Chess QuoteMaster (QM) #9: GM Rudolf Spielmann

People sometimes complain that there are fewer 'brilliant' sacrifices than there used to be in the past. However, the point is that players just don't allow them anymore!  -  Alexander Grischuk

[A note for my regular readers: The intro has not changed. Feel free to jump to the Table of Contents. Your time is valuable.]

So, who are the GOATs of chess quotes? Do you have an opinion?

Hey, it's no problem if you haven't considered the issue! I'm more than willing to fill that particular void in your thoughts with my own opinions!!

What makes my opinions better than yours? Well, my opinion is informed by decades of chess and a (diminished) chess library that takes up multiple shelves in my library.  Primarily, though, I'm the one who took the time to put some thought into this sorely overlooked aspect of chess history, a Top Ten ranking of the greatest Chess QuoteMasters (QMs) of all time.

Still, it's just a set of opinions. Besides, if you don't fully agree with my judgments, though I can hardly imagine such a contrary and confused state of mind, then chess.com generously provided a comments section so you can express your agreements, disagreements, quibbles, corrections, expansions, nominations, and questions. Some of which I will respond to!

In this blog, we let you quickly review the candidates and then talk about QM #9 Rudolf Spielmann.

Table of Contents

The QM Candidates

Questions for the Reader to Ponder

QM Rudolf Spielmann Name

His Writings

His Quotes

How Were the Quotes Graded?

How QM Spielmann Earned the #9 Spot

Reminder About Those "Questions for the Reader"

Conclusion

Prior Blogs in the QM Series

The candidates, in alphabetical order, are Alekhine, Bronstein, Capablanca, Dvoretsky, Fischer, Kasparov, Kotov, Lakdawala, Emanuel Lasker, Mednis, Nimzowitsch, Nunn, Pachman, Romanovsky, Seirawan, Silman, Soltis, Spielmann, Steinitz, Tal, Tarrasch, Tartakower, and Znovosko-Borovsky. No, you can't add anyone. All the selecting has already been done, and that's that, so it's too late to nominate anyone else. And the choices for #1 to #10 are also locked in the electrons orbiting inside my computer. So there!

You'll have noted there are more than ten candidates, twenty-three in point of fact! Well, of course there are! Otherwise, you could start making some well-informed guesses after the first five were announced. Now there's at least an attempt to shroud the results in a bit of mystery as we count down to numbers three, two, and one!

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Questions for the Reader

Thought I'd prompt you up front on some of the questions you might want to ponder while commenting on the blog at the end.

Some Q&As from earlier in this series.

*@DocSimooo split their vote between Fischer and Tal.

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Rudolf Spielmann Bio

Rudolf Spielmann (5 May 1883 – 20 August 1942) was an Austrian master of the Romantic school and author. His nicknames were “The Master of Attack” and “The Last Knight of the King's Gambit”. ChessMetrics estimates his peak strength at #6 globally with a peak rating of 2716.

You can learn more about his history at the links below. His background and games are not our focus in this blog, it's all about the "quotology"!

• • Rudolf Spielmann by Edward Winter
  • NM @SamCopeland's Spielmann Sacrifices For Gorgeous Zugzwang - Best Of The 1910s - Spielmann vs. Rubinstein, 1911
  • @kahns' post A Century of Chess: Rudolf Spielmann (from 1910-1919)
  • @kahns' post A Century of Chess: Rudolf Spielmann (1920-29)
  • @kahns' post Teichmann-Spielmann 1914
  • @vitualis' post Englund Gambit Queen Sacrifice Line | GLORIOUS! ❤️‍🔥
  • @simaginfan looks at three of his favorite Spielmann games in Rudolf Spielmann. Three games. Chosen Just Because I Like Them!!

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One Spielmann Writing

Spielmann was the author of the classic The Art of Sacrifice in Chess. I remember his sole book fondly and it is considered a classic by most chess epicureans. Spielman’s only other book, Memories of a Chess Master, was delayed by Swedish Nazi sympathizers and he died before its publication.

You can read @vitualis' take on this great book at The Art of Sacrifice in CHESS! 😌.

You can read @ForwardChess' review of the book at The Art of Sacrifice in Chess.

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Quotes

Spielmann himself believed,

We cannot resist the fascination of sacrifice, since a passion for sacrifices is part of a Chessplayer's nature. Chess Quotes - Sacrifices

A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and confused. Chess Quotes - Sacrifices (Kevin: Sounds like something Tal would say! But Spielmann said it first.)

The glowing power of a sacrifice is irresistible; enthusiasm for sacrifice lies in man's nature. [The Art of Sacrifice in Chess, Introduction]

If each and every sacrifice had to be of that cast-iron soundness which can be verified by analysis, it would be necessary to banish from the game of chess that proud and indispensable prerogative of the fighter: enterprise.

In real sacrifices the player gives up material but is unable to calculate the consequences with accuracy; he has to rely on his judgment. He obtains dynamic advantages, which he can realize gradually. [The Art of Sacrifice in Chess, p.5]

Unlike the sham sacrifice, in which the aims are clear as day, the real sacrifice has vaguely defined goals; the result lies in the lap of the gods and at most can be formulated only intuitively. [Ibid, p.5]

Sacrificing opportunities are usually fleeting and must be seized at the right moment. [Ibid, p.26]

Sacrifice-a hallowed, heroic concept! Advancing in a chivalrous mood, the individual immolates himself for a noble idea. [Ibid, Introduction]

...a positional sacrifice need not necessarily lead to an advantage in position. Undertaken in a bad position, it may barely save the game or merely prolong existence. [Ibid, p.11]

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Making a list, checking it twice

Quotemaster (QM) Criteria

This section hasn't changed significantly (a few words, the images) from the previous post. Feel free to skip it and go directly to How QM Spielmann Earned the #9 Spot if you already "get" the criteria and aren't interested in the images (thou art an apostate!😡)  

I would hope some sharp-eyed critic out there would ask this critical question: What criteria did I use to determine who made the QM Top Ten List and who didn't? You asked for it, you got it! Right here, and right now.

For each QM, I will be adding my take on why #9 was better than #10, and so forth, with every post.

There might be a quote shootout, with five to ten additional quotes, if two QM candidates are evenly matched after their first ten quotes. This is unlike the 2024 World Blitz CC, and more like a golf tournament with a sudden death playoff. There can be no ties, but if it comes down to a coin flip, a spin of the roulette wheel, a random dart toss, or a roll of the dice to decide, so be it. Ultimately, I wield the scythe that separates and slots the candidates. [Tiebreaks will usually occur behind the scenes.]

Are there any flaws in your approach?

Despairingly, there are some considerations that were difficult to resolve. For instance, for most of the potential QMs I relied on quotes easily found in the wild, sayings that were gyrating around the meme-verse, t-shirts, and on the lips of players and coaches everywhere and everywhen. However, some of these folks wrote very quotable material, but for some reason their quotes have not spread broadly across the chess echosystem. ("Echosystem" is my second-newest contribution to the Urban Dictionary: Hello KevinSmithIdiot; echoverse is my most recent entry, comprising a system of echosystems.)

For those whose quotes have not yet infiltrated every nook and cranny of the chess echosystem, I was forced to do page-by-page research of books they had written...though only after first filtering through a List of Chess Notes Feature Articles by Edward Winter that offered alphabetical access regarding information about chess notables, starting with Alekhine and closing with Zukertort. [After that the site moved on to innumerable other tidbits of interest for any would-be or actual chess historian.]

Okay, what's your point? You did a lot of research, so what?

In my circular way of getting to the point (something pointed out regularly by the owner of BlogChamps, herself a Top Blogger, so she has creds), I found that I turned up a lot of very quotable material going through a book for those whose sayings did not yet appear widely across the chess quote echosystem. {Whew! Talk about run-on sentences. My AP English teacher, Mrs. Cowden, would have been aghast!) I harbor hope these twelve posts will alleviate some of that lack of respect for people who are eminently quotable.

Still, the process left me to ponder whether an in-depth look into only some candidate's published works was an injustice to those who had plenty of quotes already bouncing around the echoverse. Bottom line, I chose not to do a page-by-page of every candidate's works. One, I don't have books by all of them. Two, I don't have an infinite amount of time and energy. Three? I don't care (that's a very inside joke. Take it with five grains of salt and call the doctor in the morning. "I put the lime in the coconut...")

To double down, I'm not going change my approach. That would leave my worldview all tumbly-turvy, and that's no fun for me.

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How QM Spielmann Earned the #9 Spot

This section might well have been subtitled, "How did a guy with only one published book manage to beat out GM Soltis, author of over a hundred books who also wrote weekly newspaper columns for 50+ years, and published a monthly Chess Life column?" But as subtitles go, that's a bit long🙄. Still, I offer some comparative analysis below.

First and foremost, Spielmann is all about the attack, sacrifices that reduce the opponent's position to ashes and bloodied remnants on the board. Who can't help but love that! Swords and sorcery, the barbarian hordes against the soft, gentrified citizens of a chess empire beyond its prime, yin and yang, good versus...not as good!

Second, I could have rendered images for many of Spielmann's quotes! [Criteria #8] Soltis...is all about everything. It's hard to get your arms around everything, let alone reduce it to a set of memorable, pithy comments that encapsulate a singularly compelling vision. 

Third, QM Soltis' quotes tended towards the longish. Harrumph! Criteria #4 is quite firm that shorter is better and tends to come closer to my definition of a quotable quote. Although Soltis' "A master always looks for targets" brilliantly encapsulates a principle as a pithy point, many of his quotes stretched out in comparison to those of Spielmann. It's like seeing the Six Million Dollar Man in slow motion, with the words equally slurred out to match the seemingly endless special effect that's supposed to indicate speed.

Fourth, many of Spielmann's quotes were euphoric, chess ambrosia, the food and drink of Caissa and chess lovers everywhere [Criteria #1]. Soltis' quotes are the fare of chess ascetics, acolytes focused severely on improving their game by attempting to understand every nuance, subtlety, in-and-out of the interactions of the pieces. Great stuff and he succinctly captures key points on the road to mastery of the 64 squares. There's a need at the table for such fare, but Soltis quotes just didn't uplift my spirits in the same way as Spielmann. [I own more of his books, but I own ALL of Spielmann's books. Math invites contradictions.🤪]

Bottom line: Soltis made the top ten, but I didn't feel he deserved more than that tenth spot.

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I have questions, even if you don't have answers!

Reminder About Reader Questions

Many of these questions will change with every entry in the QM Top Ten posts. But that seems kind of obvious.🤣

In the table below I'll track names, if not full responses, for questions two and three. 

Some Q&A vote tallies from the Chess QuoteMaster #10: GM Andrew Soltis blog in this series. Feel free to comment on this as well.

It's a matter of mild curiosity that there were two QM candidates whom people originally thought would take the number ten spot (Bronstein and Nimzowitsch) but who weren't mentioned for the number nine spot. Did they feel those gentlemen would have been lucky to make the Top Ten? Did they just lose interest in my scintillating QuoteMeister series? Or were they on a long vacation and will chastise me with great vehemence once they see where this series has gone? Inquiring minds want to know!

Another interesting aspect. One individual suggested Nimzo might take the top spot, the QM of QMs. How did that person feel when another suggested that Nimzo was worthy of no more than a place at the bottom of the Top Ten? Should they settle this in a bullet chess match or in Puzzle Battle?

Ah, well, I'll let those open wounds fester elsewhere. Mine is not to reason why, mine is just to write...then laugh, lest I cry (okay, that's bloody unlikely, but it scanned well.)

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In Closing

Short, sweet, surely spellbinding! Well, that's the goal. Ultimately, if someone besides me reads these, I'll consider the success box checked.😉😎

If you enjoyed this, please come back to see who was ranked #8 all the way through #1...and then a special edition with quotes from all the contenders who didn't make my Top Ten, but about whom you might have your own opinions on where they should have fallen.

Stay tuned for QM #8! Who will it be and why? I guarantee my guess is better than yours, because I've already written that draft blog! No fair hacking my draft blogs to obtain that information prior to me hitting the Publish button.

Cheers!
Kevin

No price is too great for the scalp of the enemy King.  -  Koblentz

It is always better to sacrifice your opponents' men.  -  Savielly Tartakower

A sacrifice is best refuted by accepting it.  -  Wilhelm Steinitz

Prior Blogs in the Quote Master Series

ANNOUNCMENT! Who are the Top Ten Chess Quotemasters (QMs)

Chess QuoteMaster #10: GM Andrew Soltis