An Old Masterpiece

    I recently came across an old book edited by Fred Wilson titled Lesser Known Chess Masterpieces 1906-1915 which contains 165 games that appeared in the old Year Book of Chess. The book was published by Dover Publications in 1978. 

    Fred Wilson is still around and owns Fred Wilson Chess Books in New York City. He has authored a number of chess books and appears to have set some sort of record when, in 2017, at age 71, he finally elevated his rating over 2200 to claim the National Master title. Unless you’re in that age bracket it’s hard to appreciate the accomplishment! 

    The games are all exciting and some of the opening are out of date, but that’s part of their charm. Most of the games, as well as those who played them, have been long forgotten. 

    Today we will take a look at the first game in the book. It was won by Simon Alapin (1856-1923). He was born in Vilnius, Lithuania and later settled in St. Petersburg before finally moving on to Heidelberg, Germany. He has a number of opening variations named after him, most notably the Alapin Variation of the Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.c3), which has become quite popular in recent times. Chess metrics estimates him to have been one of the world;s top 10 players in 1898. 

 His opponent was the Russian Pyotr Romanovsky (1892-1964) who won the Soviet Championship in 1923 and, jointly, 1927. According to Chessmetrics he was the 12th best player in the world six different time between 1925 and 1935. 

    During the Siege of Leningrad in winter of 1941–42, a rescue party reached Romanovsky’s home where they found him half conscious from starvation and the cold. The rest of his family had frozen to death. All their furniture had been used for firewood. 

    During the winter of the siege temperatures in Leningrad dropped to 40 degrees below zero (F). That winter was considered the coldest of the 20th century in Europe. People ate meager rations of bread and when food ran out, they resorted to eating things like wallpaper paste, leather and in some cases the bodies of the dead. 

    I remember the Andes flight disaster in 1972, where a plane carrying a Uruguayan amateur rugby team crashed in the remote Andes mountains. Only 16 of the 45 on board ultimately survived their 72-day ordeal. They survived by resorting to anthropophagy (eating human flesh). Of that practice, in a documentary one of the survivors stated, “If you had been there you would have done the same thing.” 

 

    After his recovery Romanovsky started a new family and continued to work to promote chess and train players. He was awarded the IM title in 1950 and the International Arbiter title in 1951. In 1954 he Soviets partitioned FIDE to award him the GM title, but lated withdrew it for political reasons that had nothing to do with Romanovsky. 

 

[Event "St. Petersburg"] [Site "?"] [Date "1905.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Simon Alapin"] [Black "Pyotr Romanovsky"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C32"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "1905.??.??"] {C32: Falkbeer Counter Gambit} 1. e4 e5 2. f4 d5 {In this, the Falkbeer Counter Gambit, black sacrifices a P in exchange for quick development. In the early days it was considered good for black, but eventually white found ways to combat it.} 3. exd5 (3. fxe5 {loses outright.} Qh4+ 4. g3 Qxe4+) (3. Nf3 { This is a reasonable alternative.} exf4 4. exd5 Nf6 5. c4 c6 {With an interesting game/}) 3... e4 4. d3 Nf6 5. dxe4 Nxe4 {At the time this game was played this move had not been well analyzed, but now it's known to be best.} 6. Nf3 Bc5 7. Qe2 {Black has a wide choice of inferior moves here! In addition to the move he played, 7...f5, 7...o-o, ...Qe7 an d...Qxd5 are all questionable.} Bf2+ {This looks strong...it drives the K onto the same file as black's Q, but there is no way black can take advantage of it.} (7... Bf5 {pretty much equalizes.} 8. Nc3 Qe7 9. Be3 Nxc3 10. Bxc5 Qxe2+ 11. Bxe2 Nd7) 8. Kd1 f5 (8... Qxd5+ {Looks very strong, but watch what happens!} 9. Nfd2 Bg4 10. Qxg4 O-O 11. Bd3 Rd8 12. Nxe4 Qxe4 13. Nd2 Qd4 14. Nf3 Qb6 15. Qh3 Rxd3+ 16. cxd3 Nc6 17. Ne5 Nb4 18. Bd2 Bd4 19. Qd7 Bxe5 20. fxe5 Nxa2 21. Qa4 {1-0 Neuman,P (2428) -Trmal,J (2272) Klatovy 2004}) 9. Nfd2 {The pin on his N is very troublesome for black.} Bh4 $146 (9... Qxd5 {still doesn't work.} 10. Nc3 Qd6 11. Ncxe4 fxe4 12. Qxf2 {winning a piecd.}) 10. Nxe4 fxe4 11. Qxe4+ Kf7 {Only marginally better was 1...Be7} 12. Bd2 Bf6 13. Nc3 g6 14. Bd3 Na6 15. Qf3 Nb4 16. a3 Nxd3 17. cxd3 (17. Qxd3 {is not nearly as good.} Bf5 18. Qc4 Re8 {an black has eased his defensive burden considerab;y.}) 17... Re8 18. Kc2 Bd7 19. Rae1 Rxe1 20. Rxe1 b5 21. Ne4 a5 {White has several ways to win.} 22. g4 (22. Nxf6 Qxf6 23. d6 {Attacking the R.} Re8 24. Rxe8 Kxe8 25. Qa8+ Kf7 26. dxc7 Qf5 27. Qxa5 {with an easy win.}) 22... c5 23. f5 {breaking up the position around black's K.} b4 24. fxg6+ Kxg6 25. Rf1 Ra6 26. g5 Ba4+ 27. Kb1 bxa3 28. Nxf6 {Black resigned. Not a brilliancy so much as it was a crushing attack by Alapin against Romanovsky who made no glaring errors.} 1-0