Rudolf Spielmann. A Wonderful Book And Some Chess.

Good afternoon everyone!

before I forget, I was recently asked a question. The answer was no, I do not receive books for free to publicise them. I buy books which interest me. In doing so I support the authors and publishers for their hard work, and if I like a book I will talk about it in my blogs. If I don't like it, I am under no obligations to comment on it.

If I want material from the books I ask the publishers/authors when possible. I do not indulge in  theft of material via pirated pdf downloads of in-print books. That said, let us begin!

My regular readers/sufferers will know that I recently went to Paris with my wonderful wife. Whilst there I did my bookshop thing and bought this rather wonderful book.

New in Chess has a preview pdf if you google it, including the index showing what you can find in it.

For me it is a perfect chess book! I don't really do the biography stuff, but there is some in there which makes Spielmann accessible as a human being - and I view chess as a game between very human people in their times and circumstances, plus the chess side of things.

The author gives LOTS of chess - my thing - 213 games and fragments. Well, Spielmann played a huge amount of chess - he was an organiser's dream. I have always thought that to do justice to him would need at least two books - such is the amount of material available - but Bogdanovich manages to make everything work in one volume. To do that he has given a lot of the chess via a diagram and the continuation.

Normally I prefer to have the whole game on the page, but the advantage of the diagram and continuation approach is that you can give more examples of a player's games in the available space. Also, for me, it is possible to browse the games in the book 'blindfold' from the diagrams. I really enjoyed this book. Also the notes are really thoughtfully written.

I was pleased to see that the author did not and just describe Spielmann as a wild gambit player - the last of the romantics, so to speak.

Of course, a part of that view of him is down to his famous article, '' from the Sickbed of the King's Gambit'', which the book gives in full.

He was much more than that! You don't get to be a world class player by being one-dimensional.

Bogdanovich gives full chapters on Spielmann as a positional player and some of his endgames.
 There are also a few more innovatively titled chapters! 

You also get some nice pictures. My one quibble with the book is the picture quality is not great. I really like this one, from page 15, for example - with my usual thanks to Elk and Ruby for rights to use material reproduced here.

Bogdanovich's annotations are excellent! I was impressed by the work he has put in. I have chosen this next game as an example. It is my favourite Spielmann game - has been for nearly 50 years. I first came across it in this book.

Back in the day small matches between masters were a relatively cheap way to promote chess, and the two players involved - Spielmann and Mieses - played in many of them. 

The book has this.

And the page where I first saw the game.

The game with Bogdanovich's notes.

As a side note on the opening I will throw in this game.

There are 16 pages of biography - plenty for me - including details of the rather tragic circumstances surrounding Spielmann's death. He was an Austro-Hungarian jew and fled to Sweden.

The book gives what it describes as 'his last victory. I can't verify that, but have only found one later game - a loss which he annotated for Tidskrift For Schack. Whilst digging into that I found some nice material - the relevant tournament table.

With regards to the opening in the game, Spielmann was looking at it for a T.F.S. Article - two pages of that.

The game. 

In 1942 - the month after his death - the magazine published an obituary, and devoted the volume to him. The first page.

The translation, via google translate.

Rudolf Spielmann.
In memoriam.
The ranks of the older generation of grandmasters are becoming increasingly thin. But Rudolf Spielmann, one of the last and bravest of the great chess heroes, has passed on to a safer world. Spielmann was closer to us Swedes than any other of the international masters, and as often as the opportunity arose he visited our country, where he was always just as welcome and appreciated. As conditions had recently developed in the world, it was natural that he should find his final resting place here.
A few months before his death, he had been commissioned, so to speak, to write a book about his life as a chess master. He accepted the proposal with interest and even began the work, which he wanted to call "Memoirs of a Chess Master". He considered the occasion appropriate, because in the autumn he would celebrate his 40th anniversary as a chess master and, as he said, his career must now be considered complete. Well, the memoirs never came to fruition - fate had decreed otherwise.
When one begins to note down some data about Spielmann from available sources, one is surprised by his seemingly restless activity. From 1904 until the time before the Second World War, Spielmann is found as a participant in practically all tournaments of any importance. No other grandmaster could possibly have demonstrated a similarly busy life. The explanation must be this, as simple as it is natural: a chess master who combines a superior talent in the art of combination play with a fine and unpretentious personality must be the ideal of all tournament organizers. Rudolf Spielmann must have been the first name on the invitation list to most international events, because like hardly anyone else he knew how to spread color and brilliance over a competition. World champions and their equals can be troublesome and cause tournament organizers to lose their gray hairs, but about Spielmann the simple truth can be said that he was there for chess and not chess for him. Or as Ståhlberg writes about Spielmann in his book: ''He is not in search of temporal possessions but of the timidly fleeting form of beauty. His games are a long chain of cheerful adventures and daring struggles.'' It would take too long to mention all of Spielmann's competitions here. His results are very uneven, from great triumphs to sheer failures. This is attributed to his temperament, for he was very much a moody man and dependent on external and internal circumstances. His sometimes perhaps too bold play and daring openings probably also contributed to many unnecessary defeats. He achieved his greatest successes in the 1920s, when he could rightly be counted among the top six in the world.

It finishes with this game - from another of Spielmann's many matches. Even as late as 1932 Spielmann was strong enough to beat Bogoljubov, who two years later played his second World Title match, by 5 1/2 - 4 1/2.

Well, let's make up my usual 6 games, with my own notes. Spielmann was one of what I have termed 'The barmen generation'.

I have pent many happy hours with them, and Spielmann is a favourite. A random selection of games.

Firstly the 'fun game' I like to include. Spielmann was a gift to game anthology compilers - so many bright and sparkling little attacking games.

That game was played in 1912. The chess hero of 1912 was Rubinstein - I did a blog about it all to squash a myth that many lazy writers just reproduce from what they find on the internet!

Rubinstein In 1912. Refuting A Myth And Some Chess Art. - Chess.com  

Well, he may have been the number one in the world at that time, but in 1912 Spielmann held him to 2-2. Four decisive games, all won by Black!! How often do you see the number 1 player in the World ( yes I know Lasker was World Champion at the time!) get smashed like this playing White? Not so often!

A forgotten game, from a match Spielmann won 3 1/2-1 1/2. Not perfect, but interesting!

O.K. The feature game! Spielmann was a tough opponent for Alekhine. When Alekhine was at his peak in the San Remo 1930 and Bled 1931 tournaments, Spielmann drew all three of their games.

In 1932, according to the Bogdanovich book, he even accused Alekhine of avoiding playing him!
Well, this is a facinating game all through - Bogdanovich gives the finish in his endgames chapter.

Reinfeld described it as a masterpiece.

It was played in the Carlsbad 1911 tournament.

Alekhine and Spielmann from the above group picture.

Well, that's it for now - many thanks if you battled through to the end of it all! Cheers.