Tarrasch's Quiet Beauty

by Milica Knezevic on January 19, 2022

The Chess Game: S.Tarrasch vs G. Marco, Dresden 1892

BECOME A BETTER CHESS PLAYER WITH CHESS UNIVERSE APP

Let's start by noticing the primary bits of the game:
Spanish Game: Berlin Defense, Tarrasch Trap
Carefully examine the game before you, and focus on the key moments that happen, tell us all about your views.
Choose a side you want to try, either Trrasch or Marco and give it your all when coming up with potential moves!

Georg Marco (29 November 1863 – 29 August 1923) was an Austrian chess player.
He was born in Chernivtsi (Cernăuţi), Bukovina (then part of Austria-Hungary). He later settled in Vienna and was secretary of the Viennese Chess Association.
However, he is probably best known for his work as editor of the Wiener Schachzeitung from 1898 to 1916 and his annotations in the books Vienna Gambit Tournament (1903), Barmen 1905, Ostend 1906, Carlsbad 1907, Lasker-Tarrasch match for the World Chess Champion title in 1908, Baden on Vienna Gambit Tournament 1914, and Meister des Problems (Vienna 1924).
A very large man, he was jokingly referred to as "the strongest chess player in the world".

Siegbert Tarrasch (5 March 1862 – 17 February 1934) was a German chess player, considered to have been among the strongest ones, and one of the most influential chess theoreticians of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Tarrasch was born in Breslau, in what was then Prussian Silesia and now is Poland. Having finished school in 1880, he left Breslau to study medicine in Halle.
With his family, he settled in Nuremberg, Bavaria, and later in Munich, setting up a successful medical practice. He had five children.
Tarrasch was Jewish, converted to Christianity in 1909,and was a patriotic German who lost a son in World War I, yet he faced antisemitism in the early stages of the Third Reich.

A medical doctor by profession, Tarrasch may have been the best player in the world in the early 1890s. He scored heavily against the ageing World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz in tournaments (+3−0=1) but refused an opportunity to challenge Steinitz for the world title in 1892 because of the demands of his medical practice.
Tarrasch continued to be one of the leading players in the world for a while. He finished fourth in the very strong St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament, behind only World Champion Lasker and future World Champions José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine.

His win against Capablanca in the 19th round of the St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament, though much less famous than Lasker's win against Capablanca the round before, was essential to enable Lasker to achieve his famous come-from-behind victory over Capablanca in the tournament.
This tournament was probably Tarrasch's swan song, because his chess career was not very successful after this, although he still played some highly regarded games.