Chess Duels 1921 – 1924 : 127 Games Annotated by Alexander Alekhine
From the publisher:
The publication is a continuation of the project to publish all the available games annotated by the Fourth world chess champion Alexander Alekhine. These are not only his own games but also games played by other players for which he contributed notes in various publications. Covered here are several international tournaments in Europe from 1921-1923, as well as exhibition games in Britain and North America from 1923 and early 1924. An additional chapter gives a few early game annotations which were not included in the first volume. 312 pp. Researched by Vlastimil Fiala, translated and edited by Ken Neat.
Vlastimil Fiala is a professor of Political Science and distinguished academic and the main driving force behind the publishing house, Moravian Chess based in Olomouc in the Czech Republic. Fiala’s second love is chess history which he treats as a science. His publication portfolio is impressive : the web site of Moravian Chess provides a listing.
Durham based Dr. Kenneth P. Neat (an expert on cosmic rays which he studied whilst at Moscow State University between 1968 and 1970) is one of the most experienced chess translators with a back-catalogue extending to almost fifty years. His earliest work was for BT Batsford and, by a pleasurable coincidence, was “Alexander Alekhine” by Alexander Kotov published in 1973. Ken translated many titles for Batsford and then became the in-house translator for Robert Maxwell and Pergamon Publishing with many works to his credit. Since then Ken has translated further titles for Moravian Chess.
This is the second book in a series (“Chess Duels”) to collect together all games annotated by Alekhine regardless of who the players were. The first book by this team covered the period 1893 – 1920 and this book continues by covering the years 1921 – 1924.
The book is produced as a hardback of almost exactly A5 dimensions. The binding appears to be well executed and the cover hard wearing. There is a generous quantity of diagrams per game using figurine algebraic notation throughout. The book requires no weights to keep it open and the pages are printed in a double column format. The book even has a charming aroma and feel when flicking through the pages!
For each game we are given the original source of the annotations plus the details of the players, the event type and name and a basic modern description of the opening and its Rabar Index / ECO code.
The content of the book is divided into four parts, one for each year. Each Part is then further subdivided, for example:
- Part One : Games Played in Europe I (1921)
- Games played in Germany
- Budapest 1921
- The Hague 1921
- Two Knights Opening
- Staunton Gambit
- Part Two : Games Played in Europe II (1922)
- Bad Pistyan 1922
- London 1922
- Hastings 1922
- Vienna 1922
- Other Games 1922
- Part Three : Games Played in Europe III (1923)
- Karlsbad 1923
- Margate and Portsmouth
- Other Games 1923
- Part Four : Games Played in Canada and USA (November 1923 – February 1924)
- Supplement to First Volume, Early Games (1861 – 1920)
- Appendices
- Translator’s notes
- Index of Sources
- Index of Alekhine’s Opponents
- Index of other Players
- Index of Openings
So, the layout of material is clear and logical with a strong academic approach. One gets an impression of rigour and attention to detail. One detail missing that could have easily have been included was the exact date (where known) for each of the games. We found it interesting to compare the notes for games from a variety of sources and annotators and the date would have made these comparisons easier.
As stated, we have 127 complete games all with annotations from Alekhine himself. Of these 22 do not feature Alekhine but they are all top players of the period such such Rubinstein, Tarrasch, Yates, Thomas, Mieses etc.
One of the games that caught our eye was this lively encounter between Alekhine and Yates from Hastings in 1922:
[pgn]
[Event “Hastings Six Masters”]
[Site “Hastings”]
[Date “1922.09.13”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Alekhine, Alexander”]
[Black “Yates, Fred Dewhirst”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D30”]
[Annotator “Alexander Alekhine”]
[PlyCount “104”]
[EventDate “1922.09.10”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “10”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2017”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2016.10.25”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2016.10.25”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
{[%evp 0,104,19,31,14,20,39,-9,-11,-1,17,21,14,18,43,18,28,1,32,-7,39,-46,-39,
-46,-36,-42,-30,-51,-52,-55,-53,-38,-46,-61,-46,-46,-51,-74,-66,-59,-59,-63,
-50,-71,-46,-45,-43,-58,-52,-53,-40,-46,14,-3,41,-43,-44,-43,-46,-32,-53,-32,
-52,-64,225,232,305,44,0,18,14,-78,-80,-80,-80,-80,-139,-99,-83,-89,-89,-111,
-102,-102,-217,-217,-276,-275,-287,-287,-360,-390,-364,-598,-658,-827,-906,
-814,-818,-962,-972,-1015,-1015,-1015,-1142,-1198,-1271]} {The notes for this
game were written by Alexander Alekhine for the original tournament book and
appeared on page 28. They were translated by KP Neat for the book Chess
Duels 1921 – 1924 : 127 Games Annotated by Alexander Alekhine by Vlastimil
Fiala and Ken Neat, Moravian Press, 2020.} 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 e6 4. Bg5
Be7 ({If} 4… h6 {then} 5. Bxf6 ({and not} 5. Bh4 {on account of} Bb4+ 6. Nc3
{followed by} dxc4)) 5. e3 O-O 6. Nbd2 {A whim.} ({The customary continuation}
6. Nc3 {is much superior.}) 6… b6 7. Bd3 Bb7 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. O-O c5 10. Rad1
h6 11. Bh4 {[#]} cxd4 {Black plays, as is often done in this opening , to
isolate the d-pawn. This procedure has its disadvantages as well as its
advantages.} 12. exd4 dxc4 13. Bxc4 Rc8 14. Qd3 Nd5 15. Bg3 N7f6 16. a3 {
Not fearing} Nh5 {having considered an adequate defence.} 17. Qe4 Nxg3 18. hxg3
Rc7 19. Bd3 Nf6 20. Qe2 Qd5 21. Nc4 {[#]} Qh5 {Up to this point the British
Champion has ably conducted the defence and has secured at least an equal
position. The move adopted, however allows White to immobilise the queen
besides creating other serious difficulties.} ({Much better would have been}
21… Rfc8 {and if} 22. Nce5 {then} Qb3 {etc.}) 22. Nce5 Rfc8 23. Rfe1 Bd6 24.
Bb1 {White now threatens 25.Qd3 followed by 26.g4. This threat induces Black
to embark on a risky enterprise.} Ng4 25. Nh4 {A defence foreseen for some time
past and one which forces Black, so as not to take back the knight (in which
case White would play 26.f3, and if 26…g5, then 27.Nhg6! etc.) to weaken his
king’s position seriously.} Bxe5 26. dxe5 g5 27. f3 {The only reply, but it
answers the purpose.} ({Instead} 27. Rd4 {would have been fatal on account of}
Rc1 $1) 27… gxh4 28. fxg4 Qg5 29. gxh4 Qxh4 30. Qd3 Qg5 {Black’s position
was not not yet lost, but this move and the next lack boldness and exactitude.}
({Here} 30… Qxg4 {would have been much better,} {and if} 31. Qh7+ Kf8 32.
Qxh6+ Qg7 33. Qd2 {,} {then} Rd7 {with many defensive resources.}) 31. Rf1 Bd5
({Here again} 31… Qxg4) ({or even} 31… Qg7 {was indicated. The text move
should have lost off-hand.}) 32. Qh7+ Kf8 {[#]} 33. Rxd5 ({In this position
White had only to play} 33. Bg6 {,} {and after} Qe3+ 34. Rf2 {The only
resource left for Black is the giving up of the queen for rook and bishop,
leading to a palpable loss..The sacrifice of the exchange in the text was in
order to prevent the pin of the rook after …Qe3+.}) 33… exd5 34. Bg6 Ke8
35. Rxf7 {A gross blunder! – and one which changes a win into a loss.} ({
The win – not a very complicated one – was as follows:} 35. Qg8+ Kd7 36. Qxf7+
Kc6 37. Qe6+ Kb7 38. Qxd5+ Kb8 39. Be4 Rc6 40. b4 a6 41. a4 {etc.}) {The moves
which now follow are played with great exactitude by Mr. Yates.} 35… Rc1+ {
[#]} 36. Kf2 {Despair!} ({When I had played my previous move I had forgotten
that after} 36. Rf1+ Kd8 37. Qg8+ {Black’s king goes vie c7 into safety at b8
and that the rook on c1 is defended by the queen.} Kc7) {Now follows the agony!
} 36… Qh4+ 37. Ke3 Qe1+ 38. Kf3 R8c3+ 39. bxc3 Rxc3+ 40. Bd3 Qf1+ 41. Ke3 ({
If} 41. Kg3 {then simply} Qxf7 {, winning}) 41… Rxd3+ {simple and effective}
42. Qxd3 Qxd3+ 43. Kxd3 Kxf7 {[#] The pawn ending which follows is without
hope for White and he might have resigned at once.} 44. Kc3 Ke6 45. Kd4 a6 46.
a4 b5 47. a5 b4 48. g3 b3 49. Kc3 Kxe5 50. Kxb3 Kd4 51. Kc2 Ke3 52. Kd1 Kd3 {
White resigned.} 0-1
[/pgn]
The items titled “Two Knights Opening” and “Staunton Gambit” are theoretical articles written by Alekhine from the tournament book.
Of course, most (if not all) of the Alekhine games feature in previous games collections (nobody should be surprised by this). We compared the translation of the original annotations and the “feel” of the annotation has been retained. For example, from the well-known brilliancy prize winning game Tarrasch – Alekhine, Bad Pistyan, 1922, round one we have this translation by Julius du Mont and M. E. Goldstein (“My Best Games of Chess 1908 – 1923“, Alexander Alekhine, George Bell and Sons Ltd., London, 1927) of the note to after 1. d4 Nf6;2.Nf3 e6;3.c4 c5;
[fen flip=true]rnbqkb1r/pp1p1ppp/4pn2/2p5/2PP4/5N2/PP2PPPP/RNBQKB1R w KQkq – 0 1[/fen]
With the intention of investigating, on the next move, the gambit discovered by the Moscow amateur, Blumenfeld. Since then it has been shown that this Gambit is not favourable for Black if White should decline it
and our review book has
With the intention of introducing into international practise an interesting gambit, suggested by V.M. Blumenfeld. However it has now been shown that this continuation is more advantageous to White, if he does not accept the pawn sacrifice.
You might be worried that his book has been ruined with pages of modern analysis dumps from BabelFish XX (substitute the current, trendy engine of your choice). Have no fear : this book is choc full of pearls of wisdom from one of the greatest players to annotate games. No doubt there will be unfortunate souls who lives are brightened when “their engine” is able pick holes in analysis from a legend. Perhaps this is not the right book for them.
However…any serious student of chess will be delighted with this work and be able to relive these games through Alekhine’s eyes with much pleasure. The games annotated by Alekhine but not played by him are probably the icing on the cake.
We strongly recommend this and look forward to the next in the series.
John Upham, Cove, Hampshire, 7th April, 2021
Book Details :
- Hardback : 312 pages
- Publisher: Publishing House Moravian Chess; 1st edition (1 Jan. 2020)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 8071890219
- ISBN-13: 978-8071890218
- Product Mass : 1.5 pounds
Official web site of Moravian Chess