One of the most interesting, and controversial, games from the tournament was Maroczy vs. Tartakower. The judges awarded the game the third brilliancy prize although the majority of
them declared such sacrifices are incalculable and therefore "they deserve no encouragement."
Tartakower's Rook sacrifice at move 22 also created some controversy among observers on Chessgames.com 10-12 years ago. Among the comments were such as it wasn't spectacular, it was a poor game, it was Tartakower's greatest brilliancy, it was a fascinating game, it should be better known and, "Engine analysis leaves too many questions unanswered to really help us to understand what is going on."
At the time of those comments 10-12 years ago, engines were not at the level they are today. As an experiment I used Fritz 5.32 (which was released in late 1998) to analyze the position after 17.Nd2 and it considered the position almost dead even.
In fact, it's evaluation of the top ten moves ranged from 0.06 to 0.12.
After Tartakower's Rook sac (17...Rxh2) it indicated that white's (NOT black's) advantage was just over 3/4 a Pawn. Stockfish 15's evaluation reverses that and favors black by about 3/4 of a P, but it indicates that Tartakower had stronger non-sacrificial continuations.
Unless one is a chess purist who loves perfection, I think we can all agree that Tartakower's sacrificial way was the most pleasing.
Years ago I possessed Tartakower's My Best Games (in two volumes), but they disappeared somewhere. Today the books have been republished in a single volume. All 440 pages are jam-packed with fascinating games. GM Andy Soltis was correct when he wrote, "This book was meant to do what all great annotations do: instruct, explain, and entertain. And it succeeds spectacularly."
In the featured game Maroczy's opening play was somewhat passive and as a result Tartakower managed to obtain a much more active position. What makes his sacrifice on move 17 unusual is that it is more of a positional nature than tactical. Also, I forgot to mention, Tartakower made a second Rook sacrifice on move 28!
[Event "Teplitz-Schönau"]
[Site "Teplice-Sanov CSR"]
[Date "1922.10.05"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Geza Maroczy"]
[Black "Savielly Tartakower"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A85"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 15"]
[PlyCount "70"]
[EventDate "1922.10.02"]
{Dutch Defense} 1. d4 e6 2. c4 f5 {At the time this game was played the Dutch
was not popular and was considered offbeat.} 3. Nc3 {The modern way of meeting
the Dutch is to fianchetto the King's B which puts pressure on e4 and d5 and,
also, helps in the defense of the K against any coming K-side attack.} Nf6 4.
a3 {A rare side line the idea of which is to prevent ...Bb4 followed by ...
Bxc3. The point being that it in this line black eliminates the N and is
thereby aided in controlling e4. More often seen nowadays is 4.Nf3, but there
are other ways for white to equalize.} (4. g3 Bb4 5. Bd2 O-O 6. Bg2 d6 7. Nf3
Nbd7 8. O-O {with equality. Flohr, S-Botvinnik,M Leningrad 1933}) (4. e3 Bb4 5.
Bd3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. Ne2 b6 8. O-O {with equality. Rodriguez Vargas,O (2445)
-Gil Gonzalez,J (2360) Terrassa 1989}) (4. Nf3 Bb4 5. Qb3 Qe7 6. Bd2 Bxc3 7.
Bxc3 d6 8. g3 Nbd7 9. Bg2 Ne4 10. O-O {Wang Yue (2704)-Agdestein,S (2583)
Amsterdam 2008}) 4... Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Bd3 {Classical development. White is
hoping to play e4, but black can prevent this.} d5 {An additional grip on e4.}
7. Nf3 {More flexibility is offered by 7.Nge2} c6 {Black wants to play ...Ne4,
but before he can to that he must strengthen his center.} (7... Ne4 8. cxd5
exd5 9. Qb3 {and black must play ...Nxc3 or else...} c6 10. Nxe4 fxe4 11. Bxe4
{winning a P and leaving black tied up because of the threat to his b-Pawn.})
8. O-O Ne4 9. Qc2 {All of white's pieces are aimed at e4, but there is no
satisfactory way to dislodge the N.} (9. Ne5 {With the idea of forcing the N
from e4 with f3 would favor black.} Nd7 10. f3 (10. f4 {is correct. Then the
position is equal.}) 10... Nxe5 11. dxe5 Nxc3 12. bxc3 dxc4 13. Bxc4 {Black is
better.}) 9... Bd6 {Note how black's pieces make a slow march to the K-side.
White's problem is that his position is passive and there is not much he can
do to launch any kind of attack himself. Instead he is reduced to guarding
against a coming attack by black.} 10. b3 Nd7 11. Bb2 {Hoping to exchange off
the dark squared B by 11.a4 and Ba3 is met by 11...Qe2. This position is dead
equal, but as befitting his optimistic attitude he wrote - Full of confidence
in the scientific basis of his play, white treats the game from a purely
positional point of view, whereas black regards the given position as a vast
problem: Mate in 25 moves} Rf6 {The R prepares to join in the looming attack.}
12. Rfe1 {Maroczy plans to fianchetto his B, but his plan turns out to be too
slow and after the text black gets the upper hand.} (12. Ne2 {bringing the N
to the defense of the K was better.} Rh6 13. Ne5 Nxe5 14. dxe5 Qh4 15. h3 Ng5
16. f4 Nxh3+ 17. gxh3 Qxh3 18. Kf2 Qh4+ 19. Ng3 {This shows the importance of
playing the N to e2} Bc5 20. Rh1 Qxf4+ 21. Kg2 Bxe3 22. Raf1 Qg5 23. Rxh6 Qxh6
24. cxd5 cxd5 {In this complicated and unbalanced position five Shootout games
were drawn.}) 12... Rh6 {[%cal Od6h2]} 13. g3 (13. b4 {With black's R on h6
the B sac on h2 works even with the N on f3.} Bxh2+ 14. Nxh2 Qh4 {wins}) 13...
Qf6 14. Bf1 {Possibly a better way to defend against black's attack was to
play 14.h4, but psychologically advancing another P in front of the K is hard
to do.} (14. h4 {Temporarily preventing ...g5} Qg6 15. Ne2 Qh5 16. Ne5 g5 {
And now this is now as effective as white has sufficient defensive resources.}
17. Kg2 gxh4 18. Nf4 Qg5 19. Rh1 hxg3 {How does white meet this?} 20. Bxe4 Rh2+
21. Rxh2 gxh2+ 22. Kxh2 Qh6+ 23. Nh3 dxe4 24. Rg1+ {with equal chances.}) 14...
g5 15. Rad1 {This routine move is quite pointless as it does nothing to meet
black's approaching K-side attack.} (15. Bg2 {is logical continuation allows
black supremacy as follows...} g4 16. Nd2 Qg6 (16... Nxf2 {leaves white better
after} 17. Kxf2 Rxh2 {and there is no way for black to continue the attack.}
18. Ne2 {with equal chances.}) 17. f4 gxf3 18. Nxf3 Ndf6 {Black has only a
nominal advantage.}) 15... g4 16. Nxe4 (16. Nd2 {runs into} Nxf2 17. Kxf2 Rxh2+
18. Kg1 Bxg3 {black has a decisive advantage.}) 16... fxe4 17. Nd2 {Better
would have been 17.Ne5 because it would have made the sacrifice on h2
impossible because black no longer has the check ...Qxf2+ available. Black
would however have had a considerable advantage.} (17. Nh4 {leads to a lost
position after} Rxh4 18. gxh4 Qxh4 19. f3 exf3 20. e4 g3 21. hxg3 Qxg3+ 22. Bg2
Nf6 23. Qf2 Qh2+ 24. Kf1 fxg2+ 25. Qxg2+ Qxg2+ 26. Kxg2 Nxe4) 17... Rxh2 {
After 10 minutes Stockfish evaluated the position at almost one Pawn in
black's favor, but the R sacrifice was not its first choice. It preferred 17...
Qf7 which was evaluated at 2.5 Pawns in black's favor. One thing is clear.
White's K is only defended by the B on f1, whereas all the other pieces are
only spectators. On the other hand, black's Q-side pieces are not
participating in the attack. That's why, explained Tartakower, he decided to
try and pillage white's K-side with this R sacrifice.} (17... Qf7 {This was
Stockfish 15's preferred move.} 18. Bg2 Nf6 19. a4 Rg6 20. a5 Bd7 21. Ra1 a6
22. Ba3 Bxa3 23. Rxa3 Rf8 24. Nb1 Rh6 25. Nd2 Qh5 {and here, with a 2.5 P
advantage according to Stockfish, the Fritz comment is black is clearly better.
}) 18. Kxh2 {Not forced, but accdording to the engines by far best. Still,
white's defense is going to prove to be extreme;y difficult.} (18. Nxe4 {
Given white's fate in this game one wonders if this may have been the better
choice because it presents black with an opportunity to go wrong.} Qh6 (18...
dxe4 19. Kxh2 Qg6 20. Bg2 Nf6 21. Rh1 Bd7 22. Kg1 {Black's attack has run out
of gas and now it's white who is on the road to a win.}) 19. Bg2 dxe4 {
Playable, but less clear is 19...Rxg2+} 20. Qxe4 Nf6 21. Qd3 Be7 22. e4 e5 23.
dxe5 Nd7 24. e6 Nf8 25. Qd4 Bxe6 {Black is much better.}) 18... Qxf2+ 19. Kh1
Nf6 {Tartakower explains - The first point of the sacrifice. Since white's
whole second rank remains paralyzed, black has just sufficient time to bring
his reserve troops into action.} (19... Qxg3 {is much less dangerous to white.}
20. Re2 {Now that his N isn't pinned white has time to guard his second rank.}
Nf6 21. c5 Bc7 22. Nc4 dxc4 23. bxc4 Qh4+ 24. Kg1 g3 25. d5 {This counter in
the center is very effective!} exd5 26. cxd5 cxd5 27. Qc3 Kf7 28. Rxd5 Be6 (
28... Nxd5 29. Qg7+ Ke8 30. Rd2 Bd7 (30... Ne7 31. Qh8+ Kf7 32. Bc4+ Kg6 33.
Qg7+ Kf5 34. Qf7+ Kg4 35. Be2+ Kh3 36. Qf1+ g2 37. Qxg2#) 31. Qh8+ Ke7 32. Qg7+
{draws!}) 29. Rd1 Rg8 30. Qxf6+ Qxf6 31. Bxf6 Kxf6 32. Rb2 {with equal chances.
}) 20. Re2 {Now at least the N is unpinned.} Qxg3 21. Nb1 {This allows the Q
to join the defense, but here instead of defending white should have
counterattacked.} (21. c5 {with the same idea as in the previously given line
of offering to sacrifice the N on c4 if the black retreat the B.} Bc7 22. Nc4
Qh4+ 23. Rh2 Qxh2+ 24. Qxh2 Bxh2 25. Kxh2 dxc4 26. bxc4 {and white can still
put up a manly defense.}) 21... Nh5 22. Qd2 Bd7 {So as to activate the other R.
White is so cramped that there is not a lot he can do.} 23. Rf2 {Only slightly
better would have been 23.Qe1} Qh4+ 24. Kg1 Bg3 {Other good moves were 24...g3
or 24...Ng3} 25. Bc3 {Giving up the exchange is questionable.} (25. Rh2 {
was far better.} Qg5 (25... Bxh2+ 26. Qxh2 Qxh2+ 27. Kxh2 {and the chances
would be equal.}) 26. Rg2 {Black is clearly better, but there is no forced win
and so black must resign himself to a rather tedious exploitation of his
advantage. In Shootouts white scored +0 -2 =3}) 25... Bxf2+ 26. Qxf2 {It's
possible Maroczy was hoping that the elimination of the dark squared B would
lessen the effect of black's attack, but the Q, N and P still prove too much
for white's defenses to handle. However, in this position black must find the
one move that keeps his advantage.} g3 {Which he does.} (26... Ng3 27. Qh2
Qxh2+ 28. Kxh2 Nf5 29. Bd2 {with equal chances.}) 27. Qg2 Rf8 28. Be1 Rxf1+ {
The engine recommends other solutions, but Tartakower's second R sacrifice is
both pretty and incisive. The idea behind the sacrifice is to gain time to
bring his B into play.} 29. Kxf1 e5 {Adding the B into play.} 30. Kg1 (30. Bxg3
Nxg3+ 31. Ke1 Bg4 32. Rd2 Nh1+ 33. Kf1 exd4 34. Rxd4 Ng3+ 35. Ke1 Nf5+ 36. Kd2
Nxd4 {and black has a won ending.}) 30... Bg4 31. Bxg3 Nxg3 32. Re1 Nf5 33. Qf2
Qg5 {aiming for ...Bf3+.} 34. dxe5 Bf3+ 35. Kf1 Ng3+ {White resigned.} (35...
Ng3+ 36. Qxg3 Qxg3 37. Re2 Qh3+ 38. Ke1 Qh1+ 39. Kd2 Qxb1 40. Kc3 Bxe2 41. cxd5
c5 42. b4 Qc1+ 43. Kb3 Bc4+ 44. Ka4 b5+ 45. Ka5 Qxa3# {[%eval -32747,67]}) 0-1
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