An Amazing Game by Geza Maroczy

     As mentioned in Monday's post, Sunday night and Monday were ugly days due to the winter storm that affected much of the Midwest and East coast. Oddly, I saw an old post from Monday, January 6, 2014, in which I mentioned that it was dark and bitterly cold here, -15 Fahrenheit (-26 Celsius). At the time Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost city in the U.S., was warmer. 

     Holing up during the day Monday gave me a chance to browse some old chess books such as Strategy and Tactics by the recently mentioned Fred Reinfeld (and Irving Chenev). It was one of the good Reinfeld books, having been first published in 1933 and again in 1946. It's a collection of 50 games by the leading players from 1870 to 1933. 

     As you might expect, in this era of strong engines many of the annotations will have holes in them, but generally speaking their notes are still instructive because they give you an idea of what's going on. 

     The author's goals were to select games of artistic merit, for their illustration of some important principle and that exemplified the style of one of the great masters. In the introductions to the games they wanted to describe the player's personality, style, the opening, historical trends and, at the same time, catch the reader's interest. They succeeded.

     The following brilliancy prize game was played in the Koslish Memorial tournament held in Vienna in 1899-1900. There is scant information on this event, but I did manage to find some details in The Brooklyn Daily eagle. Here are the final standings: 

 

    In case you're wondering who the 2nd place finisher was, it was Milkos Brody (1877-1949), a Hungarian–Romanian master who was very active from 1897 and had some success prior to WWI. After the war he became a Romanian citizen and had some moderate success in 1920s. On the March 1900 rating list Chessmetrics puts his rating at 2607 placing him 24th in the world. 

     Avid readers of this blog will remember my recent commentary on a Brilliancy Prize game by Weaver Adams where I stated that because sacrifices are prized so highly, it used to be customary to offer special awards for them, but in today's world of engines a lot of brilliancies, while pleasing to the eye, are flawed.

     Concerning the following Brilliancy Prize game it's obvious that they believed that in order to be brilliant a game did not have to be brimming over with sacrifices with pieces being flung every which way. They felt that the judges had shown rare good taste when they awarded this game the Brilliancy Prize in recognition of Maroczy's superb endgame artistry. Please don't ignore the game just because it's long and features an ending...Maroczy's play was simply brilliant.

Georg Marco - Geza Maroczy

Result: 0-1

Site: Vienna

Date: 1899.12.19

French: Exchange Variation

[...] 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 A simple and clear cut line in which white makes no attempt to exploit the advantage of the first move and is often chosen with expectation of an early draw which, however, white cannot force if black is uncooperative. 3...exd5 4.♘f3 ♗d6 5.♗d3 ♘f6 6.O-O O-O 7.c3 c6 8.♗g5 ♗g4 9.♘bd2 ♘bd7 10.♕c2 ♕c7 11.♖fe1 ♖ae8 12.♗h4 ♗h5 13.♗g3 ♗xg3 14.hxg3 ♗g6 15.♖xe8 ♖xe8 16.♗xg6 hxg6 17.♖e1 Clearly a draw result was agreeable to both players but tournament rules did not allow one before the 30th move. 17...a6 18.♕b1 ♔f8 19.♖xe8+ ♘xe8 20.a3 ♕d8 21.♕e1 ♕e7 22.♕xe7+ ♔xe7 Clearly this is a drawn position, but they have to play on a few more moves. 23.♔f1 ♘d6 24.♔e2 f6 25.♘e1 b5 26.b4 Maroczy wrote, "Analyst who can hear the grass grow (but who are unreceptive to any louder sounds) maintained-after the game , of course, that this move compromises white's position irretrievably." He was correct...the game is still almost dead equal. 26...♘b6 27.f3 ♘bc4 28.♘b1 He could keep things equal with either 28.Nd3 or even 20.Nxc4, but all Marco is doing is shuffling pieces waiting to reach move 30 so they can draw. However, this move gives Maroczy a microscopic advantage. 28...♘f5 Black threatens to win material: Nf5xg3 29.g4 ♘fe3 After this the evaluation is 0.00 by both Stockfish 14 and Komodo 14 and the recommend instead 29...Nfd6 with a tiny advantage to black. 30.♔f2 The evaluation drops to 0.00 after 30.g3. After this black is better by a smidgen over a half Pawn. Apparently Maroczy decided he didn't want a draw and could play for a win here. 30...g5 31.♔e2 g6 32.♔f2 ♔d6 33.♔e2 Reinfeld slapped a ? on this move and claimed the last chance to hold the position was 33.Nd3 and Nc5. That was harsh! The position is still equal. 33...♔c7 Maroczy's idea is to reposition his K to b6 in order to support the advance of the a-Pawn. The reason... on a4 the P will no longer be liable to attack and the he can maneuver his K to h3 (an amazing concept) after which he wil be able to eventually win white's a-Pawn. Naturally the engines are going to find some hiccups along the way, but this is a truly remarkable concept! 34.♔f2 ♔b6 35.♔e2

35.♘d3 Would allow black to win a P, but after doing so it does not seem he could make any further progress. In any case, white prefers not to let that happen and so he played the text. Still, it was his best line as black now gets an advantage. 35...♘c2 36.♔e2 ♘2xa3 37.♘xa3 ♘xa3 38.♘c5

35...a5 36.♔f2 This move which the annotators passed over without comment is really a losing move. Komodo puts black's advantage at a Pawn, SF puts it at two.

36.g3 keeps black's advantage at a minimum after 36...a4 37.♔d3 f5 38.gxf5 gxf5

36...a4 The first part of his plan is completed. 37.♔e2 ♔c7 Now begins phase two. 38.♔f2 ♔d6 39.♔e2 ♔e7 40.♔f2 ♔f7 41.♔e2 ♔g7 42.♔f2 ♔h7 43.g3 ♔h6 44.♔e2 f5 45.gxf5 gxf5 46.♔f2 ♔h5 47.♔e2 f4 Forcing the entry of his K. 48.gxf4 gxf4 49.♔f2 ♔g5 50.♔e2 All white has is K moves otherwise he immediately loses the a-Pawn and with it the game. 50...♔h4 51.♔f2 ♔h3 Forcing the N to move. 52.♘d3

52.♔e2 ♔g3 53.♘d3 ♘c2 54.♘e5 ♘2xa3 55.♘xa3 ♘xa3 56.♔d2 ♘c4+ 57.♔c2 ♔f2 58.♔b1 ♘d2+ 59.♔c1 ♘xf3 60.♘xc6 ♔e2 wins the ending.

52...♘c2 53.♘xf4+ ♔h4 He could also have played 53...Kh2 54.♘d3

54.♘g2+ is met by 54...♔h3 55.♘f4+ ♔h2 56.♘e2 ♘2xa3 57.♘xa3 ♘xa3 How dangerous is white's f-Pawn? 58.f4 ♘c4 59.f5 ♘d6 60.f6 a3 61.♘c1 ♘e4+ 62.♔e3 ♘xf6 Not very it turns out.

54...♘2xa3 The plan is completed. All that remains is to eliminate white's f-Pawn and then maneuver his K over to the Q-side. 55.♘xa3 ♘xa3 Now the threat is ...Nb1xc3 56.♘c1 ♘b1 57.♘a2 ♔h3 58.♔e3 (58.f4 ♔g4 59.♔e3 ♘a3 60.♘c1 ♘c4+ eliminating the f-Pawn.) 58...♔g3 59.f4 ♔g4 60.f5 ♔xf5 61.♔d3 ♔f4 62.♘c1 ♔f3 63.♔c2 ♘a3+ 64.♔d3 ♔f2 65.♔d2 ♘c4+ 66.♔d1 (66.♔d3 ♔e1 67.♔c2 ♘e3+ 68.♔b1 ♔d2 wins.) 66...♔e3 67.♔c2 Marco has done everything he can to hold off Maroczy's K, but his position is hopelessly lost. 67...a3 68.♘a2 ♘b2 69.♘c1 It appears that Marco has been successful in holding off the K and blocking the advance of the a-Pawn, but Maroczy has a crusher! 69...♘d3 Offering the which cannot be taken. 70.♘b3 (70.♘xd3 a2 71.♔b2 ♔xd3 72.♔xa2 ♔xc3 and wins.)

70.♘a2 In The Field newspaper of the day this was suggested as better, but it, too, loses. 70...♘e1+ 71.♔d1 ♘d3 72.♔c2 ♔e2 White is in Zugswang. It mate in 12 after 73.Nc1, so... 73.c4 dxc4 74.♘c3+ ♔e3 75.♘a2 ♘f4 and the d-Pawn falls.

70...♘e1+ 71.♔d1 ♔d3 72.♔xe1 ♔xc3 73.♘a1 ♔xd4 74.♘c2+ ♔c3 75.♔d1 a2 76.♔c1 d4 77.♘a1 d3 78.♘c2 One last hope...if 78...dxc2 it's stalemate! 78...c5 White resigned...an amazing game!

78...c5 79.♘a1 cxb4 80.♔d1 b3 81.♘xb3 ♔xb3 82.♔d2 a1=♕ 83.♔e3 ♕e5+ 84.♔xd3 ♔b2 85.♔d2 ♕e4 86.♔d1 ♔c3 87.♔c1 ♕h1#

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