The New York International

The better known "New York 1924" tournament, of course, was the New York International Grandmasters Tournament, contested in March and April of that year. Emmanuel Lasker, who had lost the World Championship in 1921 after a 27 year reign, left most of the field far behind, though the current World Champion Jose Raoul Capablanca kept pace with him for a while and handed Lasker his only defeat. Alekhine, Marshall, and Reti also took prizes (see the Tournament Crosstable below). There are many Online Resources devoted to the New York International, and you can find those links below, along with some of the better Games from the Tournament and pictures of the Top Four contestants. Alekhine's tournament book (edited by Hermann Helms, who organized the event) is widely considered one of the best chess books of all time.
 

Games from the Tournament

There were many great and memorable games played at the tournament, including, most notably, Reti-Bogoljubow (awarded the first brilliancy prize for its pretty finish), Marshall-Bogoljubow (second brilliancy prize), Capablanca-Lasker (third brilliancy prize), Janowski-Ed. Lasker (with an amazing endgame featuring two Knights and three pawns versus a Queen and pawn), Capablanca-Tartakower (with its famous Rook ending), and Reti-Capablanca (which was Capa's first loss in many years). Here are 22 of the best games from the tournament listed by round:

You can download a PGN file from the Pitt Archives containing all of the games.

The Top Four

Lasker	Capablanca	Alekhine	Marshall

Tournament Crosstable

Online Resources about the New York International

There is a great deal of coverage of the New York International available on the web, and I have provided a collection of links for those interested in finding out more (and for those who accidentally stumbled upon my site while looking for the other New York 1924):

Battle Royale: The 1924 New York International Chess Tournament,
by Steven Lopez
Lopez's site is difficult to describe. Part historical novel, part game collection, it offers a fun (if often fictionalized) view of the event. I think young people, especially, will enjoy the story and Lopez's characterizations of the participants. And everyone will enjoy the access to the games that the site provides in multiple formats, along with lots of little extras to download (including pictures of the participants). I think the site navigation could be improved and it would be nice to have access to the games without the necessary step of downloading files. But we should really encourage efforts like this one which have the potential to make chess history come alive for young readers.

Pitt Chess Archives
The Pitt Archives has all the games from New York 1924 in PGN format and ChessBase format. Click on the links to download these files directly to your computer.

The Openings at New York, 1924, Part One, by Tim Harding
This first installment of Harding's Kibitzer column devoted to the openings used in the New York event covers the open games (beginning 1.e4) and focuses on Tartakower's crazy 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Be2. This article appeared as part of Chess Cafe's celebration of the 75th Anniversary of New York 1924 in the March 1999 issue. The articles below by Forster and Gijssen and several other files linked here were also part of that special issue.

New York 1924 Revisited: The Closed Openings, by Tim Harding
Harding discusses the focus on closed games and hypermodern development in the openings that took place at this landmark tournament.

The Reti System, by Richard Forster
One of Richard Forster's "Late Knight" columns dedicated to the birth of the Reti System, which Richard Reti first tried out extensively at New York 1924. Part of Chess Cafe's 75th Anniversary issue dedicated to New York 1924.

New York 1924, The Arbiter's View by Guert Gijssen.
A great little article from Chess Cafe that covers the specific tournament rules (and their consequences) from the New York 1924 tournament.

Russian Planet - New York 1924 games (in Russian)
An excellent site with several well annotated games.

FileLibrary.com
This link takes you to a page with links to the New York 1924 games in various formats to download direct from the FileLibrary site.

The Strongest Tournaments in History
New York 1924 is in the top 20.

New York 1924, from Concept to Reality, Part 1 and Part 2, by Hanon Russell
Describes the way that the 1924 event was organized and how participants were contracted for the event.

Alekhine Letter to Norbert Lederer, February 1924, at Chess Cafe

Grandmasters I Have Known: Alexander Alekhine, by Hans Kmoch
An excerpt from Kmoch's book on the important New York 1924 participant.

Emmanuel Lasker, edited by Tryfon Gavriel and Janet Edwardson
One of the better sites dedicated to the former World Champion and the winner of the New York 1924 event.

Alexander Alekhine
A site devoted to the number three player in New York 1924, who would become world champion three years later.

Emmanuel Lasker's Description of New York 1924 and 1927, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 at Chess Cafe.
A four part letter by Lasker explains his absence from New York 1927 due to the events of New York 1924. In four parts due to length.

Capablanca-Tartakower, New York 1924
A page devoted to this excellent game, which beautifully demonstrates the power of an active King in the Rook ending. The page features extensive annotations provided by various commentators.

Capablanca-Tartakower, New York 1924
Play over the game at the about.com chess web site.

Bill Wall's Chessmaster Profiles -- Capablanca
A chronological discussion of Capa's chess career.

A Piece of History>>>