Janowski — Showalter
Nuremberg, 1896
- Dawid Janowski (1868–1927)Polish-French master and one of the world's strongest players in the early 1900s, winner of the tournaments at Monte Carlo (1901) and Hanover (1902); he played a World Championship match against Lasker in 1910, and his game was marked by a love of the two bishops and sharp attacks.
- Jackson Showalter (1859–1935)American player nicknamed "the Kentucky Lion", one of the strongest in the United States and a many-time national champion in the 1890s and 1900s; a variation of the Queen's Gambit Accepted bears his name.
The idea of pushing a central pawn and then occupying the central square it vacates also played an important role in the following game, though here the e-pawns were traded off early.
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- White has not pushed a pawn to d4, and Black now uses that to grab space
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- Of course White could instead have “planted” the knight in the center:But the knight would not have stood securely there — Black could chase it away with a pawn at any moment
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- The knight takes up a comfortable post here
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- Not wanting to simplify the position by trading the bishops, and perhaps also wary of Black routing the knight to f4
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- It is curious that White's pieces, reaching their usual opening squares, spent a fair number of moves getting there: the g5 bishop and the f3 knight three each, the c4 knight and the e1 rook four each. Black has a positional advantage
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- The knight on d5 is wide awake! Black now gets the two bishops
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- Unpleasant for White
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- And now the other black knight settles on the square it wanted
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- Despite the trades, Black's pressure keeps mounting
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- After a long stay on g5, this knight played a real part: it kept White's c- and f-pawns from advancing, and White had to reckon with its jump to f4. Now it clears the diagonal for the light-squared bishop
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- Badly weakening the e3 square
- This threat was even worse
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- The black knight and the d4 pawn work together again
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- This knight invasion essentially ends the game. White's further desperate tries are useless:
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- White resigned
