Géza Maróczy
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Géza Maróczy (; 3 March 1870 – 29 May 1951) was a Hungarian
chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
player, one of the leading players in the world in his time. He was one of the inaugural recipients of the
International Grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a Chess title, title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Chess Championship, World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is hel ...
title from
FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...
in 1950.


Early career

Géza Maróczy was born in
Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...
, Hungary on 3 March 1870. He won the "minor" tournament at Hastings 1895, and over the next ten years he won several first prizes in international events. Between 1902 and 1908, he took part in thirteen tournaments and won five first prizes and five second prizes. Today the Maróczy Bind (see below) and the Maróczy Gambit bear his name. In 1906 he agreed to terms for a
World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...
match with
Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher. He was the second World Chess Champion, holding the title for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially ...
, but the arrangements could not be finalised, and the match never took place.


Retirement and return

After 1908, Maróczy retired from international chess to devote more time to his profession as a clerk. He worked as an auditor and made a good career at the Center of Trade Unions and Social Insurance. When the Communists came briefly to power in 1919 after
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
(
Hungarian Soviet Republic The Hungarian Soviet Republic, also known as the Socialist Federative Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived communist state that existed from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919 (133 days), succeeding the First Hungarian Republic. The Hungari ...
) he was a chief auditor at the Education Ministry. After the Communist government was overthrown he couldn't get another job. He made a brief return to chess, with some success. At the turn of the year 1927/8, he outclassed the 1924 champion of Hungary, Géza Nagy, in a match by +5−0=3. With him on Board 1, Hungary won the first
Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...
s in London (1927). He continued competing in tournaments throughout the 1930s. In 1950,
FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...
instituted the title of Grandmaster; Maróczy was one of several players who were awarded the title based on their past achievements.


Style

Maróczy's style, though sound, was very defensive in nature. His successful defences of the Danish Gambit against Jacques Mieses and Karl Helling, involving judicious return of the sacrificed for advantage, were used as models of defensive play by
Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 ...
and Kramer in their two-volume series on the middlegame.
Aron Nimzowitsch Aron Nimzowitsch (; , ''Aron Isayevich Nimtsovich''; 7 November 1886 – 16 March 1935) was a Latvian-born Danish chess player and writer. In the late 1920s, Nimzowitsch was one of the best chess players in the world. He was the foremost f ...
, in '' My System'', used Maróczy's win against Hugo Süchting (in
Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...
1905) as a model of restraining the opponent before breaking through. But he could also play spectacular chess on occasion, such as his famous victory over the noted attacking player
David Janowski Dawid Markelowicz Janowski (25 May 1868 – 15 January 1927; often spelled ''David'') was a Polish chess player. Several opening variations are named after Janowski. Biography Born into a Jewish-Polish family in Wołkowysk, Russian Empire ...
(
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
1900). His handling of
queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...
endgames was also highly respected, such as against Frank Marshall, from Karlsbad 1907, showing superior queen activity. The Maróczy Bind is a formation
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
may adopt against some variations of the
Sicilian Defence The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. e4 c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. The opening 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for Whi ...
. By placing pawns on e4 and c4, White slightly reduces his attacking prospects but also greatly inhibits Black's .


Assessment

Maróczy had respectable lifetime scores against most of the top players of his day, but he had negative scores against the world chess champions:
Wilhelm Steinitz William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was a Bohemian-Austrian, and later American, chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and c ...
(+1−2=1),
Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher. He was the second World Chess Champion, holding the title for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially ...
(+0−4=2),
José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was the third World Chess Championship, world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he was widely renowned for his exceptional Chess ...
(+0−3=5) and
Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine. He disliked when Russians sometimes pronounced the of as , , which he regarded as a Yiddish distortion of his name, and insisted that the correct Russian pronunciation was . (March 24, 1946) was a Russian ...
(+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 Joseph Henry Blackburne (10 December 1841 – 1 September 1924) was a British chess player. Nicknamed "The Black Death", he dominated the British scene during the latter part of the 19th century. Blackburne learned the game at the relatively late ...
(+5−0=3),
Mikhail Chigorin Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (also ''Tchigorin''; ; – ) was a Russian chess player. He played two World Championship matches against Wilhelm Steinitz, losing both times. The last great player of the Romantic chess style, he also served as a ma ...
(+6−4=7), Frank Marshall (+11−6=8),
David Janowski Dawid Markelowicz Janowski (25 May 1868 – 15 January 1927; often spelled ''David'') was a Polish chess player. Several opening variations are named after Janowski. Biography Born into a Jewish-Polish family in Wołkowysk, Russian Empire ...
(+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 cited by Edward Winter's compendium on Capablanca):
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 End, END, Ending, or ENDS may refer to: End Mathematics *End (category theory) *End (topology) *End (graph theory) *End (graph_theory)#Cayley_graphs, End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous) *End (endomorphism) Sports and games *End (gridir ...
. In a tournament many years ago he won a knight endgame against the
Viennese Viennese may refer to: * Vienna, the capital of Austria * Viennese people, List of people from Vienna * Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna * Viennese classicism * Viennese coffee house, an eating establishment and part of Viennese ...
master Marco which has gone into history as one of the classic endings of this type. [Capablanca was referring to Marco–Maroczy, 1899.Marco vs. Maroczy, 1899
Chessgames.com] Concerning the relative strength of Maróczy and the best young masters of today, my opinion is that, with the exception of Mikhail Botvinnik, Botvinnik and Paul Keres, Keres, Maróczy in his time was superior to all the other players of today.


References


External links

* Kmoch, Hans (2004)
"Grandmasters I Have Known: Géza Maróczy (1870-1951)"
Chesscafe.com. * 1870 births 1951 deaths 19th-century chess players 20th-century Hungarian chess players 20th-century Hungarian sportsmen Chess Grandmasters Chess theoreticians Chess Olympiad competitors People from Szeged Chess players from Austria-Hungary {{Hungarian chess grandmasters Hungarian chess players