Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Margate 1935

Jacques Mieses
     Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (born Laszlo Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer with a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts. A New York Times article called him relentlessly experimental because of his pioneering work in painting, drawing, photography, collage, sculpture, film, theater, and writing. Below is a sample of his “art”, dated 1935, titled Chairs at Margate. 


     It’s possible that the participants at Margate could have been entertained by Harry Gold (born Patrick Ricks; 1866-1946) who started a troupe of entertainers in Margate as early as 1903. With many changes of cast, Gold's Entertainers were a fixture at the popular resort right up until the outbreak of war in 1939. Some members of the troupe performed in drag. 


     In the spring of 1935, Margate held the first of five consecutive international tournaments in the spring. Andre Lilienthal had been invited, but he was unable to attend because of illness and so was replaced by Ernst Klein. Klein (1910 – 1990) was an interesting character. 
     He was born in Vienna and emigrated to the UK in the 1930s, had modest successes in a handful of international tournaments at that time and served as Alekhine’s unofficial second in his World Championship match against Euwe in 1935. 
     Harry Golombek once wrote that Klein, “got his recollections of this famous match in a most inglorious muddle. Possibly he did give Alekhine some unofficial help during the last few games of the match, but he never served in any official capacity at any time in the contest.” It turned out that it was Golombek who got his recollections in a most inglorious muddle. Golombek was known to have a carefree writing style and much of what he wrote was riddled with factual mistakes, so that shouldn't be surprising.
     Later, after checking with Euwe, it turned out that after the 26th or the 27th game Landau withdrew as Alekhine’s after a disagreement between the two. In the remaining games Klein helped Alekhine, but he had no official status. 
     Klein’s son described his father as a man who was easily offended and with a short, explosive temper. Edward Winter’s site has a brief biography of Klein by his son HERE
     In what was described as an unpleasant incident Klein got expelled from the playing hall during the 28th game. Alekhine had recently been analyzing with Klein, who was representing several foreign papers as a journalist. The opening was a Vienna Game and Alekhine openly consulted with Klein several times while the game was in progress. After reaching a good middlegame position, Alekhine walked over and shook Klein’s hand. 
     An official pointed out to Klein that talking to a player during the game wasn’t allowed and if he did not stop, he would be removed from the playing area and not allowed access to the other games. Klein stated that he couldn’t prevent Alekhine from talking to him. He was then told to leave the room and to hand in his press-card. Klein replied by slapping the official’s face after which he was forcibly removed by the police. It’s odd that nobody said anything to Alekhine! 
Klein

     Although I haven’t been able to uncover the details, it seems that Klein was also involved in an incident at Margate in in 1937 in which most of the foreign players signed and published a letter complaining about Klein’s “unfair and obnoxious behavior.” They also stated they didn’t want him playing in anymore tournaments in which they participated. Apparently Klein filed a lawsuit for libel against Alekhine, Menchik, Prins and others which he withdrew after receiving an apology. (Edward Winter - Post 1602) 
     At Margate in 1935, everybody reckoned that Capablanca would be the winner, but the 23-year old Reshevky went undefeated, won his individual game from Capa, and finished first by a half point in his first big international win. 

1) Reshevsky 7.5 
2) Capablanca 7.0 
3) Thomas 5.0 
4-5) Klein and Sergeant 4.5 
6-7) Reilly and Fairhurst 4.0 
8) Milner-Barry 3.5 
9-10) Menchik and Mieses 2.5 

     The following game isn’t a great masterpiece, but I like it because it shows the ease with which great players can squeeze out a win. Mieses does a good job holding Reshevsky to what looked like was going to be a draw, but then made one tiny little tactical mistake and the game was over. 

     Mostly Mieses is remembered for taking a beating at the hands of stronger players. According Wikipedia, Mieses largely adhered to the Romantic school of play and showed little aptitude for positional chess, but perhaps that should read “showed little preference for positional chess. 
     GM Alex Yermolinsky was talking about David Janowsky when he wrote, “Is anybody out there ignorant enough to say that David Janowsky...lost this game because he didn’t understand simple positional principles?”, but he could have been talking about Meises. 
     It reminds me of the Tal-Botvinnik World Championship matches. Tal, the tactical genius; Botvinnik, the icon of positional play. But, examine the games and you’ll see they hammered away at each other with every tool available. Tal played some positional games and went for endings if he thought it expedient while Botvinnik sometimes headed for tactical situations. 

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