HoF #45: Maróczy–"The Bind"
This blog is a celebration that leverages an outstanding concept of GMs Nielsen and Gustafsson (both of whom are also popular chessable.com authors) but offers my unique take. The two GMs produced videos and multiple lessons regarding their top 50 chess players of all time. Although I provide a link to their work below, my focus is a bit different, though I freely accept their rankings.
How does my work differ? Well, first off, I'm not a titled player. Second, I wrote brief biographies for each player and offer limited discussion and pictures of some of their works (if they wrote). Third, if they were eminently quotable, I'll throw in a few of those! I may have found occasion to add quotes from other famous (or even unknown) chess names regarding the Hall of Famer. Fourth, I'll toss in the occasional caricature😏. Fifth and last, I will include at least two games analyzed by the individual, if such games exist. After all, the greatest of the great should be able to explain what they were thinking during a game, shouldn't they? (Spoiler alert: perhaps, except when there is no evidence that they ever had analyses published.)
We've reached #45. I hope you enjoy my alternative takes.
Chess.com Hall Of Fame # 45: Geza Maróczy
Géza Maróczy (3 March 1870 – 29 May 1951) was a Hungarian GM, awarded the title in the initial FIDE tranche of 1950. ChessMetrics estimates his peak rating at 2820 in May 1906 and places him #1 worldwide for thirty different months between October 1904 and March 1907. No surprise given that between 1902 - 08 he participated in thirteen tournaments, garnering five firsts and five seconds. Terms for a World CC match with Lasker were putatively agreed to in 1906 but never finalized. He retired from chess in 1908 and briefly returned to the board in 1924, including participation as a member of the gold-winning Hungarian team in the 1927 Olympiad.
The Maróczy Bind is named after him, although he was not the originator of the system. It is a formation with pawns on e4 and c4 that reduces White’s attacking chances but also inhibits Black’s typical Sicilian counterplay.
Capablanca, in a series of conferences by radio in the early 1940s as found in the Spanish print edition of Lectures , Lecciones elementales de ajedrez (Madrid, 1973), said of Maróczy:
As a chessplayer he (Maróczy) was a little lacking in imagination and aggressive spirit. His positional judgments, the greatest quality of the true master, were excellent. A very accurate player and an excellent endgame artist, he became famous as an expert on queen endings. In a tournament many years ago he won a knight endgame against the Viennese master Marco which has gone into history as one of the classic endings of this type.
Concerning the relative strength of Maróczy and the best young masters of today, my opinion is that, with the exception of Botvinnik and Keres, Maróczy in his time was superior to all the other players of today.
Maróczy was a good teacher and guide for talented players. A large part of the success of Miss Menchik is due to the time Maróczy dedicated to the present woman champion of the world when she was a young player in Hastings. At that time, Miss Menchik was talented, but had not yet shown great strength. Maróczy, who then lived in Hastings, realized the natural ability of the young girl and devoted himself to teaching her. The pupil has done her teacher proud. Without doubt Miss Menchik is superior to all women players we have known up till now.
The great master Teichmann had great respect for his ability. I remember that during the International Tournament at San Sebastián in 1911, Teichmann spoke to me one day about the competitors, saying: “Maróczy is a very profound player and he plays the endgame very well; at his best he is a very dangerous opponent in this kind of tournament.”
Some years ago Maróczy, a great admirer of Morphy, published the best collection of the games of the famous American master which has appeared so far. [You can see the book cover in Writings.]
His chief contribution to opening technique has been the well-known variation in the Sicilian Defence wherein White places pawns at a2, b3, c4, e4, f3, g2 and h2, against black pawns at h7, g6, f7, e7, d6, b7 and a7. White’s formation is considered so advantageous that Black generally avoids it by all means available.
So, what did another former World CC think of Maróczy? Here's what Emanual Lasker wrote in his column in the New York Evening Post, 2 May 1908, page 9:
Maróczy has the emotional nature of the Magyar and is therefore as variable as his moods. He can play all styles, the highest and the lowest, and neither his upper nor his lower limits have yet been determined. Hence, he is somewhat of a riddle, that could be solved only if he pitted himself against the foremost masters in match play, but he resolutely declines to do so. Perhaps he likes to remain a mystery.
I own a 1968 translation of Tartakower's London 1922. The Preface sets the stage for a book that is dreadfully short, imo, on matters of interest to modern readers such as the players thoughts during and after the games, interesting anecdotes, historical animosities that might have existed among the players, or controversies encountered during the games...or outside of the playing hall!
As explained in the Preface from the original text, such inclusions would have resulted in an expensive book far beyond the means of most. Instead, "good annotations and numerous diagrams are essential and the book is therefore confined to them." The preface goes on to thank Maróczy for his authoritative annotations, which are quite focused on the moves and a few possible alternatives at key points. Though Maróczy's comments were, perforce, succinct, he nonetheless conveys key lessons in a minimum of words.
Here's a review of London 1922, a tournament book that GM Soltis felt merited translation into English!
Maróczy’s annotations of the tournament games, both his own and those of the other competitors, are clean and crisp. There are many helpful diagrams, and the action is easy to follow. Realistically, this isn’t a book that you buy for the colour or the anecdotes, but squarely for the games and the analysis. It is somewhat "of its time", and we are left wondering what Maróczy thought of his fellow competitors as people. However, as an intriguing look at the action in an epic tournament it is a good effort. [Book of the Month - by The English Chess Federation]
Perhaps London 1922 would still be remembered without this book. But it retains its prominence and vitality thanks to the power of Maróczy’s pen. [Ibid]
Now let's look at the review of another Maróczy book that many were thrilled to see translated, Paul Morphy: A Collection of His Games with Detailed Notes!
There have been a number of books written about Paul Morphy but what may be the best of these has not been available in English until now. [Paul Morphy: A Collection of His Games with Detailed Notes was written by Geza Maróczy in 1909, but was only published in German. chessexpress: Book Review]
Geza Maróczy put a huge effort into researching and producing this book, as it contains 408 games. [Ibid]
Maróczy clearly devoted himself to the task of explaining as much of Morphy's play as possible. In his forward he states, "I have striven for a correct and economical review of them that is not stingy with praise, but which also does not skip lightly over mistakes..." [Ibid]
Overall, this book is a fantastic collection of games played by one of the great figures of chess. Not only can it be read for enjoyment it can also serve as an excellent teaching tool, with many of the lessons from Morphy's games still relevant today. [Ibid]
From the translations of the games he analyzed and the word-pictures of others, it does not appear to me that Maróczy was particularly quotable...so, we'll go with the two I found!
Kombination ist die Seele des Spieles. (Combination is the soul of the game.) [Das Internationale Schachmeisterturnier in Budapest 1896, p.29]
It is generally the shortcoming of a young player that he does not keep abreast of the theory of the game. [American Chess Bulletin, May 1906, page 85]
Like a miniature chess game, sometimes one gets to enjoy a short and sweet section! Onward, ho!!
Given these are fifty of the greatest players of all time, how were they as annotators? Well, for those who wrote books we could truly explore that question in depth. But to keep the playing field even, I am only including a game or two taken from a DB. Besides, I didn't want to burden myself with transcribing comments from a book into a pgn file. Or increase my debt burden by buying books of those who did not yet offer free access to books released to the public domain. Besides, far easier and faster to look for annotated games in an online database.
Below we can ponder two games that Maróczy analyzed.
Tartakower, Saviely - Atkins, Henry, British CF-15 London International, England, 1922.08.11
In this mish-mash of commentary you can compare Maróczy's comments with those of others who commented on this game. Maróczy's notes are always preceded by his name. The elemental power of Rooks commanding open lines is well illustrated in this beautiful game. [C55: Two Knights: 4 d3, 4 d4 exd4 5 e5 and Max Lange Attack Sources: Tartakower & du Mont, 500 Master Games of Chess, pp. 49-50; Maróczy: London, 1922, pp. 66-67.]
An interesting example of opposite wing castling and attacks, don't you think? Every player who wants to achieve mastery needs to learn the ins and outs of opposite wing castling and the resulting thematic attacks.
Rubinstein, Akiba - Euwe, Max, British CF-15 London International, England, 1922.08.13
If you like seeing how a would-be attack is chilled and cut-off, leading to an ending of rooks and pawns versus rooks and pawns, then this is the game for you. Maróczy points out the key moments, at least from a human GM's point of view. It's quite instructive to observe how, after reaching the endgame, Rubinstein transformed some subtle mistakes by Euwe into a beautiful endgame victory.
I'm not going to assume, as Maróczy did, that all readers readily understand the final comment in the game. His point is that White is about to obtain a passed g-pawn. After that, White can push their b-pawn to b6 and create a passed pawn on the queenside. The black king simply cannot traverse the board fast enough to corral both a passed g-pawn and passed queenside pawn.
The whole purpose of this section is to address some obvious questions that might pop into your head. How come Kevin didn't talk about this? Or that? Not to mention the other thing! Well, just call me lazy! Or you could appreciate the fact I'm limiting the reading word count that is imposed on you.😏 Nonetheless, in the series I'll be using this little section to provide links to more fulsome discussions that revolve around some well-known and lesser-known facets of the featured chess giant. That will range from videos to links to other chess.com blogs, usually by Top Bloggers. Enjoy or skip, it's your call, as always.
Ben Finegold has multiple video series, including one series that covers Great Players of the Past. Fortunately for thee and me, Ben produced one on Maróczy.
You can read more about Maróczy in GM Julio Becerra’s 2010 blog The Art of Defense, @kahns A Century of Chess: Géza Maróczy (1900-1909), and @RookMindSet’s Geza Maróczy's Strange Legacy. There is also the renowned chess historian's page that focuses on Géza Maróczy by Edward Winter.
That's it for the 6th installment of my own take on chess.com's fifty greatest players of all time. Hope you enjoyed the blog. The good GMs below have a full selection of videos and puzzles dedicated to each of the fifty.
Cheers!
Sources for this information included chess.com, wikipedia.com, ChessBase, FIDE, individuals' websites, YouTube.com, news articles, books, and other sources. Plus, my faulty memories. I mixed, matched, cut, and pasted so much that separation is implausible, and I apologize for misattributions. Particularly with quotes which are found in a thousand repositories, not to mention book covers, t-shirts, and the rantings of chess coaches of whom I've had more than a few thanks to Chess University and @AttilaTurzo (my primary instructor and co-author of a book we are writing on how to analyze during a game and afterwards.)
If you enjoy reading "greatest of" lists, then you might also enjoy chess.com's Every Chess 'Player Of The Decade' (From Morphy To Magnus).
HoF #50: "The Stormy Petrel" - Chess.com
HoF #49: Karjakin–"The Minister of Defense"
HoF #48: Portisch–"The Hungarian Botvinnik"
