Chess Notes

12082. When did Steinitz become world champion?

Bartlomiej Macieja (Lasek, Poland) refers to the feature articles Early Uses of ‘World Chess Champion’ and World Chess Championship Rules and draws attention to a further text, published a few days before the first Steinitz v Lasker match began. Page 24 of the New York Times, 11 March 1894 stated:

‘For 26 years the veteran has successfully defended the championship of the world.’

Also:

‘If a man who has held the world’s championship for 26 years accepts a challenge for a match which promises to him less remuneration than matches he contested before, he deserves some praise.’

The illustrated article was also published, with due credit, on page 3 of the Montreal Daily Witness, 13 March 1894.

Nineteenth-century references to the duration of Steinitz’s tenure are always welcome, regardless of the view adopted.

12083. ‘Tournament champion’

Shortly before the start of the Carlsbad, 1907 tournament, Emanuel Lasker wrote on page 10 of the New York Evening Post, 7 August 1907:

‘The only notable absentee is Dr Tarrasch, who has been hailed as “tournament champion” since he won the “champions’ tournament” at Ostend. What title will be conferred on the winner of this tournament [Carlsbad] is rather puzzling at present.

As the list of entries includes all those who played in the “champions’ tournament”, with the exception of Dr Tarrasch, and includes Maróczy and many of the ingenious young players who are coming to the front, the Carlsbad tournament must be considered to be of the same class as that of Ostend, and it seems illogical to award the title of “champion” to the winner of one tournament and withhold it from the winner of the other.’

12084. Cohn v Chigorin

Many books have the game between E. Cohn and Chigorin, Carlsbad, 1907, for which White shared the second brilliancy prize. Much has been written about 11 f4, a move upon which Emanuel Lasker remarked:

‘Mr Cohn frankly admitted that he did not see that he would lose a pawn by this move. That it turns out a “sacrifice”, and not a loss, is more good luck than good management.’

Lasker gave the game on page 9 of 12 October 1907 edition of the New York Evening Post, and his comments about the ‘Irregular Opening’ are noteworthy:

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 d6 3 Nc3 Nbd7 4 e4

‘Players like Chigorin undoubtedly dread the usual routine of the queen’s pawn opening, because of the difficulty which, as Black, they must experience before they can hope to attain any kind of attack or superiority. By some curious process of reasoning they resort to outlandish manoeuvres, hoping that something beneficial might turn up, or that irregularity may help originality. And so this position arises, where White has freedom and Black confinement. And this at no cost to White of material or weakness on the right, left or centre of the board. Conceding such an advantage, the result is inevitable against correct play. The queen’s pawn opening is certainly very strong for White, as indeed are many other openings. But the philosophy which induces a player with the black pieces to hope to win with moves which it is impossible to conceive are the best available only increases the inherent difficulties that have to be contended against.’

12085. Mexico

Is there a reader in Mexico who has access to archival materials of the country and who would be prepared to undertake some chess research on behalf of a C.N. correspondent?

12086. Anti-Turton

White to move

1 d4 would be met by 1...Qe2, and White therefore deployed the anti-Turton motif with 1 Rd2. A correspondent gave this position (Lucarelli v Carra, Bologna, 1932 or 1933) in C.N. 681, but further particulars (and most notably the full game-score) have not been traced. The two surnames can be found in Italian chess literature of about a century ago (often, in the second case, with the spelling Carrà), but when was the position, if not the full game, first seen in print?

Jens Askgaard (Køge, Denmark) writes:

‘The position from the game Lucarelli-Carra appears on page 109 of Schackkavalkad by Kurt Richter (Stockholm, 1949), translated from the original Kurzgeschichten um Schachfiguren (Berlin, 1947):

The date is given as 1933. Instead of Black resigning after 1 Rd2 Rxd2 2 d4 Qe2 3 Bc1, the book says that White won easily thanks to his strong passed pawn on h6.

I would add that 2...Qe2 is a losing mistake for Black. Instead, he could have played the anti-anti-Turton move 2...Rf2, or 2...Bh2, which my computer suggests as the best move.’

The position was on page 101 of the 1947 original edition. Had Richter already used it elsewhere?

12087. Ordinal numbers (C.N. 12033)

C.N. 12033 asked when and where the practice arose of referring to world chess champions with ordinal numbers.

From Dmitriy Komendenko (St Petersburg, Russia):

‘In Soviet sources I have found no instances of Botvinnik being called “the sixth world champion” during his first term (1948-51), although quite often he was called “the first Soviet champion”. The description “sixth world champion” can be found in articles published in 1951 in advance of his match against Bronstein, one example being a summary of the history of the chess matches on page 5 of the 15 March 1951 edition of the newspaper Советский спорт:

Frequent use of ordinal numbers seems to have begun with Smyslov. For instance, in an article on page 31 of the 16/1957 issue of Огонёк Flohr wrote, “Smyslov wants to be the seventh champion of the world in chess history”.

Other examples from 1957 can be quoted, such as the 19/1957 edition of Огонёк, page 31, where the writer, again Flohr, called for three times hurrah to celebrate the new, seventh world champion:

Starting with Tal, the practice became increasingly common. On page 3 of Советский спорт, 11 May 1960 an article by Gideon Ståhlberg, who was the chief arbiter of that year’s title match, was headed “The eighth world champion”:

A production by the Central Studio for Documentary Film (ЦСДФ) had the same title with reference to Tal. The tradition had been established and continued with Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, etc.’

12088. Robert Hübner (1948-2025)

The late Robert Hübner’s great strength as a player and analyst should not cause his legacy as a chess historian and critic to be overlooked. The C.N. search window can be used to locate a number of items which refer to his forensic skills.