Thursday 7 March 2013

A bit of a mystery

I came across the following game in one of my old chess books. Apparently it was played in 1924 between Saemisch and Herzog. I assume it was Fritz Saemisch who was white, given the quality of the attack. Oddly, it doesn't show up in my database, although it has been christened "Saemisch's Immortal" on at least one chess forum. I'm wondering under what circumstances the game was played as my initial source ("The Fireside Book of Chess" first published in 1949) called it an "unknown masterpiece"  and claimed it was the first time the game had appeared in book form.


Saemisch - Herzog [B15]
Gablonz, 1924


1 comment:

Pete (Ireland) said...

This is indeed an amazing attack, but isn't 22 Bxf6 objectively stronger? After 22 ... gf, 23 Qf5 wins; or 22 ... Qf4, 23 Rf3, and the queen can't both defend h6 and protect f5. I reckon if he'd taken on f6, Saemisch would have won long before move 36.