Sound advice from the immortals

Spassky takes Bronstein's cunning advice.
Spassky's 100 Best Games (1972), pp.182-3. pic.twitter.com/NYcG6UD91p

— Jonathan Manley (@KingpinEd) July 10, 2016

I feel good about this, because it's similar to something I had noticed on my own. "[A]n opponent already wasting time is likely to keep doing so." - see note to White's eleventh move.

Overdone Chess Prose

Today I saw a tweet by keene-watchers concerning Kingpin Magazine's assertion that Ray Keene was the world's worst chess journalist. That reminded me of some analysis of Nimzowitsch* that I wanted to post. First, the tweet:

"The world's worst chess journalist," said Kingpin, with a spoof Raymond Keene article. https://t.co/NlI4br5hai pic.twitter.com/3P39oSDkkO

— keene-watchers (@KeeneWatchers) June 3, 2016

Second, the analysis from Nimzowitsch*, which comes from his book Chess Praxis, of which I own the Hays Publishing "21st Century Edition", edited by Ken Artz. On page 216 the following diagram, move, and analysis appear:

Eigel Hansen - A. Nimzowitsch

Copenhagen, 1928 

23 ...   Rc8 

Triumph of the firm formation! The resourceful first player has regained all that could be regained, namely, the whole of the lost material. But here he is with a butterfly at f4, the greyhound at a7, and the two mangy sheep at a3 and h2, while the King sits at a befitting distance on his throne. There ensues a conclusion full of terror. - A. Nimzowitsch

I've always enjoyed Nimzowitsch's prose, or rather the translations thereof, so I'm digging the groovy styling - but it is rather rich! Keene wrote a book about Nimzowitsch (that I seem to recall was fairly well regarded), and I'm wondering if some of Nimzovitsch's overwrought style rubbed off on Keene.

The rest of the game, along with Nimzowitsch's notes, can be found below. Reader's can decide for themselves if the conclusion was full of terror or not.

* Thanks to ChessBase the English speaking world is now stuck with Germanicized spellings of the names of chessplayers. So goodbye Nimzovitch and Korchnoi, hello Nimzowitsch and Kortschnoj. In some sense I guess it really was over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

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