Tartakower Sacs Rook, Gets Scolded By Brilliancy Committee - Maroczy vs. Tartakower, 1922
Savielly Tartakower is one of the most widely quoted chess players of all time. The great author coined many memorable phrases such as, "The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake." Another classic is, "The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made."
In addition to being highly quotable, Tartakower was a great player who was a tough opponent for anyone. In today's game he shows enormous daring as he offers a rook sacrifice in the Dutch Defense despite having almost no supporting pieces in position to reinforce the attack. Many would shrink from such an offering, and it wasn't that long ago that computers rated the sacrifice a mistake. Today, the strongest engines enthusiastically support Tartakower in his conclusion that Black is winning.
Top 10 Games of the 1920s
- #1: ????
- #2: Maroczy vs. Tartakower, 1922
- #3: Capablanca vs. Tartakower, 1924
- #4: Najdorf vs. Gliksberg, 1929
- #5: Nimzowitsch vs. Rubinstein, 1926
- #6: Imbaud vs. Strumilo, 1922
- #7: Reti vs. Lasker, 1924
- #8: Denker vs. Feit, 1929
- #9: Reti vs. Euwe, 1920
- #10: Torre vs. Banks, 1924
- See also: 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
Tartakower's use of the Stonewall Dutch is a model of attacking play. With 11...Rf6 and 12...Rh6 followed by 14...g5 and 15...g4, Tartakower soon crafted an overwhelming attack. His 17...Rxh2!! is both daring and almost compulsory as Black must commit to the assault. In the early days of chess engines, I mimicked this method of play against the silicon practice opponents, and the computers who didn't understand closed position play, would often let me get an overwhelming attack. Of course, I would then blow it against stiff defense 
Annotations from Tartakower's excellent book on his best games [Amazon link supports the content.] are below.
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