Géza Maróczy

From Chesspedia, the Free Chess Encyclopedia.

Géza Maróczy (pronounced GEH-zaw MAHR-ot-see, not MarOXy) (3 March 1870—29 May 1951) was a leading Hungarian chess master, one of the best players in the world in his time. He was also a practising engineer.

Early career

Géza Maróczy was born in Szeged, Hungary on March 3, 1870. He won the "minor" tournament at Hastings 1895, and over the next ten years he won several top prizes in international events. In 1906 he agreed to terms for a World Championship match with Emanuel Lasker, but political problems in Cuba, where the match was to be played, caused the arrangements to be cancelled.

Retirement and return

After 1908, Maróczy retired from international chess to devote more time to his profession as a mathematics teacher. He did make a brief return after World War I, with some success, and today the Maróczy Bind (pawns on c4 and e4 against the Sicilian) carries his name. At the turn of the year 1927/8, he demolished the 1924 champion of Hungary, Géza Nagy, in a match by +5-0=3.

Style

Maróczy's style, though sound, was very defensive in nature. His successful defences of the Danish Gambit against Jacques Mieses[1] and Karl Helling[2] involving judicial return of the sacrificed material for advantage, were used as models of defensive play by Euwe and Kramer's two volume series on the Middlegame. Aron Nimzowitsch in My System used Maróczy's win against Hugo Süchting (Barmen 1905) as a model of restraining the opponent before breaking through.[3] His handling of queen endgames was also very highly respected, such as against Frank Marshall from Karlsbad 1907 showing superior queen activity.[4] But he could also play spectacular chess on occasion, such as his famous victory over noted attacking player David Janowski (Munich 1900).[5]

The Maróczy Bind is a formation White may adopt against some variations of the Sicilian Defense. By placing pawns on e4 and c4, White slightly reduces his attacking prospects but also greatly inhibits Black's counterplay.

Assessment

Maróczy had respectable lifetime scores against most of the top players of his day. But the world chess champions obtained plus scores: Wilhelm Steinitz +1-2=1, Emmanuel Lasker +0-4=2, José Raúl Capablanca +0-3=5 and Alexander Alekhine +0-6=5; except for Max Euwe whom he beat +4-3=15. But Maróczy's defensive style was often more than sufficient to beat the leading attacking players of his day such as Joseph Henry Blackburne (+5-0=3), Mikhail Chigorin (+6-4=7), Frank Marshall (+11-6=8), David Janowski (+10-5=5), Efim Bogoljubov (+7-4=4) and Frederick Yates +8-0=1.

Capablanca held Maróczy in high esteem. In a lecture given in the early 1940s, Capablanca called Maróczy "very gentlemanly and correct" and "a kindly figure", praised the Maróczy Bind as an important contribution to opening theory, credited him as a "good teacher" who greatly helped Vera Menchik reach the top of women's chess, and "one of the greatest masters of his time." Capablanca wrote:

As a chessplayer he was a little lacking in imagination and aggressive spirit. His positional judgement, the greatest quality of the true master, was excellent. A very accurate player and an excellent endgame artist, he became famous as an expert on queen endings.

In a tournament many years ago he won a knight endgame against the Viennese master Marco which has gone into history as one of the classic endings of this type.[6] …

Concerning the relative strength of Maróczy and the best young masters of today, my opinion is that, with the exception of Botvinnik and Keres, Maróczy in his time was superior to all the other players of today.

If it is appreciated that in 1900, Maróczy was one of the world's top players and that 30 years later he was still capable of giving the champion of Hungary such a tremendous beating [Nagy above], it must be agreed that to compare another player with him a similar performance will be necessary over a more or less identical period.

External links

• Kmoch, Hans (2004). Grandmasters I Have Known: Geza Maroczy. Chesscafe.com.

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