Top Ten Games Of Richard Réti- #5- Trade For The Win!

One of the most notable tournaments of the 20th century took place in New York, 1924. It was an elite tournament with players such as Capablanca, Alekhine, Lasker, Bogojubow, and Réti, who would all be battling for the top prize of $1500, plus a handsome payment for travel costs. 

And entering this tournament, reigning world champion Capablanca would be on an undefeated 63-game streak that had lasted 8 years. He left with a 14.5/20 score, losing only one game to Réti. And even more surprising than that, 55-year-old Emanuel Lasker shocked the chess world when he convincingly scored an unbelievable 16 out of a possible 20, only losing once to Capablanca.

Lasker's immortal tournament win was not the last time that he displayed incredible power that upset young generations, and it proved that chess is not a young man's game. 

The final standings of New York 1924. 

And even though Réti did not score as well as Capablanca, and did not play as perfectly as Lasker, this tournament was considered a huge win for him, even with his 10.5/20 score that made him place 5th. 

First, Réti beat Jose Raul Capablanca, the second best chess player of this era, and debatably, he was dubbed the fourth greatest master of all time. Capablanca took the world championship title from Lasker in 1921, and during 1916 to 1924, he was in his invincible prime state. He had not lost a match in 63 tournament games, until Réti beat him. Its crazy to think that Réti, a 2550 rated player, took down a titan that was playing the best chess of his life, that greats such as Alekhine and Lasker could not defeat. His strategy? Play 1.Nf3, an opening that before 1924 was thought to be terrible and disgusting. It was an incredible game for him, and made this tournament noteworthy. 

The elite players of New York 1924

That was not the only masterpiece that Réti played during this tournament. He destroyed Bogojubow, current #4 in the world with an incredibly hypermodern opening that had turned into a romantic attacking game, with a crazy bishop sacrifice. This game, was awarded the first brilliancy prize, meaning it was the most spectacular game in the tournament. His success in these two matches were all greatly owed to 1.Nf3, 

He was the first person in the world to show that this opening was essentially good, and that it was playable. And although we see the Réti opening all the time now, take a look at this- 

Before the 1920s, less than 1 percent of all games were played with this opening, with the number going as low as 0.20%, which is crazy compared to know, whereas now five percent of all games are played with this opening. And it all skyrocketed upwards in 1924. 

Fight For The Center

When I was a beginner, I would always hate playing against a double fianchetto, simply because if I tried to block the first bishop with my pawns, the second bishop would just gain more space and ultimately become stronger. This is the idea of a hypermodern opening. Gaining space, because in the opening a bishop or knight can attack more squares than a pawn.  Take the game below for example. White tried to block the black bishop, but that resulted in the white bishop gaining more power

In this opening, Réti opened with a knight and later fianchettoed both his bishops, and as a result he gained a lot of space.

For the first 8 moves, both sides play perfectly, carefully preparing their own middlegame plans. The first sign of action is when Bogo offered a trade of knights on move nine, and when Réti graciously accepted that deal. And after those trades, Réti puts a knight right up in Bogo's face, tempting to be taken. 

Trade Away Your Troubles

What do you do when you are in a winning game? trade! In the middlegame here, Réti's priority is to trade, because while he is not up material, his position is a lot better than his opponents. With the right maneuvers and trades, a once closed off center with pieces flying everywhere turns into a gaping and unbarred position. 
But that does not make this game simple. 

In the process of taking out all the center pawns, he reaches a really awkward position on move 15. Virtually every major piece is taking a part in the action, and when that happens the game just gets messy. 

The strategy, like the big bolded titleblock above says, it to trade it all. 

This is move 22, and all that's left for each side is a bishop knight and a queen. A little less than half the pieces are now gone, and usually in top level chess, rapid trading means a draw, but Réti still has some spooky plans brewing. 

You can already see that white is targeting f7 and f8, and taking control of one of those squares would mean checkmate.

Réti's plan now is to attack the king before the match undergoes the drawn endgame.

 A Romantic Finish

The clock is counting down for Réti to make a move before he has to play a drawn endgame, and he only has one more piece that can aid him in his attacks on the king. His rook, who throughout the whole game, has lied dormant. Here is a funny meme about rooks so that is kind of relevant, because you don't ever really use rooks until the endgame or castling. (except for this game)

I mean its true... especially for the queens rook which hardly ever gets used in the early game
 

Aiding the last blow of his attack, the rook comes out of rest and shuffles right underneath the queen, which is now threatening a two-fold checkmate. And although his opponent can swing back to the eight rank and stop immediate checkmate, Réti has a really nice puzzle-worthy bishop move that makes the 4th best player of this era resign on the spot.

Can you find this ethereal mate? 

This game did not have a near perfect engine accuracy, but we do not need the engine to tell us which games are good. I chose this game as number five, because it was crazy to see how you could trade off almost every piece on the board, and still have a romantic sacrifice at the end of it all. It was a perfect game to start a new era of chess, the hypermodern age of bishops and knights. 

Top Ten Games Of Réti 

• #1 ~ ???
• #2 ~ ???
• #3 ~ ???
• #4 ~ ???
• #5 ~ Trade For The Win!
• #6 ~ Fearful Files
• #7 ~ The Inevitable Mate
• #8 ~The Greek Gift
• #9 ~ Réti Needs No Rooks!
• #10 ~ The Double Gambit