Libro en inglés

Rudolf Spielmann fue uno de los ajedrecistas más fuertes del mundo durante la primera mitad del siglo XX. Tras compartir el segundo puesto en el torneo de Carlsbad de 1929 con Capablanca, a solo medio punto de Nimzowitsch, se le consideró uno de los cinco mejores del planeta. Su carrera se extendió a lo largo de cuatro décadas e incluyó una multitud de victorias en torneos y encuentros individuales, como su triunfo ante Bogoljubov en un duelo a diez partidas en 1932.
Conocido a menudo como el "Último Romántico" del ajedrez por su predilección por el Gambito de Rey y la Apertura Vienesa, así como por su amor por los sacrificios, Spielmann legó una rica herencia de ideas y técnicas. Estas clases magistrales de combinación y posicionamiento se examinan aquí a través de 213 partidas instructivas y fragmentos, organizados temáticamente de forma similar a los volúmenes previos de Grigory Bogdanovich sobre Bogoljubov.

Rudolf Spielmann was one of the strongest chess players in the world in the first half of the 20th century. Following his shared second place at the Carlsbad tournament in 1929 with Capablanca, half a point behind Nimzowitsch, he was considered one of the world’s top five. His career spread over four decades and included a host of tournament and match victories, such as defeating Bogoljubov over ten games in 1932. Often known as the Last Romantic in chess with his predilection for the King’s Gambit and Vienna Game and love of sacrifices, he bequeathed a rich legacy of ideas and techniques. These combinational and positional master classes are examined here in 213 instructional games and fragments, organized thematically in a way similar to Grigory Bogdanovich’s previous volumes on Bogoljubov. Detailed commentary is provided on games against leading contemporaries. Opponents in this work include five world champions Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, and Botvinnik, as well as Marshall, Janowski, Tarrasch, Tartakower, Nimzowitsch, Reti, Rubinstein, Romanovsky, Bogoljubov, and many others. Bogdanovich’s commentary is richly supplemented by that of stars of the epoch and, above all, of Spielmann himself. The book further contains a biographical sketch and is supplemented by a large number of tournament photographs and portraits. Spielmann’s life was ultimately tragic – a lonely death in Sweden aged just 59 as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany following the demise three years earlier of his sponsor, while several family members failed to escape the Holocaust. Additional materials in the book include a detailed table of tournaments and matches from his career, as well as a translation of Spielmann’s fascinating article dating to 1923 called “From the Sickbed of the King’s Gambit”.