Paul Lipke, One of the World’s Best Players

    It’s surprising that German master Paul Lipke (June 30, 1870 - March 8,1955, 84 years old) isn’t better known, Chess metrics estimates his highest ecer rating tp have been 2725 in October of 1894, ranking him at #5 in the world behind Lasker, Tarrasch, Chigorin and Steinitz. Most likely this is due to his short career which the site shows only spans from 1893 to 1900. 

    Lamentably for the chess world, Lipke retired early from competitive chess, though he continued his involvement in the game at the club level. In 1898, alongside Johann Berger, he was editor of the Deutsche Schachzeitung where he was in charge of the games section. He was also involved in early editions of the Deutsche Schachblatter. 

    A lawyer who worked in several German cities, Lipke was describe as being a good looking man of pleasing, gentlemanly manners who stood about 6 feet, 4 inches tall. At the board he was described as being rather impulsive and in moments of excitement he impulsively moved “in a hasty and jerky manner; but that only on occasions of momentary forgetfulness.” 

    Lipke was born at Erfurt, Saxony (a state in eastern Germany). At a young age Lipke lost his father, a Professor of Philosophy at the Erfurt Gymnasium, his indulgent mother allowed free scope to his predilections for music, the theater, science, philosophy and the art of self-defense. 

   Together with one of his brothers, he learned to play chess in 1887, and soon became enthused, joined the local chess club and quickly improved mostly due to hus association with a well known problem composer by the name of Rudolf L'hermet. During that time he also played correspondence chess.

    In the following game Lipke takes out Janowski with ease at the great tournament at Vienna 1898. 

 

[Event "Vienna"] [Site "Vienna AUH"] [Date "1898.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Paul Lipke"] [Black "David Janowski"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C67"] [Annotator "Komodo 14 Human"] [PlyCount "63"] [EventDate "1898.??.??"] {C67: Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 {While not nearly as popular as 3...a6 the Berlin Defense has long had a reputation for being solid and drawish. At the tie of this game the defense was popular because it was a favorite of Emanuel Lasker and others.} 4. O-O {By far the most popular. A much slower alternative is 4.d3} Nxe4 {The main alternative is 4...Bc5} 5. Re1 Nd6 6. Nxe5 Be7 7. Bd3 O-O 8. Nc3 Nxe5 9. Rxe5 f5 {This is risky because it weakens his K-side ever so slightly.} (9... c6 10. Qf3 g6 11. b3 Ne8 12. Bb2 d5 {is completely equal. Reinderman,D (2542)-Timman,J (2649) Wijk aan Zee 1999}) 10. Nd5 Bf6 11. Re1 (11. Nxf6+ {is equally good.} Qxf6 12. f4 Ne4 13. Qe1 {Correct was 13.Bxe4 with equal chances.} d6 14. Ra5 Bd7 15. Ra3 Rae8 16. Bc4+ Kh8 17. Re3 {Foerster,S (2070)-Oberhofer,A (2293) Bad Wiessee GER 2012. In spite of all the time white has lost with the T the chances are wqual.}) 11... b6 12. Be2 $146 (12. c3 Bb7 13. Qb3 Kh8 14. Bf1 Ne4 15. d4 { equals. Cordovil,J (2220)-Damaso,R (2430) Loures 1998}) 12... c6 {The logical followup of 12...Bb7 was better. Janowski now embarks on a plan that only results in weakening the position of his K.} 13. Nxf6+ Qxf6 14. d4 {[%mdl 2048] } f4 15. Bd3 Nf7 {Janowski evidently intended to transfer the N to a more active location, bnu it getys stuck here for a long time. There is no real chance of a successful K-side attack so the positional 15...a5 intending ... Ba3 os a credible alterbative.} 16. Re4 g5 17. h4 h6 18. hxg5 hxg5 {It's obvious that black's K-side has suddenly been rather badly compromised, but how can white take advantage of it?} 19. Qh5 {Like this!} Rd8 {Black's best chance is to exchange Qs, but that was not Janowski's style.} (19... Qh6 20. Qxh6 Nxh6 21. Re5 Nf7 22. Re7 {As soon as white develops his B on c1 and doubles Rs on the e-file black will find himself with a very difficult position to defend.}) 20. Bxf4 {[%mdl 512] A little tactical fireworks are in order.} gxf4 {Of course black didn't have to take the B and could have played, say, 20...d5, but that would npt have neen any better. Besides, in the days when this game was played sacrifices were rourinely accepted.} 21. Rae1 { White wants to mate with Re8+.} Qh6 {Finally realizig that the exchange of Qs offers some hope, but now it's too late...white has better.} 22. Qg4+ (22. Re8+ {would be way wrong!} Rxe8 23. Rxe8+ Kg7 {and black has equalized as there is no effective continuation at white's disposal.}) 22... Qg5 23. Qf3 {Now once white captures the f0Pawn black has no defense.} d5 24. Rxf4 Nh6 (24... Bh3 { is met tactically. However, even though the ending would be hopeless it was black's best chance to play on.} 25. Bh7+ Kxh7 26. Rxf7+ Kg8 27. Qxh3 Kxf7 28. Qh7+ Qg7 (28... Kf8 29. Re5 Qc1+ 30. Kh2 Qf4+ 31. Kh3 Re8 32. Rf5+ Qxf5+ 33. Qxf5+ {Here, too, white two passed Ps will enable the Q to overpower the two Rs.}) 29. Re7+ Kxe7 30. Qxg7+ Ke6 31. Qh6+ Kd7 32. Qh7+ Kd6 33. f4 c5 34. Qh6+ Kc7 35. dxc5 bxc5 36. f5 {White is winning.}) 25. Re5 Qg7 26. Qh5 Bf5 27. Bxf5 {White threatens Be6+ and mate.} Rf8 {Resigning was a better alternative.} 28. Rg4 {A nice little tactical trick.} Nxg4 29. Be6+ Rf7 30. Rg5 Kf8 31. Rxg7 Rxg7 32. Qh8+ {Facing a heavy material loss, black resigned.} 1-0