A Century of Chess: London 1927

I had no idea that this tournament existed, which — given what a chess history buff I am —says something about how overshadowed it was by the Alekhine-Capablanca match occurring at the same time. It actually was an extremely strong tournament, including Nimzowitsch, Tartakower, Bogoljubow, Vidmar, and Réti i.e. all the other likely contestants for the world title. The tournament organizers got excited about that midway through and hatched the bright idea of turning it into an ad hoc candidates tournament, with the British Chess Federation backing the winner in a championship challenge to the winner of the Alekhine-Capablanca match. 

That put Savielly Tartakower tantalizingly close to the world championship, since, as was so often the case with him, he got off to a fast start and dominated the tournament with 6.5 out of 8. Tartakower by this point in the 1920s had largely fallen out of the world championship discussion — he had diverted to the role by which he is best known to chess history, as a kind of resident wit, but he could really play and the tournament showcased his best qualities. He cruised through the local British players and then won one of the more exciting games I’ve ever seen against Efim Bogoljubow. The game was a real contrast in styles, with Bogoljubow like a hard-driving, straight-ahead boxer looking constantly for a knockout and Tartakower as a more quick-and-nimble fighter reliant on footwork and on sliding dexterously away from danger. Tartakower survived an opening miscue, ended up ahead a piece but facing some dangerous-looking kingside pawns. Bogoljubow kept trying to sacrifice an exchange to strengthen his attack, but at the critical moment Tartakower switched to the offense and broke through just ahead of Bogoljubow. 

Nimzowitsch had setbacks early on, losing to Marshall and Winter, but in round 10, he had one of his classic positional crushes, defeating Tartakower with black. In round 11, Nimzowitsch won against Yates — a game that was, somewhat surprisingly, voted the best of the tournament — while Tartakower only drew. In round 12, with the players now tied, Tartakower rolled over Richard Réti, who got tangled up in a byzantine defense, and seemed headed for the tournament victory with Nimzowitsch-Colle petering out into a draw. However, out of a completely blocked position, Colle somehow managed to lose the endgame. 

This was doubly unfortunate for Tartakower since, in addition to being deprived of an outright victory in the tournament, the British Chess Federation got confused and went no further with the world championship challenge. It may have been for the best. Strong as he was, Tartakower wasn’t quite of the same class as Alekhine and likely would have been crushed in a match, but Tartakower is one of the more enjoyable figures in all of chess history and it’s fun to imagine him playing for the title. 

Frank Marshall was very much yesterday’s man by 1927 but he was never to be counted out in a chess tournament and took third place, including a win over Nimzowitsch. He finished narrowly ahead of Vidmar, who was his usual cautious self, and of an unfortunate Bogoljubow, and of an out-of-form Réti. 

Sources: Savielly Tartakower analyzes the tournament from his perspective in My Best Games of Chess.