MARK RUBERY CHESS

Jacques Mieses (1865-1954) had a career that was for a long time the benchmark of longevity in chess (at least until the exploits of the late Korchnoi). A player known for his brilliant attacking style, he was also a chess columnist and author. At the age of 73 Mieses escaped the Nazi persecution in his native Germany and settled in England. There he became the first British player to be awarded the Grandmaster Title (the late Tony Miles being the first British born GM in 1976). The move 1 d3 is called the Mieses Opening. Here are a few of Mieses’ miniatures.

Mieses,J - NN [C27]

GBR tour sim Great Britain, 1900 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nxe4 4.Qh5 Nd6 5.Bb3 Be7 6.d3 0-0 7.Nf3 Nc6 8.Ng5 h6 9.h4 Ne8 10.Nd5 Nf6 11.Qg6 1-0 (If 11...Kh8 12 Nxe7! wins material)

Mieses,J - Chigorin,M [C25] Ostende, 1906 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Qg4 Qf6? (Entering a very treacherous line of the Vienna. Instead 4...g6 is satisfactory for Black.) 5.Nd5 Qxf2+ 6.Kd1 Kf8 7.Nh3 Qd4 8.d3 d6 9.Qh4 Bxh3 10.Qxh3 (10 Rf1! Be6 11 c3 winning) ... Na5 11.Rf1 Nxc4 12.Qd7 f6 13.Nxf6 Qf2 (13...gxf6 14.Rxf6+ Nxf6 15.Bh6+ Kg8 16.Qg7#) 14.Rxf2 Bxf2 15.Nh5 1-0

Mieses,J - Euwe,M [C45] The Hague (4), 1921 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Bd3 d5 7.e5 Ng4 8.0-0 Bc5 9.Bf4 g5 10.Bd2 Qe7 11.Bc3 Nxe5?? (An enormous blunder from the future world champion) 12.Bxe5 (as 12…Qxe5 loses prosaically to 13 Re1) 1-0

Jacques Mieses was one of the organisers of the famous 1911 San Sebastian tournament and his innovation began a trend that continues to this day. Mieses insisted on the payment of travelling and living expenses to the competing masters. From then onwards this procedure became the norm.

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SEE DIAGRAM The beauty of chess is it can be whatever you want it to be. It transcends language, age, race, religion, politics, gender and socioeconomic background. Whatever your circumstances, anyone can enjoy a good fight to the death over the chess board.

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