I found an old book on the New York international chess tournament of 1924 in the library. The tournament featured some of the best chess players in that time with many interesting games such as this one from round 5 of the tournament. The annotations are by chess world champion Alexander Alekhine (who palced third in this tournament and went on to win the world championship 3 years later) with a few comments by myself. The Hungarian Geza Maroczy plays a queen's pawn opening against the Russian Efim Bogoljubow, going for a king's side assault starting from a pretty typical Colle-Zukertort opening system or better Yusupov-Rubinstein position. Bogoljubow defends well and exploits some inaccurate play by Maroczy to win.

I once read that as a beginning chess player, it would be best to start studying the old masters first. I slowly understand the reasoning behind that. Modern games often start with highly theoretical openings followed by subtle maneuvers in the middlegame. While the games played by today's masters seem incomprehensible to me, I seem to have better chances understanding the more straightforward play of the classical masters. But enough blubbering, enjoy the game!

Game from: "New York International Chess Tournament 1924" with annotations by A. Alekhine, edited by H. Helms.

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written by likesforests, September 25, 2007

Interesting game, but where's the ending?

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written by Sciurus, September 25, 2007

Exactly!
Most of these games end up in some position with (almost) equal material and a comment like "1-0" or at most "... is now clearly lost." I am actually just trying to win this game against the computer. I can see that Black has an advantage but up to now I always made too many mistakes to win it even from a won position. But I guess it is good practice.

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written by likesforests, September 25, 2007

I guess Black's advanced d-pawn and great piece position allows him to force a winning bishops of opposite color ending. 1. Kg1 d2 2. Qxf6 gxf6 3. Bb4 d4 4. Rd1 Rg2 5. Kf1 Rxh2 6. Rxd2 Rxd2 7. Bxd2. I agree, playing out the remaining moves is a great idea, because that part of the players', while not displayed, helped them win.

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written by Sciurus, September 26, 2007

It is certainly a good lesson. I tried several times by now and the most I got out of it was that I got tricked into a stalemate... Very good lesson indeed - never stop thinking before the game is over, even when it is ony about choosing to which piece you want to promote your pawn, because a queen is not always the best option.

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