pythagoras, I did not infer what you did not imply. I understood you to mean that Spielmann played in an era of great players. I just used your comment to add information about the tournament the game was from. Four of the six players you mentioned were there. The standings were:

1.  Spielmann 13
2. Alekhine 12.5
3. Vidmar 12
4. Nimzowitsch 11.5
5. Tartakower 11.5
6. Rubinstein 10
7. Tarrasch 10
8. Reti 9.5
9. Gruenfeld 9
10. Janowski 8.5
11. Treybal 8
12. Vajda 7.5
13. Yates 7
14. Gilg 6 (drew with Spielmann and beat Alekhine)
15. Kmoch 6
16. Davidson 5.5
17. Michel 4.5
18. Rosselli del Turco 1

Greenlaser,

I didn't mean to imply that all of those players were at that tournament. I was talking about Spielmann in general and the fact that he was so successful playing risky, sharp positions in probably the richest period in chess history.

Nice article.

chawil, 14...Be6 15.Qh5 must be what you mean by 14...Bd6 15.Qh4 (just to help readers). Nothing helps Black at this point. Fritz agrees that White is about 3 to 5 ahead. I believe Black is already lost by move 13.

pythagoras, of the players you named, Capa and Lasker were not at Semmering. Spielmann had draws with Alekhine, Reti, and Tarrasch. He beat Nimzowitsch and lost to Rubinstein. Yes, Spielmann, who was Jewish, died poor in Sweden after escaping from the Nazis. About 13 months later, the Danes helped Danish Jews escape to Sweden. A Nazi plan to round up Jews in Denmark was thus foiled. Readers may find a book called "Rescue in Denmark." The Nazis wrote about "Jewish chess" and "Aryan chess." If I had that "literature," I would check to see how they accounted for "Spielmann chess." Sorry for a political observation, but this divisive thinking is used by radical feminists who identify male and female thinking as different.  Male thinking is called hierarchical. The process of objectification uses language to treat people as objects. It creates an in-group and an out-group. It could be the Marxist categories of capitalists and proletariat. This class struggle model is used whether the groups are class, sex, ethnicity, or other. "Enemy of the people" is a term used for hundreds of years. Curious readers may research this on their own. Hopefully, back to chess to enjoy and to escape.

Spielmann is one of my favorite players. At his best, he is a beautiful tactician who skillfully navigates complex positions to find beautiful moves. At his worst, he's a man out of his era getting punished by more sound play. Still, it takes a tremendous amount of courage to constantly play positions that are very sharp especially since he played in the greatest chess period against heroes such as Capablanca, Lasker, Alekhine, Reti, Tarrasch and Nimzowitsch. Whew, I can't imagine sitting across from Alekhine and breaking out the Danish Gambit! That would take a certain kind of crazy.

And despite this, his record against these giants was pretty good. Truth be told, he also played a lot of conventional/acceptable openings (which were not always his choosing) such as the French, Queen's Pawn and the Sicilian...and he played positionally better than most people give him credit for.

Also, you left out the part about Spielmann dying in absolute poverty....the unfortunate fate of many great chess players.

Good game. 14... g5 looks suspect. 14... Bd6 with the idea of blockading e5 looks much more positional. It certainly prevents all that follows. Maybe there's some tactical trick that I'm missing but Black's position, while far from enviable, doesn't appear irretrievable. 15. Qh4 could be embarrassing but at least there are defensive tries.