Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Aron Nimzovich, a pragmatist

 
     1929 was an active year. On the downside, on June 6, 1929, Richard Reti (1889-1928) died of scarlet fever at the age of 40. He was crossing the road in Prague and was hit by a street car. He was hospitalized for his injuries, developed scarlet fever while in the hospital and died. 
     Scarlet fever is still around today. It's a bacterial illness that develops in some people who have strep throat. It's characterized by a bright red rash that covers most of the body and is almost always accompanied by a sore throat and a high fever. Before antibiotics were developed and used as a treatment for bacterial infections around 1945, scarlet fever could lead to a number of deadly medical issues. These included infected sores, meningitis, pneumonia, rheumatic fever, and liver and kidney damage. Should you not die from the fever, these after effects may have finished the job. 
     Also, Hartwig Cassel (1850-1929) died in New York. He was a chess journalist, editor, and chess promoter who in 1904, along with Hermann Helms published the first issue of the American Chess Bulletin. 
     The Wall Street Crash of 1929 was the stock market crash that started the period of The Great Depression in the United States that lasted until the mid-1930s until World War II began. 
      The St. Valentine's Day Massacre on took place on February 14th when seven members of Bugs Moran's gang were murdered by unknown gunmen. The gangsters were lined up against the wall and shot with Tommy guns and other weapons. Gangster Al Capone, who was in Florida at the time, was responsible, but he was never held accountable for it nor did he ever admit to any involvement. 
     On a more positive note 1929 was the year Popeye the Sailor made his debut in January in the Thimble Theatre comic strip. The ten year old strip had originally focused on Olive Oyl, who eventually became Popeye’s girlfriend. Popeye is often credited with encouraging children to eat vegetables because Popeye was shown eating a can of spinach to increase his strength in dangerous situations. 
     One evening in 1929, two young men named William Lear and Elmer Wavering drove their girlfriends to a lookout point above the Mississippi River in Quincy, Illinois to watch the sunset. One of the women observed that it would be even nicer if they could listen to radio music in the car. 
     Lear and Wavering, who tinkered with radios for fun, were intrigued with the idea and tried getting a radio to work in a car, but the ignition switches, generators, spark plugs and other electrical equipment generated noisy static making it impossible to listen to the radio when the engine was running.
     Eventually they got the radio to work and took it to a radio convention in Chicago. They ended up setting up shop with a fellow named Paul Galvin, owner of Galvin Manufacturing Corporation which produced a device that allowed battery powered radios to run on household AC current. 
     When Lear and Wavering perfected their first radio, they installed it in Galvin's Studebaker. Galvin then went to a local banker to apply for a loan and in order to sweeten the deal had his men install a radio in the banker’s Packard. Half an hour after the installation the banker’s Packard caught on fire and his loan request was turned down. 
     Galvin then drove nearly 800 miles to Atlantic City, New Jersey to show off the new car radio at the 1930 Radio Manufacturers Association convention. Too broke to afford a booth, he parked the car outside the convention hall and cranked up the radio so that all the passing conventioneers could hear it. That idea worked and he got enough orders to put the radio into production. And that's how we got radios in our cars. 
     The first Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, began when on May 16th a small private event with about 270 attendees was held at a hotel in Hollywood. The 15 minute ceremony was hosted by Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and a total of 12 awards were presented. 
     The big chess tournament of 1929 was held in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia and it was won by Aron Nimzovich (November 7, 1886 – March 16, 1935). Today Nimzovich is remembered for what was in those days his bizarre positional ideas. Beyond that, Nimzovich was, as all great players are, a formidable tactician and an excellent calculator, plus he was also good when it came to making practical decisions over the board. An example of his approach is seen in his game against Tartakower at Carlsbad. 
     The 1929 event was the fourth international tournament to be held in the spa resort and was attended by 22 of the best masters in the world. Of the top players, only world champion Alexander Alekhine and former world champion Emanuel Lasker were missing. Vera Menchik, the women's world champion, was playing despite the protests of some male colleagues. 
 
     Rudolf Spielmann got off to a blazing start scoring 9-1, but he was tied by Capablanca from the thirteenth round on. At the end though it was Nimzovich who finished first in his finest tournament ever. It was his win over Tartakower (given below) that propelled him to first place. 
     Nimzovich used this tournament victory to campaign for a challenge to Alekhine for the world championship, but subsequent losses to Alekhine at San Remo (1930) and Bled (1931) proved that such a challenge wasn't a good idea.

Aron Nimzovich - Savielly Tartakower

Result: 1-0

Site: Carlsbad

Date: 1929

King's Indian: Saemisch

[...] 1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 g6 3.f3 Tis is going to tranpose into the Saemisch Variation. 3...♗g7 4.e4 d6 5.♘c3 O-O 6.♗e3 Bobby Fischer had trouble against the Saemisch and in his book How to Beat Bobby Fischer, Ednar Mednis gave five games Fischer lost against it. Fischer eventually avoided the K-Indian if he believed he would face the Saemisch. By the time he faced Spassky in their 1992 match he had learned how to handle it and scored +2 -1 =2. 6...♘bd7 7.♘h3 Black has two main choices: counter in the center with 6...e5 (the classical way). It blocks black's B on g7, but if at some point the B gets an open diagonal it may become very powerful. According to some closing the center with 7.d5 gives white good chances for an opening advantage. The other option is 5...c5. It leaves the a1-h8 diagonal open for the B. but loses a P to 7.dxc5. However, black should get enough positional compensation. 7...e5 8.d5 a5 9.♘f2
9.♗e2 ♘c5 10.g4 ♘e8 11.♕d2 f5 12.gxf5 gxf5 13.exf5 ♗xf5 14.♘f2 is technically equal, but in the game white had problems and ended up losing. Salem,A (2476)-Samakov,N (2340)/Dresden 2008
9...b6
9...♘h5 10.♕d2 f5 11.♗g5 ♗f6 12.♗xf6 ♘dxf6 13.exf5 gxf5 is equal. Sultan,I (2038)-Mohannad,F (2221)/Dubai 2015
10.♕d2 ♘c5 11.♗g5 ♗d7 12.g4 ♕c8 13.h4 ♔h8
13...h5 holding up white's P advance was better. After 14.♗xf6 ♗xf6 15.gxh5 ♔g7 (15...gxh5 is a loser... 16.♕h6 ♗g7 17.♖g1) 16.hxg6 fxg6 17.h5 And as shaky as black's K appears all the engines testify to the fact that the position is equal. A human player just looking at the position isn't likely to feel that way. Hence Tartakower's move which is actually worse!
14.h5 White is threatening to win a piece with h5-h6, plus there is also a threat to open the h-file. 14...gxh5 Here Nimzovich began calculating. 15.♗xf6 Played after 5 minutes thought.
15.♗xf6 ♗xf6 16.♕h6 and here he has two threats: 17.Qxf6+ and 17.Qxh5 followed by mate on h7. Thus, black's move is forced. 16...♗g7 17.♕xh5 h6 White is still winning, but his advantage is not so great as before. White can continue his attack with... 18.g5 and after... 18...f5 Nimzo calculated this far and saw he could play 19. gxf6 or he could play 19.Bh3, both good moves.
15...♗xf6 16.♖xh5 A very pragmatic approach. Nimzo realized that after 16.Qh6 things get complicated and so he decided on simpler sequence that required little calculation but assured him of a big positional advantage after maneuvering his N to h5. 16...♗g7 17.♘h1 f6 17...Qe8 followed by ...Qf6 and ...Qg6 so as to allow the Q to assist in the defense of the K was a good idea. Tartakower soon does this anyway. 18.♕h2 h6 19.♘g3 ♔h7 20.♗e2 ♖g8 21.♔f2 ♖h8 22.♖h4 ♕e8 23.♖g1 ♗f8 24.♔g2 ♘b7 25.♘h5 All this maneuvering has avoided any need for white to do a lot of tactical calculating and his positional adantage is still a winning one. 25...♕g6 26.f4 ♘d8 27.♗f3 ♘f7 28.♘e2 Another short positional plan that requires little calculation...reposition the N. 28...♗e7 29.♔h1 ♔g8 30.♘eg3 ♔f8 31.♘f5 ♖g8
31...exf4 In the tournament book by Nimzovich he gave this as an alternative, but made a mistake at the end of it. 32.♘xf4 ♕g5 33.♘e6+ ♗xe6 34.dxe6 ♘e5 Here white is still winning after 35.Bd1, but Nimzovich gave 35.♖xh6 which actually wins for black! 35...♖xh6 36.♕xh6+ ♕xh6+ 37.♘xh6 ♘xf3 GM Raymond Keene pointed out that in the days before computers it was possible to find oneself analyzing the wrong position (!) and this may explain Nimzovich's missing the fact that 35.Rh6 left the B hanging.
32.♕d2 At the moment there isn't much to be done on the K-side so Nimzo turns his attention to the Q-side. 32...♖c8 33.♖h2 ♔e8 34.b3 ♔d8 35.a3 ♖a8 36.♕c1 Tartakower now should probably have eliminated the N on f5. Instead he makes a move that turns out to be tactically faulty. 36...♗f8
36...♗xf5 37.exf5 ♕h7 and now the advance of the g-Pawn is stymied and so white must turn his attention back to the Q-side with... 38.b4 axb4 39.axb4 exf4 40.c5 with the advantage on both sides of the board. Sooner or later black's position must crack.
37.♘h4 ♕h7 38.♘xf6 And now white gains a material advantage, too. 38...♕h8 39.♘xg8 ♕xg8 40.g5 A decisive breakthrough. 40...exf4 41.gxh6 ♕h7 42.♕xf4
42.♘g6 This move also packs a punch. 42...♗xh6 43.♕c3 ♕g7 44.♕xg7 ♗xg7 45.♘xf4 and white is winning.
42...♗xh6 43.♕f6+ ♔c8 44.♘f5 ♗xf5 45.exf5 Black could have resigned here, but elected to drag the game out for a few more moves. 45...♔b7 46.♕g6 ♖h8 47.♕xh7 ♖xh7 48.♖g6 ♔c8 49.f6 ♖h8 50.♗g4+ ♔d8 51.♗e6 ♔e8 52.♗xf7+ ♔xf7 53.♖hxh6
53.♖hxh6 ♖h7 54.♖xh7+ ♔xg6 55.f7 a4 56.f8=♕ ♔xh7 57.♕f7+ ♔h6 58.♕f6+ ♔h7 59.bxa4 b5 60.cxb5 ♔g8 61.♕e7 ♔h8 62.♕f7 c6 63.dxc6 d5 64.c7 d4 65.c8=♕#
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