Two Brilliancy Prize Entrants From Ostende 1907, And Never Trust Old Game Notes!
Afternoon Everyone. Warning! This blog doesn't promise to add points to your rating just by clicking on the link, and you don't have to pay money subscribing to anything!!
It's just me sharing the chess I have been looking at this week, and posting it for those who get pleasure out of our wonderful and beautiful game.
O.K. Last time round I said that I had been looking at Leopold Hoffer's columns in The Field from 1907. I mentioned that he was a hard working editor, but a pretty dismal annotator. Been going over his notes for two games that were entered for the brilliancy prizes of the Ostende tournaments.
He was a member of the organising committee, as Tournament Director, and probably involved in selecting the brilliancy prize winning games. The Field also contains his round by round report of the ladies tournament, with most of the players having travelled over from England - probably with his encouragement.
The tournament books went to print - as Tarrasch in the book of the 'Tournament Championship' event - points out, before the brilliancy prize winners had been selected. So, it seems that he spent more time on those games than was usual for him, and wrote extensive notes in The Field on a couple of them.
The first one is from III. Internationales Schachmeisterturnier zu Ostende vom 16.mai bis 25 Juni 1907. The tournament book was put together by Richard Teichmann - probably the worst and laziest chess annotator in history!!
I will ignore his notes - if you can call them that - and give you Hoffer's notes from the Field, with a couple of my own additions.
White was a young man making a name for himself - Ossip Bernstein - he finished equal first with Rubinstein.
His opponent was an old stager, who finished down in 23rd of 29, Theodore von Scheve.
A fascinating game!!
The second was from the 'Championship Tournament'.
Even today, Tarrasch's reputation still suffers from the legacy of Nimzowitsch's efforts to discredit him, which is a shame! ( not that I would have liked him personally, but that's another thing altogether!) he was an industrious and objective annotator who taught a generation. His notes to the game from the book.
White was the always dapper David Janowski.
You could argue that if he hadn't lost a game to Tarrasch from a better position he would have won the tournament, and so changed chess history. Then again, he should probably have lost - or at least not won - the game here!! In history, often big things turn on small moments.
Black was another old stager, Amos Burn.
A fantastic battle.
A few pictures to finish with.
From britbase. Hyeres 1926.
A poignant image of a dying man - the great David Janowski.
Thanks for joining me for a bit of self indulgence. Apologies for not sending you some rating points, but hopefully you have enjoyed another of my humble journeys into chess history.
Take care everyone.
