Learn How To Spot Winning Tactics With "Mr. Chess Combinations"

If the title of this article made you think that it is another showcase of GM Mikhail Tal's magic, you would be wrong. Today, we are going to talk about a brilliant player from the past who is partially forgotten or at least not as well known as other chess titans from that time period, GM Carlos Torre Repetto. But let me start from the beginning.

When I joined our chess club, the very first tactical pattern our coach showed us was a back-rank checkmate. And the very first example that he demonstrated was, as you probably guessed, the following iconic game against Edwin Ziegler Adams:

Later, when our coach showed us another popular tactical pattern known as a "windmill," he started with another classic game, this time against former world champion Emanuel Lasker:

The combinations executed in these two games were so striking that for a long time, kids in our chess club were saying something like "I did Adams-Torre to him" instead of "I back-ranked him," or "this is a bad move as it allows Torre-Lasker" instead of "allows a windmill."  Since the name "Torre" was present in both patterns, it almost became a synonym for a chess combination to me. So, when I saw a game where then-world champion GM Anatoly Karpov lost to Torre, I couldn't understand why people were calling it a "major upset" since he lost to "Mr. Combinations" himself!

You can imagine my confusion and even disappointment when I learned that the grandmaster who played Black was another Torre! As I already mentioned, GM Carlos Torre Repetto is not a household name, so it is understandable why an eight-year-old me was confused. Meanwhile, in about a month, we are going to celebrate GM Carlos Torre's 120-year anniversary, so it is a good opportunity to talk about him.

I cannot provide any biographical info that you wouldn't be able to find in Wiki's article about him. By the way, there you'll learn that the game Adams-Torre was never actually played! Therefore, I'd like to discuss his chess and, mainly, what made him a tactical wizard.

First of all, I noticed that many of the world's greatest players made inexplicable mistakes playing Torre. Well, we can say that at least Lasker had an excuse in the above-mentioned game.

According to his biographer, Boris Vainstein, a couple of moves before Lasker made a blunder allowing the windmill, he got a telegram stating that his stage play "Vom Menschen die Geschichte" had been accepted by a theater. Lasker worked on this stage play for seven years and was very excited by the news, which naturally distracted him from the game against Torre.

But what about the other game? How could a famous opening theoretician and one of the best players in the world miss the following basic combo? I am sure most of you will see it instantly!

Even more mysterious is the following miniature:

How could an excellent tactician like Frank Marshall, famous for his swindles, lose in just seven moves? Was Torre hypnotizing his opponents? Marshall was so impressed by this tactical pattern that two years later, he tried to catch Alexander Alekhine in the New York 1927 super tournament.

Alekhine didn't fall for it, saying in his annotations to the game that it was a "typical Marshall's swindle." Of course, we know who inspired Marshall to try this trap. Here is how the actual game continued:

In the last game we'll discuss today, Torre's victim was another strong grandmaster and opening expert, GM Friedrich Samisch. Can you find the winning combination?

So, how did Torre manage to create such fantastic attacking positions against the best players of his time? His recipe is quite simple: first, he would make his pieces very active by controlling the center as much as possible. For example, look at this position from the game vs. Lasker:

A picture-perfect centralization, and as a result, all white pieces are very active.

After he controls the center, Torre points his pieces toward the opponent's king. We discussed this idea in my previous article about X-rays. Speaking of which, look at a lovely X-ray that eventually transformed into the deadly windmill:

I hope that this simple strategy will help you to crush your opponents:

1) Centralize your pieces; make them as active as possible

2) Point them toward the opponent's king

3) Execute a combination, since it should be there already!