The original Berlin

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 17 January 2011)

Most of us here in the Philippines during the ’60s and ’70s were brought up in a steady diet of Fred Reinfeld books.

One of my chess rivals for supremacy in Xavier School told me that the most influential book in his life is Attack and Counter-Attack in Chess by Reinfeld!

During that time there weren’t too many chess books available, but I am sure many of our BW readers might have seen the following Reinfeld books:

Attack and Counter-Attack in Chess

Chess Strategy and Tactics 50 Master Games

Winning Quickly at Chess

Colle’s Chess Masterpieces

Tarrasch’s Best Games of Chess

Reshevsky’s Best Games of Chess

Lasker’s Greatest Chess Games

The Unknown Alekhine

Hypermodern Chess: Nimzovich

Immortal Games of Capablanca

Keres’ Best Games of Chess

Great Brilliancy Prize Games of the Chess Masters

Reshevsky’s Best Games of Chess

Marshall’s Best Games of Chess

Yes, I know the last two are supposed to be autobiographies, but it is general knowledge that Reinfeld had ghost-written them.

Fred Reinfeld was without a doubt one of the most prolific chess writers in history, having written or co-written over 100 books. He also authoritatively wrote about a lot of other topics like checkers, coin collecting, stamp collecting, geology, history, medicine, physics, political science and jurisprudence.

Reinfeld died on May 29, 1964, at the age of 54 in New York from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm.

Why am I writing all of a sudden by him? Well, the original Berlin Defense after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Be7 6.Qe2 Nd6 7.Bxc6 bxc6 8.dxe5 Nb7 always struck me as a really bad choice for Black -- look at the doubled pawns and White’s dominating pawn! But Reinfeld in Chess Strategy and Tactics 50 Master Games showed me M. Porges vs. Em. Lasker, and explained Black’s idea to me.

Porges, Moritz - Lasker, Emanuel [C67]
Nuremberg (1), 20.07.1896

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A great advertisement for the Berlin Defense! Now I understood what Black was playing for.

In 2007, Vladimir Malakhov had a big problem during his World Championship Candidates’ Semifinal match vs Alexander Grischuk. His opening preparation for Black was treated very roughly by Grischuk and he suffered a bad loss. As an emergency measure, Malakhov dug up the Original Berlin Defense to hold off his opponent’s aggressive tendencies. This he achieved quite easily and this experiment was a success. Since then Malakhov has been using the Original Berlin as a regular part of his armory.

But lately this line has been in for some hard times. During the 63rd Russian championship Peter Svidler was in good form and making a run for an unprecedented 6th Russian crown. Here is how he played against Malakhov’s Berlin.

Svidler, Peter (2722) -- Malakhov, Vladimir (2712) [C67]
63rd ch-RUS Moscow RUS (6), 16.12.2010
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Chess is truly a dynamic game with no hard and fast rules. Maybe tomorrow someone will show us a new treatment by Black, and the Berlin will rule again.