Pawn and Two: With 1st place hanging in the balance, Nimzovich ventured with the Latvian or Greco Counter gambit.This game took place in the penultimate round. The leading scores going into this round were: Spielmann 11.5; Alekhine 11; Nimzovich & Tartakower 10.5 & Vidmar 10.
In this round Tartakower (w) lost to Alekhine (b); and Vidmar (w) would win against Treybal (b).
In the final round; Nimzovich (w) would win against Vadja (b); Alekhine (w) and Spielmann (b) would draw; Tartakower (b) would win against Gilg (w); and Vidmar (b) would win against Davidson (w).
The final scores were: Spielmann 13; Alekhine 12.5; Vidmar 12; Nimzovich and Tartakower 11.5.
Nimzovich went all out for a win in his game against Spielmann. If he could win his last two games, and if Spielmann and Alekhine would draw their last round game, Nimzovich then would have a chance to win the tournament outright or tie for 1st place with 12.5 pts.
Nimzovich's move 17...Rac8? was a very serious mistake.
Tartakower pointed out that if Black was satisfied with a draw, he could have played 17...Qxc2+ 18. Kxc2 Nb4+ 19.Kb1 Nxd5 20.fxg4 Nxe3 21.Re1 Bc5.
Tartakower also pointed out that Black could continue his attack with 17...Kb4 18.Qb3.
A review by Fritz 9 indicates that after 17...Nb4 18.Qb3 Rac8 19.Bc4 Bf5, Black has a winning game. Fritz's evaluation is (-1.73) (19 ply).
Fritz then suggests 20.Rdg1 Bxc2 21.Qc3 Nxa2+ 22.Bxa2 Rxc3 23.Rxg6 Rxe3 24.Re6 Rxe6 25.Bxe6 Bd3.
Fritz's evaluation is now at (-2.30) (18 ply), with 26. h4 h6 27.Bg4 Bd6 being suggested as White's best try. All continuations at this point appear to result in clearly winning positions for Black. One try would be 28.b3 Ba3+ 29.Kd1 Rd8 30.Rh2 Bc5. Fritz's evaluation is now (-2.99) (16 ply).
The tournament still had an exciting conclusion with Spielmann winning the tournament by drawing with Alekhine in the last round. No doubt Nimzovich was watching their game and thinking of what might have been.
Kibitzing
sac: 28.Qxg5
; 15.♕a4 
.
