Chlorine gas can cause effects from mild irritation to severe and it can even be fatal. Symptoms include eye, nose and throat irritation, cough, breathing problems, chest pain and lung damage.
Mustard gas is a blistering agent that causes severe burns and damage to the eyes, skin and respiratory tract. It can lead to temporary or permanent blindness and in large concentrations it can cause death.
Bromine gas causes upper respiratory effects, cough, headache, central nervous system effects, skin loss and discoloration.
The immediate effect of phosgene is watering of the eyes. Subsequently, it causes a build up of fluid in the lungs that leads to death. It's estimated that 85% of the 91,000 gas deaths in WWI were a result of phosgene or a derivative.
As a kid there was an elderly hardware store owner who wasn’t quite right in the head and my mother said it was because he was gasses in WWI. Bromine gas’s effect on the central nervous system include extreme drowsiness, a strong desire for sleep or the tendency to fall asleep, seizures, the quick onset of confusion, disorientation, and difficulty focusing, thinking clearly, and remembering recent events. It can also cause a person's thinking, perception and behavior to be severely altered, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and what is not real. It's often characterized by hallucinations, delusions and disorganized thoughts and speech.
In 1915, Alexander Alekhine was confined prim agaarily to playing chess in Moscow and it was the year when he “played” his famous Five Queens Game against Nikolai Grigoriev. The game was actually composed, but Alejhine presented it as real.
The following game featuring a merciless attack by Alekhine was played in a First Category tournament in Moscow. In the Soviet Union players were classified using a system of categories rather than a numerical rating. It’s difficult to define exactly what a First Category player was, but a First Category player seems to have been what was also called a Candidate Master, or according to the USCF rating system an Expert which is one rank below Master (Elo 2200).
[Event "1st Category tournament, Moscow"]
[Site ""]
[Date "1915.10.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "G I Rabinovich"]
[Black "Alexander Alekhine"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C44"]
[Annotator "James Massie"]
[PlyCount "52"]
[EventDate "1915.??.??"]
{C44: Ponziani Opening} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 {This ancient opening dates
back to around the time Columbus landed in America. In 1904, Marshall wrote
that there is no point in white's third move unless black plays badly and
today it's rarely used except as a surprise. Black's main responses are 3...
Nf6, leading to quiet play or 3...d5 leading to sharp play.} d5 4. Qa4 {
This peculiar move breaks the rule about bringing the Q out early, but it's
actually the Main Line. White indirectly threatens the P on e5 by pinning the
N. Black must defend the P by 4...f6 or sacrifice a P by either 4...Bd7 (this
is probably his best choice) or 4...Nf6} Nf6 (4... dxe4 {This is often seen,
but it does not work out well for black/} 5. Nxe5 Qd5 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Bc4 {
White is better.}) 5. Nxe5 Bd6 6. exd5 {A poor choice, Better is 6.Nxc6 and 7.
d4} Bxe5 7. dxc6 O-O 8. Be2 (8. d4 Bd6 9. Be3 Ng4 10. Nd2 Nxe3 11. fxe3 Qh4+
12. Kd1 {Black is better.. Savchenko,B (2589) -Jakovenko,D (2720) Odessa 2008})
8... Re8 9. d4 Bd6 10. Bg5 bxc6 (10... Qe7 11. Qd1 bxc6 12. Bxf6 Qxf6 13. O-O
Rb8 {wuth equal chances. Castellano Egea,E (2186)-Pinsach Gelabert,A (2138)
Barcelona ESP 2014}) (10... h6 {This move assures black of a considerable
advantage after} 11. Bxf6 Qxf6 12. Qd1 Bg4 {and white is in serious trouble.})
11. Nd2 Qe7 {Better was 11...Bg4 forcing white to play the weakening 12.f3} 12.
Qc4 {Allowing the pin to continue was not a good idea. Blocking the e-file
with 12.Be3 would have been much better.} a5 {[%mdl 1024] Threatening 13...Ba6}
13. Qd3 Bf5 {[%mdl 640] After this sockdolager white is in trouble.} 14. Qf3 (
14. Qxf5 Qxe2#) 14... Qd7 {Another blow threatening 15...Bg4} 15. h3 Ne4 {
Bringing the N into the action.} 16. Be3 (16. Nxe4 {is out od the question.}
Bxe4 17. Qh5 g6 18. Qh6 Bxg2 19. Rg1 Bf3 {and black is winning}) 16... Nxd2 17.
Kxd2 Rab8 {Even better would have been 17...Be4} 18. b3 c5 {Same as before.}
19. Bc4 cxd4 20. cxd4 c5 {This move, played with the idea of opening up the
position, is not at all effective.} (20... Be4 21. Qg4 Bb4+ 22. Ke2 Bf5 23. Qf3
Rb6 {adding the R ti the action. Black is clearly better, but white can, at
least, hope to defend himself.}) 21. d5 {This is an odd situation...normally
keeping the position closed with a move like this would be a reasonable idea,
but here opening up the position with 21. dac5 would actually jave been safer.}
(21. dxc5 Bxc5+ 22. Ke2 Be4 23. Qf4 Bxg2 24. Rad1 {This is why opening up the
position is white;s best defense; his R gets into play.} Qa7 25. Rhg1 {Black
has ti be careful!} Bxe3 (25... Bc6 26. Rxg7+ Kxg7 27. Qg5+ Kh8 28. Qf6+ Kg8
29. Rg1+ {and it's white who is winning.}) 26. fxe3 {and white has managed tio
achieve equality because by opening up the position his pieces have obtainsed
considerable scope.}) 21... Be4 22. Qg4 {This loses quickly. SOmwhat better
would have been 22.Qh5} (22. Qh5 Re5 23. Qh4 Rbe8 {All white can do is wait
for the end.}) 22... f5 23. Qh4 Qb7 {It wonl't take long to dig out white's K.}
24. Bf4 ({and white gets hounded without mercy.} 24. Rad1 Qb4+ 25. Ke2 f4 26.
Bxf4 Bxg2+ 27. Be3 Re4 28. Qg5 Bxh1 29. Rxh1 Rxc4 30. bxc4 Qxc4+ 31. Kf3 Rf8+
32. Kg2 Qe4+ 33. Kg1 Rf6 34. Qh5 Rg6+ 35. Bg5 Qe1+ 36. Kg2 Qe4+ 37. Kg1 Qxd5)
24... Qb4+ 25. Kd1 Qc3 26. Rc1 Qd4+ {White resigned} (26... Qd4+ 27. Bd2 Bf3+ {
wins the Q}) 0-1
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