Great chess quotes

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great chess quotes

"Pawn endings are to chess as putting is to golf." (Cecil Purdy, 1906-1979, Australian IM and GMC, and the first ever World Correspondence Chess Champion. Purdy was the first very strong player produced from Australasia. He was a respected author, publisher and editor of the influential "ChessWorld" magazine.)

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great chess quotes

"The next world champion will be ... Bobby Fischer!" :) GM Fischer, reading the palm of World Champion Mikhail Tal, at Leipzig Olympiad 1960.

Fischer was off by a few years, but he did become World Champion in 1972!

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great chess quotes

"Why not? I've beaten Bobby so often, that gives me the right to sign for him!!" :)
GM Mikhail Tal, at the Yugoslavia 1959 Candidates tournament, who signed GM Bobby Fischer's autograph, as well as his own, when asked by fans. The 'playful' Tal defeated Fischer in all four of their games at the tournament. Tal was in the midst of a stretch, 1957-60, which saw him go from internationally untitled to World Champion, winning two straight Soviet Championships, the 1958 Interzonal, the 1959 Candidates, and the 1960 World Championship match over defender GM Mikhail Botvinnik. Tal would eventually lose a game to Fischer, but that didn't happen until the Bled 1961 super-tournament, which he still won (Fischer was second).

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great chess quotes

"Touch the pawns before your King with only infinite delicacy." (Anthony Santasiere, 1904-1977, strong American Master, in US top 15 from late 1920s to mid 1950s, and a prolific (and not always diplomatically courteous) writer, on chess and other subjects).

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great chess quotes

"Not bad for a dead man, don't you think?" :) (Spectator comment from Tbilisi, 1969, referring to the game Mikhail Tal -- Alexei Suetin (see below).

Tal had been suffering for years from a bad kidney, and this had cost him dearly in many tournaments during the 1960s. His condition became so serious that he finally had the kidney removed by operation, in Tbilisi in late 1969. Following the operation and a period of recovery in the hospital, a false rumour started circulating (and was published in certain newspapers) that Tal had actually died in hospital. The rumour reached Yugoslavia, where some of Tal's friends were performing as part of a dance company. He describes the farcical situation in his amazing book "The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal", which covers his career up to 1975. Tal responded with "The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated", borrowing a great line from the American writer Mark Twain, who suffered a similar episode! Tal actually won the Tbilisi tournament, and one of the key games was this miniature against GM Suetin, where Tal sacrificed his Queen to force mate! :)

Mikhail Tal -- Alexei Suetin
Tbilisi 1969, Sicilian, Kan, B42
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Ne7 6.Nc3 Nbc6 7.Nb3 Ng6 8.0-0 b5 9.Be3 d6 10.f4 Be7 11.Qh5! Bf6 12.Rad1 Bxc3 13.bxc3 Qc7 14.Rd2 Nce7 15.Nd4 Bd7 16.f5! exf5 17.exf5 Ne5 18.Ne6! Bxe6 19.fxe6 g6 20.Qxe5!! dxe5 21.exf7+ 1-0.

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great chess quotes

"It is not enough to be a good player; one must also play well!" :) (Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch, 1862-1934)

[Hans Jung]

Re: Great chess quotes

The most amazing thing (to me) was the number of spectators in the various Alekhine simuls. Chess was indeed popular.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Great chess quotes

Great Chess Quotes

November 6, 2015

Ah, the Great Days of Adjournments!

From Canadian Chess Chat, December 1970, p.266

By Dragoslav Andric

The Third Party

Larsen and Bertok spent three days analyzing their adjourned game in Vinkovci. In the meantime, they both lost against Szabo, blaming those analyses, and the efforts connected with them, for Szabo’s wins.

There is another curious aspect in the case: the Larsen-Bertok game was objectively a draw; what is more, they both reached that conclusion on the basis of corresponding analyses. During the adjournment, however, Bertok suddenly saw some phantoms, gave up the main prepared line in favour of an improvised one, and lost.

(WK-Larsen won the tournament).

Vinkovci 1970
Bertok, Mario – Larsen, Bent
A84 Dutch Defense

1.d4 e6 2.c4 f5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Nbd2 b6 6.Bg2 Bb7 7.O-O O-O 8.Qc2 a5 9.Ne1 Bxg2 10.Nxg2 Nc6 11.Nf3 Be7 12.a3 Qc8 13.d5 Nd8 14.Rd1 a4 15.Be3 Ne4 16.Nf4 Bd6 17.Nd3 Ra5 18.dxe6 Nxe6 19.Nb4 Qb7 20.Bd2 N6c5 21.Be1 Raa8 22.Rd5 c6 23.Rdd1 f4 24.Rd4 Rae8 25.Rad1 Re6 26.Na2 Qb8 27.Nc3 Nxc3 28.Bxc3 fxg3 29.hxg3 Rg6 30.Be1 Be7 31.Nh4 Bxh4 32.Rxh4 Qe5 33.Rdd4 d5 34.cxd5 cxd5 35.Rdg4 Ne4 36.Rxg6 hxg6 37.Rg4 Qe6 38.f3 g5 39.Kg2 Rc8 40.Bc3 Rc5 0-1

A lovely story, except that I am looking at the line:

40...Rc5 41.Qd1 Nxc3 42.bxc3 Rxc3 43.Rxa4 Rc4 44.Ra8+ Kf7 45.Qd3 g4 46.Rd8 gxf3+ 47.Qxf3+ Kg6 48.Rxd5 Re4 49.Qd3 Kf6 50.Kf3 Rxe2 51.Qd4+ Kf7 52.Rd7+ (analysis)

and it looks good for White.

The only thing I can think of is that, when the game resumed after adjournment, Bertok played a losing line, which was not recorded.
_________

I have checked Vlad Dobrich’s Chess Canada for November 1970 and find the identical story but no game score. Larsen’s column for that month concerned Taimanov-Larsen 0-1

__________

Note added later:

At
http://sah.hr/forum/index.php?PHPSES...sg8504#msg8504

there is a photo and this comment, which says that the moves after resumption of play hadn’t been published as recently as 2011:

Picture of the legendary game Bertok-Larsen in 1970 in Vinkovci, which unfortunately to this day has not been published in full ... Bertok lost even though it was overwhelming ...

If you click on the numbers at the bottom of the page they have some lovely photos. I rather like [70] of a Maroczy simul

http://sah.hr/forum/index.php?topic=516.1035

there are also vintage pictures of Alekhine, Capablanca and Fischer if you keep going down the thread. [76] has Fischer playing Petrosian blitz in Moscow at the Central Chess Club in 1958.

http://sah.hr/forum/index.php?topic=516.1125

[Hans Jung]

Re: Great chess quotes

In the years 1946 to 1956 Reshevsky was probably the strongest player in the world. If he had played a match with Botvinnik he would have become world champion - Bobby Fischer. Even the great Bobby was sometimes wrong.

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great chess quotes

"Mine is the only correct defense to the Queen's Gambit." (Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch. He was referring to the Tarrasch Defense: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5. This statement generated furious debate for years! Now, more than 100 years after he first popularized this variation, there are a multitude of 'correct' and playable defenses to the Queen's Gambit, including the Tarrasch, which was considered suspect for quite a while until GM Boris Spassky used it very effectively in several games of his 1969 World Title match against defender GM Tigran Petrosian, taking the title away. GM Garry Kasparov also used it to good effect in his climb towards the World Title in the early 1980s.)

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great chess quotes

"The good player is always lucky." :) (Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch, 1862-1934, one of the world's top players from the late 1890s into the 1920s, and a highly respected chess author and teacher.)

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great chess quotes

"When you see a good move, wait, don't play it. You might find a better one." (Dr. Emanuel Lasker, 1868-1941, World Champion 1894-1921)

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Great chess quotes

Great Chess Quotes

November 1, 2015

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Commentator

Jan Gustafsson is the lone commentator in the final round of Bilbao Masters 2015. The last game, after two hours, is Ding Liren vs Vishy Anand, which has no bearing on the ultimate winner.

It is Sunday and the coffee shop in the Hamburg studios of chess24 is closed, so Jan had to walk two blocks during the break to buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Back again, he sits down at the desk, uncaps his paper cup, glances at the electronic board, where the pieces are unmoved and says:

Up ‘til now, the status quo is unchanged

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Great chess quotes

The Georgian GM, Baadur Jobava, has an amusing answer to the query, "Don't you think that a coach is essential?"

"Books are your coach. Botvinnik is your coach. Alekhine is your coach. Having a trainer is good but not everyone can afford it. So many books are available out there, and if you are ready to use your brain then you can learn from them. Coaches will teach you from those very books and charge you money for it. Why do you want to do that?"

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Great chess quotes

"He couldn't see a mate through a telescope!" :) Maurice Wertheim (1886-1950; one of his favourite kibitzing comments!)

Wertheim was a very wealthy banker with a strong philanthropic bent. He bankrolled much of U.S. chess during the 1940s, including matches and U.S. Championship tournaments. He enjoyed both correspondence and over-the-board chess, and was probably at least First Category strength as a player. Wertheim found new quarters for the Manhattan Chess Club, paying much of the cost himself, in a fancy Manhattan neighbourhood. He put together ideas for both the 1945 USA vs USSR Radio Match, and the trip taken by the USA team to Moscow to challenge the USSR, in Sept. 1946, as ways of trying to thaw the Cold War, and paid the costs himself.

Wertheim donated his large eastern Long Island wilderness property to the U.S. government for a nature preserve. After his death in 1950, his estate donated his large collection of Impressionist paintings to the Fogg Museum at Harvard (his alma mater, class of 1906).