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Savielly Tartakower was a chess player who was awarded the title of International Grandmaster in its inaugural year, 1950. He was also a chess journalist and author during the 1920s and 1930s, and was noted for his many witticisms.
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culture · Polish-French chess grandmaster (1887–1956) · chess player · non-fiction writer · journalist · poet · resistance fighter · also Savielly Tartakower, Tartakower
Born 22 February 1887 · Died 4 February 1956 · Q161135
37 published statements · 0 followers
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“A game of chess has three phases: the opening, where you hope you stand better; the middlegame, where you think you stand better; and the ending, where you know you stand to lose.”
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“A master can sometimes play badly, a fan never!”
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“A match demonstrates less than a tournament. But a tournament demonstrates nothing at all.”
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“Chess is a struggle against one's own errors.”
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“As long as an opening is reputed to be weak it can be played.”
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“Everything was finely imagined; but the gods, before the endgame, put the middlegame.”
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“The player that takes risks may lose, the player that doesn't always loses.”
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“Whenever you have to make a rook move, and both rooks are available for said move, you should evaluate which rook to move and, once you have made up your mind, move the other one.”
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“Some part of a mistake is always correct.”
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“It's always better to sacrifice your opponent's men.”
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“An isolated pawn spreads gloom all over the chessboard.”
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“The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made.”
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“The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake.”
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“Tactics is what you do when there is something to do; strategy is what you do when there is nothing to do.”
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“The great master places a knight on e5; checkmate follows by itself.”
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Died 1956-02-04.
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Won the French Chess Championship in Paris
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At first board at the 9th Chess Olympiad in Dubrovnik (+5−5=5)
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Winning three individual medals (gold in 1931 and bronze in 1933 and 1935), as well as five team medals (gold in 1930, two silver in 1931 and 1939, and two bronze in 1935 and 1937)
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The outbreak of World War II found him in Buenos Aires, where he was playing the 8th Chess Olympiad, representing Poland on a team which included Miguel Najdorf, who always called Tartakower "my teacher"
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At first board at the 8th Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires (+7−3=7);
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At first board at the 7th Chess Olympiad in Stockholm (+1−2=10);
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Was one of the main organizers of the Chess Olympiad in Warsaw
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At first board at the 6th Chess Olympiad in Warsaw (+6−0=11);
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At first board at the 5th Chess Olympiad in Folkestone (+6−2=6);
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At second board at the 4th Chess Olympiad in Prague (+10−1=7);
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Won the Liège tournament, beating Mir Sultan Khan by two points
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At second board at the 3rd Chess Olympiad in Hamburg (+9−1=6);
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And 1928 he won two tournaments in Hastings and shared first place with Aron Nimzowitsch in London
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And has been issued in almost 100 editions since
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(English translation of the second edition: The Hypermodern Game of Chess, translated by Jared Becker, Russell Enterprises, 2015)
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“To avoid losing a piece, many a person has lost the game.”
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“A draw can be obtained normally by repeating three moves, but also by playing one bad move.”
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(where Tartakower played his new defense), Capablanca said, "You are lacking in solidity", and Tartakower replied in his usual banter, "That is my saving grace
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Accepted Polish citizenship and became one of the country's most prominent honorary ambassadors
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During a break-in in their house in Rostov-on-Don, where his father, a relatively wealthy businessman, owned a textile factory (or, according to some sources, a series of stores)
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Born 1887-02-22.
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