Destroying a Forgacs Brilliancy...Technically

 

Leo Forgacs

      Chess engines first reached Grandmaster strength in 1988 when Deep Thought shared first place with GM Tony Miles in the Software Toolworks Open in Los Angeles. Deep Thought had a 2745 performance rating. By the early 2000s engines running on our home computers were playing at the Master level. 

    Prior to that time we average players had to rely on annotations by ordinary Master and up, and sometimes even notes by GMs contained glaring error. Refer to my Capablanca Dodges a Bullet post HERE. 

    In that game, one that was highly acclaimed as a Capablanca brilliancy, Stockfish spotted the refutation (23.Ra6) instantly. Today’s game suffers a similar fate. It’s been presented as a brilliant win by Forgacs, but Stockfish pointed out some flaws in his play as well as Tartakower's defense and those flaws were not discovered in the old books. 

    None of that really matters though because as one introduction to the game put it, “Some games retain their capacity to thrill us no matter how often we play them over.” That’s true no matter how flawed they are! Stockfish offers several suggestions that are better than the moves Forgacs played, but the game is still a delight to play over. 

 

 

    Savielly Tartakower (1887-1956) was born in Russia and moved to Vienna at age 17. He became a doctor of law in 1909, but he never practiced law. In 1918, at the end of World War I he became a Polish citizen and moved to Paris and became a French citizen after World War II. During World War II, he served in the Free French Army under General Charles de Gaulle under the name of o Lieutenant Dr. Georges Cartier. He was both a prolific tournament player and author. 

    The winner, Leo Fprgas (1881-1930) played in tournaments under the name Fleischmann prior to 1908. He was born in Budapest and had a very short career. At the age of 21 he won the German master title in the Hauppturnier B at Hanover in 1902. He was Hungarian champion in 1907. He finished third at San Remo 1911, Budapest 1912 and Budapest 1913 then gave up competitive chess.

 

 

[Event "St. Petersburg"] [Site ""] [Date "1909.03.11"] [Round "18"] [White "Leo Fleischmann Forgacs"] [Black "Savielly Tartakower"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C14"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "1909.02.15"] {C14: French: Classical System} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Ne4 6. Nxe4 Bxg5 7. Nxg5 Qxg5 8. g3 c5 9. c3 Nc6 10. f4 Qe7 11. Nf3 Bd7 12. Qd2 O-O 13. Bd3 {Because of his greater space and aggressively placed B, white has the potential for a strong attack especially because black does not have a single piece defending the K.} (13. Be2 cxd4 14. Nxd4 Rac8 15. O-O Nxd4 16. cxd4 {is completely equal. Scholl,E-De Ruiter,T Leeuwarden 1969}) 13... c4 { As it soon becomes apparent, black's advance on the Q-side is nowhere near as formidable as white's on the K-side.} (13... cxd4 14. Nxd4 Nxd4 15. cxd4 a6 { is a safer alternative because white's N, an important attacking piece, has been eliminated.}) 14. Bc2 {Of course he keeps the B on thw b1-h7 diagonal.} b5 15. O-O a5 16. Rae1 b4 {Here Tartakower was expecting 17.g4 which he would meet with 17...f5.} 17. f5 {White's idea is to open the f-file and force black to move a P in front of his K thereby creating weakness.} (17. g4 f5 18. exf6 Qxf6 19. Qg2 {with a promising position.}) 17... exf5 {The only real choice, but black has adequate defensive resources.} 18. g4 fxg4 19. Ng5 {White's P moves have given him open lines for attack. It's interesting that in the pre-engine days a note to the g. The comclusion that white is better was obviously based on the rame says that a successful defense is impossible. Today even weaker engines disagree...black is actually equal. However, as is often the case, there is a difference between the theoretical and the practical. Attacking is easier than defending.} g6 {Maintaining equality is contingent on playing the correct defense to the attack on h7 and the plausible text nove is not it because it creayes a weakness at f6.} (19... h6 { This looks wrong, but it is the only way black can successfully defend himself. In fact, in his otherwise excellent book, The Middlegame in Chess, Eugene Znosko-Borovsky stated that this move is inadequate.} 20. Nh7 {Znosko-Borovsky ended his analysis here stating that one of white's pieces gets to f6; the comment makes no sense.} Qh4 {Now pacing a pice on f6 would simply lose material and the game.} 21. Nxf8 (21. e6 Bxe6 22. Qf4 Qe7 23. Nxf8 Rxf8 24. Bf5 Nd8 25. Qxg4 Qd6 {and black has achieved complete equality/})) 20. Rf6 { [%mdl 1024] An excellent move cutting off black's defenses and giving white free reign on the K-side.} Kg7 {There is nothing black can do to save the game. } (20... Nd8 21. Ref1 Ne6 22. Nxf7 {wraps it up.}) 21. Ref1 {[%mdl 32]} Be8 22. Qf4 {White has a number of ways to win, but this sets up a nice finish.} Nd8 23. e6 {Offering a third P, but it cannot be taken.} Ra6 (23... Nxe6 24. Nxe6+ fxe6 25. Rxf8) 24. Qe5 Kh6 (24... Kg8 25. exf7+ Rxf7 26. Nxf7 Qxe5 27. Nxe5 { White has won a R.}) 25. R1f5 fxe6 26. Nf7+ {[%mdl 512] White mates in 3} Qxf7 (26... Nxf7 27. Rh5+ Kg7 28. Rxg6# {mate next move.}) 27. Rh5+ Kg7 28. Rxg6# { Black resigned} 1-0