Dutch Treat
by Hans Ree

Master X

Who is the strongest player in history? At the end of last year many
chess lovers gave the matter some thought and most of them
indicated the usual suspects.

A man who had an opinion all his own on this subject was the
great master and teacher Pyotr Romanovsky, who lived from 1892
till 1964. He used to put the question to his pupils who then came
up with the classic answers. Maybe Alekhine? Botvinnik perhaps?

At the moment when all world champions and near-champions had
come up and been rejected by the master, the question was burning
on the pupils's lips: who then was it? Then, as Genna Sosonko
once told me, Romanovsky used to stay silent for a while and when
the tension had become almost unbearable, he said solemnly: "The
strongest chess player of all time was James Mason."

James Mason was described, on the eve of the great Hastings 1895
tournament, more or less like this (I quote from memory): "About
Mason it has recently been written that in a sober state he doesn't
have to lose a game to anyone. This may be true, but as this state is
increasingly rare, it must be feared that his result here will be as
mediocre as in his previous tournament." This indeed sums up the
image of Mason in chess history.

Of course one proves oneself a rare connoisseur, putting up Mason
as the greatest chess player of all time. I will not pretend to be a
connoisseur as delicate as Romanovsky. True, my candidate is
even less famous than James Mason, but I have not discovered his
qualities independently. Until recently I had never played over one
of his games.

The following story I take from the book Soviet Chess 1917-1991
by Andrew Soltis, a rich mine of anecdotes and information. At the
end of 1929 the Leningrad newspaper Smyena reported that an
anonymous reader had challenged the ten best players of the city to
take part in a simul against him, to be played by telephone. The
event was arranged and among the opponents of "Master X" were
heavy-weights like Ilyin-Genevsky, Botvinnik, Ragozin, Rokhlin
and Leonid Kubbel, the famous study composer.

Master X quickly got a favorable position in most of his games.
Who was he? Could he be Abram Model, who was commenting on
the games in the newspaper? This seemed highly unlikely as Model
was not supposed to be able to hold himself against such
distinguished company. But in fact Master X turned out to be
Abram Model. From ten games he won seven and drew three.
Compared to this feat, Kasparov's extraordinary victories in simuls
against national teams shrink into insignificance.

I cherish the following scene: My spell-bound pupils anxiously
await my verdict. Then I say solemnly: "Few people are aware of
it, but the strongest chess player of all time was Abram Model." 

Model lived from 1895 till 1976. He was a teacher of mathematics.
Soltis quotes Model's friend Dmitry Rovner who wrote that Model
"to his misfortune was talented not only in chess but in
mathematics, in music, in writing poetry." He also had the talent to
make people laugh and even succeeded in having the serious
Botvinnik "laugh himself silly". But, says Rovner, everything came
too easily to Model and he never found a reason to work hard at
chess.

This fabulous simul by Master X brings back an old memory. The
Interzonal of 1964 in Amsterdam was won by Smyslov, Larsen,
Spassky and Tal. After the last round, the organizers received a
letter from a man living in The Hague who, under the motto
"Cloesmeijer teaches the Grandmasters", challenged these giants to
a clock simul in which he would take on all four of them. This
interesting event however fell through. What if it had really
happened? Who knows, maybe after a solemn pause I would have
to tell my pupils: "The strongest chess player of all time was not
James Mason, not Abram Model, but Cloesmeijer from The
Hague..."

One of the few players who managed to snatch a half-point from
Model in his simul was Botvinnik. Their game was hardly exciting,
but certainly of some historical interest.

White Model-Black Botvinnik, simul Leningrad 1929
1. e2-e4 e7-e6 2. d2-d4 d7-d5 3. Nb1-c3 Bf8-b4 4. e4xd5 e6xd5 5.
Bf1-d3 Nb8-c6 6. Ng1-e2 Ng8-e7 7. 0-0 Bc8-g4 8. f2-f3 Bg4-e6 9.
a2-a3 Bb4-a5 10. Nc3-a4 0-0 11. c2-c3 Be6-f5 12. Ne2-g3 Bf5xd3
13. Dd1xd3 Ba5-b6 14. Na4xb6 a7xb6 15. Bc1-g5 f7-f6 16.
Bg5-d2 Qd8-d7 17. Ra1-e1 Ra8-e8 18. Re1-e2 Ne7-c8 (See
Diagram)

19. Re2xe8 Rf8xe8 20. Rf1-e1 Re8xe1+ 21. Bd2xe1 Nc8-d6 22.
Be1-d2 Nd6-c4 23. Bd2-c1 Nc6-a5 24. Qd3-d1 Qd7-e8 25. Ng3-f1
Qe8-g6 26. b2-b3 Nc4-d6 27. Bc1-f4 Nd6-e8 28. Nf1-e3 Qg6-f7
29. b3-b4 Na5-c6 30. h2-h4 Draw

The next game is much more interesting. It was played not in a
simul, but in the fifth Soviet Championship, where Model shared
third place with Duz-Khotimirsky and Botvinnik shared fifth with
Vladimir Makogonov. The tournament was won by Bohatirchuk,
who later was to be written out of Soviet chess history as a traitor
to the Fatherland.

White Botvinnik-Black Model, Moscow 1927
1. e2-e4 e7-e6 2. d2-d4 d7-d5 3. Nb1-c3 Bf8-b4 4. e4-e5 c7-c5 5.
a2-a3 c5xd4 6. a3xb4 d4xc3 7. b2xc3 Qd8-c7 8. Ng1-f3 Ng8-e7 9.
Bf1-d3 Nb8-d7 10. 0-0 Nd7xe5 11. Bc1-f4 Ne5xf3+ 12. Qd1xf3
e6-e5 13. Bd3-b5+ Ke8-f8 14. Bf4-g3 Bc8-f5 15. Qf3-e3 f7-f6 16.
f2-f4 e5-e4 17. Ra1xa7 Ra8xa7 18. Qe3xa7 Kf8-f7 19. Bg3-f2
Rh8-c8 20. Bf2-c5 Bf5-d7 21. c3-c4 Bd7xb5 22. c4xb5 Qc7-d7 23.
b5-b6 Ne7-f5 24. Rf1-d1 Rc8-d8 25. c2-c3 Nf5-h4 26. Qa7-a2
Nh4-g6 27. Bc5-e3 Qd7-e6 (See Diagram)

28. c3-c4 d5-d4 29. Rd1xd4 Rd8xd4 30. Be3xd4 Ng6xf4 31.
Bd4-e3 g7-g5 32. b4-b5 Nf4-d3 33. Qa2-c2 f6-f5 34. c4-c5 f5-f4
35. Be3-d4 Qe6-d5 36. Qc2-c3 Qd5-a2 37. Qc3-a1 Qa2xa1+ 38.
Bd4xa1 Nd3xc5 39. Kg1-f2 Kf7-e6 40. Kf2-e2 Ke6-f5 41. h2-h3
h7-h5 42. Ba1-d4 Nc5-d7 43. Ke2-f2 e4-e3+ 44. Kf2-f3 g5-g4+ 45.
h3xg4+ h5xg4+ 46. Kf3-e2 Kf5-e4 47. Bd4-g7 f4-f3+ White
resigned.

My database gives another win by Model over Botvinnik, in
Leningrad 1930, but honesty forces me to admit that it was more
often the other way around.

This column first appeared in the Dutch newspaper
NRC-Handelsblad January 15, 2000. Copyright 2000 Hans Ree,
All Rights Reserved. 