 
     Harry Golombek once wrote that Klein, “got his recollections of this famous match in a most inglorious muddle. Possibly he did give Alekhine some unofficial help during the last few games of the match, but he never served in any official capacity at any time in the contest.” It turned out that it was Golombek who got his recollections in a most inglorious muddle. Golombek was known to have a carefree writing style and much of what he wrote was riddled with factual mistakes, so that shouldn't be surprising.
     Later, after checking with Euwe, it turned out that after the 26th or the 27th game Landau withdrew as Alekhine’s after a disagreement between the two. In the remaining games Klein helped Alekhine, but he had no official status. 
     Klein’s son described his father as a man who was easily offended and with a short, explosive temper. Edward Winter’s site has a brief biography of Klein by his son HERE. 
     In what was described as an unpleasant incident Klein got expelled from the playing hall during the 28th game. Alekhine had recently been analyzing with Klein, who was representing several foreign papers as a journalist. The opening was a Vienna Game and Alekhine openly consulted with Klein several times while the game was in progress. After reaching a good middlegame position, Alekhine walked over and shook Klein’s hand. 
     An official pointed out to Klein that talking to a player during the game wasn’t allowed and if he did not stop, he would be removed from the playing area and not allowed access to the other games. Klein stated that he couldn’t prevent Alekhine from talking to him. He was then told to leave the room and to hand in his press-card. Klein replied by slapping the official’s face after which he was forcibly removed by the police. It’s odd that nobody said anything to Alekhine! 

Klein

     Although I haven’t been able to uncover the details, it seems that Klein was also involved in an incident at Margate in in 1937 in which most of the foreign players signed and published a letter complaining about Klein’s “unfair and obnoxious behavior.” They also stated they didn’t want him playing in anymore tournaments in which they participated. Apparently Klein filed a lawsuit for libel against Alekhine, Menchik, Prins and others which he withdrew after receiving an apology. (Edward Winter - Post 1602) 
     At Margate in 1935, everybody reckoned that Capablanca would be the winner, but the 23-year old Reshevky went undefeated, won his individual game from Capa, and finished first by a half point in his first big international win. 

1) Reshevsky 7.5 
2) Capablanca 7.0 
3) Thomas 5.0 
4-5) Klein and Sergeant 4.5 
6-7) Reilly and Fairhurst 4.0 
8) Milner-Barry 3.5 
9-10) Menchik and Mieses 2.5 

     The following game isn’t a great masterpiece, but I like it because it shows the ease with which great players can squeeze out a win. Mieses does a good job holding Reshevsky to what looked like was going to be a draw, but then made one tiny little tactical mistake and the game was over. 

     Mostly Mieses is remembered for taking a beating at the hands of stronger players. According Wikipedia, Mieses largely adhered to the Romantic school of play and showed little aptitude for positional chess, but perhaps that should read “showed little preference for positional chess. 
     GM Alex Yermolinsky was talking about David Janowsky when he wrote, “Is anybody out there ignorant enough to say that David Janowsky...lost this game because he didn’t understand simple positional principles?”, but he could have been talking about Meises. 
     It reminds me of the Tal-Botvinnik World Championship matches. Tal, the tactical genius; Botvinnik, the icon of positional play. But, examine the games and you’ll see they hammered away at each other with every tool available. Tal played some positional games and went for endings if he thought it expedient while Botvinnik sometimes headed for tactical situations. 

Play Online Chess

[Event "Margate"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1935.5.1"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Jacques Mieses"]
[Black "Samuel Reshevsky"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Caro-Kann} 1. e4 c6 {An unpretentious choice by Reshevsky.} 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3
dxe4 4. Nxe4 {This is the Main Line and is black's oldest and most solid
defense. The classical continuation is 4...Bf5. It's extremely solid, but
gives black few winning chances.} 4... Nf6 {Now if white plays 5.Nxf6+ gxf6
black hopes to be able to use the g-file to produce sharp attacking chances.
Safer would be 5...exf6. It would have been interesting to see which move
Reshevsky would have played.} 5. Ng3 {Seldom played. Sax-Larsen, Tilburg 1979
continued 5...g6 6.Nf3 g7 which lead to equality.} 5... e5 {An interesting
alternative is try and take advantage of the placement of white's N with
5...h5.} 6. Be3 exd4 7. Qxd4 Qa5+ 8. Qd2 Bb4 9. c3 Be7 10. Bd3 O-O 11. N1e2
c5 12. Nf5 Bxf5 13. Bxf5 { Neither side can claim an advantage, but just
looking at the position suggests that white may have the makings of a K-side
attack.} 13... Nc6 14. O-O Rad8 15. Qc2 g6 16. Be4 {One wonders why Mieses
voluntarily relinquishes his two Bs instead of playing 16.Bd3.} 16... Nxe4
17. Qxe4 Rfe8 18. Qc2 c4 19. b4 Qc7 20. Rfd1 Ne5 { This position is quite even
and white should now exchange Rs and then play a2-a4. The move he selects
ultimately results in Reshevky gaining control of the center.} 21. Bf4 Bd6
{White should now play 22.Bxe5 when black has a slight advantage.} 22. Nd4
Nf3+ {Even better appears 22...Nd3 when the N is on an excellent outpost deep
in white's territory.} 23. Nxf3 Bxf4 24. g3 Bh6 25. a4 Bg7 26. b5 {Mieses has
succeeded in isolating Reshevsky's c-Pawn, but he never gets to take advntage
of it.} 26... Qc5 27. Rac1 Rd5 28. Rxd5 Qxd5 {So far Mieses has managed to
play solid positional chess and the position is almost dead equal. Bit his
next move, with which he probably expect to achieve a draw, turns out to be a
serios error. Passive moves like 29.Kg2 or offering to trade Qs with 29.Qd1
were super-solid.} 29. Nd4 Bxd4 30. cxd4 {No doubt Mieses was expecting
30...Qxd4 31.Qxc4 with a draw.} 30... Re4 {A surprise tactical shot. White
can't take the c-Pawn because if 31.Qxc4 Re1 wins the Q.} 31. Rd1 Rxd4 32.
Rxd4 Qxd4 {White has lost a P and black's passed c-Pawn is sufficient to win
without any great difficulty.} 33. Kf1 Kf8 34. a5 Qd3+ 35. Qe2 Qxe2+ 36. Kxe2
Ke7 37. Ke3 Kd6 38. Kd4 c3 {Very nice as it allows his K to break through. }
39. Kxc3 Kc5 40. b6 axb6 0-1