White to play wins. (Oldrich Duras, Sachove listy, 1902)

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<1.Nxc4! dxc4 2.Qxc4+ Kh8 3.Rh4! gxh4 4.Rh5 Qe8 5.Qg8+! Qxg8 6.Ng6#>

If 3...gxf4, then 4.Rxh7+ Kxh7 5.Rh5+ Kg6 6.Qf7#.

If 3...g6, then 4.Rxh7+ Kxh7 5.Qf7+ and mate next move.

<kostich in time: has anyone noticed how many strong US players simply quit or retired? The only examples of strong players from other countries who simply quit or retired are Fuderer and Duras...>

From a review of his games in this database, it appears that Duras continued as an active tournament player at high level until past the age of 30 (up until the outbreak of The Great War in 1914). This would differentiate his career from that of Rogoff and other promising Americans, who typically abandoned top-level tournament chess for other pursuits in their early 20's.

Duras was a very great player who is under-appreciated today, IMO. He had a number of notable tournament successes. As noted in his CG.com biograhy, he took joint first prize at Vienna 1908 (shared with Carl Schlechter and Geza Maroczy), Prague 1908 (shared with Schlechter again) and Breslau 1912 (shared with Akiba Rubinstein). Duras was a three-time Czech Champion (1905, 1909 and 1911) and also tied for first in the German Championship of 1912. His most significant match AFAIK was during his visit to the USA in 1913, when he lost a short match to Frank Marshall by 3.5 to 1.5. Duras started poorly, losing the first three games, but he had the advantage in game 4 (which Marshall saved with a trademark swindle), and Duras won the 5th (playing a Falkbeer as Black), so he proved stronger towards the end of that competition. As far as the significance of his early retirement from chess is concerned, it seems unlikely that he would have achieved more memorable results if he had resumed his chess career after the War, so his retirement as of 1914 probably does not explain his relative obscurity today (compared to his talent and achievements, again IMHO).

In 1922, Duras married Marie Koppel; they had two sons, Jiri and Oldrich. Duras' sister Bozena (Bolenka) became a well-known diva, as well as a dramatic leading lady, at The City Theater of Prague. Bozena later married a leading sculptor, Jan Stursa.

Duras, born in the same year as Akiba Rubinstein and Ossip Bernstein, was about six month older than Rudolf Spielmann. I mention that because since Spielmann and Duras both posed extraordinary gift for chess calculations, Spielmann's career in the 20's and 30's can give some guidance of what Duras' later performances could have been.

Duras was extraordinarily strong in tactics and, as a noted composer of studies, he was also a master of end-games. On the other hand, with the exception of Breslau, 1912, Duras rather neglected opening preparations. Also, because of his 'pure-calculator' playing style, Duras did not play well when tired or not settled into a comfortable tournament pace. (Only twice Duras 'bonked' in tournaments and each time it coincided with him getting involved in a record-breakingly long game - 161 moves against Janowski and 168 moves against Wolf. Duras played sub-par also during times of extensive travels.)

Of course, Duras was aware of his weakness in openings. Thus, before 1912 Breslau German Chess Congress, he prepared a variation in QGD and, after starting the tourney rather idiferently, he 'mid-stream' switched to QG from from his trademark Spanish. That led to a +5 =1 -0 (and a won a difficult adjourned end-game with Rubinstein) last week of the tournament, and 1= (also with Rubinstein). That was his life-best form and performance.

After the WW1, Duras was planning to participate in the upcoming tournaments on a part time basis. But he was certainly aiming to be competitive! Alas, his request for a 1/2-year off work for theoretical preparations was rejected. Not willing to become an also-ran, Duras retired from competitive tournament chess. (In his prime 1906-1912, Duras was 'ranked' together with Schlechter and Marozcy 4-6 in the chess world behind Lasker, Rubinstein and Capablanca.)

During his retirement, Duras turned to problem composition (studies and mate-in-3 problems). Composition experts tell us that he again ranked among the very finest.

For ten years (1922-1931), Duras edited a chess column in Ceske Slovo. He also judged the brilliancy prizes in several tournaments, and he gave some simultaneous displays. From 1932, twice a week he played skittles in his local chess club. (He gave knight-odds by playing the "Duras Gambit" 1.e4 f5 2.exf5 Nf6 3.g4 d5 4.g5 Bxf5 5.gxf6...)

In 1942, to honor Duras' 60th birthday, a tournament was held in Prague. Alekhine and Klaus Junge tied for first.

On a separate point, for anyone who might be interested, here is a little further analysis of the marvellous Duras study posted by <Gypsy> on <Oct-18-05>:

Solution to Duras Study (1902):

1.d2+ e7! [1...c6 2.c8 ]

2.d6! [ 3. c7, and if 3. ... c3+ then 4. c6]

2...c3! [2...xd6 3.c8 c3+ 4.d8 h3 5.b8=+ (The promotion comes with check, and therefore White wins.)]

3.c6!! (... even with Black's Rook already on the c-file!!!)

3...d3! [3...xc6 4.a7 ]

4.c2 d7 5.a2 and the rest is fairly routine:

5. ... c6 6.a7 d7 7.c2+ b5 8.c7 d8 9.b8 xb8 10.xb8 xb6 11.c1 .

<Gypsy: <Study 12: White d4, d3, f3, f4; Black g3, a6, f5; White to move wins (Sach, 1942).>>

This is the only Duras study in Genrikh Kasparian 's <Domination in 2545 Endgame Studies> (no. 1972).

And it's faulty. After <1.Kc4 Kxf4> it's a Tablebase draw.

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Originally intended solution:

<1.Kc4 Kxf4> (1...Kxf3 2.d4 Kxf4 3.d5 Ke5 4.Kc5 f4 5.d6 Ke6 6.Kc6 f3 7.d7 f2 8.d8=Q f1=Q 9.Qe8+ Kf6 10.Qf8+) <2.d4 a5> (<2...Kg5= <>>) <3.d5 Ke5 4.Kc5 a4 5.d6 Ke6 6.Kc6 a3 7.d7 a2 8.d8=Q a1=Q 9.Qe8+ Kf6 10.Qh8+ 1-0>