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Shelby Lyman: On ChessOrie of the great players and chess writers of all time was Richard Reti, born in 1885 near Bratislava, Hungary (later, incorporated into Czechoslovakia).As an author, Reti has not been surpassed. His “Modern Ideas in Chess” and “Masters of the Chessboard” are profound and poetic introductions to chess theory, from the historical point of view.Though never a world championship contender, Reti had results of the highest order. In the 1924 New York international tournament, he defeated Alekhine, Boguljuboff and Capablanca. The latter victory created a sensation, for Capablanca had been undefeated for several years.Reti’s strength as a player was rooted in his prominent role as a pioneer in the. revolutionary “hypermodern school” of chess. Strikingly original, players of this circle, i.e., Breyer,AboutNimzovich, Tartakower, emphasized a new dynamic approach to pawn centers and an absolutely unbiased consideration of each position, as it arose.New secrets had been uncovered. Rudolf Spielman, a contemporary of Reti’s, partially assessed the latter’s contribution in the following statement: “Perhaps his strength did not reside so much in the discovery of a new move or of a tactical finesse hitherto unknown as in a new strategy. Very frequently and after only a few moves,I would find myself settling down against him with a lost position without knowing exactly how it could have possibly happened.”If you are interested inlearning more about Reti himself, you would do well to read the recently reissued Reti’s “Best Games of Chess,” edited by HarryGolombek (Dover, 1974, $3).Competently assembled, it features, in addition to the biographical and historicalmaterial, 70 of Reti’s games and 15 of his famous end-game studies.One of the most famous games of Reti is the aforementioned win over Boguljuboff. In the following position from that game, RetiBLACKBOGULJUBOFFdO NO BO O8X NX dXQR QN QB QKB KN KRRETIWHITEWhite to playdiscovered an original exploitation of black’s weak back rank. He first exchanged pieces with 1. RXR, BxR; 2. QxB, RxB. Then heforced blacx’s rank to retreat to guard a mate threat with 3. R-KBl. After 3 ... black’s R-Ql and 4. B-B7 check!, K-Rl, our seconddiagram wasartistic imagination is the final position of one of his endgame problems (see Diagram Three). BlackBLACKBLACKBOGULJUBOFFRETIWHITEA one-mover?reached. Reti now played the delightful clincher 5. B-K8!! and black resigned. Boguljuboff must either losea piece or be mated.A typical example of hisWHITEThe knight dominatesis to move but his king cannot successfully clear the king file for the black rook to win the black passed pawn. All attempts are met by a devastating^ knight fork.This is onlv one of Reti’s many fine conceptions.
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Glens Falls Post Star
Glens Falls, New York, US
Sat, Apr 19, 1975
Page 36
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Los A.
CA, USA 03 Jan 2023
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