Mike Sheehan reflects

Bibliophilic Background

Around 1980 I became friends with Laurie Alexander, a strong correspondence player and a former, I think, Surrey Champion. Reading about Julian Way’s recent triumph brought him back to mind. We became acquainted when I purchased from him a book which I’ve always regretted selling. It was not the most valuable book I have had but to me it had the most exciting provenance. It was “A selection of games at chess, played at the Westminster chess club, between Monsieur L.C. de la Bourdonnais and an English amateur. London, 1835.”

Incidentally the English amateur, Alexander McDonell was an Irishman! It was in fact a match for the de facto World Championship won by la Bourdonnais. The French got so excited about the result that they wrote a poem about it called “Une revanche de Waterloo ou une partie d’echecs” in 1836. Ironically, when la Bourdonnais became seriously ill, it was the kindness of English friends, namely George Walker who brought him to England, which sustained him to his death. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, near his great rival, Alexander McDonell.

These games which featured early Evans Gambits and King’s Gambits were very exciting and greatly impressed the young Paul Morphy. The copy Laurie sold me belonged to Ernst Morphy, Paul Morphy’s uncle, who resided in Paris during the American Civil War. He taught and encouraged Paul to play chess so this must have been the copy Paul read! Laurie who was living in Paris before the Second World War was given the book by Max Romih, the Croatian-Italian Chess Master and the inventor of the Romih Variation of the Slav. Romih had been given the book by his patron Leo Nardus, the Dutch art dealer and fencer. Leo Nardus had been the sponsor of the Janowski-Marshall matches and the Lasker-Janowski World Championship match.

Jacques Mieses

This takes us back to the era when Jacques Mieses, who defeated Laurie in first game below, joined the London chess scene. Mieses, who was Jewish, fled from Nazi Germany in 1938 and became Britain’s first grandmaster in 1950 – at the age of 85!

This game played in London in 1941 during the Blitz (a real blitz game!) has been anthologised by Reuben Fine as an example of Mieses’s genius in his old age. Laurie played solidly till move move 23 when he blundered in accepting an exchange sacrifice and, after another error a couple of moves later, his position had collapsed. I asked Laurie about this game and here is the explanation of his play. Before the game he had met his old friend Gilchrist, who wrote the three volume work on Lasker, and they had a good celebratory drink together. As the game progressed the alcohol kicked in!

Laurie Alexander v Jacques Mieses London, 1941
Sicilian Defence, Taimanov Variation
ECO B45

Notes by Reuben Fine transcribed by Mike Sheehan.

Mieses was a star in his youth, although in the game below he came a cropper against Marcus Kann who gave a perfect demonstration of how to play his eponymous defence with a neat trap.

Jacques Mieses v Marcus Kann Hamburg, 1885
Caro-Kann Defence
ECO B12

See also
Opening traps in the Caro-Kann

When Mieses was at his prime he won the Brilliancy Prize in Paris in 1900 with the following game.

Jacques Mieses v David Janowski Paris, 1900
Vienna Game
ECO C27

Notes by Mieses in Kleines Lehrbuch der Schachspiels (1910) transcribed by Mike Sheehan and supplemented by some modern observations from contributors to chessgames.com

Mieses won a great number of Brilliancy Prizes in his long career and amazingly his sharp often short games were not only against tournament fodder but rather often against grandmasters like Pillsbury and Schlechter. He was deadly with the Scandanavian and the Sicilian Four Knights. At one stage he reduced Schlechter to playing Bc4 and d3 to avoid playing d4 in the Scandinavian!

Mieses unlike his contemporaries was not bohemian. He was dapper, disciplined and hardworking. He swam in the open air all year round on a daily basis! He was an extremely active chess journalist which may have lead to his sharp style as he could not afford too many adjourned games as he was always reporting tournaments he played in apart from his existing many commitments.

Mieses’ splendid game against Jackson Showalter in Paris 1900 demonstrates his sharp style combining defence with attack.

Jackson Showalter v Jacques Mieses Paris, 1900
Sicilian Defence, Four Knights
ECO B45

Showalter was no mug, He narrowly lost a match to Pillsbury for the USA championship 10-8 in 1897. Pillsbury had won the legendary Hastings 1895 tournament: the strongest in the world up to that date.