Article Number
LXTARSTP1914C
St. Petersburg 1914
267 pages, cloth-binding/ embossed in gold, Caissa Editions, 1993
Discontinued
St. Petersburg 1914 - International Chess Tournament
by Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch
translated by Dr. Robert Maxham with additional notes by George Marco and others
edited by Dr. Dale A. Brandreth
Publisher's Foreword
St. Petersburg 1914 will forever be remembered as one of the greatest chess tournaments of all time. Not only did its competitors include most of the strongest players of the day including the legendary chess heroes Lasker, Alekhine, Capablanca, Tarrasch, and Rubinstein, but in addition the course of the tournament was quite dramatic, for Capablanca led most of the way, and only four rounds before the end did Lasker pull ahead of his youthful rival in one of the classic games of chess history. In the next round Capablanca, who still failed to apply himself seriously-after a very late amorous evening-was a bit careless at one point in his game with Tarrasch and sustained his second loss, thereby just managing to hang an to second place in the final round after being close to losing against Marshall in the penultimate round. Laskers´s s performance in garnering seven points out of eight in the final section to this day seems close to superhuman, especially considering the sublime efforts he put forth against grandmaster opposition. Even Tarrasch, who still smarted from the thrashing the great Emanuel administered to him in their 1908 title match, could not contain his admiration, as demonstrated in his notes to Lasker's games.
It was not only Lasker and Capablanca who produced pearls of chess art here: Alekhine, Bernstein, Tarrasch, Marshall, Blackburne, and Nimzowitsch each produced one or more gems too. The entire literature of the game is permeated with the beautiful chess creations of St. Petersburg 1914, as anyone can see who looks in any of hundreds of chess books where games or positions from this tournament are used as examples of stellar play.
Not long after the event two toumament books appeared: one by Tarrasch in German with his own notes and one by Watts in English with a potpourri of notes from a wide variety of sources-largely newspaper chess columns. Of the two the best was undoubtedly the Tarrasch book, due to the more entertaining and interesting notes and its more uniform treatment. Although George Marco took Tarrasch to task for the occasional superficiality of his notes, I think most readers will still find Tarrasch's annotations a joy to read, and in their totality they are a virtual textbook of how to play chess at a high level. Marco's notes, as they appeared in the Wiener Schachzeitung, are included here too for the first four rounds so that the reader may compare their style with that of Tarrasch and make his own evaluation. Sad to say, the effects of W.W.I caused Marco to abandon these efforts for the remainder of the games. Since it is often quite interesting to contrast the evaluations of different strong players, I have also incorporated the notes of a host of other famous players and writers from the great wealth of material available in many diverse journals and books.
The translator of the original Tarrasch book and other German source material, Professor Maxham, has done a wonderful job in capturing not only the meaning of the words, but the flavor of the original. Though Tarrasch is often portrayed both in words and in photos as a rather stern and humorless man, 1 think that his notes are full of humor and insight. Beyond doubt he was a great chess teacher. The job of gathering, collating, and editing all of this material has certainly strained the patience of those who have worked with me, but 1 must admit I have savored the delights of the games and the work so much that it has not been easy to say good-bye to the job. The mistakes and shortcomings of this final production are entirely my own. 1 can only hope that the readers will find as much pleasure in these games as I have had.
I want to express my appreciation to several who have contributed to this book. Fred Wilson found an old German newspaper clipping with the only photo 1 know of taken during play in this tournament-that of Capablanca versus Lasker in the very first tournament game they ever played. Jack O'Keefe found several interesting items in various Russian books and translated them for me. I. Romanov of Moscow found a photo of Capablanca analyzing with Alekhine, though likely that was during Capa´s s 1913 visit. A.P.Y. De Vreede of Capelle ald Yssel, Holland, checked some obscure Russian references at the Royal Dutch Library.
Dale A. Brandreth
Hockessin, DE
February 1993
by Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch
translated by Dr. Robert Maxham with additional notes by George Marco and others
edited by Dr. Dale A. Brandreth
Publisher's Foreword
St. Petersburg 1914 will forever be remembered as one of the greatest chess tournaments of all time. Not only did its competitors include most of the strongest players of the day including the legendary chess heroes Lasker, Alekhine, Capablanca, Tarrasch, and Rubinstein, but in addition the course of the tournament was quite dramatic, for Capablanca led most of the way, and only four rounds before the end did Lasker pull ahead of his youthful rival in one of the classic games of chess history. In the next round Capablanca, who still failed to apply himself seriously-after a very late amorous evening-was a bit careless at one point in his game with Tarrasch and sustained his second loss, thereby just managing to hang an to second place in the final round after being close to losing against Marshall in the penultimate round. Laskers´s s performance in garnering seven points out of eight in the final section to this day seems close to superhuman, especially considering the sublime efforts he put forth against grandmaster opposition. Even Tarrasch, who still smarted from the thrashing the great Emanuel administered to him in their 1908 title match, could not contain his admiration, as demonstrated in his notes to Lasker's games.
It was not only Lasker and Capablanca who produced pearls of chess art here: Alekhine, Bernstein, Tarrasch, Marshall, Blackburne, and Nimzowitsch each produced one or more gems too. The entire literature of the game is permeated with the beautiful chess creations of St. Petersburg 1914, as anyone can see who looks in any of hundreds of chess books where games or positions from this tournament are used as examples of stellar play.
Not long after the event two toumament books appeared: one by Tarrasch in German with his own notes and one by Watts in English with a potpourri of notes from a wide variety of sources-largely newspaper chess columns. Of the two the best was undoubtedly the Tarrasch book, due to the more entertaining and interesting notes and its more uniform treatment. Although George Marco took Tarrasch to task for the occasional superficiality of his notes, I think most readers will still find Tarrasch's annotations a joy to read, and in their totality they are a virtual textbook of how to play chess at a high level. Marco's notes, as they appeared in the Wiener Schachzeitung, are included here too for the first four rounds so that the reader may compare their style with that of Tarrasch and make his own evaluation. Sad to say, the effects of W.W.I caused Marco to abandon these efforts for the remainder of the games. Since it is often quite interesting to contrast the evaluations of different strong players, I have also incorporated the notes of a host of other famous players and writers from the great wealth of material available in many diverse journals and books.
There is also a rather curious fact about this tournament. No less than two fictionalized accounts of it, one by the well-known American chess writer, Soltis, in bis book The Great Chess Tournaments and their Stories, purporting to be from the memoirs of Sossnitsky (one of the organizers); and the other by Nathan Divinsky in a 1991 issue of lnside Chess, supposedly from a private chess journal of Rubinstein, have appeared. Despite their entertaining nature, both were mere concoctions by those modern authors, though based in part an facts. In each case, quite regrettably, no notice of the fictionalized nature of the account was given in the respective publication.
Although it was a temptation to give modern openings evaluations in addition to those of Tarrasch, I have not done so because of the inevitable lengthening of the book and because in my view many readers will prefer to make such comparisons an their own. Tarrasch's survey of the openings of this tournament serves as a good general starting point for such studies. I have substituted modern opening names for the games because the names used in 1914 have often been supplanted.
I want to express my appreciation to several who have contributed to this book. Fred Wilson found an old German newspaper clipping with the only photo 1 know of taken during play in this tournament-that of Capablanca versus Lasker in the very first tournament game they ever played. Jack O'Keefe found several interesting items in various Russian books and translated them for me. I. Romanov of Moscow found a photo of Capablanca analyzing with Alekhine, though likely that was during Capa´s s 1913 visit. A.P.Y. De Vreede of Capelle ald Yssel, Holland, checked some obscure Russian references at the Royal Dutch Library.
Dale A. Brandreth
Hockessin, DE
February 1993
| EAN | 0939433176 |
|---|---|
| Weight | 560 g |
| Manufacturer | Caissa Editions |
| Width | 15.3 cm |
| Height | 23.5 cm |
| Medium | Book |
| Year of Publication | 1993 |
| Author | Siegbert TarraschDale Brandreth |
| Language | English |
| ISBN-10 | 0939433176 |
| Pages | 267 |
| Binding | cloth-binding/ embossed in gold |