Article: 11427 of rec.games.chess.misc Newsgroups: rec.games.chess.misc Path: info!dregis From: dregis@exeter.ac.uk (D.Regis) Subject: Re: book by Reti Message-ID: Organization: University of Exeter, UK. References: Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 09:09:28 GMT In article franklin@chaos.ph.utexas.edu (Scott Franklin) writes: >Hi, > >I was wondering what people's opinion was on Reti's "Games by Master >Chess Players"? I might have the title slightly wrong. The book has >75 games by 23 different players in a historical timeline. It starts >around Morphy and continues up through Alekhine. The annotations look >very complete --- lots of talk on ideas etc... >is this a worthwhile book for a beginner/intermediate to go through? > >scott I think you must have a copy of Reti's "Masters of the Chess Board". His better-known work is "Modern Ideas in Chess" which overlaps in some of its concerns. I got a lot out of reading both of them, and guess you would too. Reti writes very well, and with great sympathy and generosity for his subjects. I get a real pleasure out of coming across, say, the "Rubinstein variation" or the "Schlechter system", now I can call to mind Reti's pen-portraits and his exposition of their characteristic games. His prose has rather a longer stride than we are used to nowadays, and he is inclined to draw parallels with general cultural questions - he would never say, "it's only a game". The strengths are in his enthusiasm and explanation of ideas, and, in the "Masters" book, a series of "asides" about the ideas behind particular openings. There is one statement from Reti which I typed out and stuck on the junior notice board: "A knowledge of tactics is the foundation of positional play. This is a rule which has stood its test in chess history and one which we cannot impress forcibly enough upon the young chess player. A beginner should avoid the Queen's Gambit and French Defence and play open games instead! While he may not win as many games at first, he will in the long run be amply compensated by acquiring a thorough knowledge of the game" I keep on at this one, if only because I wish I had heeded the advice when I was younger! Juniors are too keen to rush off to the Queen's-side, or worse, follow Basman into the realms of 1.h3... Opening theory has moved on since Reti, of course, but to understand today's chess a historical perspective is helpful. In Reti's own words: "We perceive after a careful consideration of the evolution of the chess mind that such evolution has gone on, in general, in a way quite similar to that in which it goes on with the individual chess player, only with the latter more rapidly." I think that it particularly true of the Hypermodern school of which Reti was one of the principal members. He famously outplayed Capablanca in the opening which now bears his name, shortly before his life was tragically ended in his twenties by disease - scarlet fever, I think. I have a whole stash of chess quotes on the Web and Reti features heavily in it, mostly stuff from "Modern Ideas". "Those chess lovers who ask me how many moves I usually calculate in advance, when making a combination, are always astonished when I reply, quite truthfully, 'as a rule not a single one' " There's some head-scratching material for a beginner! Another quote I liked: "It is the aim of the modern school, not to treat every position according to one general law, but according to the principle inherent in the position." If you read some of the Soviet school, you'd think this was peculiarly a post-war idea, but there it is in Reti years earlier. By contrast, some stuff in Reti has obviously dated - this from "Masters...": "In general, it can be established that there are two defenses against 1. e4, which make it absolutely impossible for the first player to take any initiative, and which give Black such an even game, without any difficulties at all, that it has now become useless in practice, since these defenses are generally known. They are the Caro-Kann Defense and the variation of the French Game: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4." My edition has a foreword by Jon Speelman which frowns a bit over Reti's opening pronouncements, and that is the thing which is most in need of a pinch or two of salt. For all that, the principles he expounds still hold good. Indeed, the Caro still has a reputation as being a hard nut to crack, and rehearsing the Burn variation with 5. Nxe4 Be7 6. Nxf6+ (6...Bxf6, 6...gxf6) I found useful at one point in my life as the ideas behind it are important. Lastly, an example of Reti's inclination to philosophy, which I find inspiring but others may find pretentious: "A combination composed of a sacrifice has more immediate effect upon the person playing over the game in which it occurs than another combination, because the apparent senselessness of the sacrifice is convincing proof of the design of the player offering it. Hence it comes that the risk of material, and the victory of the weaker material over the stronger material, gives the impression of a symbol of the mastery of mind over matter. "Now we see wherein lies the pleasure to be derived from a chess combination. It lies in the feeling that a human mind is behind the game dominating the inanimate pieces with which the game is carried on, and giving them the breath of life. We may regard it as an intellectual delight, equal to that afforded us by the knowledge that behind so many apparently disconnected and seemingly chance happenings in the physical world lies the one great ruling spirit - the law of Nature. " -- Richard RETI, Modern Ideas in Chess. One last quote, about Reti rather than from him: " Reti studies mathematics although he is not a dry mathematician; represents Vienna without being Viennese; was born in old Hungary yet he does not know Hungarian; speaks uncommonly rapidly only in order to act all the more maturely and deliberately; and will become the best chessplayer without, however, becoming world champion. " -- Savielly (Xavier) TARTAKOVER, Hypermodern Chess -- May your pieces harmonise with your Pawn structure and your sacrifices be sound in all variations D _ / "()/~ Dave Regis &8^D* WWW: http://www.ex.ac.uk/~dregis/DR/chess.html || \_/| = DrDave on BICS ~\ / "...what else exists in the world but chess?" _|||__SHEU: ~/sheu.html -- NABOKOV From info!dregis Fri Sep 20 11:07:56 BST 1996