Philippe Vukojevic 17.09.2024
Just as our Olympics teams did not travel to Budapest to visit the city, the young Maroczy (yes, the one from the Maroczy bind) had not come to Budapest to see the new buildings. He was mostly intrigued by the already long tradition of Hungarian chess. When the first leg of Maroczy’s career had ended, Budapest had become a city of millions and had the will not to be the monarchy’s second capital after Vienna. The 1896 international chess tournament was one of the proofs of the attempts to rival Vienna: the entire world’s top players were invited to Budapest. Yet missing was Isidor Gunsberg (1854-1930), a Pest-born topper who had shortly before lost a duel for the world title against Steinitz. He was the first Hungarian to play for the world title, even though he had long lived in England.
Chess played in Budapest’s cafés had its heyday there (e.g. in the New York Café, where even today people queue up to get in, but today this does not happen at all to play a game of chess). Until 1945, membership numbers grew in chess clubs linked to those cafés and numerous are the anecdotes left by masters and kiebitzer there.
In the interwar period, however, Hungary must have been one of the most unhappy places in the world. After all, after the First World War, two thirds of the country had been lost and a large part of the population had suddenly become citizens in another country. The collective suffering was greatest in Budapest. Even abroad, Marcozy often referred to the wounds Hungary had suffered in and after the First World War. It began as early as December 1918. Maroczy’s friend, Carl Schlechter, died in Budapest and was buried there. The Austrian master had come to Budapest completely malnourished by the horror of war, hoping to stay longer and be better cared for.
Despite the misery, Budapest remained an important chess city and young and not-so-young players came to play there with pleasure. That included Tituzs Otto Blathy (1860 – 1939), an engineer in the capital’s Ganz factory and inventor and co-developer of the transformer, as well as an honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was an excellent problem composer, who would later employ the Slovenian grandmaster, Dr Milan Vidmar, as his secretary. But we can also mention Gyula Breyer (1893-1921), who died not so long after Schlechter, but had lived long enough not only to win tournaments, but to give us a famous variation in the Ruy Lopez-Opening as well. He also brought us the world record of simultaneous blind chess to 25 boards, and he made his mark as a linguist: he managed to find the longest palindrome, consisting of 185 words.
Some 100 years later, incidentally, a number of young Belgians also descended on Budapest to play chess, and on 16 September 2024 they played their sixth round in the Olympiad. With Ecuador, the boys had an easy opponent… on paper. They chose their weapons: a mace, swords and needles. Daniel wielded the mace and the intention was to quickly defuse the opponent with a few well-aimed blows. But the opponent was tough and the blows with the mace had caused splinters to fly off in all directions. Did Daniel still have enough wood in his hands to subdue the king that fled over half the board. Yes.1-0 and so the other Belgians were able to draw again, despite their Elo superiority. Considering both Sim and Mher had taken swords as weapons, that was no mean feat. With open sights they went at each other and although Sim had already dealt his opponent serious blows, the Ecuadorian kept on fighting and Sim failed to deliver the death blow. In the end, it was he who once again had to fight to stay alive. With success.
With Mher it went a bit similarly, but he too would eventually stay alive.
In Thibaut’s case, needles were used. You know the drill: opponents serve each other pinpricks and if you can do this successfully enough, the opponent might, completely weakened, bleed to death. Now, very often those pinpricks are insufficient to make the difference. Thibaut’s choice was understandable after his disastrous start, but even now the beginning did not go very fantastic and a first serious jab already came hard: pawn loss. Later a second pawn followed and in a knight endgame with two pawns less, you don’t want to end up. Neither did Thibaut, but it was inevitable. Neither the knight nor Thibaut could save the black king and so the match ended in a disappointing 2-2.
The ladies had ended up in Sector 2, pummelling Canada, which had only put girls between 2119 and 2318 on the plane bound for Budapest. What could Belgium, without Hanne, do, the captain wondered? But soon he was reassured. Sarah had opted for a move repeat and the first half was in. Meanwhile, it was clear that the Canadians had taken a master class in bishop endgame: both Daria and Diana faced an endgame with equal bishops. Pawn structure, bishop activity and king activity would make the difference and I was not really comfortable.
Diana’s position in particular was not really hopeful on the first two points, but she held out. Or rather, her opponent did not immediately find how to make her king penetrate Diana’s position. When she finally managed to do so, it was ‘des Guten zuviel’ and Canada had its first point.
On board two, Tyani had opted for the Lasker style ‘I tempt my opponent to do things, which she will regret later’. This time, with her familiar bashful angelic smile, she had thrown out Belgian pralines in the forest of pieces. A praline on a3 and one on c6. They looked delicious and, of course, as a Canadian, you want a taste. So, she sent her white rook to b6 to fish out the delicacy. The moment for Tyani to throw open the centre door, exchange some pieces and finally with Bd4+ consume the rook itself for a piece. The rest was technique and Tyani certainly has that. Much later, when she launched a double attack with her king with the same bashful smile, the Canadian gave up. 1,5-1,5.
With Daria, I was comfortable. There too, there was an endgame with equal bishops. The black bishop and king seemed a bit more active, but the pawn structure seemed a bit better for Daria. Everything seemed under control, but that was to change when Daria wanted the pawn structure on the lady wing to weigh on the position (read create a free pawn) just a little too early. Then followed a masterclass from the Canadian. My thoughts were a yo-yo. OK, good move by Daria, because if that happens, it stays a draw. Oh no, good move by the Canadian, because now Daria is lost. Ah, well played, Daria, because then you have a draw anyway. Oh no, good answer from the Canadian… and then there was no follow-up to my train of thought. A hard-fought defeat, but oh, so close to a draw.
The girls really do deserve our admiration. Daria, despite that defeat, remains with a TPR of 2191 and Tyani even reaches 2308. Lovely, right?
Ahead, rest day today and tomorrow again, full steam ahead. New Zealand should lead the team to the higher regions again. For the men, Tunisia is on the programme. For them too, a bite-sized chunk … on paper. But for the men, that paper has no good taste since the beginning of the tournament.