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Semmering Baden 1937
April 5, 2020
In 1937 Paul Keres, IM, had a series of tournament successes.
(Wikipedia) - He won in Tallinn with 7½/9 (+6−0=3), then shared 1st–2nd at Margate with Reuben Fine at 7½/9 (+6−0=3), 1½ points ahead of Alekhine. In Ostend, he tied 1st–3rd places with Fine and Henry Grob at 6/9 (+5−2=2). Keres dominated in Prague to claim first with 10/11 (+9−0=2). He then won a theme tournament in Vienna with 4½/6 (+4−1=1); the tournament saw all games commence with the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 Ne4, known as the Döry Defence. He tied for 4–5th places at Kemeri with 11½/17 (+8−2=7), as Salo Flohr, Vladimirs Petrovs and Samuel Reshevsky won. Then he tied 2nd–4th in Pärnu with 4½/7 (+3−1=3).
This successful string earned him an invitation to the tournament at Semmering–Baden 1937. He won with 9/14 (+6−2=6), ahead of Fine, José Raúl Capablanca, Reshevsky, and Erich Eliskases. Keres, in his autobiographical games collection, refers to this major event as a 'Candidates' Tournament', and claimed that he was recognized as a Grandmaster after winning it, although its parallel connection with later FIDE-organized Candidates' tournaments (from 1950 onwards) is not exact, and the Grandmaster title was not formalized by FIDE until 1950.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Keres#Pre-war_years
When I read this a few years ago, I thought I would very much like to get the Semmering Baden tournament book. This turned out to be much more difficult than I thought.
There is one by Reinfeld (1938), one by B.H. Wood (1937), one by Kondor (1938),two modern ones (MacLellan, 1958) and (Lopez Esnaola, 1957) and a very desirable one by J. Hannak (1937). But they come up for sale or auction very rarely.
I decided to go to a U.S. dealer and pay a three-figure price for a copy. I paid and awaited the packet but was shaken when I received this email:
I have just gotten the item that I had shipped you back from the post office: "Damaged in transit". It appears that the vehicle has run over the box and crushed it with brite tire marks left behind. They are going to reimburse me the value, but not the postal fee. Can't figure that one out, so I will send you a paypal refund for the total amount that you paid.
I am sorry about this, but something outside of my control.
A year later, I got a copy of the Hannak on eBay for half the price I was willing to pay the dealer.
________
Canadians have always had a deep affection for Paul Keres. So, I thought that since there are no new tournament games with the pandemic on, that I would do a mini-version of Semmering Baden over the next week.
Anyone who is interested can save the tourney as a pdf and print it up for their collection. Let us see the post office run over that with their truck!
________
Semmering is a town in the district of Neunkirchen in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is famous for its skiing. When the famous Semmering Railway was completed in 1854 it brought many tourists from Vienna. The Panhans Hotel is an historic four-star hotel, which opened in 1888 and got enlarged since. William Zimdin, the proprietor of the hotel has organized a succession of tournament there.
There was a tournament in 1926 there and the Spielmann-Eliskases Match of 1936 among others. The former:
An international chess master tournament was organized and held at the Grand Hotel Panhas in the Semmering Pass south of Vienna from March 7th to the 29th, 1926. The event was organized by Ossip Bernstein, who invited 18 players to participate in the round robin tournament. Among those invited were the very best masters of the day, including Alexander Alekhine, Akiba Rubinstein, Aron Nimzowitsch, Siegbert Tarrasch, Milan Vidmar, Savielly Tartakower, Richard Rèti, and Rudolf Spielmann. The hypermodern school was well represented, and in the first half of the tournament Nimzowitsch and Tartakower lead the field. However, toward the end of the competition a series of missteps and surprises found the lead changing hands until finally Spielmann, the great romantic, emerged as the winner over Alekhine after the last round. It was to be Spielmann's best tournament performance of his chess career.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...on?cid=1013596
__________
In 1937, sponsored by casinos, eight chess masters, including the former world champion Jose Capablanca, participated in the double round robin from September 8th until the 27th. The first four rounds were conducted at the Semmering, and then moved to the Hotel Grüner Baum in Baden bei Wien for the duration of the tournament. World champion Max Euwe served as chief arbiter for the first half of games and then was relieved by Rudolph Spielmann for the second half. Young Paul Keres won the event a full point over second place Reuben Fine.
The prize money was piddling and will be discussed at the end.
Round One
Round 1, Sept. 8, 1937
Reshevsky, Samuel – Petrov, Vladimir
D27 QGA, Classical
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 d5 3.c4 dxc4 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.O-O a6 7.a3 b5 8.Ba2 Bb7 9.Qe2 Nbd7 10.Rd1 cxd4 11.Nxd4 Qb6 12.Nc3 Bc5 13.Nf3 Qc6 14.Bd2 Ne5 15.Ne1 Rd8 16.f3 O-O 17.Kh1 Ba7 18.Rac1 Qb6 19.Nb1 Nd5 20.Nc2 Ng6 21.Nc3 Bb8 22.Nxd5 Bxd5 23.Bxd5 Rxd5 24.Be1 Rxd1 25.Rxd1 Rd8 26.Rxd8+ Qxd8 27.Qd2 Qxd2 28.Bxd2 Be5 29.b3 Bb2 30.a4 Ne5 31.Kg1 Kf8 32.Kf1 Ke8 33.Ke2 Kd7 34.Nb4 bxa4 35.bxa4 a5 36.Nd3 Nc4 37.Bxa5 Bf6 38.Bb4 Kc6 39.e4 Nb6 40.e5 Bd8 41.Nb2 g6 42.Kd3 Nxa4 43.Nxa4 Kb5 44.Nc5 Kxb4 45.Ne4 Be7 46.Kd4 g5 47.Nd6 f5 48.g4 f4 49.Ne8 Kb5 50.Nc7+ Kc6 51.Nxe6 Kd7 52.Kd5 h6 53.Ng7 Bf8 54.Nf5 Ke8 55.Ke6 1-0
- Reshevsky's conduct of the ending is beyond all praise, against a player who might have gone on to be an all-time great.
- I am not completely convinced. 42.Kd3 (?) seems very questionable as there was no reason to allow the upcoming combination. However, the way Reshevsky conducts the ending after that is very interesting. I hardly believe there was no way to draw for Black. Maybe 46...g5? was the losing move.
Round 1, Sept. 9, 1937
Capablanca, Jose Raul – Fine, Reuben
D19 QGD Slav, Dutch variation, main line
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.e3 e6 7.Bxc4 Bb4 8.O-O O-O 9.Qe2 Bg4 10.Rd1 Qe7 11.h3 Bh5 12.e4 Nbd7 13.e5 Nd5 14.Ne4 f6 15.exf6 gxf6 16.Ng3 Bf7 17.Bh6 Rfe8 18.Ne1 Kh8 19.Nd3 Bd6 20.Qf3 Rg8 21.Nf4 Nxf4 22.Bxf4 Bxf4 23.Qxf4 Nb6 24.Bb3 Rad8 25.Re1 Nd5 26.Qh4 Bg6 27.Ne4 f5 28.Qxe7 Nxe7 29.Nc5 Rxd4 30.Rxe6 Nd5 31.Nxb7 Bh5 32.Bxd5 Rxd5 33.Nd6 Rb8 34.Rb1 Rd1+ 35.Rxd1 Bxd1 36.Re7 Bxa4 37.Rxa7 Bc2 38.Rc7 Rxb2 39.Rxc6 Kg7 40.Nc4 Ra2 41.Ne3 Be4 42.Re6 Kf7 43.Re5 Kf6 44.Rb5 Ra6 45.Kh2 Ra2 46.Kg3 Ra4 47.Kh2 Rd4 48.f3 Bd3 49.Ra5 Ke6 50.g3 Bc2 51.f4 Bd3 52.Re5+ Kf6 53.Nd5+ Kf7 54.g4 fxg4 55.hxg4 Bc4 56.Rf5+ Kg7 57.Ne3 Bd3 58.Rd5 Rxd5 59.Nxd5 Bc4 60.Ne3 Bf7 61.Ng2 Bc4 62.Ne1 Bd5 63.Kg3 Kf6 64.Nf3 Be4 65.Ne5 Bc2 66.Kh4 h6 67.Nd7+ Kg7 68.f5 Ba4 69.Nc5 Bd1 70.Kg3 Kf7 71.Kf4 Be2 72.Ne4 Bd1 73.Nc3 Bb3 74.Ke5 Bc4 1/2-1/2
Position after Black’s 37….Bc2
- A slightly better try here seems to be 38. Rb7. Black must trade rooks (otherwise his king is cut off), but the resulting minor piece ending still has queenside pawns so White has something to play for.
Here's a sample line to get the idea of what White can do with an extra pawn, an acrobatic knight, and play left on the queenside.
38. Rb7 Rxb7 39. Nxb7 Kg7 40. f4 Kf6 41. Kf2 Ke6 42. Ke3 Kd5 43. g4! Be4 44. Na5 Bc2 45. g5 Bd1 46. Kd3 Bf3 47. Nb3! Be4+ 48. Ke3 Bc2 49. Nd2 Bd1 50. h4 Bg4 51. Nf3! Bh5 52. Nd4 Bg4 53. h5! Bxh5 54. Nxf5 c5 55. bxc5 Kxc5 56. Ke4 Kc6 57. Ne7+ Kd6 58. Ng8, and White wins the race to the kingside (the plan is f5, Nf6, Nxh7).
- The game was drawn at least 25 moves before they both gave 'up the ghosts.' Was it love or hate that drove them on? You call it!
- I'm sure the Capa of the twenties would have won this ending in a canter! 38. Rc7 certainly looks an inexplicable decision, allowing Black to go into an ending with pawns on one side of the board only.
-You look at this game somewhere around move 39 and predict lots of pain and suffering from black. It's very surprising it didn't work out that way.
(to be continued)
April 5, 2020
In 1937 Paul Keres, IM, had a series of tournament successes.
(Wikipedia) - He won in Tallinn with 7½/9 (+6−0=3), then shared 1st–2nd at Margate with Reuben Fine at 7½/9 (+6−0=3), 1½ points ahead of Alekhine. In Ostend, he tied 1st–3rd places with Fine and Henry Grob at 6/9 (+5−2=2). Keres dominated in Prague to claim first with 10/11 (+9−0=2). He then won a theme tournament in Vienna with 4½/6 (+4−1=1); the tournament saw all games commence with the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 Ne4, known as the Döry Defence. He tied for 4–5th places at Kemeri with 11½/17 (+8−2=7), as Salo Flohr, Vladimirs Petrovs and Samuel Reshevsky won. Then he tied 2nd–4th in Pärnu with 4½/7 (+3−1=3).
This successful string earned him an invitation to the tournament at Semmering–Baden 1937. He won with 9/14 (+6−2=6), ahead of Fine, José Raúl Capablanca, Reshevsky, and Erich Eliskases. Keres, in his autobiographical games collection, refers to this major event as a 'Candidates' Tournament', and claimed that he was recognized as a Grandmaster after winning it, although its parallel connection with later FIDE-organized Candidates' tournaments (from 1950 onwards) is not exact, and the Grandmaster title was not formalized by FIDE until 1950.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Keres#Pre-war_years
When I read this a few years ago, I thought I would very much like to get the Semmering Baden tournament book. This turned out to be much more difficult than I thought.
There is one by Reinfeld (1938), one by B.H. Wood (1937), one by Kondor (1938),two modern ones (MacLellan, 1958) and (Lopez Esnaola, 1957) and a very desirable one by J. Hannak (1937). But they come up for sale or auction very rarely.
I decided to go to a U.S. dealer and pay a three-figure price for a copy. I paid and awaited the packet but was shaken when I received this email:
I have just gotten the item that I had shipped you back from the post office: "Damaged in transit". It appears that the vehicle has run over the box and crushed it with brite tire marks left behind. They are going to reimburse me the value, but not the postal fee. Can't figure that one out, so I will send you a paypal refund for the total amount that you paid.
I am sorry about this, but something outside of my control.
A year later, I got a copy of the Hannak on eBay for half the price I was willing to pay the dealer.
________
Canadians have always had a deep affection for Paul Keres. So, I thought that since there are no new tournament games with the pandemic on, that I would do a mini-version of Semmering Baden over the next week.
Anyone who is interested can save the tourney as a pdf and print it up for their collection. Let us see the post office run over that with their truck!
________
Semmering is a town in the district of Neunkirchen in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is famous for its skiing. When the famous Semmering Railway was completed in 1854 it brought many tourists from Vienna. The Panhans Hotel is an historic four-star hotel, which opened in 1888 and got enlarged since. William Zimdin, the proprietor of the hotel has organized a succession of tournament there.
There was a tournament in 1926 there and the Spielmann-Eliskases Match of 1936 among others. The former:
An international chess master tournament was organized and held at the Grand Hotel Panhas in the Semmering Pass south of Vienna from March 7th to the 29th, 1926. The event was organized by Ossip Bernstein, who invited 18 players to participate in the round robin tournament. Among those invited were the very best masters of the day, including Alexander Alekhine, Akiba Rubinstein, Aron Nimzowitsch, Siegbert Tarrasch, Milan Vidmar, Savielly Tartakower, Richard Rèti, and Rudolf Spielmann. The hypermodern school was well represented, and in the first half of the tournament Nimzowitsch and Tartakower lead the field. However, toward the end of the competition a series of missteps and surprises found the lead changing hands until finally Spielmann, the great romantic, emerged as the winner over Alekhine after the last round. It was to be Spielmann's best tournament performance of his chess career.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...on?cid=1013596
__________
In 1937, sponsored by casinos, eight chess masters, including the former world champion Jose Capablanca, participated in the double round robin from September 8th until the 27th. The first four rounds were conducted at the Semmering, and then moved to the Hotel Grüner Baum in Baden bei Wien for the duration of the tournament. World champion Max Euwe served as chief arbiter for the first half of games and then was relieved by Rudolph Spielmann for the second half. Young Paul Keres won the event a full point over second place Reuben Fine.
The prize money was piddling and will be discussed at the end.
Round One
Round 1, Sept. 8, 1937
Reshevsky, Samuel – Petrov, Vladimir
D27 QGA, Classical
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 d5 3.c4 dxc4 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.O-O a6 7.a3 b5 8.Ba2 Bb7 9.Qe2 Nbd7 10.Rd1 cxd4 11.Nxd4 Qb6 12.Nc3 Bc5 13.Nf3 Qc6 14.Bd2 Ne5 15.Ne1 Rd8 16.f3 O-O 17.Kh1 Ba7 18.Rac1 Qb6 19.Nb1 Nd5 20.Nc2 Ng6 21.Nc3 Bb8 22.Nxd5 Bxd5 23.Bxd5 Rxd5 24.Be1 Rxd1 25.Rxd1 Rd8 26.Rxd8+ Qxd8 27.Qd2 Qxd2 28.Bxd2 Be5 29.b3 Bb2 30.a4 Ne5 31.Kg1 Kf8 32.Kf1 Ke8 33.Ke2 Kd7 34.Nb4 bxa4 35.bxa4 a5 36.Nd3 Nc4 37.Bxa5 Bf6 38.Bb4 Kc6 39.e4 Nb6 40.e5 Bd8 41.Nb2 g6 42.Kd3 Nxa4 43.Nxa4 Kb5 44.Nc5 Kxb4 45.Ne4 Be7 46.Kd4 g5 47.Nd6 f5 48.g4 f4 49.Ne8 Kb5 50.Nc7+ Kc6 51.Nxe6 Kd7 52.Kd5 h6 53.Ng7 Bf8 54.Nf5 Ke8 55.Ke6 1-0
- Reshevsky's conduct of the ending is beyond all praise, against a player who might have gone on to be an all-time great.
- I am not completely convinced. 42.Kd3 (?) seems very questionable as there was no reason to allow the upcoming combination. However, the way Reshevsky conducts the ending after that is very interesting. I hardly believe there was no way to draw for Black. Maybe 46...g5? was the losing move.
Round 1, Sept. 9, 1937
Capablanca, Jose Raul – Fine, Reuben
D19 QGD Slav, Dutch variation, main line
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.e3 e6 7.Bxc4 Bb4 8.O-O O-O 9.Qe2 Bg4 10.Rd1 Qe7 11.h3 Bh5 12.e4 Nbd7 13.e5 Nd5 14.Ne4 f6 15.exf6 gxf6 16.Ng3 Bf7 17.Bh6 Rfe8 18.Ne1 Kh8 19.Nd3 Bd6 20.Qf3 Rg8 21.Nf4 Nxf4 22.Bxf4 Bxf4 23.Qxf4 Nb6 24.Bb3 Rad8 25.Re1 Nd5 26.Qh4 Bg6 27.Ne4 f5 28.Qxe7 Nxe7 29.Nc5 Rxd4 30.Rxe6 Nd5 31.Nxb7 Bh5 32.Bxd5 Rxd5 33.Nd6 Rb8 34.Rb1 Rd1+ 35.Rxd1 Bxd1 36.Re7 Bxa4 37.Rxa7 Bc2 38.Rc7 Rxb2 39.Rxc6 Kg7 40.Nc4 Ra2 41.Ne3 Be4 42.Re6 Kf7 43.Re5 Kf6 44.Rb5 Ra6 45.Kh2 Ra2 46.Kg3 Ra4 47.Kh2 Rd4 48.f3 Bd3 49.Ra5 Ke6 50.g3 Bc2 51.f4 Bd3 52.Re5+ Kf6 53.Nd5+ Kf7 54.g4 fxg4 55.hxg4 Bc4 56.Rf5+ Kg7 57.Ne3 Bd3 58.Rd5 Rxd5 59.Nxd5 Bc4 60.Ne3 Bf7 61.Ng2 Bc4 62.Ne1 Bd5 63.Kg3 Kf6 64.Nf3 Be4 65.Ne5 Bc2 66.Kh4 h6 67.Nd7+ Kg7 68.f5 Ba4 69.Nc5 Bd1 70.Kg3 Kf7 71.Kf4 Be2 72.Ne4 Bd1 73.Nc3 Bb3 74.Ke5 Bc4 1/2-1/2
Position after Black’s 37….Bc2
- A slightly better try here seems to be 38. Rb7. Black must trade rooks (otherwise his king is cut off), but the resulting minor piece ending still has queenside pawns so White has something to play for.
Here's a sample line to get the idea of what White can do with an extra pawn, an acrobatic knight, and play left on the queenside.
38. Rb7 Rxb7 39. Nxb7 Kg7 40. f4 Kf6 41. Kf2 Ke6 42. Ke3 Kd5 43. g4! Be4 44. Na5 Bc2 45. g5 Bd1 46. Kd3 Bf3 47. Nb3! Be4+ 48. Ke3 Bc2 49. Nd2 Bd1 50. h4 Bg4 51. Nf3! Bh5 52. Nd4 Bg4 53. h5! Bxh5 54. Nxf5 c5 55. bxc5 Kxc5 56. Ke4 Kc6 57. Ne7+ Kd6 58. Ng8, and White wins the race to the kingside (the plan is f5, Nf6, Nxh7).
- The game was drawn at least 25 moves before they both gave 'up the ghosts.' Was it love or hate that drove them on? You call it!
- I'm sure the Capa of the twenties would have won this ending in a canter! 38. Rc7 certainly looks an inexplicable decision, allowing Black to go into an ending with pawns on one side of the board only.
-You look at this game somewhere around move 39 and predict lots of pain and suffering from black. It's very surprising it didn't work out that way.
(to be continued)
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