Yefim
Bogolyuboff - Mario Monticelli
San Remo, 1930
Many
of you have written me concerning this game. (I have had at least 50 e-mails on
this one game.) It is time - past due, really - that I at least addressed this
subject in a web page.)
Efim
Bogoljubow - Mario Monticelli [E13]
San Remo, 1930
1.d4 Nf6; 2.c4 e6; 3.Nc3 Bb4; 4.Nf3 b6; 5.Bg5 Bxc3+; 6.bxc3 Bb7; 7.e3 d6; 8.Bd3 Nbd7; 9.0-0 Qe7; 10.Nd2 h6; 11.Bh4 g5; 12.Bg3 0-0-0; 13.a4 a5; 14.Rb1 Rdg8; 15.f3 h5; 16.e4 h4; 17.Be1 e5; 18.h3 Nh5; 19.c5 dxc5; 20.d5 Nf4; 21.Nc4 Rh6; 22.Rf2 f5; 23.d6 Rxd6; 24.Nxd6+ Qxd6; 25.Bc4 Rf8; 26.exf5 Rxf5; 27.Rd2 Qe7; 28.Qb3 Rf8; 29.Bd3 e4; 30.Bxe4 Bxe4;
31.fxe4 Qxe4; 32.Qc2 Qc6; 33.c4 g4; 34.Bxh4 gxh3; 35.g3 Ne5; 36.Rb3 Ne2+; 37.Rxe2 Rf1+; 38.Kxf1 Qh1+; 39.Kf2 Ng4#.
0-1
Click here
to download a PDF file that contains GM A. Soltis's analysis of this great
game.
Chess
is a strange game. San Remo, 1930 was the scene of one of Alexander Alekhine's
greatest triumphs. (Alekhine was the reigning chess World Champion at the time.)
He scored 14 points out of 15 games. He only allowed two draws, one of those he
may have allowed for non-chess reasons. Nimzovich was a virtual light-year away
in second place with 10.5 points. (Rubinstein was third with 10 points, Bogo had
9.5.) You would think that the 'big-dogs' would have garnered all the limelight
and won all the prizes. Yet the FIRST
BRILLIANCY PRIZE was won by a man who finished near the bottom
of the score-table!! (Montecelli, {born in 1902}; won a superb game
against Bogo to win the top prize, something very, very unusual for those days.
Another oddity is that the 2nd prize for brilliancy went to Ahues for his win
over Bogolyubov. But this game is feeble when compared to the Bogo-Montecelli
encounter.)
This
game is NOT completely unknown. Reinfeld wrote about it years ago in the
pages of 'Chess Review.' Irving Chernev, maybe the greatest
chess writer who ever lived, wrote about it more than once. (Once for his
newspaper column, in San Francisco I believe.) {I think GM John Nunn also
annotated this game somewhere as well. But I could not find it anywhere in my
library.} This game has also been in DOZENS of books. (Many problem books have
included the finish of this game, often times without telling you the source.)
It is in all the books on the San Remo tournament. It is in a book about great
chess brilliancies by an English writer. (I forget who the author was.) Kotov
used a part of this game for one of his books demonstrating the value of a
'positional sacrifice.' It is in Burgess's book, "Chess Highlights Of
The 20th Century." It is in a book by Yakov Damsky on "Chess
Brilliancies." And it is game # 74 of Soltis's book, "The 100
Best." I could go on and on, but by now you should get the point. It
is simply a great game of chess.
But
I have always maintained that this particular game does NOT
belong here!! I have always said Montecelli was a VERY good player ... really
a GM by modern standards. {He was a journalist who often was able to
travel to chess tournaments to cover them for various newspapers.}
(Jeff Sonas gives him a rating of 2527 for 1929,
and ranks him # 18 in the world!!! Click here
to see more.) He won several minor tournaments. He was very
dominant in Italy, winning his national championship at least three times. {The
war(s) may have prevented him from winning more.} And he finished TIED FOR FIRST
PLACE in Budapest, 1926. (A near 2650 PR, at least by modern standards.) He tied
for first with E. Gruenfeld, but ahead of nearly ALL the best
players of that day. This included the likes of Bogolyubov, Rubinstein, (!)
Reti, and Tartakower ... just to name a few. Indeed, in 1985, FIDE actually
awarded him the title of GM ... which he richly deserved. (Monticelli was 83 at
the time!)
So
you can see why I say that this win does not really belong immortalized in my
shrine to "NON-GM" Players!!! This would be an insult to Montecelli!
(To say the least.)
***
I
would not mind annotating this game if there was enough interest. Indeed, I
would need a sponsor for that job.
Copyright (c) {LM}
A.J. Goldsby I
Copyright (c) A.J. Goldsby, 1995-2008.
Copyright © A.J. Goldsby, 2009. All rights
reserved.
   
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