Saturday, June 4, 2016

The Value of Old Material 1

Aspiring chess players spend so much time looking at modern openings and searching for the most up to date analysis and information. However, a good book is timeless, and one should always be able to get something from old publications. As I've mentioned recently, I've been trawling through a book of the Hastings 1895 tournament, and I've seen plenty of games and positions that have been of interest. A lot of old publications have materials that are otherwise lost, and it is good that some obscure games and positions are kept alive, as well as stories and records of historical interest. For instance, at Hastings 1895 besides the great tournament, there was a problem solving tournament which was won by Georg Marco who took 1 hour 35 minutes to solve the following problems:

White to play and mate in 3

White to play and mate in 3

White to play and mate in 4
See if you solve these in less than 2 hours! Of around forty competitors, Marco narrowly won ahead of Schlechter (1 hour 40) and Miesis (1 hour 55) with Steinitz, Pillsbury, Teichmann, Albin and Pollock among the competitors!

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