03-06-2015, 07:54 PM
Good try, Geoff. But Tartakower put it all much better than Tarrasch (and I speak as a great fan of both) ... by the way where does that Tarrasch quote actually come from?
Sending up both Tarrasch and Nimzowitsch (who, to say the least, didn't always agree), Tartakower inter alia pointed out that as 'a threat is stronger than its execution' (Nimzowitsch), it therefore follows that 'an indirect threat is stronger than a direct threat ... hence no threat amounts to the strongest threat of all!'
Heroic paraphrase (mine) of Tartakower's extensive and often flowery German from his 'Die Hypermoderne Schachpartie', published in the mid-1920s.
This was number 2 of 3 witty Tartakower 'maxims' (my word) about practical decision-making in the modern game that brilliantly set the scene for one of the earliest (and best) discussions of that subject at the birth of Reti's Opening and his revolutionary ideas about the power of what we have since come to understand as the great swathe of Reti-English systems.
Much more on Tartakower, who was not just witty but truly sage, including all three of his maxims and my take on his contribution, at pp151-152 of 'Chess Secrets: Great Chess Romantics' (Everyman Chess 2013). A great read but, of course, I would say that anyway, as the author!
Sending up both Tarrasch and Nimzowitsch (who, to say the least, didn't always agree), Tartakower inter alia pointed out that as 'a threat is stronger than its execution' (Nimzowitsch), it therefore follows that 'an indirect threat is stronger than a direct threat ... hence no threat amounts to the strongest threat of all!'
Heroic paraphrase (mine) of Tartakower's extensive and often flowery German from his 'Die Hypermoderne Schachpartie', published in the mid-1920s.
This was number 2 of 3 witty Tartakower 'maxims' (my word) about practical decision-making in the modern game that brilliantly set the scene for one of the earliest (and best) discussions of that subject at the birth of Reti's Opening and his revolutionary ideas about the power of what we have since come to understand as the great swathe of Reti-English systems.
Much more on Tartakower, who was not just witty but truly sage, including all three of his maxims and my take on his contribution, at pp151-152 of 'Chess Secrets: Great Chess Romantics' (Everyman Chess 2013). A great read but, of course, I would say that anyway, as the author!