Great Chess Tournaments

For me, one of the greatest tournaments ever was played in 1924 with some of the "giants" of the game in action including my favourite player Richard Reti........

I wish I could have seen these masters in action. What a privelage it must have been !! I would have loved to meet Richard Reti (second from top right) to discuss how he constructed his famous Reti Opening .!!He was a founding member of the Hypermodern Masters.Whilst I am only an average social player I have a deep appreciation of the history of chess and the esteem it must have been held in those early formative years.......

Yeah agree, I would like to have a game against the great Capa! But we all have our impossible dreams don't we?

That was a fantastic summary of the tournament Estragon !! For Lasker to be only 1/2 a point behind the great Mikhail Botvinnik at age 65 was some feat.!!

My favorite game from the New York 1924 tournament:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1030774

Now... which great tournament gets featured next? Zurich 1953? The first Hastings tournament?

"Controlling" the centre from the wings rather than "occupying" the centre was called hypermodernism in the 1920's and was championed by Reti .Very radical at the time and highlighted against Bogoljubov in the above match.Thanks for this classic game  blueemu..........I'll add it to my list of Reti's best matches. Any others out there. The most famous  was his game against Capablanca.

That last move by Reti was poetry !!

Yes... not my all-time favorite game, but Be8 was my single favorite move ever played.

The poetry in the move was that it was heading into the end game with relatively few pieces on the board. Easier to find great moves in the middle game. I wonder if such a seasoned player as Bogoljubov saw it coming.Many of us would have played that move but was this position planned many moves prior or just oppotunistic. Reti was a mathematician so I would like to think the former..............

Are there any other "stories" relating to any of the above "giants" of the Chess world who played in this famous  1924 world series.

How good was Lasker really !!

Was the 1924 chess tornament in Manhatten the greatest tournament of all

Great tournament with so many legendary games.

There is no doubt that Alekhine's book of the New York 1924 tournament is one of the magisterial works of chess literature. There is so much drama in his writing, and so much to learn from and be inspired by his analysis. What a book!

Below are the cover (Dover Edition) and page 56 with some of the notes on Reti's win over Capablanca in the 5th round (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1102101) . This was Capablanca's first loss in an important tournament game in about 8 years (as Black to Chajes at the 1916 Rice Memorial in New York (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1264556).

At 26. White Knight to D4 (What a move .......with plans many moves ahead !! you could almost feel his heart pumping ) won Reti his greatest victory of his career against Capablanca. A single move that proved to be one of the greatest move in history (In my opinion !!) as it masterfully set the framework to defeat a champion of champions who was untouchable for 8 YEARS ..............

Even older than that, being born in 1868 :-)

I think one of the reasons this is one of the greatest tournaments ever is that it had three of the greatest players ever, none of them very far from his peak. It was also a tournament without "weakies", it was long enough, and had some memorable games and wins also for other players than the top three, like Reti's beating Capablanca.

Reti's move at 26 was poetry in motion.........

Emanual Lasker was only 1.5 points behind Botwinik and Capablanca at Nottingham two years later when he was 66.  He held the worlds champtionship for 27 years.   Must be considered for the title greatest chess player of all time.

Please be relevant, helpful & nice!