What a Difference 8 Years Makes! (Sweet Revenge!)

Dear chess lovers, many of you will know about these two games, and many of you will not.

Some of us here at chess.com insist on the wisdom and importance of exploring and studying the games of the great Masters (who were actually of Grandmaster strength), as a great resource of chess knowledge and culture.

Those of us (like myself) who are from an older generation grew up looking at the games of great Masters and Grandmasters of the 20th Century, and some of these Masters and Grandmasters taught us to appreciate, explore and study the games of the great Masters of the 19th Century.

It has been a great, enriching journey for me to do this, as I have become more familiar with the games of many great players who I did not know about.

Some of these great Masters were not only great players, but also great Teachers, great communicators. Among them are Tarrasch, Tartakower, Nimzowitsch, Lasker, Capablanca, Bronstein, Keres, Smyslov, Euwe and Averbakh.

One of my best books (although it is in descriptive notation) is "500 Master Games of Chess", by Tartakower and Dumont.

The book offers many commented games from 1834 to 1952. It is organized by openings, so it is great to see how, for example, the Slav Defense was being played in, let us say, 1924.

It is interesting to see that such a great book it available as cheap as $3.99!

But within this book there are two games which are the theme of this blog.

Although Pillsbury did not finish at the top, he had a great victory against Lasker at the beginning of the tournament. In the second half, Lasker took revenge with a game that ranks among the greatest he ever played!

Eight years later, Lasker repeated his move order, but this time Pillsbury had prepared an answer!

Enjoy, and best wishes to everyone!

Kamalakanta