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Baden-Baden, 1925. Two hypermodern giants meet, and Alekhine answers Réti's deep positional play with a combination so intricate it was called 'the gem of gems' — a long, swirling sequence of knight checks, rook lifts and sacrifices that wins by a hair. Alekhine considered it one of his best games.
Deep tactics can grow out of a quiet position if you keep your pieces active and coordinated. Alekhine turned a manoeuvring game into a forced storm of checks and threats, sacrificing material to keep every piece swarming the white king. The trick is to calculate the whole web before you commit.
It's regarded as one of the deepest combinations ever played with rooks and minor pieces — a long, forced sequence of checks, lifts and sacrifices arising from a quiet hypermodern manoeuvring game. Alekhine ranked it among his finest, and it's been nicknamed 'the gem of gems.'
Around move 17–19 the bishops shuffled (...Bh3–g4), and Alekhine claimed a draw by repetition. The arbiters ruled the position had only repeated twice, not three times, so play continued — fortunately for chess history, because Alekhine went on to win brilliantly.
Yes — take the board as Alekhine and try to find the rook lift 26...Re3 and the storm that follows, or replay the whole game move by move, no sign-up.
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