An Offhand Voight - Judd Set To

    In the Fall of 1903, Max Judd, at the time a noted player from St. Louis, Missouri was in Philadelphia and took occasion to have a little set to with a local player, Herman G. Voigt. 

    Their first game, a Sicilian, was drawn. In the second, a Ruy Lopez, a remarkable position arose on move 26 and Judd took the wrong Knight and then resigned. 

    Max Judd (1858-1906) was born in Cracow, Poland and emigrated to the United States in 1862. He was a cloak manufacturer who President Grover Cleveland appointed consular general to Austria. 

    His opponent was the prominent Philadelphia player Hermann Voight ( 1857-1922). Voigt's father was born in Germany, but came to the United States and was duly naturalized. Later he returned to Germany and Voigt was born in Saxony, but when he was about 14 years old the family returned to the US. 

 

[Event "Philadelphia"] [Site "?"] [Date "1903.08.07"] [Round "?"] [White "Herman Voight"] [Black "Max Judd"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C60"] [Annotator "Strockfish 16"] [PlyCount "53"] [EventDate "1903.??.??"] {C60: Ruy Lopez} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 {At the time this was called the Paulsen Defense. Today it's known as the Smyslov, or Fianchetto, or Barnes, or Pillsbury Defense! It was briefly populat in the 1980s. It usually results in quiet positions.} 4. O-O Bg7 5. c3 Nge7 6. d4 exd4 7. cxd4 d5 8. e5 O-O 9. Nc3 {The alternative is 9.h6, but the text is also perfectly acceptable.} Bg4 10. Be2 {White coud also play 10.Be3} Nf5 11. Be3 f6 {With this type of P-chain this move is generally effective. White mus play actively.} 12. Qb3 ( 12. exf6 {leads to full equality after} Nxe3 13. fxe3 Rxf6 14. Qb3) 12... Nxe3 (12... fxe5 {is a bit more precise.} 13. dxe5 Nxe5 14. Nxe5 Bxe2 15. Nxe2 Bxe5 16. Bc5 Re8 {Black is slightly better.}) 13. fxe3 fxe5 14. dxe5 Be6 15. Qxb7 Nxe5 16. Nd4 {More accurate would have been 16.Nxe5 because the N on e5 will cause a problem for white.} Bf7 17. Qa6 Qe7 {Preventing Ne6} 18. Rae1 Rab8 19. Qxa7 Rxb2 20. Nd1 {At this point black has a considerable advantage owing to his centralized and active pieces.} Rb1 {An anonymous annotator in the Canadian magazine of the day, Checknate, made the odd comment, "Very good or very bad, according to the way you look at it." In fact, this is black's best move.} 21. Nb3 Rd8 22. Rf2 d4 {The annotator claimed this was excellent play and it was a better move than Judd suspected. It;s a good move, but not really spectacular.} 23. exd4 (23. Nxd4 {was the only move that offers any chance of survival. After} Bh6 24. Rff1 Ra1 {with a slight advantage.}) 23... Nd3 24. Rxf7 {This is a miscalculation. 24.Bxd3 offered better chances of defense.} ( 24. Bxd3 Qxe1+ 25. Rf1 Qe7 26. Bxb1 Bxb3 27. Qa6 (27. axb3 Bxd4+) 27... Bxd4+ { and black is clearly better.}) 24... Kxf7 25. Rf1+ Kg8 26. Bxd3 {A critical position. Obviously black has to take a N, but which one?} Rxd1 {[%mdl 8192] Wrong N! After the game they played several games after 26...Rxb3 and all were drawn. Shootout results with Stockfish were that white lost all 5 games.} ( 26... Rxb3 {This is the only move that wins.} 27. Bc4+ (27. axb3 Bxd4+) 27... Kh8 28. Kh1 Bxd4 29. Qa5 Rh3 {Of course the R cannot be taken and black should win after} 30. Nf2 Rc3 {The B cannot retreat to b3 because of 31...Qe2} 31. Qa6 Rf8 32. Nd1 Rc1 33. Rxf8+ Qxf8 34. Be2 c5 {with a winning advantage.}) 27. Rxd1 {Black resigned.} 1-0