If Tartakower was clearly a disciple of Chigorin, equally clearly he was a mentor to Najdorf and Bronstein. And then Tal described Bronstein as the player he had modeled his play on when he was young. It's a whole thread of chess 'inspiration'--as different from 'perspiration'--that runs through the history of chess style.

As it happened, indeed Aljechin won that game. Sounds like a joke, but having lost several times to much stronger players from completely won position myself, I sense that Tartakower was not joking - he was just dispensing some chess wisdom which happens too look like a joke. Many other funny things he said were also like that IMHO.

In the press coverage of modern chess events there's a great fuss about the money top chess players make. One gets the impression that the journalists think chess players earn too much and that they're a bit jealous. I'm not. I like to see chess players do well; the more money they earn the better. I've read all too much about the poverty of chess players in the first half of this century. Take my hero Tartakower, for example. In his book Hein Donner 1927-1988, Alexander Miinninghoff writes about Donner and his fiance visiting Tartakower in 1952: "They found the famous polyglot grandmaster living in a small, back alley hotel, very lonely, somewhat flabby and disheveled-looking in his shirt sleeves. After a brief chat about nothing in particular the Dutch visitors left, shaken by the decrepitude that could apparently overtake even the greatest. Was this the Tartakower who had played at Groningen in 1946?" In the case of Schlechter, we see Goldman, in his book, arguing plausibly and on the basis of all sorts of evidence that poverty was the prime cause of his early death. As for Rubinstein, during the last decades of his life the chess community had to organize repeated appeals for financial support on his behalf.

13 wins and 8 draws in the Open Polish Championship. Granted Poland had a strong chess heritage, I doubt this could be called Tartakower's finest result. He didn't defeat either Stahlberg or Najdorf, his main opponents.

The cross table can be found at http://polbase.w.interia.pl/jurata3...

'The schedule was fierce. Six times during the 15 days two rounds had to be played in one day. The other days, which had only one round, had to see adjourned games from the previous three rounds cleared up. Playing hours were 10.30-15.30 and 17.30-22.30. This crushing routine meant, for many players, ten hours play out of twelve, day in, day out. Only one reserve was permitted. Belgium, in fact, came with just four players. It is a wonder they lived to tell the tale.' (The Lost Olympiad)

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