A Crushing King's Gambit - Best Of The 1910s - Reti vs. Flamberg

Richard Reti is rightly famous for his hypermodern innovations in the opening, but you must master the rules before you can break the rules. Against Alexander Flamberg, Reti showcases his masterful skills in the romantic chess tradition with a dynamic attack in the King's Gambit. Reti's creativity is on display as he permits a trade of queens that proves insufficient to even slightly slow down his dangerous attack. With checkmating threats and fine tactics, Reti builds a large advantage before taking the game into an endgame in which it is practically very difficult to restrain his kingside pawns.

Top 10 Games of the 1910s

• #1: ????
  
• #2: ????
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• #4: ????
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• #8: Reti vs. Flamberg, 1912
  
• #9: Rubinstein vs. Vidmar, 1918
  
• #10: Nimzowitsch vs. Baron Ungern-Sternberg, 1910
• See also: Top 10 of the 1920s, Top 10 of the 1930s, Top 10 of the 1940s, Top 10 of the 1950s, Top 10 of the 1960s, Top 10 of the 1970s, Top 10 of the 1980s, Top 10 of the 1990s, Top 10 of the 2000s, and Top 10 of the 2010s

The opening was not just an exciting King's Gambit, but a Muzio Gambit - the most exciting variation of the most exciting opening! Today, these opening variations are not much respected, but before computers got involved, it was pretty hard to defend against such aggression. Flamberg falters quickly with an early 5...d5, hoping to free his position. Reti keeps the focus on rapid development with 10.Nc3!! and 15.Re1!! Flamberg struggles to defend, even after he gets the queens off the board, as his queenside is totally undeveloped. By the time Flamberg's queenside pieces are developed, Reti has raced his kingside pawns up the board and soon converts after some slight further inaccuracies.

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