Well, I think your posts suck!>

Rubinstein vs Nimzowitsch, 1928

I'm really hoping you can help me with this-

<Tartakower> was born in <Rostov on Don>.

From 1904 he lived in Vienna and attended university there.

In 1918, when the <Austro-Hungarian Empire> broke up, <Hans Kmoch> says that he got "Ukrainian Citizenship," which was later transferred to "Polish Citizenship" as "an act of clemency."

Now Poland invaded one of the new and short lived Ukrainian Republics at this time- and incorporated part of it in to the new Polish Republic.

Then <Tartakower> moved- permanently- to France.

My question is this:

After World War I, did <Tartakower> actually move to the Ukraine?

I can think of no other reason why he would have taken Ukrainian citizenship.

He had no "home" at this time outside of Vienna because his parents were dead.

"act of clemency" - <Kmoch's> phrase- implies that the Poles granted him citizenship after they conquered part of the New independent Urkaine.

But none of this makes any sense to me unless <Tartakower> actually resided there at this time.

I can find no source that says he resided anywhere except in Vienna and then France after that.

Why would he take "Ukrainian citizenship" from a part of (used to be Russia) that he had no connection to?

This area is nowhere near <Rostov on Don>.

<keypusher> if you have any information at all that could shed light on this, please let me know.

http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kmoch...

<Kmoch> says that <Tartakower's> parents were killed in a pogrom in <Rostov on Don> in 1911.

However, there wasn't a pogrom there that year.

The <Rostov on Don> pogrom was in 1905-1906, which was shortly after <Tartakower> had entered university in <Vienna>.

Could <Kmoch> just have gotten the date wrong?

I fear he may have gotten more than that wrong.

The German Wikipedia page confirms the <Oxford> account about when and why he left <Rostov on Don>:

<Savielly Tartakower was born in Rostov on Don, the son of an Austrian father and a Polish mother. At the age of twelve, he saw that his Jewish parents were killed in a pogrom. Tartakower fled to Geneva, where he attended high school and studied law at the University of Geneva and Vienna, where he was graduated. At the first world war Tartakower took part as an officer of the Austria-Hungarian army.>

If this is accurate then it explains why <Tartakower> became a Polish citizen- at least gives a plausible reason- his mother's ethnicity.

<caucho> is there anything more in the <Oxford Companion> about his parents or residences?

########

http://www.olimpbase.org/players/6c...

This is how misinformation gets enshrined and passed down through the ages.

<‘Sergei Voronkov discussed Tartakower’s poetic achievements in an article on pages 45-47 of the 3/1998 Shakhmatny v Rossii. He also referred to another article on Tartakower by Yuri Arkhipov in 64 – Shakhmatnoe Obozrenie, 5/1987, pages 24-26.

...Voronkov further showed that, contrary to what most (Western) sources state, the pogrom in which Tartakower’s parents were killed occurred not in 1899 but in 1911 (although the infamous and best-known Jewish pogroms in Rostov took place in 1905).>

This information was supplied by <Forster> and <Lissowski> to <Edward Winter> here:

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

<Rostov on Don> was indeed part of various territories considered "Ukrainian," but like I mentioned before, it's nowhere near the two "Ukrainian" provinces that Poland annexed after 1918.

<Rostov on Don> is next to the Black Sea.

This makes me doubt the "clemency" idea-

And makes me think it more likely that <Tartakower's> post-war Polish citizenship had to do with his mother being Polish.

That account conforms to the German/Polish wiki account.

You are the King of never looking in your own forum- and there's a lot of competition for this title too.

Actually maybe <eyal> is the King. You're definitely one of them though.

It's actually a good call, so as to avoid having to deal with all manner of people spamming your house.

Oops what a giveaway....

Our Polish Chess History video is pretty much finished- I'll probably upload it after the weekend after one more check for errors.

In the mean time, I'm researching <Mir Sultan Khan> and I ran across this astonishing post by <suenteus po> about the <Marshall-Khan> game at Liege 1930:

<suenteus po 147: From Tartakower's book of the tournament: "It was shaping up to be a rather unremarkable day for the assembled players. Nimzowitsch, Colle, and Ahues had elected solid, but rather dull opening moves with which to develop their games against their respective opponents. At one point I, looking up from my board, happened to catch Messr. Przepiorka nodding off in his seat, the tip of his nose catching in the stiff collar of his shirt and waking him intermittantly. I was rather embarrassed for Nimzowitsch, but I don't believe he ever once noticed, his gaze fixed as stone on the position, his eyes flaring like small stove flames. However, excitement descended upon us in the form of the American's game against Sultan Khan. Marshall had been having a bad go of the tournament (only a half point after three rounds, partly my own doing) and he had been drinking heavily the night before. My opponent, the Englishman Thomas, leaned over the board in a moment's indiscreet conspiracy and whispered that it was not pineapple juice Marshall was sipping from his flask in-between moves. Almost everyone rose from their seats to view the commotion when Marshall slammed a piece down and whooped incessantly (Aron alone stayed in his seat, oblivious to everything but the board in front of him. Perhaps he saw Caissa in the position...emerging from a bath). Anyway, Marshall had sacrificed a rook (ill-advisedly I'll add, the position is hardly worth edification to you careful students) and Sultan Khan was sitting upright and grimacing, no doubt insulted by the Yankee's audacity. "Let's see you handle that. Let's just see you handle that," Marshall said, a rosy smile, and nose, on his face. Ever the mediator (see my round two diplomacy with Rubinstein, tastfully rendered on page 34) I encouraged Thomas to handle his Anglo cousin. Thomas refused, crying off that he didn't even like America. I was forced to intervene. I managed to get Marshall away from the board and settled (I also managed to get his flask away, he told me later it was 'Wild Turkey' and never has fowl been so fair) and once he returned to the position, he saw that Sultan Khan had moved his queen easily out of the way. Committed to the bitterest of ends, Marshall moved quickly, perhaps hoping to incite his opponent into error, but Sultan Khan would not grant him the luxury. He was a silent and determined attacker, and after a few more moves it was over. I patted Marshall reassuringly on the shoulder and told him the hotel still had plenty of 'turkey' if he desired it, though I neglected to mention it didn't come in a bottle. We all reclaimed our seats, satisfied that the day's excitement had been met, and resumed our games. All except for Aron, of course. As I prepared to move, I looked up and saw a small smile creep onto his face. He had finally found the move he was looking for, reached out slowly, and moved his rook pawn forward a single pace.>

So it's true as you say that Peter made all of that up?

<Tartakower> didn't write that?

If Peter made all that up he's one of the best chess writers in world history.

Please let me know, because I need to know so I don't put WRONG information in the <Sultan Khan> documentary.

Astonishing writing this is.

Ok thanks, please get back to me on this when you can.

<Liege chess congress Aug. 19th-Aug. 30th 1930 masters' tournament / E.G.R. Cordingley>

Peter is a wonderful writer. I was completely, totally fooled.

Were you fooled at first?

Your forensic work on the <Nimzo-Przepiorka> game came after you began to doubt the story?

While it is perhaps technically correct, I have never seen the expression in this form before. The French have a rule: if "de" is followed by a vowel, it is shortened to d'. So the expression is "coup d'ëtat".

I'm sure you like to know such things.

On the Siegbert Tarrasch page you translated an article by him about Pillsbury's death, submitted by <sneaky pete>. I didn't read it carefully enough to judge your translation (I'll do that shortly when I have some leasure time and think about it again. Translating German to English isn't easy and I'm sure you did a commendable job), but I was surprised by the first few sentences:

<So ist denn der amerikanische Großmeister des Schachspiels von seinen Leiden erlöst. "Tod bietet Schach!", unter diesem sensationellen Titel brachte ein amerikanisches Blatt vor etwa einem halben Jahre die Nachricht, daß Pillsbury in geistige Umnachtung gefallen sei.>

<The American grandmaster is delivered from his suffering. "Death Challenges <bietet> Chess!" -- under this sensational title announced an American newspaper that Pillsbury had fallen victim to mental illness.>

I don't know if "ïs delivered" is a customary English expression but it looks strange to me. I would write here: "So the American grandmaster has been released from his suffering".