Friday, April 10, 2020

Pollack's Brilliancy

     IM Danny Kopec (February 28, 1954 – June 12, 2016) was an author and computer science professor at Brooklyn College. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1975 and later received a PhD in Machine Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh in 1982. Kopec was Greater NY High School Champion at 14, and reached master at 17. 
     He won the Scottish Chess Championship in 1980 while pursuing his doctorate. He lived in Canada for two years during the 1980s and tied for second in the 1984 Canadian Championship. 
     Kopec wrote numerous books on chess, produced eight instructional DVDs and ran chess camps starting in 1994. He also promoted his variation against the Sicilian, the Kopec System (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bd3). Along with Ivan Bratko he created the Bratko–Kopec Test, a standard test for computer chess programs in the 1980s. Kopec died from pancreatic cancer. 
     In his introduction to Winning the Won Game: Lessons from the Albert Brilliancy Prize, Kopec wrote about how what constitutes a brilliancy prize has changed over the years. Flawed but imaginative play used to be the standard, but no more. It's the underlying soundness that is now deemed to be essential.
In 1925, Russian professor A. Smirnov, wrote a definition of brilliance:

     Brilliance in chess is a complex concept, as complex as the nature of chess itself, combining features of art and science. Its main indication is practical expediency, with which it not only accidentally coincides, but is also intrinsically linked. Scientific thought appears brilliant to us, when it appears distinctly, apparently unexpectedly, and most important fruitfully. It’s precisely this that constitutes intrinsic brilliance in chess. 

     Despite definitions, for most players brilliancy is like pornography...it's hard to define, but you know it when you see it. 
     For winning the below game Pollock was awarded the special price of $50 donated by Professor Isaac Rice for the most brilliant game in the second round. In 1890 $50 in 1890 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $1,421.31 in 2020. 
     Steinitz described the game thus: 

     This sacrifice of the Q for no more than two pieces is based on a most profound and brilliant idea, such as has very rarely occurred in actual play...Mr. Pollock’s play from the 17th move renders this game one of the finest monuments of chess ingenuity, and altogether it belongs to the most brilliant gems in the annals of practical play. 

     Was that true? For the most part, I think Steinitz was correct! The game was played in 1889 in the monster 6th American Chess Congress. Steinitz had claimed the title of World Champion for himself after defeating Zukertort in a match in 1886, and in the following years in his new adopted home of the USA Steinitz would be a positive promotional force. 
     With the Support of Steinitz the event would be a double round robin tournament of twenty players and a world championship match would be the right of the winner. Originally Steinitz was scheduled to play, but after he defeated Chigorin in their match in Havana early in 1889, Steinitz decided not to participate. He did tend to administrative tasks, served as journalist and authored the tournament book. 
     Play began at 1pm and continued until 5pm with a break for dinner and then resumed as necessary at 7pm with games adjourned at 11pm. Adjourned games were completed on rest days. A time limit of 15 moves per hour was regulated by clocks. 
     Draws counted as half a point in the first cycle of nineteen rounds, but had to be replayed once during the second cycle, with the second result standing.
     The tournament lasted two months from March 25th until May 27th 1889. The tournament consisted of 38 normal rounds, 8 replay rounds and 4 playoff rounds, for a grand total of 50 rounds. 

     The star of the event was Max Weiss. He won sixteen and drew seven games before the first replay round during the second cycle and then he began playing rather poorly and in the end shared the first prize with Chigorin. 
     A four game play-off was intended to determine a clear winner to face Steinitz for the world championship, but they drew all four games. As for the match with Steinitz, neither Weiss nor Chigorn wished to play, so their was no match. 
     Weiss returned to Austria where he was undefeated and finished first in the the Kolisch Memorial in Vienna in 1890. After that he concentrated on his work for the Rothschild Bank. 
     Gunsberg was interested in a match against Steinitz in New York. First Gunsberg drew a match against Chigorin in Havana at the beginning of 1890. Upon the strength of that result his challenge was accepted by Steinitz. They played a match at the Manhattan Club later that year. Steinitz won 10.5-8.5.

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