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Glucksberg vs Miguel Najdorf
"The Polish Immortal" (game of the day Mar-12-2008)
Warsaw (1930), Warsaw POL
Dutch Defense: Queen's Knight Variation (A85)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 5 OF 9 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Apr-21-08  MaczynskiPratten: I would speculate that some of Najdorf's moves in the middle were made on general principles and pattern recognition, rather than working out tactical lines to the end - especially if this was an offhand game. After 11 f4, OK Black may be losing the Bishop, but White has so opened up his kingside that Black must have sufficient compensation. I think on playing the Qe8-h5 manoeuvre he would have seen Bg1! as this prevents White's Rh1 which is otherwise awkward. He could visualise the position at move 15 with White's King trapped on f3 and think, "on principle, there must be a win here". He must smash the Kingside open and get his QB and QN into play, so moves like e5 would appear, again on principle. And once he foresaw the position at move 18, he may have worked it all out to the mate, or he may have instinctively felt, like Micawber, "something must turn up here". Either way, whether precisely calculated or done through a deep intuitive understanding of the position, it's great play.
Apr-29-08  JimmyVermeer: I'm confused as to the year this game took place. Chessgames.com says 1929, I.A. Horowitz says 1933, and Chessmaster says 1935. Anyone know which is correct?
Apr-29-08  Retireborn: Jimmy,

According to Kasparov's book it was played Warsaw 1928, and White's name was actually I.Glinksburg. Kasparov claims to have been told this by Najdorf and/or Najdorf's daughter.

The date of the game has caused much confusion. Apparently Najdorf showed the game to Tartakower in 1935 and the latter published it under the impression it had been played recently.

Apr-30-08  JimmyVermeer: Thanks for the info, Retireborn.

Kasparov wasn't born yet in 1928, so is there an authoritative source for 1928, 1929, or 1933?

Apr-30-08  Retireborn: Jimmy,

I thought that Kasparov had been personally given the information by Najdorf, but looking more closely at what he wrote, he may have simply read it in a book written by Najdorf's daughter, Liliana (sorry, can't tell you anything about the book).

In "Kings, Commoners and Knaves" Edward Winter notes that the game was first published in a Polish newspaper in August 1930 and speculates that it may have been played in a minor Warsaw tournament in January of that year.

All we can say with authority is that the game was NOT played in 1935; that was just Tartakower's misunderstanding.

Apr-30-08  JimmyVermeer: Then Horowitz was also wrong - it couldn't have been played in 1933.
Apr-30-08  Calli: The game has puzzled historians. The short version:

The earliest publication discovered so far was in August 1930. The date and event was not mentioned but another discovery was that Glucksberg lost to Najdorf in a tournament that ended in January 1930. It therefore seems likely that this game was played Jan 1930 or Dec 1929. It is still not certain however. We can be sure that any dates after 1930 are wrong.

Jul-23-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: Fantastic game - I video annotated this with my friend Costas Karayiannis yesterday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Zz...

Aug-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  ketchuplover: 7 moves? (chess viewer deluxe)
Sep-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Check It Out: <aazqua: This is white playing some ugly moves in the open and black exploiting white's lack of development and stumbling his way into a multi-piece sacrifice leading to a pretty pawn mate.>

<JG27Pyth: God. So true. I mean I hate that when I'm playing a nice game of chess and I think I'm just going to win a pawn or something, and wham bam, all of a sudden I've just stumbled into a multi-piece sacrifice ending with an elegant pawn mate... I mean how annoying is that!? When I was a lad I was impressed by such things too... but now that I'm 9 years old, I divide my time between running my 7 trillion Euro hedge fund and DNA sequencing my cat, by hand (I want to see if I can figure out how to make her sing the Neil Diamond catalog in Celtic...haha that's impossible, I'm really just trying to make her grow batwings). I certainly don't have time to be impressed by the odd random multi-piece 9 move mating combination sacrifice. OHHH crap... I just bent a spoon with my mind!!! Dammit that is sooo annoying.>

That's the funniest thing I've ever read at chessgames.com. I think I'm convulsing with laughter.

Sep-14-08  pom nasayao: A lot of fireworks in a miniature 22-move game. For sure this game must have gladened the heart of an equally strong player--Mikhail Tal.
Oct-06-08  ArturoRivera: After Kxh2 simply Ng4+ and Qxg5, no analisis needed, simply a healty pawn up, initiative and some matting netts on the air.
Dec-13-08  technical draw: This game shines. That's why they call it the polish immortal. Wait a minute that's not right...
Dec-22-08  falso contacto: TD: lol.
entendi el chiste.
Dec-23-08  technical draw: Que bueno <falso contacto> parece que eres el único!
Dec-24-08  falso contacto: td: btw, we are already celebrating, so felices fiestas!!
Dec-24-08  capanegra: ¡¡feliz navidad!!
Dec-29-08  thebribri8: <falso contacto> no es unico. Yo lo enendi tambien.
Mar-10-09  Babar47: I would like to go on record here and say that JG27Pyth wins the internet.
Aug-10-10  Grantchamp: This game is rumored to have never happened.
Aug-10-10  Petrosianic: I heard that 1. d4 never happened but the rest of it did.
Aug-11-10  sevenseaman: The end is instructive and a refreshing surprise-it didn't look so imminent.
Sep-30-10  sevenseaman: "The Polish Immortal" indeed.

While Glucksburg is no softy, it looks Najdorf has seen the game all the way through, urm... in any case from ...9. Bxh2 onwards. Hereafter every bit is a part of a solid, well conceived plan. On move 13 Najdorf sheds the B to make place for his Q and it controls the 7th rank for keeps.

Move ...20. Bg4 pulls the K back into 'g' file and move ...21. Ne5+ leads to opening 'f' file to the R influence.

And only now, comes the 'haymaker'...22.h5#.

Oct-10-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  jessicafischerqueen: <Dating of this Game>

It was published in <Kurjer Warszawski>, 19 October 1930.

Scroll to the bottom to see a photograph of the article- which also lists <Najdorf's> opponent as <Glicksberg>:

"The Polish Immortal"
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...

Oct-10-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  jessicafischerqueen: <Glicksberg vs. Glucksberg>

This controversy is not settled- and it matters, since they were two different Polish chessplayers- and <Glicksberg> was much stronger.

This chessnote suggests that it was unlikely <Najdorf> mistook the spelling, and was indeed playing the weaker <Glucksberg>:

<6408. Najdorf brilliancy (C.N. 6388)

From Richard J. Hervert (Aberdeen, MD, USA):

‘Confusion still reigns regarding the Polish Immortal. The Kurjer Warszawski of 19 October 1930 (C.N. 6388) named the player of the white pieces as Gliksberg. However, Najdorf himself chose to correct only the date (commonly given as 1935, but corrected by Najdorf to 1930) in his commentary on the game on pages 62-63 of Najdorf: Life and Games by Tomasz Lissowski and Adrian Mikhalchishin (London, 2005). He left White’s name as Glücksberg.

The spelling Glücksberg is less likely to be an oversight by Najdorf because on pages 60-61 he also annotated a game which he had played against Gliksberg (at Łódź in 1929). At the start of that game Lissowski commented: “Numerous sources wrongly give the loser’s name here as Szapiro (or Shapiro, Schapiro). Gliksberg from Łódź should not be confused with the second-category Warsaw player Glücksberg.”

Is it possible that the Kurjer Warszawski erred in putting “Gliksberg”?’>

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...

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