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City of Berlin vs City of Riga
corr 1912  ·  Spanish Game: Open. Riga Variation (C80)  ·  0-1
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sac: 8...Bd6 PGN: download | view Help: general | java-troubleshooting

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Kibitzer's Corner
Jun-18-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  aw1988: Now THIS is an interesting game.
Dec-27-05
Premium Chessgames Member
  trumbull0042: Both cities have Ruy Lopez variations named after them. Now THAT's interesting.
Jun-19-06  blingice: Yeah, the Ruy Lopez is pretty explosive in this game, I must agree.
Jun-19-06
Premium Chessgames Member
  CapablancaFan: It just simply dosen't matter that white has an extra piece, black's pawns storm sweeps everything off the board.
Jul-21-06  waddayaplay: according to the PGN:

[WhiteElo "2194"]
[BlackElo "2473"]

strange, isn't it?

Apr-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: Apparently misdated here, since Tarrasch writes about it in his book on the 1908 chess championship. Does anyone know when this game was played? Anybody notable on either team?
Apr-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Calli: 1907, I think. http://www.iccf.com/content/index.p...
Apr-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  whiteshark: The UltraCorr database dated this game <1906>, which may mark the begin of the game.
Apr-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  whiteshark: Maybe one player of the Riga team was <Niemzowitsch>, who played this variation (identical to 13...Kxd8) at the end of 1906:

Przepiorka,Dawid - Nimzowitsch,Aaron [C80]
Munich Munich (9.3), 22.11.1906
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Nxe4 6.d4 exd4 7.Re1 d5 8.Nxd4 Bd6 9.Nxc6 Bxh2+ 10.Kf1 Qh4 11.Rxe4+ dxe4 12.Qd8+ Qxd8 13.Nxd8+ Kxd8 14.g3 Bh3+ 15.Ke2 Bg4+ 16.Ke3 f5 17.Nd2 h5 18.Nf1 h4 19.Nxh2 hxg3 20.Nxg4 g2 21.Ke2 Rh1 22.Bg5+ Kc8 23.Ne3 Rxa1 24.Nxg2 Rg1 0–1

Apr-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Calli: Joel Benjamin also gives 1906 http://main.uschess.org/content/vie...

Best guess is: start 1906, end 1907

Most likely responsible for the variation are the Behting brothers and Paul Kerkovius, seen (just barely!) here http://picasaweb.google.com/Caissa1...

Apr-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <Calli> <whiteshark> Thank you, gentlemen.

<Calli>, have you ever considered volunteering to clean up the database? Maybe you could split the job with <sneaky pete>.

Apr-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  whatthefat: Strange that White rejects numerous repetition opportunities in the endgame.
Apr-07-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <waddayaplay: according to the PGN: [WhiteElo "2194"]
[BlackElo "2473"]

strange, isn't it?>

Yeah, no way Berlin's rating can be that low.

Jun-13-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Whitehat1963: Serious fighting chess! Bravo!
Dec-21-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  thebribri8: How do the two cities have ratings?
Jan-14-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  thebribri8: Maybe it's just my computer.
Jan-19-09  WhiteRook48: It's not just your computer. The cities really have ratings. Weird.
Oct-31-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: As for the date of the game, it looks like 1906-1908 is right:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Z7...

This is from a collection of correspondence games by the Riga Chess Club, with annotations by the members, published by the American Chess Bulletin in 1916. The first note gives some historical background, and attributes the variaion to Professor Dr. P. Bohl of Riga. They mention that it was used frequently by Club members in the 1890s.

Oct-31-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  stoy: See the game Capablanca vs Ed. Lasker, New York, 1915 for the way to play white here: 1-0.
Oct-31-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: <stoy> Capablanca vs Ed Lasker, 1915
Oct-31-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Pawn and Two: Edward Lasker reviewed this game in his book, "Chess Strategy". Later in his book, "Chess Secrets", Lasker states that he was he member of the Berlin team for this game. He gives the dates for this correspondence game, as Oct. 1906 to April 1908.

In "Carl Schlechter! - Life and Times of the Austrian Chess Wizard", by W. Goldman, the review of the Vienna 1908 tournament states that Maroczy fell victim to a prepared variation by Berger in the 12th round (April 7th - 1908). The variation Maroczy was not prepared for was a line in the Riga Variation, Maroczy vs J N Berger, 1908. As a result of this loss, there was a three way tie for first at Vienna 1908, with Duras, Maroczy, and Schlechter all tied with 14 points.

In "Chess Secrets" Lasker explained that he played this variation against Capablanca in 1915, in the hope that his knowledge of this variation would enable him to surprise Capablanca, as team Riga had surprised team Berlin in the 1906-08 game. Unfortunately for Lasker, Capablanca was either prepared for this variation, or was able to find a better continuation at the board.

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