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Richard Reti vs Alexander Alekhine
"Roughin' Reti" (game of the day Jan-22-2005)
Baden-Baden (1925), Baden-Baden GER, rd 8, Apr-25
Hungarian Opening: Reversed Alekhine (A00)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 13 OF 13 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jul-08-17  drollere: 32. pxe3? 32. Ne5? reti seems to take a very narrow path.

alekhine was a magician in his knight combinations.

Oct-02-17  Howard: First, this issue may have already been addressed on this website, but I'm not gonna wade through 12 pages of commentary to find out---so I apologize if this is redundant.

Back in April, 2003, someone posted a comment that according to Alekhine's book, the position did not occur three times. As I've read before, this is an example of how Alekhine was known to "fudge" several of the game scores in his books so as to boost his reputation.

In other words, Alekhine apparently omitted a pair of moves, so as to disguise the fact that Reti could have made a certain move and thus claimed a draw. Alekhine considered this game one of the two best ones he ever played..

...and he didn't want it to be known that Reti had had the opportunity to abruptly end the game around the 20th move !

Oct-02-17
Premium Chessgames Member
  tamar: Howard, you might check out page 4 of the kibitzing. It was Alekhine who insisted there had been a 3 fold repetition, according to the Andrew Solis story given by Shadout Mapes
Sep-06-18  thegoodanarchist: <Apr-09-03 Shadout Mapes: ...

At this point the arbiter stepped in and corrected Alekhine. "The position has only been repeated twice and the game must continue," the arbiter (TD) told The World Champion somewhat fearfully. (Alekhine's temper was already quite well known!). >

This game was played in 1925, at which time Capablanca was World Champion!

Nov-08-19  ilhom84: who was better alekhine or tal.
Nov-21-19  HaydenB: I think it was Andy Soltis who wrote somewhere that Alekhine had to have seen at least 13 moves deep into his combination, not counting all the candidate moves in the possible side variations. He therefore considers this game to be the greatest example of calculation of any player ever.
Nov-21-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  Sally Simpson: ***

No Alekhine Gun in this game but we do get the Alekhine Torpedoes - Black Knights on e2 and f2.


click for larger view

And the Alekhine 3 Fold Rep Trap.

Alekhine could see Reti was going to play 20...Bg2 in answer to 19...Bg4


click for larger view

So Alekhine put on his hat and scarf and claimed a 3 fold rep. Reti walked straight into it by insisting it was not, an arbiter was called across, heated words were exchanged, the arbiter ruled in Reti's favour.

Alekhine took off his hat and scarf, played 19...Bg4 and said 'why all the fuss, it's a draw.' Reti now felt honour bound not to play 20.Bg2 and instead played 20.Bh1. Game On.

Source: Reti vs Alekhine, 1925 (kibitz #59)

Awful pun for such a great game.

***

Nov-21-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <Sally Simpson> It might have been an honest misunderstanding. As has been often kibitzed, Russia's definition of three-fold repetition at that time was based on sequence of moves, unlike Western countries where it was based on repetition of position.
Nov-21-19  Diademas: <beatgiant: <Sally Simpson> It might have been an honest misunderstanding. As has been often kibitzed, Russia's definition of three-fold repetition at that time was based on sequence of moves, unlike Western countries where it was based on repetition of position>

Hi. I don't think I've ever heard about that. Neither the Wiki article* or Winter** has any mention of it. Do you have a link?

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three...
** http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...

Nov-21-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  beatgiant: <Diademas>
Check out B Verlinsky vs Ilyin-Zhenevsky, 1925 where it is discussed at length.
Nov-21-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  Sally Simpson: ***

Hi BeatGiant,

I recall we had this interesting three fold rep discussion before.

I think Alekhine knew of the three fold rep law because he refers to it in his book on New York 1924. (this game was played in 1925).

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...

The bit about the Alekhine Three Fold Trap is me messing about, but it should be part of chess lore along with Marshall waiting 7-10 years to spring the Marshall Gambit on Capablanca (not true).

***

Nov-21-19  Diademas: <beatgiant> Thanks!

Seems like the most thorough treatment of the question is in Botvinnik vs N Sorokin, 1931 by <senojes> where he quotes Kotov's "Play Like a Grandmaster" (1978), pages 44-46.

Nov-21-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  Check It Out: That got very complicated there. Lots of pieces very close together, with multiple captures available.
Aug-11-20  qqdos: <Sally Simpson> According to an eye-witness - source Bruce Hayden's book "Of Cabbages and Kings" - Alekine scrambled up the pieces which placed Reti in a psychological bind. He was the one strongly objecting to the irregularity and it would have been very strange and defeatist to make a great fuss and then lamely take the half-point.
May-06-21  SymphonicKnight: This game has been called Alekhine''s best game, and is truly marvelous, being also a reversed Alekhine's Defense. Tartakower said, "Capablanca has the title, Lasker has the results, but only Alekhine has the style of a real world champion." One can see how such an opinion might be sustained by this game. The Kibitzing for this game is also very instructive.
Aug-29-21  N.O.F. NAJDORF: Alekhine is reported to have remarked that this was his best game, 'from the artistic point of view.'
Nov-23-21  SebasJT: Hello! You can watch a video of this chess game here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZB...

Jan-20-22  Margetic D: <ilhom84> it is imposible to compare 2 chess world champions which lived in totally different time. During time, chess theory is changing. Opening theory is nothing else, but practice of leading chess players, so it is always evolving. But still, if i should compare their total chess skills, i would put Alekhine on top. Tal war a brillant tactician, no doubt. Alekine was also a brillant tactician(see his deep, great combinations), but unlike Tal,he was also a gigantic positional player with technique which sometimes allowed him to realise microscopic advantages and transfer them to a victory.
Apr-12-22  et voila: Alekhine is as good a tactical player as Tal, but he's unlike Tal tactics are not his priority; winning is. Alekhine held his own against great endgame specialists such as Capablanca and Rubenstein and theoreticians such as Nimzowistch, Gruenfeld, and Reti leave alone many tactical players.
Sep-05-23  Llera: "I think there is reason to nominate this game the most beautiful ever played in the history of chess." (Garry Kasparov)
Oct-01-23  generror: Another suspicious story, the one with Alekhine consciously claiming an illegal draw in order to trick Réti into being overconfident. And there are various versions of the score, with 18.Bh1, 20.Bh1 and 22.Bh1.

According to https://www.chesshistory.com/winter... , the most reliable source is Réti himself, who in the Buenos Aires newspaper<La Prensa> gave the 22.Bh1 version and simply said that he repeated moves to buy time, and after 21...Bg4, Alekhine offered a draw which Réti declined, and then went on to play 22.Bh1 in order not to create a threefold repetition. This makes complete sense to me; I think that this story of psychological trickery and drama should be considered yet another myth which most chess writers are so fond of.

Also, the game has been cited as another score that Alekhine fudged to look better. Although he did this in a few instances, here I think he simply took the score published in the Deutsche and Wiener Schachzeitung, which is the version given here on chessgames.com (20.Bh1). French chess periodicals gave an even shorter version with 18.Bh1; if he really wanted to fudge that score, he could and should have taken those; but he must have remembered the move repetition and thus chose the German version. Of course, this is just guessing, but this seems to make the most sense to me.

Dec-31-23  mk volkov: Full analysis (Stockfish):

Alekhine: "Apart from his eccentric first move, Reti plays the opening very well; Black would not have any advantage by answering 9...c5 because of 10. N4b3" - and he is right. 10. N4b3 isn't the best move (the best is 10. Nc2), but Black still has no advantage.

16...Bh3 and 20...h5 is also considered by Stockfish as the best. Reti's answer 17. Bh1 is also the best.

23. a4 isn't the best, the best is 23. e4 (of course. kick away that knight). Alekhine's 23...hxg3 and 24...Qc7 are the best.

After 25.b5 Stockfish already offers 25...Re3 (!) - Alekhine prefers the pawn exchange.

And, 26...Re3! is the best.

Storm warning.

27. Nf3? is a crucial mistake. AA is right, the best defence is 27. Bf3.

27...cxb5! 28.Qxb5? The better is 28.Qd4, and then 28...Ra4. Nevertheless, Black has strong advantage (-1.7), but after 28. Qxb5 the advantage is -3.44.

And now... all moves 28-32 are the best.

28...Nc3! 29. Qxb7 Qxb7 30. Nxb7 Nxe2+ 31. Kh2... the black rook is attacked during 6 (!!) moves.

31...Ne4!! Raging thunder!
32. Rc4! Still the best. 32...Nxf2.
33. Bg2. A bit better is 33. Ng5, but White is lost anyway.

Stockfish plays 33...Ne4! (again!) with -4.93, depth 36. But, AA's 33...Be6! is also strong (-4.85, depth 37).

After that, Stockfish plays 34. Rb4, but RR plays 34.Rcc2 - weaker (-6.08, depth 34). Then, all is forced.

34...Ng4+ 35. Kh3 Ne5+ 36. Kh2 Rxf3! 37. Rxe2 Ng4+ 38. Kh3 Ne3+ 39. Kh2 Nxc2 40. Bxf3.

and, the final blow of the dark knight:

40...Nd4!

I have no words. This game is fabulous.

Dec-31-23  mk volkov: <Sally Simpson <Awful pun for such a great game.>>

Yeah, not a great idea. I think this is better.

This game reminds me one film, we watched it in 2008 in a theater. The Dark Knight. Maybe the greatest superhero movie (Roger Ebert confirms!). So, the main hero here is Nf6 - 31...Ne4, 32...Nxf2, the windmill, the final move 40...Nd4. And then he is supposed to disappear.

So, my title for this game is:

"The Dark Knight"

By the way, Baden-Baden 1925 is AA's first >2800 performance.

Mar-29-25
Premium Chessgames Member
  GrahamClayton: Amazing position after 32...Nf2, with 12 pieces on the board, but just three pawns:


click for larger view

Apr-25-25  Chessdreamer: As of today, this game was played exactly 100 years ago.
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