Overview

Szymon Winawer was a world top-10 player in the 1870s and 1880s, dueling with such titans as Steinitz, Lasker, Anderssen, Marshall, Chigorin, Zukertort, Louis Paulsen, Janowski, Maroczy, Tarrasch and others, and defeating most of the leading players of his time. He won or took prizes in major international tournaments, including Paris 1867 (second, behind Kolisch and above Steinitz), Leipzig 1877 (fourth, behind Paulsen, Anderssen and Zukertort), Paris 1878 (first equal with Zukertort, though he lost the play-off), Berlin 1881 (third equal with Chigorin, behind Blackburne and Zukertort), Vienna 1882 (first equal with Steinitz), and Nuremberg 1883 (first, ahead of Blackburne). Winawer was a proponent of fighting chess, regularly deploying the King's Gambit and Ruy Lopez as white, demonstrating winning combinations as well as positional sacrifices and endgame precision. He attacked the castled king with his h-pawn 150 years before Alpha-Zero. He displayed technique using Horowitz bishops and opening the g-file. At the same time, we see in the book that he also played solid positional chess. Moreover, several opening ideas are named after him, including the popular Winawer Variation of the French Defense. The Warsaw-born player was not a chess professional and never published any annotated games of his own, but some of his concepts, both in the opening and in the middlegame, are still valid in the 21st century. Indeed, many strategic ideas (blockade, exploiting doubled pawns, maneuvering) described in the works of Nimzowitsch and other hypermodernists can be found, in embryonic form, in the games of Winawer played half a century earlier.In the first half of this biographical work, Warsaw-based chess historian Tomasz Lissowski, who has co-written books on Kieseritzky and Zukertort among others, portrays Winawer's life and his sporting achievements in the context of the epoch. This book delivers not only a description of the evolution of chess in Poland in the nineteenth century, but a sense through the prism of chess of the political and social history of Poland and the Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian empires in a period of war and upheaval. It is illustrated by many historical photos from the period.In the second half of this book, International Master Grigory Bogdanovich paints Winawer's creative portrait, as well as examining the legacy that this ingenious improviser left to chess culture. The book contains in total 132 annotated instructive games and fragments of Winawer and his contemporaries.

Full Product Details

9785604676691

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""The Wizard of Warsaw - A Chess Biography of Szymon Winawer does a brilliant job of painting a picture of this quiet man, who apparently did not even keep a chess set in his house. He may not have been talkative, but he was not devoid of wit. Remarking, when giving the shortest of toasts at the London event in 1883, 'Gentlemen, if I speak Polish, you won't understand me, and if I speak English, you won't understand me either. So, thank you.' This was someone who was happy to play players of all levels, and to give generous odds in these games. A true chess player's chess player, through and through... Winawer was both a man of his time and a chess player who joins the ranks of those who transcend time. He will always be remembered, and this biography is an excellent way to learn more. The next time you play 3...Bb4 in the French, think of Winawer and his cigars. A brilliant natural talent, who got close, without going all the way, and left a lasting legacy..."" - Ben Graff, Chess Moves, June 2023 ""Szymon Winawer (1838-1919) was a world-class player in the 1870s and 1880s, despite never being a chess professional nor annotating any of his own games. Thankfully chess historians Lissowski and Bogdanovich shed much light on both Winawer's life and fighting chess in this detailed new work for Elk and Ruby. 150 pages of biography from Lissowski are followed by Bogdanovich tackling Winawer's best games and largely rather modern style, combining certain strong positional characteristics with significant attacking and endgame prowess."" - CHESS Magazine, July 2023 ""This absorbing work gives us several things at once. Part One, covering some 190 pages and splendidly written by the Polish chess historian Tomasz Lissowski, is not simply a chess biography of Winawer, a hitherto rather neglected figure (a totally undeserving neglect which this book will surely remedy). It is, in fact, a biography of Poland during the years of Szymon's own life (1838 - 1919)... The re-evaluation of chess history, and especially of the insights of earlier players, is now in full swing (see, for instance, my BCM reviews of the major books by Hendriks and Hoffmeister). So it is perhaps no surprise that Bogdanovich, in the latter 100 pages of the book, makes a very compelling case for treating Winawer as a superb positional player, and not only a highly gifted combinational expert. To begin with, Bogdanovich rightly stresses that the attempt to split the one from the other actually makes little sense. As many great players have underlined, you can hardly have one without the other. He shows the many dimensions in which Winawer's positional acuity was of the highest order. I learnt much from the emphasis on the Warsaw Wizard's grasp of pawn play in all of its dimensions (taking us way beyond Philidor). If the reader wants one example, I would recommend the game (given on pp.203 and 204) in which Winawer outplayed Louis Paulsen (himself an exceptionally fine player, also I think underrated today) at Vienna 1882. But every aspect of positional play is here. Winawer unquestionably had an understanding, a chess intuition, which can stand comparison with the legendary names of the game."" - Peter O'Brien, British Chess Magazine, August 2023 ""...a lovely historical trip through a chess culture (Poland in the late 19th / early 20th century) and the life of a player I knew virtually nothing about... Another fine book from Elk and Ruby!"" - Matthew Sadler, New In Chess Magazine, July 2023 ""Winawer is not as well-known as many of his contemporaries from the second half of the 19th century, but thanks to this wonderful volume, we are about to learn a lot more."" - FIDE Master Carsten Hansen, American Chess Magazine, July 2023"

Author Information

Tomasz Lissowski, born in 1952 in Warsaw, is a chess historian, journalist, trainer and organizer. He is the author or co-author of several books, on Kieseritzky (1996, with GM Bartek Macieja), Zukertort (2002, with Dr. Cezary W. Domanski), Najdorf (2005, with GM Adrian Mikhalchishin), Przepiorka (2013, with Jerzy Konikowski and Jerzy Moras) and others. Grigory Bogdanovich (born in 1949) began work as a chess coach in the early 1980s. He was awarded the USSR Master of Sport title in 1983 after successful results in the Moscow team championship, during which his famous opponents included David Bronstein, Artur Yusupov and Andrei Sokolov. Later, he was twice Soviet Correspondence Chess Champion as part of the victorious Moscow team. In 1990 he graduated for the second time, from the Higher School of Coaches, after previously gaining a degree in engineering and economics. He has recorded a string of victories in international chess tournaments, and gained the International Master title in 1991. Grigory lives in Germany and spent over a quarter of a century playing for Bad Mergentheim chess club (Baden-Wurttemberg). He has written several opening books in English and Russian.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available