He was born in 1880 in Warsaw (then in the Russian Empire) and spent his early years in England where he learned to play chess. After return to Warsaw, he became one of the strongest Polish players.
Flamberg played his first strong tournament in Łodz (a Quadrangular) in 1906 and finished 3rd, behind Akiba Rubinstein and Mikhail Chigorin and aheas of Georg Salve.
In 1910, he won the Warsaw championship ahead of Rubinstein, but lost a match to him (+0 –4 =1). In 1913, he drew a match with Duras (+1 –1 =0) and won a match against Bogoljubow (+4 –0 =1), both in Warsaw.
The following game was one of his notable games because it was significant in the history of theory...his countryman David Prepiorka commented, "When one examines the opening moves and the subsequent course of the game, it is almost incredible that it was played in 1914...the double fianchetto of the Bishops, the operations on both wings, and later on the maneuver with the black Knights and the posting of the Queen on the long diagonal, all these ideas are, as we know, considered the very latest achievements of the Hypermoderns."
The Hypermodern Period was in vogue during the period of 1919-1928, bit it did exist in its early development in 1914, but its development was delayed because of WW I. His opponent in this game was Stepan Levitsky (1876-1924), a Russian master.
Alexander Flamberg–Stepan Levitsky1–0A47All-Russian Masters. St. Petersburg16.01.1914Stockfish 17
E17: Queen's Indian Defense 1.d4 f6 2.f3 b6 A solid defense in which black tries to control the light squares in the center with pieces is in the Hypermodern style. 3.g3 A popular reply that contests the long diagonal. b7 The idea of playing ...Ba6 became popular in the 1970s and another idea is ...Bb4+ aining to exchange the less useful dark-squared B ha also been tried. 4.g2 e6 5.0-0 e7 6.b3 0-0 7.b2 d6 8.c4 bd7 9.bd2 c5 At the time the originality of these opening moves was revolutionary. 10.e1 Flamberg's idea is that the the whole game is based on the control of e4 and so he wants to eliminate light squared Bs in the belief that his K will be safe abd that he will win the battle for e4. The move is not at all bad, but nowadays white usually plays 10.e3 with a solid position. It seems Flamberg's idea has more potential. c7 Hardly bad, but simpler would have been 10... Bxg2 10...xg2 11.xg2 cxd4 12.xd4 c8 13.e4 c7 with a completely equal position. 11.c1 White has several reasinable moves here (for example, 11.e4), but the idea of the text is that it discourages black from central P exchanges as long as his Q is on the c-file. xg2 12.xg2 The position is completely equal. Black could now safely play 12...cxd4, but plays ot safe instead and removes his Q from any potential danger. b7 13.e3 Again, this position is so even that black has a number of reasonable moves. cxd4 14.xd4 c5 Black's plan of retaining control of K5 is logical, but unfortunate in its conse- quences. He misses the last opportunity to play ... P- Q4. 15.c2 ce4 16.xe4 xe4 17.b2 Hypermodern stuff...the posting of the Q on the long diagonal to supports the B. e5 This leaves him with a backward d-Pawn on the semi-open file and a bad B, but it's a profoundly well played move that closes the diagonal. 18.c3 Very nice. He is hoping Levitsky will tale the B leaving white with a good N against black's bad B. g5 18...Nxc3 would be positional suicide. 19.f4 exf4 20.gxf4 Black's last maneuver has enabled him to render white's e-Pawn backward and, at the same time, rein-forced his control of e3 because white can no longer play f3. For his part, white has pressure on black's d-Pawn and a a beautiful square for the N on d5. The f-file also has some potential for him. All on all, the position ids equal/ f6 21.xf6 xf6 22.cd1 e4 23.f3 Both players have been pursue their respective goals. h5 One annotator who evidently based his comments on the game's outcome called this move a desperate bid for counterplay. That's hardly the case, but the move is a bad seed and white now gets just a wee bot of an advantage. 23...Rfe8 would have kept the engine evaluation at 0.00. 23...Nh5 offers white a P capture which he wisely avoids taking. 24.d5 24.xd6 would not be wise because after xf4 25.d2 ae8 26.f2 g5 black has plenty of play. 24...ae8 25.f2 A real Master move! White protects his e-Pawn and at the same time makes room for the R on the g-file. He also threatnes Re3. f5 26.g1 f6 The threat was Rg5, but a better way to prevent it was with 26...h6. After the text white gains a small advantage. 27.b1 c8 One annotator opined that the exchange of Qs would yield white a favor-able ending and obviously Levitsky agreed, but they were both wrong! Exchanging Qs was exactly the right course to heep the chances equal. Now white treally does have the advantage, but that's not to say black is lost. 28.d3 Threatening to win the Knight by Rh3, but it allows black the equalizinf advance of his f-Pawn. White should have prevnted black's next move by advancing his own f-Pawn. f5 29.c3 h8 Black is starting to collapse. His intention probably was to play ...Rg8, but he is in for a surprise. Correct was 29...Qd8 29...d8 remains equal. 30.g5 f6 31.xf6+ 31.xf5 e4+ 31...xf6 32.fg3 g6 33.h4 d5 34.cxd5 e4 with equak chances. 30.h3 White now has a virile attack. f6 After this black is lost. 30...e6 is a better chance. 31.f3 f6 32.c7 e4+ 33.g2 d7 White is clearly better, but black could fight on. 31.xg7 A magnificent conclusion. xg7 32.g3+ h6 33.xf6 e6 34.g5 Black cannot parry the mating threats. c5+ 35.f1 It's mate, so black resigned. 1–0
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