HONOR PRIZE PROBLEM G. GOELLER Pasing, Ob. Bayern, Germany ScHmate in 5 MARSHALL • REINFELD • YUDOVITCH 38th ANNUAL A. C. F. TOURNAMENT IN AMERICA _. ..... __ ............................... BARNlE JULY. 1937 MONTHLY 30 cts. AN NUALLY $3.00 (Abroad Ii N.) 'Jhe "IS THIS PROGRESS?" By D~. J. Haonak 101". Hannak is a distinguished Viennese authority on the game. He is one of the co-editors of the Wi(on ~ r Schachzeitung and he has written a fine book on Steiniu;_F. R.) REVIEW In the May number of the Deutsche Schachzeitung, T. Gerbec published an OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE article (under the title of Is This Pro­ AMERICAN CHESS FEDERATION gress?) in which, in rather heated terms. he assailed the style of the young grand ISRAEL A. HOROWITZ, Editor masters of the present day. Gerbec re­ S. S. COHEN. M<lnaging Editor proHches this style for its poverty of ideas, FRED REINFELD. Associat(' Editor (according to him); the style of these BARNIE F. WINKELMAN. ASSOC i,,!C Editor young grand masters is completely lacking in any spirit of initiative, all they do is R. CHENEY, Problem Editor wait and wait- until their opponent loses BERTRAM KADISH. Art Director patience, makes a slight strategical mis­ take, whereupon he is crushed slowly and Vol. 5. No. i July. 1937 .wadually with mathematical certainty. fhe outstanding representative of this tendency, says Gerbec. is Flohr. This Is Th i.~ Progressl ___ ._... ........................................ 145 player has at his disposal an enormously Kerner; intcrllation <li Tournoment .. ................ li7 developed technique, which suffices him 38th Annual A. C. p, Tournament .... ........... 150 in all games. Occasionally we: find com- Mini(lture Gaines ___.......... ........... __ .. __.. _._. __ ......... 150 Leaders of Chess In America ......... _____ ..... .. .. 151 Notes on the Caro-Kilnn Odellse ................ lSi We wish to call the attention of Comhination Studies .............. .......................... 156 all chessplayers to the full page Prague International Tournament .................. 157 News Events .. .................................................... 158 advertisement on the inside front Contri butions to U. S. T eil m Fund ................ 160 cover of this issue. Read it _ Act G,un e Studies .................................................... 161 yourself and tell your friends. Problem Dep<lrtment ........ .. .............................. 163 Selcctd G<lmes .................................................. 168 binations in Flohr's games, it is true; but Published lllonthly by THE CHESS REVIEW. these are of a purely technical nature 55 West i2nd St. New York. N. Y. Telephone: and not to be confused with the com­ Wisconsin 7-37i2. • Domestic subscriptions: binations of a Marshall. a Spielmann or One year $3.00-Two years $5.50-Fivc years an Alekhine. An even more depressing $12.50. Six lllonths $ 1.75. Single copy 30 CIS •• circumstance is that recently there has Foreign subscriptions: $3.50 per year except appeared another representative of this U. S. Possessions. Canada. Mexico. Central and system, who, if anything, is even duller South America. --___ Single copy 35 cents. than Flohr. This is . the American player Copyright 1937 by THE CHESS REVIEW. Reuben Fine, who does not strive for an "Entered as second-class matter January 25. 1937. at the post office at New York, N. Y.. under the advantage even with the white pieces, but Act of March 3. [879:· plays a waiting game from the very first move. Flohr has never begun a tourna~ CONfRIBUTING EDITORS ment game with any other move but 1 LAJOS STEINER P-Q4 or I P-QB4. But Fine: is even more D. MacMURRAY cautious: he plays only I P-QB4 ·and then J. B. SNETHLAGE IRVING CHERNEV 2 Kt-KB3 and only then 3 P-Q4; else his JAMES R. NEWMAN LESTER W. BRAND opponent might adopt the enterprising JOSEPH GANCHER EDITH L. WEART Budapest Defense or the Albin Counter liS 1<6 'THE CH ES S RE V IEW Gambit.· T his style signifies nothing enter Pa radise and receive d ivine grace; more than the Am~ r ican i %atio n of chess. (or Gerbec has justified their nagging a nd the sterile mechanical spirit o f w hich the name ~ ca ll ing: Steinitz was just a duffer skyscraper is the ultimate manefestation. after all! Thus Herr Gerbec. It w ould be a waste of time to attempt I was compelled to give this brief sum ~ to conv ince H err Gerbec that he is mary of the contents of the article, because wrong. Tastes differ: one man likes Gerbec has violated (unwittingly and un­ skyscrapers. a nother one prefers the intentionally. I am sure) a basic rule o f S iegesallee in Berlin. For my part I pre­ "fair play," namely that in the course of (er "The N ight Watch" by Rembrandt or an in tellectual controversy. one should Michelangelo's Moses. But the question is select a medium through which the oppo­ far (rom being what the individual likes: nent may also present his side of the case. the question is, what is the typical char­ But in selecting the D eutsche Schachzei­ acteristic of a n era? Had Fine and Flohr tung. Gerbec has chosen a medium . which been contemporaries of Anderssen. they for all too obvious reasons will not be would very likely have played like him. available to F ine and F lohr for some time Bu t Fine a nd F lohr are living in the year to come. Incidentall y, Gerbec might have 1937; they are liv ing in a period which named other masters who ha ve a style abounds in chaos and con fU Sion: they a re similar to that of Fine and Flohr, but who living in a period when the anachronis­ would find it less difficult to secure a ticall y romantic phrase is in frightful con ~ hearing from the D eutsche Schachzeitung. trast to the bloody reality: they are liv ing for example Eliskases, GruenEeld, Ahues. in a period w hi ch is as cruel and danger ~' Pifc. Oake and the outstanding represen~ ous and false as the period of the Borgias tative of this style: Capablanca. But G er­ and the Condottieri . P rim itive d rives have bec has not done this. been unleashed a nd consciously whipped Very well : after a ll, it is not absolutely up to a state of uncontrollable fury which essential to have a reply in the Deutsche is steadily forcing our continent (Europe) S chachzeitung, and perhaps it is not even toward a catastrophe which will be u n ~ worth the trouble to ma ke too much of a precedented. fu ss over it. For. Herr Gerbec's poignant The only hope for our planet is that pla ints about the degeneration of chess these evil spirit which have been re ~ a re just as old as chess itseW Good o ld leased , will be exorcised by cold~blooded G utmayer·'" will la ugh in his gra ve w hen good sense. by clear-headed intelligence, he lea rns that a new a rticle has been a s~ by self-control and fo resight. T hat requir­ sembled from those books of his which es cautious deliberation. an " un. heroic" long since crumbled into dust. And those but far~si9ht ed and sober attitude. it people w ho once heaped insults on the means keeping one's powder dry until the "drawing master" M orphy when he ex­ decisive moment, it means being able to changed Queens in a won position in or­ wait. being able to resist all provocation der to shorten his opponent's sufferings­ until the proper opportunity has arrived. these people w ill turn joyfully in their T hat is how I see the style of Fine a nd graves and whisper to each other : " Ex Flohr, and it has my allegiance. I admire ossibus utor."o And all those imitators of Alekhine tremendously and 1 love the Beckmesser who made poor Steinitz's life games of Marshall and Spielmann: but at miserable, w ill now leave P urgatory and the same time I affirm my faith in Fine and Flohr. for they are the true represen ~ '" The un<:o nditioDal fabilf of this prepo5lerou$ claim goes far to dis.:redit Hen' Getbe<:'s whole tatives of this age. They are the consci~ article. be<:auK if made in good faith, it shows ence of the age. T hey a re the hrave that be has hardly sun any 01: Pint's gamu!_P. R. fighters (o r a better (uture . ... •• A German. writer whose mediocre un.der­ {T ranslated by F red Reinfeld l . standing of the game prevented him from liking a game unless it was full of bing-bang-biff combl. DON'T FORGET natlons.- P. R. RENEW YOUR o The thought here is that the same kind of • • people who once critici:z:ed Morphy. Istu praised SUBSCRIPTION ! him at 'he u ~n se of subsequent players. J U L Y. I 9 3 7 ,<7 KHMERI INTERNATIONAL that Gruenfeld does not all ude to this analysis in TOURNEY his article in last month's Qess Review. The second alternative available to White is After setting a pace which netted him 7 PxP. which looks as if it might cause Black a lead of close to two points. Samuel some difficualty: for if 7 ... PxP: 8 BxKt QxB: Reshevsky. Champion of the United 9 KtxP. Q xP7 10 QxO. Kt xQ : II 0 -0 -0. Kt·KJ; States, slipped a bit toward the close of 12 B_Kt5ch. Or 9 .. Q·KJch; 10 Q_K2. KtxP? th e tournament. to finish in a tie with II Kt·B7ch, K-K2: 12 KtxQ, KtxQ: 13 Kt-B 7, etc.