My Favorite Game Of. Number 25. Siegbert Tarrasch.
Afternoon everyone. Spur of the moment article here! Except for the game notes, which took forever, everything straight off the top of my head - so apologies in advance for what will probably a rambling incoherent shambles!!! 
I don't really believe in coincidence, but a number of my articles have come about in a similar way.
A couple of days ago an article was published on this site with some examples from Tarrasch's games. A Genuine congratulations to the author for not sinking to even once using a certain word beginning with 'd'. Good to see.
At the time, I had next to my computer the tournament book of Ostende 1905 - I was using it for my last article - which contains my favorite game of Tarrasch, and I decided to post it for you to study.
So. Tarrasch. One of the greatest For a period he was - with one exception - winning every tournament he took part in - usually by miles. He must have been a pretty industrious character - his day job was running his medical practice.
As a side note, only two players had tournament wins over Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine.
No prize for being first to name the other one!!
He was also one of the most important and influential writers on chess ever. One of my favorite chess eras starts with the Barmen tournament of 1905, and the emergence of what I call the 'Barmen Generation'. For them, his Three Hundred Games of Chess was 'the Bible' so to speak.
In his 'Goldene Schachzeiten' Vidmar devotes a whole chapter to his meetings with Tarrasch, and one remark is ' by that time, of course, I had studied his Three Hundred games'. Another comment describes Rubinstein as a 'Desciple of Tarrasch'.
One of the games won by Tarrasch is rather nice!! At the time Tarrasch was well past his best and Vidmar was very strong.
Some will tell you that he took Steinitz's ideas and made them simpler/ more accessible for the masses. Not exactly true! He had his own ideas. Steinitz largely concerned himself with squares and weaknesses - rather like Breyer.
Tarrasch was a believer in space and mobility. ( hence his use of the 3...c5 defence in the Queen's Gambit, and the Open Defence in the Ruy Lopez.)
His famous 'before the endgame, the Gods have placed the middle game', is part of his criticism of a suggestion of Steinitz.
He did pretty much everything well - and was always well prepared in the opening. Rather like Fischer, in positions where there was a discernible positional theme, and he could apply his powers of logic and reasoning, he was immensely strong. Likewise, when faced with counterplay that ran contrary to the logic of the position he could become flustered at times, and made real errors.
Lasker - with his unique gift for working out potential opponents - worked Tarrasch out and made a huge dent in his historical reputation.
A well known picture of the two - the date and circumstances of which have been debated.
You can have hours of fun trying to analyse that one without an engine!!
A couple of examples of his chess off the top of my head.
A war with Pillsbury.
A famous brilliancy - well known, but it may be new to some. Anyway, it's one that came into my head!!
And one of his last recorded games. Played when he was a 70 year old, it is rather beautiful, and great fun!!
He is, however, better known for games like my particular favourite - positional squeeze chess.
Teichmann was no mug, and had a deserved reputation for playing the opening well with Black.
It is interesting to compare the game with the other meeting of the two players in that tournament - particularly from the opening aspect. That stuff was just starting to be explored at the time.
Capablanca later caught Vidmar with the same positional trick.
And finally, on to the main game - as said, the kind of thing Tarrasch is famous for. I love it!! So many ideas from both sides. Fantastic chess, in my opinion, although some may find it dull and tedious.
I have put a lot of stuff in the notes, so settle down with a beer and go through it with me.
