David Janowski and Alexander Alekhine continued their winning ways in the third round of the International Masters' Tournament at Scheveningen, the former inflicting the first defeat on Klaas Geus and the latter topping veteran campaigner Jacques Mieses with the help of a remarkable Queen offer. Meanwhile, Edward Lasker and Gyula Breyer played to a draw to remain within half a point of the leaders, and Frederick Yates improved his position on the scoreboard by recording his second consecutive victory, at the expense of Willem Schelfhout. In other contests, A.G. Olland beat Rudolf Loman, Abraham Speijer opened his account with a victory over Arnold van Foreest, who has yet to score, and J.W. te Kolsté played to a draw vs. Fritz Englund.
Scores after 3 rounds: Janowski, Alekhine 3; G. Breyer, Ed. Lasker 2 1/2; Geus, Yates 2; Olland, Englund 1 1/2; Loman, Speijer 1; Mieses, te Kolsté 1/2; Schelfhout, van Foreest 0. We note as a curiosity that there are exactly two players on each possible point total between 3 and 0.
Turning to the games, we begin with the Mieses-Alekhine encounter, the talk of the day. At the 11th move the young Russian sacrificed - exchanged may be a better word - his Queen for Rook, Knight, and pawn, obtaining in the process excellent play for all his pieces. The struggle between equal but unlike forces then continued for more than twenty moves, with Black slowly bringing his Rooks to bear against the opposing King, to whose defense the White Queen seemed able to contribute little. We should note, however, that our friend Herr Fritz, who finds this game an analytical delight, has yet to discover a win for Black against the move 31.Qe4, and sees nothing better for the second player than a perpetual check after 31...Rb1+ 32.Kd2 Rb2+, etc. Yet even if Herr Fritz's analysis is correct, we feel that it in no way detracts from the beauty of Alekhine's conception, an imaginative stroke that seems to have maintained at least the draw in hand while simultaneously posing before the opponent a string of difficult problems that at last by virtue of their sheer preponderance proved insoluble.
Janowski scored the point in more conventional fashion in a Four Knights' Game against Geus, pocketing one pawn with 21.Nxg7, a second via 27.Rxd5, and then weaving a mating net at the finish.
We urge our readers not to overlook the battle between the two ambitious young lions Edward Lasker and Gyula Breyer, a Queen's Gambit Declined that soon transposed into a Dutch Defense, and which finished in a draw after a hard-fought and gripping, but always balanced, struggle.
The English Master Yates, recovering well from his first-round defeat at the hands of Geus, scored his second win in succession by taking the full point from Schelfhout in a Ruy Lopez. Black's 25...Kf8 led to catastrophe; 25...Kh8 offered the only hope of survival.
Olland, the former Dutch Champion, recorded his first victory of the tournament by besting Loman on the Black side of the "Tarrasch" variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined. Black's handling of the endgame of Knight vs. Bishop deserves careful study.
Speijer notched his first victory at the expense of van Foreest; White's 63.Kh2 is a neat finishing touch, as after 63...Kh5 64.Kg3 Black is quite out of moves.
In the day's final game, te Kolsté and Englund engaged in a sharp struggle from the very first moves of a Center Counter Game. As sometimes occurs in such circumstances, the center was soon cleared of pawns, exchanges ensued, and peace was agreed in relatively short order.
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