Among the masters, at any rate, there’s generally no sharp dividing line between chess for fun and chess for blood. True, they play for keeps; they want to win, they do win; that’s why they’re masters – topnotchers in their field.
But masters are also artists, not artisans. They’re craftsmen, not butchers. They want to win – sure. But they want to win beautifully. And they’ll go to a lot of trouble, they’ll take headlong risks to win by some artistic means.
The most obvious difference between the master and the ordinary player, is of course that the master plays much stronger chess. But right after that comes a second distinction: the ordinary player is satisfied to win any old way, so long as he wins. But the master wants the most artistic way, the most convincing method.
Such as? Well take the following diagram as an example. (D)
Alekhine – Reshevsky
White to move
In the eyes of the ordinary player Black has done very well for himself. He’s a pawn ahead, and his potential mate threat (...Q×g2) keeps White’s queen anchored to the defense.
But White is no ordinary player. For Alexander Alekhine was not only the greatest of the world champions; he was also the greatest chess artist of all time. He was a man of extraordinary nervous energy who had been known to fling his king across the room or smash furniture on the rare occasions when he lost. A rotten sport, maybe, but he took his chess very hard!
This enormous energy expressed itself in Alekhine’s amazing games. He was like a proverbial magician producing rabbits from a top hat: you could see it being done and still marvel that it could be done. Surprise; dynamic energy; delightful artistry. These are the hallmarks of Alekhine’s genius.
Here’s how Alekhine wound up the game from the diagram:
1.R×b8+! K×b8 (D)
Naturally. But now comes a second magnificent surprise:
2.Q×e5+! ... (D)
Beautiful! If now 2...f×e5 White replies 3.Rf8+. Black’s king is mousetrapped, and White checkmates in two more moves.
Explanation: Actually the dynamic factors were very much in White’s favor. His far-advanced pawn at b6 created a wedge that imprisoned Black’s king. One white rook was powerfully posted on the eighth rank. The other white rook was poised menacingly on the half-open f-file. All that was needed was to open the f-file. To do this, the white queen had to move with check, so as to prevent Black from giving checkmate in the absence of White’s queen.
Easy when you know how, but how skillfully Alekhine blended these factors!
Aron Nimzovich was another highly nervous individual. Nimzovich was undoubtedly the most original player in the history of the game. He was irritable and suspicious to a fault, always seeking something different. The ordinary way of doing things was never good enough for him.
In a way Nimzovich’s attitude toward chess reminds me of a favorite saying of Daniel Boone’s: when Dan’l saw the smoke rising from a cabin, even if it was miles away, he knew it was time to move on. Nimzovich was always a lone wolf and preferred to go his own way. For years many people laughed at him, so this man with an exquisite sense of humor turned into an embittered eccentric.
However, at the chessboard Nimzovich often gives you a delightful feeling of superlative achievement. His flair for the beautiful is somehow mingled with a feeling for the comic, or even the grotesque, that is intensely personal. See, for example, how Nimzovich concludes the following game. (D)
Nimzovich – Hakansson
White to move
Nimzovich always used to claim in mock seriousness that he hated brutal moves and preferred delicate maneuvering. However, “brutal” is the only word for the way that White has trussed up his opponent and left him helpless. Here’s how Nimzovich finishes him off:
1.Q×d7+ ...
An amazing queen sacrifice!
1...N×d7 2.Ne6 mate! (D)
Typical Nimzovich – and totally unexpected!
Explanation: Black’s king was exposed to attack in the center. Black’s pieces were badly split and ineffectual – note above all that his queen was stalemated! Given the helplessness of Black’s pieces, it’s logical to expect some startling sacrifice of material on White’s part. He knows he can get away with it!
Richard Réti was another of the great masters. He had an unsurpassed knowledge of the game; he had chess in his finger tips. But he wasn’t quite in the very front rank. There was some flaw in his chessic make up – a certain softness of character. He lacked the resilience of the outstanding masters – their ability to take punishment and come back fighting.
Perhaps Réti was too much the artist and not enough of a fighter. Be that as it may, he played some beautiful games. The next diagram shows one of his most famous combinations, which rightly won a Brilliancy Prize.
The reason why Réti was awarded the prize is an interesting one. He makes one quiet move, so simple and delicate that you can imagine him extending his “pinky” as he moves the bishop. No fireworks! And yet Black is completely helpless. (D)
Réti – Bogoljubow
White to move
1.Be8!! Resigns
Why does Black resign?
First point: if 1...R×e8 2.Q×f8+ R×f8 3.R×f8 mate.
Second point: if 1...Be7 2.Qf8+ B×f8 3.R×f8 mate.
Third point: if 1...B×c5+ 2.Q×c5 and Black is still lost: if 2...R×e8 3.Qf8+ or 3.Rf8+ forces mate.
So we see that 1.Be8!! leaves Black helpless.
Explanation: Here again the defender’s forces were split. Black’s queen doesn’t do a proper defensive job, while the white queen is right in the center of the battle. The black rook is working for the defense to be sure, but White’s masterly 1.Be8!! knocks the rook out of action.
Now look at it from White’s side. The open f-file is a highway of attack for his forces. The white queen and rook use this file as a base of operations. The defender has no similar line of defense. So the attack triumphs.
These three examples of beautiful play give us a good idea of the chess master’s artistry. But they are by no means outstanding. There are times when the master rises to heights of imaginative splendor that are rarely equaled. Of such combinations we may truly say that they happen only once in a lifetime.
Outstanding Feats of Imagination
Probably the most startling move ever seen on the chess board was played by the American master Frank James Marshall. He was the Douglas Fairbanks of chess, a swashbuckling type of player always searching for deeds of derring-do. Problems of technique bored him, and positional play left him cold. Risks, “swindles,” tricky moves, speculative sacrifices – these were what chess meant to Marshall.
Sometimes Marshall succeeded gloriously; sometimes he failed miserably. But success wasn’t what he was after in his glittering games. What he sought was the thrill of the unknown, the charm of the unexpected. He was a magnificent improviser.
Time magazine once described Marshall as looking like a Shakespearean actor; actually there was a disarming simplicity about him that left you unprepared for the slash and thrust of his devilish combinations. And now for his most startling move. (D)
Levitzky – Marshall
Black to move
Black’s queen is attacked; so is his rook at h3. Most players would now think of some pedestrian move like ...Qa3. But not Marshall! Spectacular moves were the trademark of his comet like career.
1...Qg3!! (D)
It was this move that a friend of Marshall’s was thinking about when he wrote: “Some of Marshall’s most sparkling moves look at first like typographical errors.” But this is the move that Marshall played. And weird as it looks, it brought about White’s crestfallen resignation and a shower of gold pieces from the enthralled spectators.
It is true Black’s queen can be captured three ways. Yet each way loses the game for White. Thus:
If 2.h×g3 Ne2 mate.
If 2.f×g3 Ne2+ 3.Kh1 R×f1 mate.
If 2.Q×g3 Ne2+ 3.Kh1 N×g3+ 4.Kg1
; Ne2+ and Black remains a piece to the good.
And so, since Black is also threatening ...Q×h2 mate, White resigned.
Explanation: I must admit it seems brash indeed to submit this flash of genius to cold, logical analysis! My guess is that Marshall first realized he could play 1...Ne2+ 2.Kh1 Qg3! when his queen would be safe from capture by White’s f- or h-pawns. Most players, even most masters would be satisfied with this winning line. But Marshall, being Marshall, perceived the much more striking move 1...Qg3!!
Of course there is also this to be said: Black starts the combination a piece ahead, and this gives him leeway for sacrificing. But enough of these analytical comments – Marshall’s glorious move was made to be enjoyed, not pondered.
In the next diagram Black’s king seems to be rather exposed to attack, though reasonably secure for the moment. To prove that Black’s king is anything but safe – that’s a task calling for a poet of the chessboard. (D)
Cukierman – Voisin
White to move
1.Q×e6+!! ...
This bombshell blasts Black’s king out of his apparent security.
1...K×e6 2.Bc4+ Kf6 (D)
What now? White seems to have shot his bolt. To prove the soundness of his first stunning sacrifice, White must find a second sacrifice which is perhaps even more sensational.
3.R1d6+!! B×d6
Forced!
4.Rf7 mate (D)
What can you say about such a sublime combination? No adjectives could do it justice.
Explanation: As in so many brilliant attacks, the basic point is the isolation of the defender’s queen. White has overwhelming force at his disposal against Black’s ominously divided pieces. Still, no mere butcher could wind up the game in this scintillating style. It’s one thing to realize as a matter of cold logic that Black is vulnerable. It’s something else to make the intuitive leap of genius from the why to the how!
The combination illustrated in the next diagram was played by Jacques Mieses, a master whose style was similar to Marshall’s. Mieses was a wit and a dandy: elegance was his goal in life as in chess. An urbane conversationalist who quoted freely from the Latin classics, Mieses could also be stubbornly opinionated. This born aristocrat could never be put into harness for anything so vulgar as winning a tournament. The delectable byways of fascinating combinative play meant more to him. (D)
Reggio – Mieses
Black to move
And so there is always a uniquely glamorous quality about a Mieses combination. Sometimes the basic idea is hidden so deeply that the opening move seems the work of a madman. As for example in the following, where Black’s first move is utterly baffling.
1...Rg3!! (D)
White can capture the interloping black rook either way, with his queen or with his h-pawn. Correct? No, not quite!
For if White plays 2.h×g3 there follows 2...Qe3+ 3.Be2 Q×e2 mate.
In other words, White’s queen has the task of guarding against the checkmate just shown. White cannot play 2.h×g3, for that capture blocks the action of his queen along the third rank. So White must play:
2.Q×g3 ...
What then? What does Black have to show for his sacrificed rook? Black’s next move is the icing on the cake.
2...Bh4! (D)
This pins the white queen, which, standing on the same diagonal as the white king, cannot run off.
But 3.Q×h4 is likewise out of the question, for then Black has the same mate: 3...Qe3+ 4.Be2 Q×e2 mate.
So we see that White’s queen can neither run away nor capture the bishop. In other words the white queen must remain at her post and be captured by the black bishop. But the loss of this valuable piece means the loss of the game for White.
Explanation: It’s not enough to point out that White’s king is stranded in the center and therefore exposed to attack. After all, Black’s king is also in the center, yet perfectly safe.
What really matters is that most of White’s pieces are huddled together, while White’s queen is off to the side, out of play, and yet tied to a grimly exacting defensive task. Black’s pieces, on the other hand, are posted on open lines and strike out boldly against the white king. Black has the initiative, and in chess the man who has the initiative has the future.
Sooner or later the initiative confers some possibility of a powerful tactical thrust. This explains how the position came about.
The next grand combination is notable for a number of reasons. First, it is the supreme effort of a master whose play was generally solid and unspectacular. This player was James Mason, a rather mysterious figure. Rumor has it that he was the black sheep of a distinguished family and played under an assumed name.
Mason was a brilliant writer on chess, and his books, written about the turn of the century, enjoyed a great vogue for almost forty years. There are still oldsters who look back nostalgically on their reading of Mason’s books decades ago. He gave many a chessplayer his first glimpse of the intricate beauties of chess, and for this he deserves to be remembered gratefully.
But as I’ve pointed out, Mason’s play was anything but graceful. So here is his effort of a lifetime, inspiring us with the thought that all of us may succeed equally well in producing a masterpiece some day. (D)
White is two pawns ahead – a material advantage so great that he can win pretty much as he pleases. And yet, such is the master’s deep feeling of responsibility toward his art, Mason seeks a winning line which is full of risk and requires the most careful calculation.
Mason – Winawer
White to move
There you have the typical, difficult, dazzling blend of chess for fun and chess for blood!
The first move, appropriately enough, is an astonishing sacrifice:
1.R×g5!! ...
Black can hardly avoid capturing, for if 1...R×b4 2.Rg7+ and White wins easily.
1...h×g5 2.Qh7+ ... (D)
And again White leaves his opponent precious little choice, for if 2...Kd8 3.Qh8+ with these possibilities:
I 3...Ke7 4.R×b8 and wins.
II 3...Kc7 4.Q×f6 and wins.
In either case, White’s material advantage is overwhelming.
2...Nd7
This looks good, as the knight move momentarily leaves both black rooks in safety.
3.B×d7! ... (D)
This move is stronger than it looks. The first point is that if 3...Q×d7 4.Q×d7+ K×d7 5.R×b8 and with three pawns ahead, White has an easy win.
So Black does not care to succumb that ingloriously. Suppose he tries 3...Qf8. In that case 4.Be6+ is deadly. For 4...Rf7 loses whole rook, while 4...Kd8 allows 5.R×b8 mate or 5.Qd7 mate.
3...Qg8
Now Black seems to have a fighting defense. His queen attacks White’s queen. Consequently White has no good discovered check. The situation deserves a fresh diagram. (D)
While Black rubs his hands gleefully, he is about to succumb to one of the most brilliant moves ever played:
4.Rb7+!! ...
This splendid resource freshens up the attack. If 4...R×b7 5.Q×g8 K×d7 6.Qg7+ winning one of Black’s rooks and remaining with a crushing material superiority. On the other hand if 4...Kd8 5.Q×g8+ decides at once.
4...K×b7 (D)
The last gasp. What now?
5.Bc8+!! ...
This was the well-hidden point of White’s whole combination. Black cannot play ...Q×h7 because White is giving double check.
5...Ka8
It doesn’t much matter what Black does. If 5...K×c8 6.Q×g8+ followed by 7.Qg7+ coming out with queen against rook – an overwhelming material advantage.
6.Q×g8 ...
White won easily with queen and bishop against two rooks.
Explanation: By now you’re able to see the emerging pattern of combination play against an exposed king. The defender’s pieces are scattered and don’t cooperate properly. The attacker’s forces operate powerfully on open lines and their efforts converge on a concentrated goal.
In con
trast to the previous combination, the next one is the masterpiece of one of the all-time greats in the field of brilliant play. This was Johannes Hermann Zukertort, a small, dapper man with smoldering eyes and a neat pointed beard of the type that was so popular in the 1880s.
Zukertort was an amazing man outside of chess. He mastered twelve languages, had an M.D. degree, and was decorated for gallantry on the field of battle. He was an outstanding pistol shot, fencer, and whist player. As an accomplished and versatile journalist, he wrote interestingly on such diverse subjects as music and prison reform.
At the chessboard Zukertort was a remarkable mixture of deep analytical powers and far-reaching intuitive genius. He produced beautiful moves with the practiced ease of a conjurer.
The following combination, generally recognized as his finest, has always had a special fascination for me. When I was eleven years old, I learned the moves by reading the article on chess in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Included in the article were a number of memorable master games, and one of them contained the following combination.
The sequence of incomprehensible moves troubled me. For three months I played over the combination every day, hoping to puzzle out its why and wherefore. But I failed to fathom it – and no wonder!
For this combination is one of the sublime examples of the art of chess. Play over the main line before you look at the hypothetical possibilities. (D)
Zukertort – Blackburne
White to move
White is apparently lost in view of the double attack on his queen and bishop. Most players, handling the white pieces, would resign here because of the impossibility of saving the bishop. Instead, Zucertort, who has deliberately played for this position(!), continues:
How to Play Chess like a Champion Page 2