Richard Réti — The Man of the Knight
This is the story of Richard Réti, all sources and references are at the bottom and all are correct. This has taken me sometime, so I hope you enjoy.
Richard Réti was born on the 28th of May 1889 in Pezinok, Hungary and died in the Czech Republic on the 9th of June, 1929 a Jewish-Slovak-Austrian-Hungarian chess Grandmaster, author, and comeback legend.
Young Réti
When Réti was just six, he approached his father and his brother playing an unfamiliar game on a board. He watched pieces fly, jump, little pieces that moves twice at the start, Bishops that move diagonally, Knights that moved two to the left, right, behind and then to the side, like an "L", or the other way: one to the side and two to the right, left, and front, the Queen with the power of everything and the King with nothing — all the King holds is the power of the Game. Young Réti then said, "Can I play?" his father (Dr. Samuel Réti) and his brother (Rudolph Réti) looked at him. Samuel did not like it.
"Richard", Father replied," that is impossible. You are only six. You don't even know the rules. Chess is a difficult game."
As the tears filled in Richard's eyes, Father relented. "All right", he said, "sit down and play."
Richard sat down, played — and won. A second game followed immediately, with the same result.
"How did you learn to play so well?", we all exclaimed. "No-one ever showed you anything."
"I looked on while you played", said Richard, "and learned from your mistakes.'
That game was just with his Father, imagine what he could do with Capablanca— sorry, no spoilers.
The Humble Start
His first game known what the year was was in April 13, 1908 Curt von Bardeleben v. Réti.
The Rise of Réti
This was his last game of '12. In Croatia, he versed Oldrich Duras. RR is White; OD is Black:
He had FINALLY done it! All he had to do is to—
On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian-backed terrorist.
— Imperial War Museums
Right... of course.
Threatened by Serbian ambition in the tumultuous Balkans region of Europe, Austria-Hungary determined that the proper response to the assassinations was to prepare for a possible military invasion of Serbia.
— History.com
And Richard Réti was one of those soldiers in the military invasion.
Horses Always Comeback
In 1920, he had a game with Akiba Rubenstein. Réti was White.
Though he did not succeed in this game, he had something else to do.
He had to write his very own book.
Sometimes the big new titles from the big publishers get all the attention. It's true these are often great buys, but there's also the risk of overlooking little gems by smaller publishers. Or, as the great Italian philosopher Calimero used to say, "Life's so unfair when you're small".
Modern Ideas in Chess is a compilation of 45 essays on the evolution of chess understanding from the mid-1850s until the 1920s. After almost ninety years, it is still as fresh and insightful as it was to contemporaries of the great Slowakian player. In fact, one of the reasons why the book still looks so modern is probably because of its compact size. Réti's style of analysing is also very sober and his prose quite imaginative. Most importantly, he had an incredibly sharp eye when observing the chess style of his great predecessors.
— FIDE's Candidate Master Arnie Moll, 2011 (link to article is below)
This book was so intriguing, the Encyclopedia Britannica called him a "revered writer". A year later, he would become more than just revered and become brilliant.
Réti did this in 1924: he tied twice with Frank Marshall and one with Geza Maroczy, won against Savielly Tartakower, David Janowsky, and then— his streak of luck was over when he versed Frederick Yates, Emanuel Lasker, Edward Lasker and, hold a minute, I got a call. Holy!
March 22nd, 1924. Our guy is highlighted in black.
| STANDINGS AFTER 5TH ROUND | POINTS | WINS | LOSSES | DRAWS |
| Tartakower | 2½ / 5 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Bogoljubow | 3 / 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Alekhine | 3 / 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Dr. Lasker | 4 / 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Capablanca | 3 / 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Janowski | 1½ / 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Yates | 1 / 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Réti | 3½ / 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Marshall | 2 / 5 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Ed Lasker | 1 / 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Maróczy | 2½ / 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
Jose R. Capablanca, chess champion of the world, was defeated by Richard Réti of Czechoslovakia for the first loss of a match game the Cuban titleholder has experienced since 1914. When he dropped one of the three games he played against Dr. Emanuel Lasker, former world champion, the Cuban has been extremely proud of his unprecedented record of victories, and his unexpected defeat by Réti was the sensation of the fifth round of the International Chess Masters Tournament which was resumed yesterday afternoon and continued in the evening at the Hotel Alamac.
Whaaaaat?! Capablanca got destroyed by a man half a year younger than him, half the experience, and half the guts. But in all honesty, not surprising. Because it was his destiny to play a legend like a man as good as—
On the second of April, 12th round, he played Efim Bogoljubov! (Credit goes to Coachah, 2019)
He beat him in resignation! A comeback!
Café International by Siegfried Lieders, in New York 1924, Réti received "Brilliancy Prize"
And Finally . . . Although the New York 1924 was won by [Dr. Emanuel] Em. Lasker, although Reti ended Capablanca's 8 yr. 1 mo. non-losing streak (of 63 games : 40 wins, 23 draws) in that same tournament, it was the following game against Bogoljubov that won Réti the 1st Brilliancy Prize.
— batgirl, 2016
He married Rogneda Sergeievna Gorodetskaia, the daughter of Russian poet Sergei Gorodetsky, on May 28, 1926 (his 37th birthday), in Moscow, after meeting her during a tournament in 1925:
'As an additional gesture, Réti’s widow has also been invited over from Moscow. She attended every round and watched all the games with great interest.'
Biographical information about her will be appreciated. On page 194 of the July 1926 Wiener Schachzeitung Hans Kmoch remarked that from the Moscow, 1925 tournament Réti brought back not only a ‘beauty prize’ for his game against Romanovsky but also a beautiful young Russian as his wife ...
...
Harry Golombek ... mentioned again the prize won by Réti for his game against Romanovsky.
...
Réti may not have won a beauty prize over the board at Moscow, 1925, but he had come away with one all the same. For this was the beautiful Russian girl whom he had met and married in Moscow that year.
— Edward Winter
Réti for another record breaking task? (Sorry if you hate puns). In 1925, in São Paulo, Brazil, he set a world record when he played 29 opponents at once. In the end, he won twenty games, tied seven, and lost only two!
Réti died before he could've made his second book, Die Meister des Schachbretts (Masters of the Chessboard) thus was published posthumously. But, very fortunately, it was found by M. A. Schwendemann. Brought to the Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc, it was published it's first copy in 1930.
Even though his Elo was 2550 and unfortunately he lived to a young age of 40 does not mean he will be disregarded as just a chess player, but the creator of the hypermodernism movement (link to chess.com article) of chess led by himself and Arlon Nimzowitch and is the creator of the great Réti Opening. Richard's last possible chess game (https://www.chess.com/games/view/19180) was when he won against Savielly Tartakower. He died peacefully in Prague of scarlet fever in the year of 1929, June the 9th.
The end.
His great-grandfather, painter, Elias Maria Réti
Doesn'the look like Magnus with a moustache?
Old photo, young Rudolph Réti, music composer, pianist:
2020 photo, Old Rudolph
poet, father-in-law of Richard, Sergey/Sergei Mitrofanovich Gorodetsky
The possible wife of Richard, daughter of Sergey/Sergei, Rogneda Sergeievna:
References:
https://players.chessbase.com/en/player/Reti_Richard/215982
https://www.sparkchess.com/chess-player/richard-reti
https://www.geni.com/people/Dr-Samuel-R%C3%A9ti/6000000030178427211
https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/reti.html
https://www.chess.com/games/view/10409
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhvckcbrBaw
https://www.chess.com/games/view/15775473
https://www.chess.com/games/view/12134
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-28/austria-hungary-declares-war-on-serbia
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-the-shot-that-led-to-war
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tViHthzCZKc
https://www.chess.com/news/view/review-modern-ideas-in-chess
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Reti
https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/pics/cn8205_reticapablanca.jpg
https://www.chess.com/games/view/16589
https://www.chess.com/games/view/16579
https://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Masters_of_the_Chessboard.html?id=5UqDswEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
https://www.chess.com/blog/AstroTheoretical_Physics/the-habitable-hypermodernism
Thank you for reading this. It took a while and as you can see, it's a lot of sources, like a nerd who just finished a Wikipedia article. 
I hope you enjoy this article and many others I'll do.
