Three Brilliancy Prize Games - a Chain of Chess Artistry and Harmony

Afternoon everyone. Whilst I am working on another project, that is quite personal, and painful, to write I decided to put this together.

If nothing else it will make a change from 'Throwaway Rubbish Blog in 30 minutes that will make it to the front page, 'cos I have the letter 'M' next to my name!!

( Yeah, O.K., the site will take away my 'Top Blogger Status' for saying stuff like that at some point, but that is their loss, 'IMHO'. ) As we ( i.e us old people in the U.K.) say, Tripe is Tripe. Punish away, and ignore the great British concept that while you may not agree with someone, you will fight to the death to defend their right to hold an opinion.

Then go punish guys for serial tripe posting.  Nope - not going to happen - they are protected by the Harry Potter cloak of invulnerability, with the big letter 'M' on it.

Other opinions are available, and may be expressed here without my censorship - unless it is couched in rude terms!

In my last post - look below under 'more from Simaginfan', I gave a game where the young Mark Taimanov was crushed in a beautiful game.

I really like Taimanov! In some ways he and Robert Hubner were the last players who had careers outside of chess to reach World title candidate stature. As some of you may know, or gather from the photograph,

he was a famous concert pianist, as well as a chess player.

 Chess wise, some of you will only know about him because he qualified - under questionable circumstances - for the world title candidates series where he was hammered 6-0 by Fischer. 

He was, however, a fine player, a Grandmaster when it meant something, able to stand and fight with World Champions.

He was also a true creator - a chess player with the soul of an artist. I remember seeing the following game in 'Chess' many years ago, and the impression that, back in the days before computer engines,  'puzzle rush', and instant knowledge, it made on me. There is a phrase today, used in cheap television, 'The Wow Factor'. This game had that in spades. 

I decided to post it with his own notes, and that set me on a chain of thought.

The notes are from this book - scan from my own library - I have a chess book library!!

It is a joy of a book, particularly if you have ever played the Sicilian. His joy in working with chess ideas leaps out from every page. He was an artist. Chess needs artists, or we may as well spend our time looking at this week's Dallas Cowboys' play book.

So, the chain of thought.  Often players are remembered for losing a game.

Think of the name Von Bardeleben. O.K. What came into your head?? Yep! A loss to Steinitz.

Actually Von Bardeleben was an important, and very strong, player in his own right, with a 50% score against Lasker, amongst other things. But you just went - loser of a famous brilliancy!! Yep, it's true!!

So. Taimanov loses a beautiful game to Makogonov.

He wins a brilliancy prize for a game against Vaganian.

As a young know-nothing, I really enjoyed looking at Vaganian's games.

I even managed to get hold of this book, which obviously enough - having just scanned it to include here! - I still have.

The games are not annotated - I had to study them properly for myself - but the chess is a pure joy! It is not surprising that as a young boy exploring chess i was inspired by him. 
One example, that I have just added to  another, excellent, post on this site.

I particularly remember the following game, because it was it was in Barry Wood's 'Chess', as an annotation contest.

It won a brilliancy prize, and deservedly so.

So next, and last, in the chain of brilliancy prizes is this man.

Gyozo Forintos.

Sadly he died just a few weeks ago, Dec 9th 2018.

He was a fine player - winning the Hungarian Championship testifies to that. A genuine Grandmaster, capable of competing with World Champions.

I found the following brilliancy prize winning game in this book.

Yes, we all know about the typo in the title!!!!!

It is a really nice book, and I have based my notes to the game on the variations given in it.

R.I.P. Grandmaster. And thanks for the chess legacy. You are not forgotten.