Gideon Stå
hlberg: An Epoch in Swedish Chess
Volume I: The Musketeer Years 1908-1939
Peter Holmgren
xvi + 582 pages | photos and tables
hardback | €50.00
Tallinn: Verendel Publishing, 2024
Gideon Ståhlberg was one of the world’s leading players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, and twice a candidate for the World Championship. Known for his patient, elegant, dynamically defensive play and strength in the endgame, Ståhlberg invites comparison with Ulf Andersson, Sweden’s other legendary grandmaster.
A curious judi sbobet fact unearthed in this monumental biography links the two players. Gideon’s father was born Alfred Andersson and changed the family name, first to Stålberg and then added an ‘h’. His reasons for doing this are unclear but ‘Ståhlberg’ (‘steel mountain’ in German) surely has a better ring than plain ‘Andersson’. If Joseph Dzhugashvili could ditch his name for a more macho moniker, why shouldn’t Alfred? So Sweden’s chess men of steel have the same surname (the kind of coincidence to send James Plaskett to his keyboard).
Sweden was a major force in world chess before the Soviet Union’s postwar hegemony. Ståhlberg, together with fellow musketeers Erik Lundin and Gösta Stolz, led Sweden to international success in the Thirties, culminating in second place (behind the United States) at the 6th Chess Olympiad in Warsaw in 1935.
In this book, the result of over ten years’ meticulous research, chess enthusiast Peter Holmgren leaves no scoresheet unturned in charting Ståhlberg’s life and career. He has drawn from a vast array of sources, including local newspapers, the family papers of Ståhlberg’s niece and archival material from friends and players in Ståhlberg’s circle. Fortunately Ståhlberg left a lot of his own material. As a chess journalist he wrote widely for newspapers and magazines, annotated his games, profiled rivals and reported on the tournaments he played in. An autobiographical games collection appeared in Swedish in his lifetime and his Chess and Chessmasters (1955) is a minor classic that takes its cue from Réti’s Masters of the Chessboard. Harry Golombek, the book’s deft translator, adds an admiring profile of Ståhlberg in the final chapter: ‘a true artist who is not concerned so much with acquiring points as playing beautiful chess’.
Gideon Ståhlberg: An Epoch in Swedish Chess is monumental in several ways. First, it is one of the most beautifully produced works of chess history I have seen. It looks and feels like an art book, and much thought has gone into the design of its 600 large (A4) pages. Like all beautiful books, the paper is heavy and the margins wide, and the pages are turned with reverence.
There are numerous crosstables and well-chosen illustrations, and many group photos and shots of Ståhlberg in play; Holmgren has even added captions identifying (where possible) not only the game but the move number of the position on the board. There are line drawings, cartoons and images of significant documents and buildings. Best of all, potted biographies of Ståhlberg’s opponents and lesser known figures from the chess scene decorate the pages in tinted display panels. These byways into forgotten lives, many cut short by war or disease, are a fascinating diversion from the main narrative and a reminder of how much chess history of that time remains unexplored.
a sample page (p.309)
The book goes beyond Ståhlberg and Swedish chess to survey international chess between the wars. If the detail can seem a little excessive at times (what the players ate for breakfast, and so on) Holmgren is a skilled narrator with an eye for intriguing connections and amusing stories. I particularly liked Vladas Mikėnas’ notes to his game with Ståhlberg from the 1936 Munich Olympiad (p.383). The Lithuanian, playing Black, had tricked Ståhlberg in the opening and sprung a devilish queen sacrifice as early as move twelve:
Ståhlberg – Mikėnas
Munich 1936
12….hxg5!!
A simple, but unexpected tactical blow. In this difficult position, Ståhlberg grabbed his head with his hands and started thinking intensely, but already there is no salvation. Five minutes passed, ten, twenty, but still the Scandinavian grandmaster pondered over the position. Half an hour went by, but my opponent remained motionless. I looked at the clock – only a few minutes were left before the time control – and suddenly I heard … snoring! It appeared that Ståhlberg, contemplating the hopeless position, had fallen asleep. I didn’t know what to do. I went close to the grandmaster and unintentionally brushed his leg. Ståhlberg started, woke up, glanced at the clock and replied immediately. (p.383)
Such lapses were rare for Ståhlberg and clearly he was out of sorts in this game. Sociable, fond of a drink and popular with the ladies, and no stranger to the race track or the roulette/bridge table, perhaps he had other things on his mind. He could be easily distracted during games and had been known to leave the board to gamble or read magazines; unsurprisingly he was prone to time trouble. He had a quick temper and swagger that sometimes led to conflict with colleagues and the authorities. He didn’t suffer fools.
A classical positional player at heart, Ståhlberg was loyal to the Queen’s Gambit and French Defence throughout his career and contributed many new ideas to these openings. In his youth he (like Ulf) was not averse to punting the King’s Gambit and other adventurous openings but he soon came to realise that gambits really weren’t his cup of tea. He worked hard, earned a reputation as an opening theoretician and became a formidable match player, with victories over Nimzowitsch and Spielmann to his credit and a drawn match with Keres (in 1938). By the end of the decade he had established himself in the world’s top dozen players.
Holmgren has translated many of Ståhlberg’s annotations and other contemporary Swedish sources himself but is quick to acknowledge his debt to fellow Swedish enthusiasts and others. He sought permission to reproduce passages from some of the major magazines and classic books of the time such as CHESS (naturally), Moscow 1935 (translated by Jimmy Adams) and Alekhine’s 107 Great Chess Battles (translated by Edward Winter). Daniel King, Ferdinand Hellers and Ralf Åkesson are among the current grandmasters who have contributed annotations.
Writing a book in your second language must be a stiff challenge and Peter Holmgren deserves great credit for taking it on. Proofreaders have corrected what he calls his ‘Swenglish’ but he admits that his helpers did not see all of the text; this is a pity because some passages would have benefited from closer scrutiny. Stilted English is rarely a barrier to understanding but it can make work for the reader. To take two examples: ‘As little as the Dutch Defense does the Indian Defenses constitute a satisfactory solution to the problem of avoiding a regular Queen’s Gambit after 1.d4’ (p.40); and ‘1 f4 Ståhlberg has now abandoned this for him earlier endearing opening’ (p.45). Inevitably there are typos too, e.g. ‘ment’ (for ‘meant’, p.46), ‘athlets’ (p.93), ‘audeince’ (p.141) and ‘Alekine’ (p.309).
But these are minor blemishes on a gorgeously produced and formidably researched book. It is outstanding value at less than £50.
And like many well-told stories, this one ends on a cliffhanger, with our steely hero stranded in Buenos Aires as war breaks out during the 1939 Olympiad. If Volume II takes a few years to appear it will be well worth the wait.
This game appears in the book without notes. Harry Golombek chose to include it in his Fifty Great Games of Modern Chess (1942) because he thought it typical of Ståhlberg’s ‘sheer elegance of style’. Golombek mistakenly gives Erik Lundin as playing Black, which may have also influenced his selection of the game.
Gideon Ståhlberg – Ored Karlin
Nordic Ch, Oslo (8), 20 July 1939
(Notes by Harry Golombek)
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qb3 c5 5 dxc5 Nc6 6 Nf3 Ne4 7 Bd2 Nxd2 8 Nxd2
This once popular line has now been superseded by 7…Nxc5 mainly as a result of several disasters suffered by Black with the text variation in the great Carlsbad Tournament of 1929.
The chief defect of the variation is Black’s weakness on the d-file.
8… Qa5
Not a profitable excursion. Black would do better to safeguard d6 and prevent a knight reaching that square via e4 by playing …f5.
9 e3 Qxc5
After 9…Bxc3 10 Qxc3 Qxc3 11 bxc3 Black would be at a loss for a method of developing his queenside.
10 Nde4 Qa5 11 0–0–0 f5 12 Nd6+ Ke7
12…Bxd6 was better though the weakness on the d-file would be enduring; now he falls victim to one of those moves that seem specially designed to demonstrate the inner logic of the position.
13 Nd5+! exd5
Somewhat better is 13…Kxd6 though Black would still be sadly weak on the black squares.
14 Nxf5+ Kd8 15 Rxd5 Qc7
Black has temporarily emerged from trouble, but finds it difficult to complete his development, whilst his weakness on the d-file persists.
16 Be2 g6 17 Ng3 Re8 18 h4!
A fine move which forces future action on the kingside which Black has entirely denuded of protective pieces.
18…d6 19 a3 Bc5 20 Rhd1 Ne7
21 Rxc5!
White removes the key to the black defence by this further sacrifice; though a rook down he has the winning game.
21…Qxc5 22 Ne4 Qc7 23 Nxd6 Bd7 24 Nxb7+ Kc8 25 Nd6+ Kd8 26 Nxe8 Kxe8 27 h5
White’s attack has slackened in intensity but still endures; in addition he has adequate material compensation in three pawns for a piece.
27…Be6 28 Qc3 Kf7 29 hxg6+ Nxg6 30 f4 Rd8 31 Rxd8 Qxd8 32 g4
The final assault with the pawns commences and Black’s pieces are forced to take avoiding action.
32…Ne7 33 f5 Bd7 34 c5 Bc6 35 Bc4+ Bd5 36 Qd4 Qa8 37, e4!
37…Bxc4 38, Qxc4+ Kf8 39 Qd4 Qc6 40 g5 Qc7
Threatening …Qf4+ winning a pawn.
41.Kb1 Qf4 42 f6 Nc6 43 Qd5 Qc7 44 Ka2 a5 45 Kb3
45…Nd8 46 e5 Qf7 47 Kc4 Qe8
The exchange of queens would leave Black hopelessly placed.
48 Qd6+ Kf7 49 Qc7+ Kg6 50 Qg7+ Kf5 51 Qxh7+ Kxe5 52.Qe7+
1–0
A model example of positional attack that lasted for 40 moves before achieving a just triumph.
