Savielly Tartakower

 

Savielly Tartakower
The blunders are all there, on the chessboard, ready to be made
Born	February 22 1887(1887--) Rostov-on-Don, Russia
Died	February 4 1956 (aged 68) Paris, France

Ksawery Tartakower (Russian Савелий Григорьевич Тартаковер, generally known as Saviely or Savielly in English, less often Xavier Tartacover or Xavier Tartakover; 1887-1956) was a leading Polish and French chess Grandmaster. He was the king of chess journalism in the 1920s and 30s. ^[1]

Early career

He was a Jewish origin [1] born on February 22, 1887, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia to Austrian citizens. He graduated from the law faculties of the universities in Geneva and Vienna. During his studies he became interested in chess and started attending chess meetings in various cafés for chess players in Vienna. He personally met many notable masters of the time, among them Carl Schlechter, Geza Maroczy (against whom he later won what was probably his most famous brilliancy[2]), Milan Vidmar, and Richard Réti. His first achievement was the first place in a tournament in Nuremberg in 1906. Three years later he achieved the second place in the tournament in Vienna—losing only to Réti.

During World War I he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army, and served as a staff officer on various posts.

After the war he emigrated to France, and settled in Paris. Although Tartakower did not even speak Polish, after Poland regained its independence in 1918 he accepted Polish citizenship and became one of the most prominent honorary ambassadors of Poland abroad.

Chess professional

In France, he decided to become a professional chess player. He also started cooperating with various chess-related magazines, as well as writing several books and brochures related to chess. The most famous of these, Die Hypermoderne Schachpartie ("The Hypermodernist Chess Game") was published in 1924 and has been issued in almost a hundred editions since. Tartakower took part in many of the most important chess tournaments of the epoch. In 1927 and 1928 he won two tournaments in Hastings and shared the first place with Aron Nimzowitsch at the London contest. On the latter occasion he managed to beat such notable chess players as Frank Marshall, Milan Vidmar, and Yefim Bogolubov. In 1930 he won the Liège tournament, beating Mir Sultan Khan by two points. Further down the list were, among others, Akiba Rubinstein, Aaron Nimzowitsch, and Frank Marshall.

In the 1930s Tartakower represented Poland in six chess Olympiads, gathering three individual medals (gold in 1931 and bronze in 1933 and 1935), as well as five team medals (gold, two silver and two bronze). In 1935 he was one of the main organizers of the Chess Olympiad in Warsaw. He also won the Polish Chess Championship twice (1935 in Warsaw and in 1937 in Jurata).

In 1939, the outbreak of World War II caught him in Buenos Aires, where he was playing the 8th Chess Olympiad. He was representing Poland on a team that included Mieczysław Najdorf. Najdorf always referred to Tartakower as "my teacher."

Final years

After a short stay in Argentina he decided to return to Europe. He arrived in France shortly before its collapse in 1940. Under a false name Cartier he joined the forces of general Charles de Gaulle.

After World War II and the communist take-over of power in Poland, Tartakower became a French citizen. He played in the first Interzonal tournament at Saltzjobaden 1948, but did not qualify for the Candidates tournament. He represented France at the 1950 Chess Olympiad. FIDE instituted the title of International Grandmaster in 1950; Tartakower was in the first group of players to receive that title.

He died on February 4, 1956, in Paris.

Personality and chess contributions

Tartakower is regarded as one of the most notable chess personalities of his time. Harry Golombek translated Tartakower's book of his best games, and in the forward wrote:

Dr. Tartakower is far and away the most cultured and the wittiest of all the chess masters I have ever met. His extremely well stored mind and ever-flowing native wit make conversation with him a perpetual delight. So much so that I count it as one of the brightest attractions an international tournament can hold out for me that Dr. Tartakower should also be one of the participants. His talk and thought are rather like a modernized blend of Spinoza and Voltaire; and with it all a dash of paradoxical originality that is essential Tartakower.

A talented chess player, Tartakower is also known for his countless aphorisms, which are sometimes called Tartakoverisms. One of the variations of the Dutch Defence is named after him. The Tartakower Defence in the Queen's Gambit Declined (also known as the Tartakower-Makogonov–Bondarevsky System) also bears his name. As does the most common variation of the Torre Attack. He is alleged to be the inventor of the Orangutan Opening 1.b4 ..., so named after Tartakower fell in love with a great ape during his visit to the zoo whilst playing in the great 1924 tournament in New York. Tartakower originated the Catalan Opening at Barcelona 1929. This system starts with 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3. It remains very popular today at all levels.

Capablanca scored +5-0=7 against Tartakower, but they had many hard fights. After their fighting draw in London 1922 (where Tartakower played his new defense), Capablanca said, "You are lacking in solidity", and Tartakower replied in his usual banter, "That is my saving grace". But in Capablanca's reports of the 1939 Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires for the Argentinian newspaper Crítica, he wrote:

The Polish team … is captained and led by Dr S. Tartakower, a master with profound knowledge and great imagination, qualities which make him a formidable adversary. … Luckily for the others, the Polish team has only one Tartakower.

Sugden and Damsky stated that like other chess players of all ages and ranks among whom there is generally no lack of idiosyncrasy-or little superstition, Tartakower, a trenchant wit, took a most unsightly old hat with him from tournament to tournament. "He would only wear it on the last round and he would win. Notably this hat did not guarantee him success in casinos, which he visited as though it were a job of work. The roulette table would regularly acquire both the Grandmaster's prizes and the numerous fees from his endless string of articles." ^[1]

Quotations

• "It's always better to sacrifice your opponent's men."

• "An isolated pawn spreads gloom all over the chessboard."

• "The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made."

• "The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake."

• "The move is there, but you must see it." (Horowitz 1971:137)

• "No game was ever won by resigning."

• "I never defeated a healthy opponent." This quotation refers to players who blame an illness, sometimes imaginary, for their loss.

• "Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do. Strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do."

• "All rook and pawn endings are drawn." (The context of this quote shows it is a comment on the fact that a small advantage in a rook and pawn endgame is less likely to be converted into a win.)

(Note: Victor Korchnoi (Korchnoi 2002:29), John Emms (Emms 1999:41), and James Howell (Howell 1997:36) attribute the quote about rook endings to Tartakower, whereas Mark Dvoretsky (Dvoretsky 2006:158), Andy Soltis (Soltis 2003:52), and Karsten Müller ^[2] attribute it to Siegbert Tarrasch. Attributing the quote to Tarrasch may be a result of confusion between this quote and the Tarrasch rule concerning rooks.)

Writings of Savielly Tartakower

• 500 Master Games of Chess by Savielly Tartakower and Julius du Mont, Dover Publications, June 1, 1975, ISBN 0-486-23208-5. (Previously published in two volumes by G. Bell & Sons, 1952.)

• Bréviaire des échecs, one of the best known introductory texts for chess in the French language.

• My Best Games Of Chess 1905-1954 by S.G. Tartakower, Dover Publications, 1985, ISBN 0-486-24807-0. The definitive recollection of Tartakower's career, written in his unique style; translated by Harry Golombek.

See also

• Hypermodernism

Notes

References

• Dvoretsky, Mark (2006), Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual (second ed.), Russell Enterprises, ISBN 1-888690-28-3
• Emms, John (1999), The Survival Guide to Rook Endings, Everyman Chess, ISBN 1-85744-235-0
• Horowitz, I. A. (1971), All About Chess, Collier Books
• Howell, James (1997), Essential Chess Endings: The tournament player's guide, Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-8189-7
•   John (TRN) Sugden, Yakov Damsky (Nov 30, 2005). The Batsford Book Of Chess Records. Sterling Publishing Company. ISBN 0-7134-8946-4. 
• Korchnoi, Victor (2002), Practical Rook Endings, Olms, ISBN 3-283-00401-3

• Soltis, Andy (2003), Grandmaster Secrets: Endings, Thinker's Press, ISBN 0-938650-66-1

External links

• Kmoch, Hans (2004). Grandmasters I Have Known: Sawielly Grigoriewitsch Tartakower. Chesscafe.com.
• Savielly Tartakower at ChessGames.com
• Ree, Hans (2006) Tartakower's Poetry

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