Hatin' on Tarrasch -- see if you can guess the author

I came across this in the ICC trivia quiz archives -- 
this piece was selected by Naisortep.

 See if you can guess who the author is -- it's not someone obscure,
 and when I saw the name, all I could think was: OF COURSE. WHO ELSE!? 

        "...If at that time I was already aware that Tarrasch was my 
antagonist, I still had no inkling that he was my 'born enemy'.  But 
our relations were soon destined to become strained. This is how it 
happened... Tarrasch granted me the honour of playing a serious game 
with him. My opening play, as usual, was most bizarre, partly because, 
at that time, as explained above, I was generally ill versed in 
'positional play', but partly because I was already consciously
avoiding well-worn paths, and, in particular, regarded the dogmas of 
the then dominant school not without a certain scepticism.  A lot of 
spectators gathered (although the game had an informal character), for, 
knowing the richness of my combinative imagination and mistakenly 
equating this with playing strength, they expected, if not an equal 
contest - for Tarrasch was then at the height of his fame - then, at 
any rate, a game full of absorbing interest.

        "After the tenth move, Tarrasch, folding his arms across his 
chest, suddenly made the following pronouncement: 'Never in my life 
have I had such a won game after ten moves as I have now!'  The game, 
incidentally, ended in a draw.  But for a long time I could not forgive
Tarrasch for the 'insult' he inflicted on me in front of all those 
onlookers.

        "Soon afterwards this game was published, to the great annoyance 
of Tarrasch, who considered that in publishing it I was virtually 
committing a crime.  As it happens, the game was not published by me at 
all, but by someone else, a certain von Parisch, and this against my 
wish.  But the fact remains that we became enemies and remained so 
until 1907.  Later I shall relate the curious, and for Tarrasch 
entirely characteristic episode of our reconciliation.  For the
present I declare that, had it not been for a feeling of animosity 
towards Tarrasch, I should never have learned to play chess properly.  
To play better than Tarrasch - that was the formula of all my yearnings 
in the period 1904-1906.  To all my readers I can give the pleasant 
advice, 'If you wish to achieve results, select a born enemy and 
attempt to "chastise" him by toppling him from his pedestal.'

        "I believe it is necessary, however, to add the following: if my 
feeling of enmity towards Tarrasch was aroused by personal motives, it 
was not sustained by them (for, from 1904 onwards, we never had any 
further quarrels), but by that profound antagonism of an ideological
nature of which I was so acutely aware right from the very beginning of 
our acquaintanceship. Tarrasch, to me, always meant mediocrity; it is 
true that he was a very strong player, but all his views, his 
sympathies and antipathies, and above all his inability to conceive any 
new idea - all this clearly attested to the full mediocrity of his cast 
of mind.  I myself, who paid homage to genius, could in no way be 
reconciled to the fact that mediocrity should stand as the leader of 
the dominant school! This fact, for me, was a veritable outrage!

        "...At the beginning of 1907 I took part in the master tournament 
at Ostend.  Tarrasch was playing in the premier tournament.  We came 
together each day in a caf'e, yet in spite of all my efforts he 
absolutely refused to notice me i.e. he simply ignored the fact of my 
existence.  Meanwhile, I was continuing on my victorious way; in the 
first two weeks I scored 7 1/2 points out of 9.  Then, suddenly, a 
miracle occurred.  Tarrasch saw the light!  On that day I had beaten W.
Cohn.  I went into the caf'e; Tarrasch came rushing up to me, beaming 
with delight and holding his arms out.  "At long last I've come across 
you!  How pleased I am with your success!  Aren't you going to show me 
some of your games?  How pleased I am with your success!'  The
apothesis of opportunism!  Trampling the weak in the dirt and pandering 
to the strong!  At that moment I perceived, with particular clarity, 
the total mediocrity of Tarrasch's nature."

Select the white on white text below to reveal the author:

[Extracted from a brief autobiography published by Aron Nimzowitsch as 
a Russian booklet in 1929]

Nice find!

I imagine that without the 'clues' that the author gives to his identity, the people that have carefully read his books would still be able to guess correctly.  He really does have a heavy and quite recognisable style of prose!

Yes, his prose is the giveaway... or really not so much his prose, as his personality (as expressed in prose). It's not his sentence structure or choice of words that marks him, it's his distinctive astringent quality of mind. Some writers suggest music, others architecture, or scenery, or the feel of a certain city, or a certain time of day... but when -Nimzowitsch- writes... I hear the bright whine of a dentist's drill...

This will sound odd, but I've actually written a book that was in a sense about (or largely about) identifying writers by examination of short samples of their prose... I was quite disappointed in myself that I hadn't immediately recognized this writer.

"At that moment I perceived, with particular clarity, the total mediocrity of Tarrasch's nature."

LOL. You just haven't been damned as a mediocrity, until you've been damned "with particular clarity."

Remember "2001: A Space Odyssey"? In the spirit of "HAL," the computer, would this fellows initials then be "ZM"?

A wiser man than myself once advised that you should 'always look to the language' when critically analyzing someone's writing (or speech...).  It's a piece of advice (and a skill) that should be passed on to more students than it currently seems to be reaching, that's for sure.

 I can't think of anyone with the initials ZM except Zero Mostel. (GeZa Maroczy?) At any rate... you can get the writer's name by hightlighting blank text at the bottom of the original post or in the gap below in this message.

Pardon, I must continue to wax enthusiastic about the prose stylings of -->Nimzowitsch<--- consider:

"The game, incidentally, ended in a draw."

Incidentally! This sort of irony has fast become a lost art. Harold Bloom claims that contemporary students are deaf to it.

Well, if I wanted to be a total pest I could say NO... it's Aron Nimzowitsch! (Trivia linkage: Aron Nimzowitsch and Elvis Aron Presley.)  I didn't know Nimzo had a feud with Tarrasch! But as I've been researching this online the past couple hours I see that yes, that's quite true -- I guess any true afficianado of the period in chess knows this... but I didn't!

You can see the answer yourself by highlighting the white-text-on-white-background, but yes.

That story about HAL is actually false, though, according to Arthur C. Clarke -- it was just a coincidence.  "HAL" was an abbreviation for "Heuristic ALgorithm" or something like that, nothing to do with IBM.

Now I get it... the roll around from A to Z defeated me :(

yeah, according to wikipedia A. Clarke said that IBM was a friend of the film and he'd would have changed the name if they'd noticed the correspondence.

Nimzovich ?

If you've read My System you'd know it was Nimzo, partly from the style but mostly from the way he quotes Tarrasch and give out about him.  IN one game he quotes Tarrasch as saying something like Herr Nimzowich goes his own way in the openings, but this cannot be recommended to the public.  Nimzo then goes off on one about "ossified teaching on the centre" and saying sarcasm does not have the power to stop powerful new ideas etc. 

very interesting, thanks for posting.

Here is an interesting tidbit about Tarrasch. As has been pointed out above, he is  known as a dogmtic proponent of what we would call today the classical style - always open with e4/d4, knights before bishops, occupy the center with pawns, etc. So the games between Tarrasch and the hypermoderns like Reti were clashes not just between strong players but between entire chess philosophies.

Now, I have a copy of Tarrasch's collected games ("300 Chesspartie"), which he authored, and the very first game, with Tarrasch as white, opens with 1.a3. I can't help but think this was a deliberate joke on Tarrasch's part.

I knew it was a hypermodern player of tarrasch's time but I didnt remember the name. Nimzovitch was a powerful player.

Great quote from the Tarasch wikipidea page:

"Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy."

'If you wish to achieve results, select a born enemy and
attempt to "chastise" him by toppling him from his pedestal.'

I cant help but completely agree with Nimzo here. My effort to surpass a particularly egotistical chess player is what led me to become seriously interested in chess when I was 9. From there, I went on to make the top 100 list for players my age in the US from 10-14 years of age before I took my 2 year break from chess. I doubt I would have if I wasnt motivated to "topple my born enemy from his pedestal" .