It was a notable performance by the American champion Samuel Reshevsky. He often started badly and finished strongly, but this time it was the other way around; he started off with a rush and had a big lead, but it gradually diminished. One would have expected him to beat players like Rellstab and Book, but he was upset by both and it cost him a clear first.
It was expected that Salo Flor would be among the leaders and true to form, he played his usual boring chess and scored a point here and a half-point there and was the only one to go through this grueling tournament undefeated. As an example of his play, he tried to bore Paul Keres to death by playing on for 104 moves in a barren position.
The excellent showing of the Latvian Vladimirs Petrov came as a great surprise and he might have done even better had he not blundered away a won game against Reshevsky in the very first round. Petrovs was one of the world's leading players in the late 1930s and was a victim of the Soviet oppression. He died in a Russian gulag in 1943
Alekhine recovered somewhat after his relatively poor showing at Margate 1937 where he finished 3rd with a 6-3 score behind Keres and Fine. Alekhine lost to both of them plus he was upset by the 9th place finisher Victor Berger, a minor British master. In one of his games Alekhine plated two moves in succession, but the TD, Hans Kmoch, was unable to invoke any penalty because the rules didn’t cover such a possibility.
Some people thought the young Keres’ play was disappointing and he should have finished higher.
Endre Steiner, the younger and less well-known brother of Lajos Steiner, scored the best performance of his career. He loved complications and avoided simplifications, but was always getting into time trouble and loses on time were a common occurrence. Steiner died at the age of 43 in a Nazi concentration camp near Budapest on December 29, 1944.
Tartakower’s play was a bit of a disappointment after his first place finish in the 1937 Polish Championship at Jurata where he went undefeated through the entire 21 rounds.
Reuben Fine’s showing was a great disappointment. One newspaper blamed it on the almost tropical heat. Normally July is the warmest month and the temperatures are pleasant with an average high of around 72 degrees. The hot spell proved particularly disastrous for Fine who was fatigued and stale from his many travels for tournaments and exhibitions during the year.
The following game between Salo Landau Movsa Feigin was, in the opinion of most of the players, one of the finest game played in the tournament and a likely candidate for the brilliancy prize. There is no record of whether or not it actually received the prize.
Salo Landau–Movsa Feigin1–0D46Kemeri1937()tockfish 15.1
QGD, Semi-Slav 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.f3 f6 4.e3 e6 5.c3 bd7 6.d3 e7
Black usually plays 6...dxc4. This move has a double purpose: it avoids the
complications resulting from the Meran Defense (6,,,dxc4) and it is superior
to the symmetrical line of play that occurs after 6...Bd6 7.0-0 0-0 8.b3
Usually white plays either 8.b3 or 8.e4, but Fine follows a different course
which, despite its harmless appearance, gives black some difficulty. b6 9.b2 b7 10.e2 c8 10...c5 This is the usual move here, but despite
appearances black does not have an easy game. Black would pretty much be
limited to defensive play and at the same time white has attacking chances. 11.ad1 c7 12.e5 with a good game. Note that black must avoid capturing
the N. xe5 13.dxe5 dxc4 13...xe5 14.xd5 wins 14.bxc4 d7 15.f4 a6 16.h5 g6 17.h6 ad8 White gets tactical with 18.d5 exd5 19.f3 f5 20.h3 f6 Watch! More tactics... 21.xf5 dxc4 21...gxf5 22.exf6 xf6 23.g3+ f7 24.xh7+ e8 25.xc7 22.exf6 xd1+ 23.f2 d2+ 24.e1 f7 25.xg6 xg2 26.xf7+ xf7 27.xh7+ e8 28.f7+ d7 29.f8 11.ad1 c7 12.e5 xe5 12...fd8 13.f4 b4 14.f5 with a strong attack. 13.dxe5 d7 14.f4 14.cxd5 cxd5 15.b5 b8 16.f4 a6 16...g6 17.b1 c5 18.g4 a6 19.a4 xb3 20.f5 White has a dangerous attack. Pinter,J (2526) -Rogic,D
(2513) Baden 2019 17.a4 g6 18.c2 fd8 19.f2 xb5 20.axb5 f5 21.g4
The chances are about equal. Jakovenko,D (2730)-Buhmann,R (2579) Saint Quentin
FRA 2014 14...fd8 Played in order to bring the N to f8 in the hope of
avoiding the weakening advance of one of the Ps in front of his K. 15.f3
This works out well for white, but many years later an even stronger
continuation was found. 15.cxd5 cxd5 16.b5 b8 17.f5 g6 18.fxe6 fxe6 19.g4 f8 20.f4 d7 21.f7+ h8 22.d6 White is winning. Galyas,M (2458)
-Koczo,K (2221) Budapest 2011 15...f8 16.h3 The threat is `7.Bxh7+ f5 16...a6 A pass to demonstrate the threat. 17.xh7+ xh7 18.h5 f8 19.xh7 e8 20.g8+ d7 21.xf7 and white is winning. 16...dxc4 This is
slightly better than 15...f5 17.xh7+ xh7 18.h5 xd1+ 19.xd1 f8 20.xh7 b4 21.h8+ e7 22.xg7 f8 Black will grab the d-file with his Q and
he should then have enough counterplay to claim equality. 17.exf6 xf6 18.cxd5 exd5 19.c2 h6 This avoid Bxh7+, but white has another way of
continuing that is equally strong. 19...g6 It's been claimed by old
annotators that this move was absolutely essential, but, in fact, it's
absolutely worse! 20.f5 20.xd5 This pretty nifty move works out very
well also. cxd5 21.xc7 xc7 22.xf6 e8 23.e5 f7 24.b1 White's
advantage should prove decisive. 20...g7 21.fxg6 hxg6 22.g3 e5 23.e2 xb2 24.xg6 e5 24...xg6 25.xg6 25.f4 xf4 26.exf4 f6 27.e1
Black has run out of moves. h8 28.e2 d7 29.h5+ h7 29...h7 30.xh7 g7 31.d3+ g8 32.e8+ xe8 33.xe8+ f8 34.xg7+ xg7 35.g6+ h8 36.h7# 30.xh7 xh7 31.h3 g7 32.e8+ xe8 33.xe8+ g8 34.e5+ g7 35.b8+ and wins 20.f5 This is the first move of a nicely calculated
combination by Landau. Its point is to force the R on c8 to move, thus leaving
the Q unprotected. a8 21.xd5 xd5 22.xf6 Black has a choice of captures,
but none offer him any hope of saving the game. xd1+ 22...gxf6 23.xd5
is obviously bad. 22...xf5 23.xg7 xg7 24.g3 23.xd1 f7 23...gxf6 is met by 24.g3+ h8 25.h5 and wins 24.xh6 This far from obvious
move is the real point of the combination. Neither of the pieces which are en
prise can very well be taken. 24.xg7 White's position is so strong that
this, too, works. xf5 25.xh6 g6 26.h5 f7 27.g5 c8 28.h5 and a
slaughter follows... f5 29.xf5 e8 30.e4 24...c8 24...gxh6 25.g4+ g6 26.e6 24...gxf6 25.g4+ g7 26.e6+ xe6 27.xe6+ f7 28.g6+ f8 29.xf6 25.xc8 gxh6 26.g4+ h7 27.d4 A slight aesthetic flaw . 27.f5+ g6 28.e5 e8 29.h4 and the game is over. 27...g8 28.f5+ g6 29.h4 c5 30.e5 Black resigned as there is no way tp meet the coming h5. 1–0
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