Richard Réti (28 May 1889 – 6 June 1929) was an

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

and later Czechoslovak

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, chess author and composer of

endgame studies In the game of chess, an endgame study, or just study, is a type of chess problem that starts with a composed position—i.e. one that has been made up rather than played in an actual game—where the goal is to find the essentially unique way for ...

. He was one of the principal proponents of hypermodernism in chess. With the exception of Nimzowitsch's book '' My System'', he is considered to be the movement's foremost literary contributor.

Early life

Réti was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in Bazin,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

(now

Pezinok Pezinok (; in the local dialect ''Pezinek''; ; ; ) is a town in southwestern Slovakia. It is roughly northeast of Bratislava and, as of December 2023, had a population of 24,443. Pezinok lies near the Little Carpathians and thrives mainly on vi ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

), where his father worked as a physician in the service of the Austrian military. His older brother Rudolph Reti (who did not use the acute accent) was a noted

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

, musical theorist, and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. He is the great-grandfather of the German

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. Réti came to

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

to study mathematics at Vienna University."Memoir of Reti", in ''Reti's Best Games of Chess'', annotated by H. Golombek (Dover 1974).

Chess career

One of the top players in the world during the 1910s and 1920s, he began his career as a combinative classical player, favoring openings such as the

King's Gambit The King's Gambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. f4 White offers a pawn to divert the black e-pawn. If Black accepts the gambit, White may play d4 and Bxf4, regaining the gambit pawn with domination, or direc ...

(1.e4 e5 2.f4). After the end of the

First World War 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 ...

, however, his playing style changed, and he became one of the principal proponents of hypermodernism, along with

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 ...

and others. He had his greatest early successes in the period 1918 through 1921, in tournaments in Kaschau (Košice; 1918),

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

(1919),

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

(1920),

(1920), and

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(1921). In 1925 Réti set a world record for

blindfold chess Blindfold chess, also known as ''sans voir'', is a form of chess play wherein the players do not see the positions of the pieces and do not touch them. This forces players to maintain a mental model of the positions of the pieces. Moves are commun ...

with 29 games played simultaneously. He won 21, drew 6, and lost 2. Réti was also a notable composer of

Death

Réti died on 6 June 1929 in Prague of

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...

. His ashes are buried in the grave of Réti's father, Dr. Samuel Réti, in the Jewish section of Zentralfriedhof cemetery in Vienna, in Section T1, Group 51, Row 5, Grave 34.JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry. - Austria http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/.

Legacy

The Réti Opening (1.Nf3 d5 2.c4) is named after him. Réti defeated World Champion

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 ...

in the New York 1924 chess tournament in 31 moves – Capablanca's first defeat in eight years, his only loss to Réti, and his first since becoming world champion. This tournament was also the only occasion in which Réti beat future world champion

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 ...

, accomplishing this feat in the same number of moves. Réti's writings have become classics of chess literature. ''Modern Ideas in Chess'' (1923) and ''Masters of the Chess Board'' (1933) are studied today.

Famous endgame study

Réti composed one of the most famous chess studies, shown in this diagram. It was published in '' Ostrauer Morgenzeitung'' 4 December 1921. It seems impossible for the white king to catch the advanced black pawn, while the white pawn can be easily stopped by the black king. The idea of the solution is to move the king to advance on both pawns at the same time using specific properties of the chess geometry. :1. Kg7 h4 2. Kf6 Kb6 :Or 2...h3 3.Ke7 and the white king can support its own pawn. :3. Ke5 :And now the white king comes just in time to the white pawn, or catches the black one. :3... h3 4. Kd6 and draws.

Publications

*''Modern Ideas In Chess'' (1923
Complete Transcription
*''Masters Of The Chess Board'' (1933)

Notable games

Réti vs. Akiba Rubinstein, Karlsbad 1923, King's Indian Attack (A11), 1–0
A model game for Réti-type opening.
Réti vs. Jose Raul Capablanca, New York 1924, English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense. (A15), 1–0
The famous victory over Capablanca.
Réti vs. Alexander Alekhine, New York 1924, Indian Game: London System (A48), 1–0
Réti's only victory over Alekhine.
Réti vs. Efim Bogoljubov, New York 1924, English Opening (A13), 1–0

praised the "sparkling conclusion". The game won the tournament's . A collection of his games was published as ''Reti's Games of Chess'', annotated by H. Golombek, republished by Dover (1974).

References

External links

* * Edward Winter
The Réti Brothers

Complete works of Richard Reti
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reti, Richard 1889 births 1929 deaths People from Pezinok Sportspeople from the Bratislava Region Slovak Jews Chess composers Chess theoreticians Jewish chess players Chess players from Austria-Hungary Slovak chess players Czechoslovak chess players Chess Olympiad competitors Writers from Austria-Hungary Czech chess writers Czech Jews Hungarian Jews Jews from Austria-Hungary