Andor Lilienthal dies at 99
8 May 2010, 19.29 CET | Last modified: 21:44 | By Editors | Filed under: Reports | Tags: In memoriam
After Vassily Smyslov and Florencio Campomanes, the chess world says goodbye to another big name. The world’s oldest living grandmaster, Andor Lilienthal, died today of serious illness, three days after his 99th birthday.
In his long career, Lilienthal played against ten male and female world champions. He drew with Alekhine and beat Lasker, Capablanca, Euwe, Botvinnik and Smyslov, as well as players like Bronstein, Larsen, Geller, Najdorf, Taimanov and Tartakower. Only three days ago he turned 99 years old. Today he passed away.
Lilienthal was the oldest living grandmaster, and the last one from the original group of grandmasters awarded the title by FIDE in 1950: Botvinnik, Boleslavsky, Bondarevsky, Bronstein, Euwe, Fine, Flohr, Keres, Kotov, Lilienthal, Najdorf, Reshevsky, Smyslov, Ståhlberg, Szabó, Bernstein, Duras, Grünfeld, Kostic, Levenfish, Maróczy, Mieses, Ragozin, Rubinstein, Sämisch, Tartakower and Vidmar.
Andor Arnoldovich Lilienthal was born May 5, 1911 in Moscow to Hungarian Jewish parents. He moved to Hungary at the age two. He learned playing chess quite late: when he was 16 years old. He quickly fell in love with the game and dreamt about playing with professional chess players. In Budapest he tried to play for money in cafes, as he told the magazine 64. One day he travelled to Vienna, where he played with Grünfeld. He would soon also meet Lasker, and Alekhine:
In Paris in café “Regence” in Rue de Rivoli the portrait of Alekhine hung on the wall, and there was a table at which Napoleon played. Alekhine also was a customer of that café. One day they told him about me. They said that there was a boy who perfectly played simple games. The “Doctor” (that’s how they called Alekhine in “Regence”) offered me to play four games, of course with no stake.
To spectators’ surprise he only managed to defeat me in the 4th game, whereas the three first games were won by me. Alekhine demanded revenge but I refused flatly: “Doctor I want to save this result for the rest of my life”, I said. Though Alekhine was a nervous and quick-tempered person, this time he saw my point and burst out laughing. Source: ChessCafe Skittles 172
Indeed it was the time when chess was still largely played in coffee houses, and Lilienthal played at many of them and made his living this way. It was also where he first met with José Raoul Capablanca, who gave a simul in Vienna in 1929.
“Finally I was the last, who was still playing against Capablanca. In the middlegame [...] I got an advantage. However the renowned grandmaster looked at me in such a way that all my courage disappeared and, with a trembling voice, I offered him a draw. Capablanca accepted it so quickly that when I wanted to ask him rather awkwardly for an autograph, he was already gone accompanied by a pretty lady.” Source: ChessCafe Skittles 172
Lilienthal soon became strong enough to play in international chess tournaments. His career started in 1930, and his first opponent was 65-year-old Jacques Mieses, born in 1865.
Lilienthal: “Already at the start I was to play with old Mieses,who crushed me in a way like perhaps nobody was able to later. I was so ashamed that could only keep resisting until the 16th move.” Source: ChessCafe Skittles 172
Andor Lilienthal played for Hungary in three Chess Olympiads: Folkestone 1933 (scoring +7 =6 -0 as the reserve, the fifth player on the team), Warsaw 1935 (scoring +11 =8 -0 on second board), and Stockholm 1937 (scoring +9 =6 -2 on first board, leading his team to the silver medal). He won the individual gold medal for his board (reserve and second board, respectively) at the 1933 and 1935 Olympiads, and had the fourth-best result on first board in 1937. His total score in the Olympiads was a remarkable 75.51%.
One game will always be connected with the name of Lilienthal. His evergreen was his win over Capablanca, played on January 1st, 1935 in Hastings.
20.exf6!! Qxc2 21.fxg7 Rg8 22.Nd4 Qe4 23.Rae1 Nc5 24.Rxe4+ Nxe4 25.Re1 Rxg7 26.Rxe4+ 1-0
Chessbase added the following paragraph to this game:
Lilienthal used to relate: “Wherever I went on an exhibition tour, both in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, chess players and fans always asked me to show them how I sacrificed the queen against the great Cuban. When Bobby Fischer noticed Lilienthal in the audience at his 1992 return match against Boris Spassky, Fischer greeted him with the remark “Pawn e5 takes f6!
Emigrating to the Soviet Union in 1935, Lilienthal became a Soviet citizen in 1939. He played in the USSR Chess Championship eight times. His best result came in the 1940 championship, when he tied for first with Igor Bondarevsky, ahead of Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, Isaac Boleslavsky, Mikhail Botvinnik and fourteen other players. He qualified for the Candidates Tournament once, in 1948.
From 1951 until 1960 he was Tigran Petrosian’s trainer. Lilienthal was a good friend of the recently deceased Vasily Smyslov, and was Smyslov’s second in his World Championship matches against Botvinnik.
Lilienthal retired from tournament play in 1965 and returned to Hungary in 1976. His last tournament was Zamárdi 1980, where he finished sixth in the B group, scoring +3 =11 -1. His last game in the database is a draw against Emil Ungureanu. Lilienthal was 69, and rated 2385.
Lilienthal was also a close friend of another World Champion he survived: Bobby Fischer. As Slobodan Adzic wrote five years ago for Chessbase:
Their friendship began in 1992 in Sveti Stefan. Lilienthal and his wife Olga was there for the rematch Fischer vs Spassky. In 1993 Fischer lived in Budapest for over a year. One month was spent in Andor Lilienthal’s apartment. “He was always talking about his invention of random chess, but I told him that it was meaningless, and compared to classical chess it seems to be quite boring. Bobby didn’t like what I said and tried to convince me that the future of chess lies in change.” Lilienthal believes that Fischer is absolutely the best chess player of all times. He says that the proof for this is that the lone autodidact Fischer overcame the entire Russian chess imperium.
As Dutch GM and author J. H. Donner noted, Lilienthal had the unique ending of two knights versus pawn not once, but twice in his career (Norman-Lilienthal, Hastings 1934 and Smyslov-Lilienthal, URS ch 1941): “The great natural talent Lilienthal had the endgame on the board twice in his life and on both occasions he failed to convert a winning position. Apparently, it was too difficult even for his very refined chess sensitivity.”
Lilienthal was the last famous player of the pre-World War II era. From this period Lasker, Alekhine, Euwe, Capablanca, Rubinstein, Tarrasch and Nimzowitsch are still remembed, but not many more. The games we give below, prove how strong he really was – well into the 21st century, his strength is unjustly forgotten and underestimated. Kasparov only mentions Lilienthal once in his Great Predecessors series, when he includes Capablanca-Lilienthal, Moscow 1936. A classic, also according to Kasparov, so we’ve included it in the game viewer below.
A few months ago Arne and I were talking about travelling from Amsterdam to Budapest, to interview Mr Lilienthal. He was clearly the only chess player in the world for whom we’d consider doing such a thing. Unfortunately we were too late.
Andor Lilienthal at the Turin Olympiad in May 2006. It was the first international chess event I visited, before this had turned into a serious website. On June 5, 2006 I wrote: 'A photo I'm proud of. This is the last living player of the pre World War II era and the oldest grandmaster in the world. He beat Marshall, Tartakower, Alekhine and Capablanca. Everyone had to wear a badge in Turin; the players had access '1' (Olympic Village)', '2' (Residential Area) and '3' (Oval Access). We had the luxury to enter '4' (Parterre) and '5' (Media Area) as well. The fact that this gentleman had 1,2,3,4,5,6 on his badge, suggested that he had to be Lilienthal. And he was. And he didn't mind posing for a photo.'
Game viewer
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Links
- Lilienthal on Wikipedia
- Chessbase report on his 94th birthday
- Chessbase In Memoriam
- ChessCafe Skittles 172: Andor Lilienthal and His Contribution to the History of Modern Chess
- 64: The last of the Mohicans
- Games in PGN
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Wouldn’t it be nice if Anand and Topalov respected one minute of silence tomorrow to honour this great chess legend?
They honored Campomanes, so they may also honor Lilienthal.
Probably no one could tell so many stories about chess and chess players as Lilientahl could have done. He had played with simply everybody!
I would have gladly paid a monthly wage just to spend a couple of days with him, listening to those stories. Pity that you missed that chance, too.
I think there is a good article about him in “Curse of Kirsan”, by Sarah Hurst. I will have a look at it later on.
I believe he drove all the way from Budapest to Turin in 2006 for the Olympiad.
Great reading! I remembered the name Lillienthal from poring over early 20th centruy games when I was a kid. That he just now passed away stunned me. And, I had no idea how strong he was. Good grief. He should be more well-known. Thank you very much for the article.
lovely portrait ….except couldn’t it be possible that he also died of that strange and mysterious thing we call old age? Yes, you said he was seriously ill,but 99 seems like a good old age to me.
… and driving, and smoking, and… god knows what! almost until the end
A great name in all-time chess. Farewell Master!
Little questions:
I wonder why wasn’t Bogoljubov included in the first FIDE GMs? (They surely HAD TO include him, right?)
Who is now the oldest GM? And the GM for longest time, still alive? (They may not be the same person, as Liliental was…)
Peter, that last picture describes it all… you had to tell me who it was, and I think I was silent for 5 minutes.. which is a worldrecord till today…… Impressive.. RIP
@Castro Good question, no idea. On Wikipedia I found that he was awarded the GM title by FIDE a year later (a year before his death).
@Castro probably Korchnoi, he was awarded the IGM title in 1954
I am quite sure that Yuri Averbakh (born 1922) is now the oldest GM, and also the one who has held the title for the longest period.
By the way: Lilienthal was also one of the very last with a “Morphy-number” of 3. Meaning: He played someone, who played someone, who played Morphy. The only one still with us and with this low number, I know of is GM Arturo Pomar.
You may read more about “Morphy-numbers” at Chesscafe.com in articles by Tim Harding and Taylor Kingston.
“I wonder why wasn’t Bogoljubov included in the first FIDE GMs? (They surely HAD TO include him, right?)”
Political reasons. The Soviets didn’t want him to be awarded the title in 1950 so it was given to among others Ragozin, Levenfish and several other players classes below Bogoljubov instead.
@Jens Indeed, Lilienthal played Mieses, Mieses played Louis Paulsen and Paulsen played Morphy.
Yes, Peter – and Lilienthal also played Lasker, who played Bird, who played Morphy. And maybe there are some other connections too.
. It could be I have a few more connections too.
Me personally, I played Reshesvky, who played Lasker…aso.. So my “Morphy-number” is only 4
By the way: After the death recently of Smyslov and Lilienthal there no more alive from the 27 who in 1950 were the first to be awarded the GM-title by FIDE. So we have really turned a page in the big book.
OK, one more part from the ChessCafe Skittles article, on Lilienthal and Averbakh:
These Morphy Numbers are fascinating (and addictive)! I tried to get to 4 (for serious tournament games), of course, but I couldn’t do it. (It’s 5, via Hartoch, who played Keres, who has a Morphy Number of 3.)
I do not understand that a chess player can name the FIDE employee Campomanes all in one breath with Greats like Smyslov and Lilienthal.
Well, let’s put it this way, we didn’t write the first paragraph of this article as ‘a chess player’.
I get your point, and that’s why we did a much bigger article this time. But at the same time one cannot deny that Campomanes was a ‘big name’ too.
Lilienthal and Campomanes in 1 article… a chessplayer who has been a living advertisement for chess his entire long life and a dirty rat who has defiled the reputation of chess as nobody has done before…curious…
Beste mensen van Chessvibes,
Toen ik de aankondiging van dit artikel las, moest ik wel even slikken.
Hoe kun je nu het overlijden van de living legends Smyslov en nu Lilienthal
in een adem noemen met het heengaan van een mafiose bobo?!?
Onbegrijpelijk.
Iedereen kan ik trouwens de partijen-autobiografie van Lilienthal aanraden, ‘Schach war mein Leben’. Goede partijen en mooie verhalen.
Succes met de site,
Henk Schmitz
@Henk and others: they were all prominent figures in the chess world and they all died recently: isn’t that enough reason to mention them together? That doesn’t in any way imply a judgement on their characters. It’s just a statement of fact.
BTW (referring to Arne’s first comment): today Anand and Topalov did stand up for a minute or so before the start of the game – I guess in due course Peter will confirm that it was in honor and memory of Lilienthal.
Exactly. In fact I asked a FIDE delegate about this yesterday, and he would deliver the message to the arbiters. Then, ten minutes before the game, I checked with the Chief Arbiter if they’d do another one minute silence for Lilienthal. Gladly he said yes, otherwise I had to argue with him.
more games
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=65392
Thanks for talking to the arbiter, Peter, whom you can thank in the name of many friends of chess for granting your request.
As for mentioning Campomanes in the same breath with Smyslov and Lilienthal, I can only agree that Campomanes was a “big name” in chess, even if many people (myself included) were not happy about it.
And, after all, death is mainly….
(tcha-tcaham…)
THE GREAT EQUALIZER!!
(Ok, it was a not very good moment of black/existencialist humour, aka reality)
Averbakh, Gligoric & Taimanov jointly are the longest title-holders — they received their titles for “53 Candidates.
Peter/Arne,
Ever thought of interviewing Gligoric, Taimanov and the like (god forbid, before it’s too late)?
I find it very disturbing that these players are hardly talked about; we only see a rare photo in some tourney report and have no idea what they’re into these days… They’re the legends and deserve more love and attention from the chess public.
@chandler: In Valencia last year, I did talk for a while to Yuri Averbakh after he gave a (very interesting and eloquent) lecture on the origin of modern chess, but it wasn’t really an interview. I agree these legendary GMs should perhaps be more in the spotlight because they can tell great stories and have still very relevant things to say about chess.
@Arne: wow! I envy you…. i often dream that if I had enough money, I would visit all these players and spend some time with them. (Of course in my dreams I assume, given their lack of publicity, that they would be pleased to see someone travel so far only to see them).
I see (watson’s review on twic) that Hort’s gotten a DVD now…. hope that ChessBase continues this with the other legends. But of course, a product on sale (highly priced for many) isn’t the same as an interview/profile on a news site.