Geza Maroczy was 57-years-old at the time of Lake Hopatcong 1926, already over two decades after his greatest success at the Monte Carlo tournaments of 1902-1904 and Ostend 1905. He had retired from the game before WWI, but returned in the 1920s for what Hans Kmoch called his "second chess career." Though not in the best form, the tall Hungarian GM (who at over 6 feet towered above his competition) played some excellent games, including his first round win against Marshall. I have so far annotated two of his games for the Lake Hopatcong site:
Marshall-Maroczy, Lake Hopatcong 1926 (French Defense, Gledhill Attack)
Maroczy-Capablanca, Lake Hopatcong 1926 (Caro-Kann Defense, Exchange Variation)
In his 9th Round loss to Capablanca, Maroczy held his own and actually missed a draw (see the diagram below) after the World Champion's stunning Rook sacrifice with 34...Rxg3!?:
Maroczy-Capablanca
White to play and draw after 34...Rxg3!?
White to play and draw after 34...Rxg3!?
Maroczy seems to have had a problem with time management that likely affected his performance in complicated situations (such as the one above), but he played well enough to finish a close third, just half a point back from Kupchik (against whom he should have had a win in one of their games).
6 comments:
Wow nice site and nice main site. I'm from Union originally and never realized Kennilworth had a club. I played in Westfield a couple of times, but that's it. (I now live in Houston, TX, though).
You know, it's funny, but growing up in Cranford, literally within an easy walk of the Kenilworth Club, I never heard of it either and spent my time at Westfield as well when I was an active player (from 1979-1984 or so). You can read some of the Kenilworth Club history off of the Articles page at our main site to get an idea why that was so. Though the club was active in the Fischer championship years (1972-1975), it nearly fizzled out from the late seventies to late eighties and was only kept alive by a few die-hards. Then in the 1990s, when a strong master joined the club and they started holding events (such as the club championship and GM simuls), interest picked up and the club was on more solid ground. With the web site and blog I hope that we can keep things going and at least get the word out that we are here. Thanks for the note -- and be sure to check out the history article. I think you'll like it.
I read the history before I came across this blog. I added a link to this blog from my site.
The Fischer craze must have been fun. It was BC (before Christopher), but that's when my Dad learned.
Maybe when I'm home visiting family some day I could stop by.
Additionally, For as big of city as Houston is, the club has maybe 25 members and a few guests and its the only club in town. There's a lot more chess in Jersey.
I think I knew of Westfield because they would put tournament announcements in Chess Life, something I never saw from Kenilworth.
If you are home visiting family, please do stop by (and let me know by email before you come so I can be sure to be there). We will make sure you have a good time. Thanks for writing.
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