The Wizard of Warsaw: A Chess Biography of Szymon Winawer

Introduction

The Wizard of Warsaw is a biography and a game collection. It’s divided into two parts. In the first half of the book, Lissowski, a Polish chess historian gives insight into the life of Szymon Winawer. Alongside Winawer’s life and chess development, the author depicts the development of chess as a whole, as well as the political background and the social climate in 19th century Poland. The second half of the book is dedicated to Winawer’s games. IM Grigory Bogdanovich has annotated 123 of his best games. IM Bogdanovich has also written From Vienna to Munich to Stockholm: A Chess Biography of Rudolf Spielmann.

Winawer wasn’t a professional chess player. Unlike Alekhine or Capablanca, or other early masters, he never published annotated game collections. He isn’t as well known as his contemporaries today, which is why a biography of his is all the more important. We know a lot about Nimzowitsch, Lasker or Capablanca. Not many books have been written on players who’ve never quite reached the top.

Part 1 – The Biography of Szymon Winawer

The first part of the book is divided into 22 chapters. It begins with Winawer’s family history and ends in his final years during the early 20th century. It gives thrilling accounts of many important events in Winawer’s life and chess career. It’s not exactly a chess book, but it does feature a few historically important games here and there.

Many excerpts from publications written at the time, as well as many photographs accompany the author’s writing, giving the first part of the book true historical weight. From the beginnings of his chess career in his home town of Warsaw, to his tournament successes in London 1883, Berlin 1881, or Vienna 1882, Lissowski managed to describe what it was like to play chess on a competitive level in, for me, the dark ages of chess. I feel like all I knew about chess at the time were the games themselves. This is the first book that taught me what life was like for the players back then. Tournament conditions and regulations are described in detail, accommodation and travel arrangements, as well as many other details were captivating. Learning how a player came and actually played a London tournament 150 years ago is as interesting as reading a Sherlock Holmes adventure.

Part 2 – Selected Games

The introduction to the second part of The Wizard of Warsaw, in which 123 of his games were selected and annotated by IM Bogdanovich, begins with a quote on Winawer taken from The history of chess competitions by Nikolai Grekov: “Winawer was an infinitely resourceful and enterprising tactician, first and foremost. He paid little interest to theory, let alone the rivalry of schools of chess art, always remaining a very distinctive master with an exciting, unique talent. His greatest strength was tactics, and he was especially proficient in endgame play. He influenced quite a few prominent masters. Chigorin owes much of his tactical skill to him. Winawer was a forerunner of Lasker in the skillful use of the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation. Finally, his influence on Rubinstein’s play is obvious, especially his incredible ability to play for some miniscule advantage from the very start of the game and then finally capitalize on it in the endgame.”

Winawer is best known today for the WInawer French, a sharp defense named after him. Here is a game played early in his career, in London in 1883 against Mortimer, where he employed the opening himself! How would you evaluate the position?