Some Forgotten Games - From A Book I'd Forgotten I Had!

Afternoon everyone, and I hope you are all enjoying Easter.

A humble little offering today - just some games that you won't find anywhere else, some annotations and some chat over a holiday beer or two.

I really like game anthologies - I have quite few of them. Great browsing material. One of the first books I studied was an old anthology by someone called Martin Beheim, with all the old anthology favourites. A journey of discovery for me back then. The innocence of chess youth!? What a joyous thing it is to find something new and beautiful! I am still on that journey.

This week I spotted one in one of my bookcases that I had forgotten about completely.

What a lovely book! Some of the games are well known - Game 4 is a favourite of my friend @kamalakanta  

but many are very obscure - two of the games that I give here could not even be found on rusbase. All have contemporary notes - for the games here I have done my own - non-literal- translations from the German.

The book opens with a long article by Pytor Romanovsky

who says that the analysis of games is a vital element in the development of a chess player. Well, in my opinion, the art of analysis is dead, and that is not a good thing for the development of players.

Today they don't analyse, they just let the engines do the work. That way they have instant truth in our modern world of instant knowledge. As Gligoric explained it, as I recall, modern players 'know' much more than previous generations, but understand less.

I have a saying of my own invention 'wisdom is greater than knowledge - it just doesn't pay as well', and I think that definitely applies in the modern chess world.

There's a debate for you!! Feel free to tell me what a sad old-timer I am - my opinions are no more or less valid than those of anyone else who thinks for themselves.

So - some chess, which hopefully you will enjoy.

Firstly a game between two player who I know something about! White is best remembered as the trainer of the great Maya Chiburdinadze.

A picture of historical significance - also from a Riga tournament but 3 years earlier - Tal and Zagoriansky in the background.

I know of the player with Black in this next game - quite an important Soviet chess organiser and arbiter - but I have no idea about his opponent!! Another game between the two is in the book.

Onwards and upwards!!

Same story with the next game. Yuri Schaposhnikov is a name that I know, but I have no idea about his opponent, who, as this game shows, was clearly a pretty decent player! The final attack is really rather beautiful imho.

And finally a game from the Soviet junior championships. I have never seen another game by either of the players, as far as I can recall. The game attracted the attention of the Great Mikhail Botvinnik.

Now, here's a thing. Botvinnik was an all time great player, and a renowned analyst. I have always said that you should never trust published annotations from pre-engine days. Often they are superficial and dashed of in less time than the players had spent on one move during the game. This is a case in point. Much of Botvinnik's analysis is, to be brutally frank, rubbish! 

I am at least 3 classes below Botvinnik as an analyst, but blew a number of holes 'big enough to drive a bus through' in his notes - and that is without engine assistance. The lesson of this blog - if there is anything to be learned from it - is to put effort into analysing chess games, and never trust what anyone else says.

As Bob Geldof once said, 'don't believe what you read, and don't believe The Boomtown Rats either.

It's a fascinating game to analyse for yourself, with a beautiful finish - Bravo young man!