I Could've Been A Contender!
You need to be of my generation to recognize the title here!
Looking for something else in one of the volumes of Magyar Sakktortotenet I came across some nice games of Miska ( Max) Weiss, a player who had the chance to play for the World Championship and turned it down. Very much a forgotten figure today, he was seriously strong in his day.
His equal first place in the great New York 1889 tournament gave him the right to challenge Steinitz for the title, but he turned it down, and eventually it was the third place finisher - Isidor Gunsberg ( another Hungarian who has been rather neglected ) who took up the chance to make a challenge.
Why did he turn down the chance? Simple! He could make a good living, like his Hungarian predecessor Kolisch, working for the Rothschild banking empire. He carried on playing more local events in Vienna, and indeed, in his penultimate appearance - the Winter Tournament of the Vienna Chess Club 1895-1896 - he was still good enough to finish ahead of a strong field ( including Schlechter, Marco and Englisch) on tiebreak, having won more games than Schlechter.
Let's just get to the chess!
Three games from New York 1889, with notes - slightly abridged - by Steinitz in the tournament book. As I have said before, that is one of the great chess books, and Steinitz's notes are always a joy. Although in personal disputes Steinitz could be petty, argumentative and vindictive, when it came to annotating games he was both 100% objective and very generous to the players if he liked what he saw. Clearly he had a very high opinion of Weiss' play, and, despite the fact that he was talking about a potential rival, was not afraid to say so.
Weiss' most famous game is this next one, which, apart for it's intrinsic merits, had a major effect on the final tournament standings. Beautiful game!
His opponent in the next game was a fascinating chess figure in his own right - Dion Martinez.
( Hold my hand up and be honest time - I have a better picture of him, from his time in Philidelphia - somewhere, but I couldn't find it!)
That's two spectacular games. but Weiss was noted for his technical skills. Steinitz's comments on the following game - against an opponent who beat him in a textbook technical ending in this tournament - could well have been something written about Capablanca in later years.
This game came to mind while I was doing this. It shows how strong Weiss was, defeating Tarrasch at that time wasn't exactly easy, especially with the Black pieces. It's a terrific game by Weiss, and I will give it with some of Tarrasch's comments.
Let's finish with this one. Lot's of interest for someone like me here!! Firstly, if you study chess history and have an interest in the chess of the era there is such a thing as 'The Vienna School'. The player who is accepted as the 'founder' or earliest influence in that regard was Berthold Englisch.
Weiss was also a part of that 'School', to be followed by Marco, Schlechter, Kaufmann and others. So we get a clash between a 'trend-setter', so to speak, and one of his followers. It is also the earliest game that I can think of featuring a famous sacrificial idea- the Queen putting itself en prise on g7. ( a special 'chess nerd' award for anyone who can name the other two examples in my head!) Enjoy the game!
