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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Only a good book for the chess historian,
By
This review is from: The Life and Games of Carlos Torre (Paperback)
There are 105 different games in the book, the vast majority of them in a three-year period from 1923 to 1926. After this, Carlos Torre quit playing tournament chess permanently at the young age of 21. An explanation of this is included later in the review. There are all kinds of games in this book, usually the "classical" variations, since they were played in the 1920's. However there are some games from Torre and Capablanca that were 1 d4 2 c4 openings where the Queen's Knight went to d2, not c3, and I found that interesting.
Carlos Torre was born in Mexico in 1904. His family moved to Louisiana in 1915, and Carlos began playing chess. By 1922, he was the strongest player in New Orleans, and in 1924 he moved to New York City in search of stronger competition. In the first six tournaments he played there, he finished in first place in five of them. He later took first place in the 1924 New York State Championship (Capablanca did not play, possibly because he was not a US citizen, Marshall did not play either in the tournament). Torre then played in the "Western" US Championship in 1924 (should have been renamed the Midwestern Championship, since it was in Michigan), and again he finished first (Reshevsky took fifth place). The next year he went to Europe to play in three different tournaments, and the rest is history. Carlos Torre of course played one side of the board in all 105 games in the book, and I gave an asterisk in the openings/defenses that he chose in the book's games. The most popular openings in this book include: Queen's Gambit Declined/Queen Pawn Game*, French Defense*, Vienna Game*, Ruy Lopez*, Two Knights Defense*, Old Indian Defense, Dutch Defense*, Sicilian Defense, King's Indian Defense*, Pirc Defense, English Opening*, Reti Opening*, Grunfeld Defense*, Slav Defense, Alekhine's Defense*, King's Gambit Accepted*, and the Torre Attack*, as well as several other openings that appear in one game each. Obviously, this book is filled with all kinds of openings, and would make great reading for a beginner/intermediate player looking for certain openings/defenses that suit their emerging style. Obviously Carlos Torre was a strong master, being able to effectively play so many diverse openings and defenses. But what makes him, and this book, so special, is the quality of opponents that he faced. In a three year tournament career he played against four world champions (Alekhine, Capablance, Em. Lasker, and Rubenstein), as well as over a dozen perennial world champion contenders. How did Torre perform against this world-class opposition? You may be very surprised. Here is how he scored against world-class opponents: Name Record Marshall 2-0-3 Janowsky 1-0-1 Reshevsky 1-0-0 Alekhine 0-0-1 Reti 1-0-2 Samisch 1-0-2 Spielmann 0-1-2 Grunfeld 2-0-1 Colle 0-0-1 Tartakower 0-0-3 Yates 1-0-1 Nimzovich 0-0-2 Rubenstein 0-1-2 Levenfisch 1-0-0 Bogolyubov 0-1-0 Capablanca 0-0-1 Em. Lasker 1-0-0 Ilyin-Zhenevsky 0-0-1 Rokhlin 0-0-2 Kashdan 0-0-1 Maroczy 1-0-0 Showalter 1-0-0 Of the 22 players above, Torre had a plus score against 11, and only a minus score against two! Most of his losses were to lesser players for some reason. Most of his games against the above opponents were played in Europe, in three separate tournaments (Baden-Baden, 1925, Marienbad, 1925, and Moscow, 1925). In Baden-Baden Torre finished 10th out of 21 players, with a 5-4-11 score; Alekhine won the tournament. But Torre was just getting started. In Marienbad he finished 3rd out of 16 players, with a 6-1-8 score; Nimzovich won this tournament. In Moscow he finished 5th out of 21 players, with an 8-4-8 record; Bogolyubov won the Moscow tournament. Torre's overall tournament record in Europe was 19-9-27, very impressive for never having played in an international tournament before 1925. Carlos then returned to New York for a brief break from chess. Unfortunately for him and the rest of the chess world, his physical and mental health quickly began to deteriorate. He may have been one of those people who could not handle success. He always had a sweet tooth, but now he began to eat up to 12 banana sundaes every day. In fact, he got to the point of not eating any hot meals, just snacks and junk food. After several weeks of eating like this, he suffered a nervous breakdown, was hospitalized in a mental institution for some time, and then released. He never played against a top-rated player again. He moved back to Mexico and lived there until his death in 1972. The book's author, Gabriel Velasco, interviewed him in 1971, and the interview is in the book; it's not worth discussing here. Let's play through his most famous game instead! Almost every serious chess player has seen the next game, Torre - Em. Lasker. Some call it a game of the ages, and some call it a sloppy game for both sides. Whatever the judgement, the windmill combination found in the game is very instructive. Fans of Emmanuel Lasker wonder to this day how he allowed the combination to happen against him. The book sheds some light on the subject. There were two major distractions to Lasker that day, before the game against Torre. The first was a heated argument with Richard Reti, presumably about classical vs. hypermodern play. In 1925 the hypermoderns, led by Reti and Nimzovich, were just beginning to put their stamp on the game, and old veterans like Lasker and Rubenstein were slowly creeping to the twilight of their careers, although both were still extremely strong players. The second distraction was that Lasker received a letter stating that a play he had written back in Germany had been accepted for screenwriting. Lasker was overjoyed and went around the tournament tables telling everyone about it. This combination of anger and joy may have made him play several dubious moves in the following game. Torre - Em. Lasker, Moscow, 1925 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 Bg5 c5 This is the Torre Attack, although it was not called it at the time 4 e3 cxd4 5 exd4 Be7 6 Nbd2 d6 Lasker sets up a version of the Classical Queen's Indian Defense 7 c3 Nbd7 c3 steers the game away from main line Queen's Indian play 8 Bd3 b6 Diagram below 9 Nc4!? Bb7 An odd Knight move, perhaps heading to e3 if ...b5 10 Qe2 Qc7 11 0-0 0-0 12 Rfe1 Rfe8 5 exd4 is the point of White's play: control the center 13 Rad1 Nf8 14 Bc1?! Nd5 15 Ng5?! b5! 16 Na3 b4 16 Ne3 results in Bxg5 17 cxb4 Nxb4 18 Qh5 Bxg5 Diagram. White's position is beginning to fall apart 19. Bxg5?! Nxd3 Qxd5 would not result in the coming pin 20. Rxd3 Qa5! Attacking the e1 Rook and pinning the Bishop to the Queen 21. b4!? Qf5 Qxb4 invites Rb1, with an unclear position 22. Rg3 h6 Most experts agree that f6 would have been better 23. Nc4! Qd5?! ...hxg5 Nxd6 Qg6 Qxg6 Nxg6 Nxb7 Reb8 may have drawn 24. Ne3! Qb5 ...Qxd4 Rd1 and Black is losing 25. Bf6!! Qxh5 Diagram. Retreating Black's Queen does not help 26. Rxg7+ Kh8 The windmill begins 27. Rxf7+ Kg8 28. Rg7+ Kh8 29. Rxb7+ Kg8 30. Rg7+ Kh8 31. Rg5+ Kh7 White could have taken the a-pawn as well 32. Rxh5 Kg6 The game is over but Lasker fights on 33. Rh3 Kxf6 34. Rxh6+ Kg5 35. Rh3 Reb8 36. Rg3+ Kf6 37. Rf3+ Kg6 38. a3 a5 39. bxa5 Rxa5 40. Nc4 Rd5 That White Knight has been pesky the whole game 41. Rf4 Nd7 42. Rxe6+ Kg5 43 g3 Resigns Final Position
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