Description

Mir Sultan Khan was the most remarkable and amazing chess player who ever lived. He was by far the first player of grandmaster strength from Asia. He came from a country where chess as we know it was not played. He had no book knowledge or training. He knew nothing of opening theory or studies of the game. He was brought from India as a servant and instructed by his master to play chess. Yet, he quickly established himself as one of the strongest players in the world, defeating Capablanca, Rubinstein, Flohr, Tartakower, Bernstein, Marshall and many other of the world's leading grandmasters (although the title was not established at that time) in tournament games. He also drew several games with World Champions Alekhine and Euwe but never beat them. Sultan Khan won many games in the endgame. He often traded queens in the opening. His games lasted a long time. He defeated Capablanca in the endgame when Capablanca was thought of as being unbeatable and the strongest endgame player in the world. In games where he salvaged a draw he appeared to be hopelessly lost against Euwe and Rubinstein. All the games from Descriptive Notation to Algebraic Notation. All 64 games in Algebraic Notation are to be found in a new appendix in the back of this book, along with a concluding diagram for each game. In addition, four other games are included. These are all games were R. N. Coles gave a diagram or part of the game but not the complete game. One is an 80-move game mentioned on page 48 where Sultan Khan was able to salvage a draw in a position against the great Rubinstein that appeared to be hopelessly lost. Next is an 87 move game which is mentioned in the introduction to game 24 in which Sultan Khan defeated Tartakover by offering a knight sacrifice. That game in full is not in the original text probably because of its length, even though it includes a cute knight sacrifice at the end. The third is a game against Vera Menchik with a diagram on page 91. The fourth is a draw where he swindled World Champion Euwe into an endgame where he had the wrong colored bishop.