{"id":3912,"date":"2019-03-12T15:26:54","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T15:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/03\/12\/alinsky-tartakower-and-nimzowitsch\/"},"modified":"2019-03-12T15:26:54","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T15:26:54","slug":"alinsky-tartakower-and-nimzowitsch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/03\/12\/alinsky-tartakower-and-nimzowitsch\/","title":{"rendered":"Alinsky, Tartakower, and Nimzowitsch: “The Threat is Stronger than the Execution”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kai Frederik Lorentzen writes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In your latest blog entry you refer to Alinsky's Rules for Radicals<\/em>. Being aware that you are a chess player, I want to ask: Do you know that his rule number nine had earlier been formulated by grandmaster Tartakower?<\/span><\/p>\n

Alinsky: "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself."<\/span><\/p>\n

Tartakower: "Die Drohung ist st\u00e4rker als die Ausf\u00fchrung."<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I am well aware of the saying, both in German and in English, but I was under the false impression that it originated with Aron Nimzowitsch, most likely because of the famous 'smoking threat' anecdote.  Edward Winter, the chess historian, provides<\/a> all the details one could ask for, and more: <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Page 138 of Schach 2000 Jahre Spiel-Geschichte<\/em> by R. Finkenzeller, W. Ziehr and E. B\u00fchrer (Stuttgart, 1989) ascribed to Tartakower a remark quoted as \u2018Eine Drohung ist st\u00e4rker als eine Ausf\u00fchrung<\/em>\u2019. In the English-language edition (London, 1990) that came out lumberingly as \u2018A threat is more effective than the actual implementation\u2019, whereas the usual rendering is \u2018The threat is stronger than the execution\u2019. Moreover, Nimzowitsch, rather than Tartakower, is customarily named as the coiner of the phrase, with everything tied into the famous \u2018smoking threat\u2019 anecdote.<\/span><\/p>\n

On page 191 of the July 1953 CHESS<\/em> M. Lipton pointed out two contradictory versions of the story of Nimzowitsch complaining that his opponent was threatening to smoke. On pages 31-32 of Chess for Fun & Chess for Blood<\/em> (Philadelphia, 1942) Edward Lasker asserted that the incident, involving a cigar, had occurred \u2018in an offhand game between Nimzowitsch and Emanuel Lasker in Berlin\u2019 (although there was still, according to Edward Lasker\u2019s account, an umpire to whom Nimzowitsch could protest). On page 128 of The World\u2019s Great Chess Games<\/em> (New York, 1951) Reuben Fine stated that the scene had been New York, 1927, and that Nimzowitsch complained to the tournament director, Mar\u00f3czy, when Vidmar \u2018absent-mindedly took out his cigarette case\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

New York, 1927 was also given as the venue by Irving Chernev (\u2018This is the way I heard it back in 1927, when it occurred\u2019) on pages 15-16 of The Bright Side of Chess<\/em> (Philadelphia, 1948). Nimzowitsch, we are told, complained to the tournament committee that Vidmar looked as if he wanted to smoke a cigar, but Chernev mentioned no remark about the threat being stronger than the execution. [. . .]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

"The threat is stronger than the execution" is undoubtedly the best translation of Die Drohung ist st\u00e4rker als die Ausf\u00fchrung.<\/em> Winter, however, cites Eine Drohung ist st\u00e4rker als eine Ausf\u00fchrung <\/em>which is not as good in German or in English: "A threat is stronger than an execution."<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Alinsky, it hadn't occurred to me that he was essentially repeating the Tartakower line.  Very interesting, and I thank for pointing that out.  We pedants derive inordinate but harmless pleasure from such bagatelles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I don't know whether Alinsky played chess (many Jews do). I learned about this most famous Tartakowerism when I played the game seriously in my early youth. Not only with teenage peers but also with a grown up team in the third national league (Verbandsliga) where I played at board four (of eight) and had positive overall results in all three seasons. The teenage boy I was enjoyed making grown up men -  architects, doctors, lawyers -  sweat in their suits … I also liked to play Blitzschach<\/em> a lot, with five or two minutes time for the whole match. I still have a beautiful English chess clock from the late 1970s but hardly ever play today. Other things became more important, and laymen often tend to avoid former club players. And if it doesn't sound too kulturpessimistisch<\/em>, I may add that I sometimes have the impression that digitalization killed the poetic spirit of the game. Can Goddess Caissa survive the algorithms?         <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"BV<\/a>Chess is Jewish athletics, as the saying goes, and they dominate the game. See Jews in Chess<\/a>. I would expect that Alinsky had some knowledge of the game.  I conjecture that one of the roots of Jew hatred is envy.  Jews have made contributions to high culture far out of proportion to their numbers.  <\/span><\/p>\n

If our paths ever cross, Kai, we will have to play. I am a patzer, but on a good day I rise to the level of Grand Patzer. My highest USCF rating was around 1720. So I am a 'B' player.  I am 'strong coffee house' at least in the coffee houses around here. I came to serious play (tournaments) too late in life to to get any good.  But I beat everyone around here and so people think I'm a master.  A big fish in a small pond. I try to explain to them the hierarchical nature of chess and of life herself, but I rarely get through to them. I play a few 3-minute blitz games per day on the Internet Chess Club, the premier site for chess play.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The poetic spirit of the game will never die as long as there are romantics like me around. Caissa, like Philosophia, will ever evade the algorithms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chess is a beautiful thing, a gift of the gods, an oasis of sanity in an insane world. If I met Alinsky at the barricades we'd meet as enemies; over the chess board, however, as friends. <\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tartakowerismen<\/a><\/span>
https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rules_for_Radicals<\/a><\/span>
https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/maverick_philosopher\/2019\/03\/liberal-immigration-hyper-hypocrisy.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kai Frederik Lorentzen writes, In your latest blog entry you refer to Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. Being aware that you are a chess player, I want to ask: Do you know that his rule number nine had earlier been formulated by grandmaster Tartakower? Alinsky: "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself." Tartakower: … Continue reading “Alinsky, Tartakower, and Nimzowitsch: “The Threat is Stronger than the Execution””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aphorisms-by-others","category-chess"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}