Meran 1924

Meran 1924

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Author: Gillam, Anthony J (editor)

Year: 1998

Publisher: The Chess Player

Place: Nottingham

Description:

56 pages with diagrams and table. Octavo (8 1/4" x 6") bound in original publisher's yellow stapled wrappers. Articles translated by X Wadman. Rare and Unpublished Tournaments and Matches number 33. First edition.

No contemporary tournament book ever appeared for this congress. Meran or Merano, is a town in South Tyrol, northern Italy. It has a mild climate and palm trees grow there. Several photos show the palms and add to the charm of the views. A glance at the names of the contestants will show how many are involved in opening theory: the Colle System, the Grunfeld Defense, Grob’s Angriff, the Tarrasch Defense, Rubinstein variations in the French and Nimzo-Indian. Of course, there is also the Meran Variation in the Semi-Slav. Although known earlier than 1924, it has taken its name from the game Grunfeld-Rubinstein from Meran 1924, played on the 6th of February 1924, in the Third Round. Fourteen contestants participated in the contest. Ernst Gruenfeld scored 10.5/13 with 9 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss at Merano 1924. This put him in clear first place, two points ahead of Rudolf Spielmann (8.5). Akiba Rubinstein was next with 8/13. Gruenfeld was known as an opening expert. In round three, Rubinstein, as Black, gave Gruenfeld an opening lesson. Rubinstein equalized and then outplayed Gruenfeld, who suffered his only loss. In round five, Gruenfeld, as Black, applied Rubinstein’s opening idea to defeat Spielmann. Rubinstein’s line was named after the site, Merano in Italy. This Meran Variation is credited to Rubinstein, but was played in Schlechter-Perlis, Ostend 1906. Chess variations have been named in varied ways. Schlechter’s way of playing against the Tarrasch Defense was used by Rubinstein and more often credited to the latter. In the Semi-Slav shown here, Schlechter again preceded Rubinstein, but with the opposite color. Alexey Sergeevich Selezniev and Dawid Przepiorka tied for fourth and fifth a half point behind Reubenstein. At clear sixth was Sandor Takacs at 7. In a heated battle for seventh through ninth ended in a tie with Edgar Colle, Lajos Steiner and Karel Opocensky each with 6 1/2. The veteran, Siegbert Tarrasch, achieved tenth. George Koltanowski a full point behind him. Twelfth and thirteenth ended in a tie with B. Patay and Stefano Rosselli del Turco each with 4 1/2 and in last place was Luigi Milianil. Luca D'Ambrosio worked seven years on producing a tournament book covering the both the Meran 1924 and 1926 tournamets. His object was to rescue the games and theory from oblivion, to recall the golden age of chess at international spas and the South Tyrol chess scene, in particular. It is a big book, 500 pages and weighs 2.2 kg. Only 330 copies have been printed. It is written in German with the official title being Die Internationalen Schachturniere zu Meran 1924 und 1926 by Luca DAmbrosio. It has good group photos, caricatures, line drawings, documents, larger diagrams and every game he could find, annotated.

Condition:

A near fine copy.

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