Saturday
Nov142015
This Week's World Chess Column: In Praise of Amateur Players
Saturday, November 14, 2015 at 6:47PM
The column is here, and features a spectacular game between two players you've never heard of (unless you're Dutch, and maybe not even then). It's worth being reminded that great chess is played by players rated below 2700; not as frequently perhaps, on a games-per-player basis, but there are so many sub-2700s playing so many games that it's worth studying and examining the games of mere(r) mortals as well.
tagged AGON
Reader Comments (4)
"between two players you've never heard of (unless you're Dutch, and maybe not even then)." or if you read Tim Krabbe's stuff, or Hesse's book, which "borrows" quite heavily from Krabbe.
Still, it is a game where you can still feel the frantic energy white put into it. Great fun!
[DM: Right, I got it from Hesse's book, which gives the exciting stage of the game without any annotations. The notes are my own; I didn't check (or know to check) Krabbe's website for any coverage of the game.]
I think Max Euwe was in the back of the playing hall and was signalling the moves to the winner via semaphore.
In 1938 all Dutch chess players were amateurs but one and that one was not Max Euwe, but
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Davidson
Chris de Ronde is hardly known, but participated in the (in)famous Buenos Aires Olympiad. With Najdorf, Eliskases and many others he would not return to Europe. I recognized the game but only thanks to the unbeatable Tim Krabbé (for the James Bond fans: half brother of Jeroen).
http://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/deronde.htm
Apparently this magazine has an article about him:
http://www.schaakbond-winkel.nl/schaakboeken/art-656-matten-9
So he is not entirely forgotten.
I have no idea about Kamstra though (and remarkably neither seems Krabbé!)
This De Ronde Game is spectacular, but then you might want to take a look at Tresling-Benima, Winschoten 1896 as well. I suspect that it inspired Alekhine for one of his hoax games in his autobiography.
[DM: It was a nice win for White, but unless I'm missing something it looked like he was in control throughout. Having so many queens at the end was unusual, but the final sequence was easy to calculate and foresee. But maybe if I take a closer look I'll change my mind, repenting in sackcloth and ashes.]