Blogs
"Louis Paulsen- A Chess Biography"
Paulsen plays Morphy at the 1857 New York Chess Congress

"Louis Paulsen- A Chess Biography"

Avatar of kamalakanta
kamalakanta
| 22

Today I received a copy of a newly published book: "Louis Paulsen- A Chess Biography".

This book is more than a masterpiece; it is immortal.I know this is high praise, but I cannot find one weakness, and indeed I find many great virtues.

First of all, from the purely physical consideration, it is a superbly produced hard-copy book. It will last decades!

Second of all, the type is large and easy to read.

Third of all, it has many great photos and engravings, showing many players from that era (mid-late 1800's).

Fourth, and not least, the games! Many with comments form contemporary publications.

Paulsen's games were ahead of his time and he was praised,  for the completeness and maturity of his play, by none other than Steinitz. To give an example, take a look at this game from 1878....

and this basic idea was used by Bobby Fischer in the 21st (and last) game of his World Championship Match with Spassky in 1972.

Another example of how Paulsen was ahead of his time is the 6....e5 variation against 6.Be2 in the Classic Sicilian.

It is interesting to note that players like Smyslov, Bronstein and Boleslavsky explored extensively the games of great Masters of the 19th Century. This particular line for Black has been named the Boleslavsky Variation, but it was Paulsen who introduced it into tournament practice in the year 1882, in the following game:

Most players at that time, like Fleissig, used to answer with 7.Nf3.

In their game at the German Chess Congress in 1887, Gunsberg replied with 7.Nb3, which became the main choice for players in the 20th Century. But Gunsberg was not as successful as, let us say, Geller, who even beat Fischer with the Be2 system.

Renette goes on to quote:
"Botvinnik in commenting on his game against Boleslavsky (Sverdlovsk 1943) claimed this (6...e5) to be "one of Boleslavsky's shrewd innovations!"- Konig
Amazing, that a player of Botvinnik's strength did not know or remember that Paulsen had played this move!
Here is one of Boleslavsky's wins with this variation:
One more example: in the French defense, players like Uhlman and Vaganian know that the exchange sacrifice ....Rxf3 is a typical theme in the 3....Nf6 French, it was (surprise) Paulsen who played it first, in 1877!
While I was working on this game, my memory was telling me I had seen this sacrifice before! I was trying to remember if it was Vaganian (I am sure he used it, too!). But then this morning I remembered! And here is a good example of the importance of studying the games of the Masters of the past.....It is well known that Morphy studied the games of he famous matches between LaBourdonnais and McDonnell. These two great Masters played a total of 85 games in six matches, IN ONE YEAR! (1834!) 
(Another great book)
It was in one of these  games that I saw this; not in a French Defense, but in a Sicilian. At that time, McDonnell liked to answer the Sicilian with 2.f4. Soon a French-type position would arise. Let us see this game, annotated by Morphy himself!

I highly recommend this book. It is a remarkable and great achievement by Hans Renette. The amount of work and dedication required to complete such a comprehensive book is beyond my understanding.

Gratitude to Hans Renette for producing such a work of chess history and culture.

It retails for $75.00, and it is worth every penny!

http://tinyurl.com/y28lpurw