The Old Master Art

While I was writing my last article about the “Janowski Bishops,” I found an exciting game between Janowski and Chajes, New York, Rice Tournament, 1916. The combination conceived by Janowski, besides being too deep, has an interesting history. Fifteen years later in the Chess Olympiad held at Prague in 1931, the game Mikenas-Kashdan reached the same position in the middle game!, with the only difference that Mikenas played for a draw! I believe that at some point the young Mikenas (age 21!) lost the way in his calculation and couldn’t find the key sequence. Things happen, however the 48 year-old Janowsky could figure out this outstanding gem.

After going through and doing some research, the most impressive fact from my point of view is that after these two source games, this same position after black's fifteenth move has been reached several times more. And nobody else has found Janowski’s continuation. The chess vision of those old gladiators was really awesome and mysterious.

Let’s see the game and let’s enjoy the old Master Art!