“The Knight’s Pawns should never be moved in the opening on account of the resultant loosening of the position...I consider the Evans Gambit so correct that I cannot warn you sufficiently against accepting it in a tourney fame. A Pawn up is no equivalent for the attack one is subjected to...I myself am inclined to appraise the correct play of the pieces above that of the Pawns...I never worry much about my unfavorable Pawn position so long as my pieces are rightly posted.” Dr. S. Tarrasch
Indian Defenses weren’t popular in Tarrasch’s day and they were generally frowned upon but that was because they were so poorly played. It wasn’t until the hypermoderns began playing them in the 1920s that they were given serious attention. But, even then it took until the 1940s and 1950s for the Russian players to prove their true worth.
In the following game Tarrasch was 64 years old...ancient for a chess player, but when he met Davidson’s Indian Defense he conducted the attack like a kid. The Dutch player Jacques Davidson (1890-1969) was considered the first Dutch chess professional and was one of the country's strongest players during the 1920s. He finished 1st at Amsterdam 1925 and finished second behind Euwe in the 1921 and 1924 Dutch Championships.
Here, let me mention that Tarrasch’s Best Games of Chess by Fred Reinfeld is a great book! Reinfeld was a great writer when he wanted to be and this book of Tarrasch’s games is superb and filled with masterpieces that will help the careful reader understand basic classical principles.
From March 7th to the 29th, 1926 a great international tournament, organized by Ossip Bernstein, was held at the Grand Hotel Panhas in the Semmering Pass south of Vienna. For the first half Nimzovich and Tartakower lead the field, but towards the finish the lead changing hands until Spielmann emerged as the winner in the best tournament of his career.
One interesting participant was Karl Gilg (January 20, 1901 - December 4, 1981), a German master who as one of the German minority in the newly-formed Czechoslovakia after the end of the First World War. He learned chess at the age of four. He took an active part in Czech chess, representing them in the Olympiads in 1927, 1928 and 1931.
Semmering 1926 was his first major international tournament. Although he finished poorly, he caused a sensation by defeating Alekhine in round three. He went on to participate in numerous international tournaments with modest success. After Czechoslovakia had been occupied by the Germans, Gilg began taking part in the German championships.
Gilg served in the military during World War Two and became a prisoner of War and was held in East Lothian in Scotland. In an article by Alan McGowan in Chess Scotland, Gilg was held in Amisfield Park Camp 243, Haddington, East Lothian, from October 29, 1945 to July 5, 1946. From there he was transferred to Gosford Camp 16 at Aberlady, also in East Lothian, from July 6, 1946 to September 30, 1947. After his release Gilg lived in West Germany where he was a teacher. He was awarded the IM title in 1953.
In case you are wondering why Gilg was held as a POW until late in 1947, two years after the war ended, it was because in the years following World War II large numbers of German civilians and captured soldiers were forced into labor by the Allied forces. In Great Britain they had more than 400,000 prisoners; many of whom had been transferred from POW camps in the US and Canada and many were used as forced labor, as a form of "reparations.”
1) Spielmann 13.0
2) Alekhine 12.5
3) Vidmar 12.0
4-5) Nimzovich and Tartakower 11.5
6-7) Rubinstein and Tarrasch 10.0
8) Reti 9.5
9) Grünfeld 9.0
10) Janowski 8.5
11) Treybal 8.0
12) Vajda 7.5
13) Yates 7.0
14-15) Gilg and Kmoch 6.0
16) Davidson 5.5
17) Michel 4.5
18) Rosselli del Turco 1.0
25. Ne6+ - the ultimate family fork, attacking 4 Black pieces simultaneously.
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