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Lilienthal vs. Najdorf, Saltsjöbaden 1948

Miguel Najdorf was the favorite at the world's first Interzonal. In round 5 Andor Lilienthal sacrificed a bishop on h7, and after 25 moves Najdorf resigned. The game won the tournament's first brilliancy prize.

  • WhiteAndor Lilienthal
  • BlackMiguel Najdorf
  • WhereSaltsjöbaden
  • WhenJuly 22, 1948
  • EventSaltsjöbaden Interzonal, round 5
  • Result1–0, White won
  • OpeningNimzo-Indian Defense, Sämisch Variation (E29)
  • Length25 moves

In the summer of 1948 the world's first Interzonal tournament was played in Saltsjöbaden, outside Stockholm. Miguel Najdorf was the favorite, and many thought he should have been invited to the World Championship tournament earlier that year.

But Najdorf was out of form. In round 4 he failed to win an endgame a pawn up against Alexander Kotov, and in round 5 he met Andor Lilienthal.

Both Lilienthal and Najdorf still went on to the Candidates Tournament. Lilienthal finished fifth, and Najdorf shared sixth place. The tournament was won by David Bronstein, after Erik Lundin beat the leader in the last round.

The players

Andor Lilienthal (1911–2010) was born in Moscow, grew up in Hungary and moved to the Soviet Union in 1935. In the 1940 Soviet championship he shared first place with Igor Bondarevsky, and later he was Tigran Petrosian's trainer. Eleven years before Saltsjöbaden he had beaten the reigning world champion Max Euwe in Stockholm.

Miguel Najdorf (1910–1997) was born in Poland. When the Second World War broke out during the 1939 Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires, he stayed in Argentina, just like Gideon Ståhlberg. The Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense is named after him, and in 1947 he played 45 games at once blindfold, without seeing the boards.

The game move by move

Step through with the arrows or tap a move. Moves with a dot have a comment.

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Andor Lilienthal has the white pieces, Miguel Najdorf the black.

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Play like Lilienthal

Guess the moves Lilienthal played, one at a time. The move from the game earns two points, and a move Lavi thinks is about as good earns one. The other side's moves and the game's notes come as you go.

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The moments that decided it

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After 14.exf6: the pawn captures en passant, and soon it stands on g7.
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After 17.Bxh7+: the bishop sacrifice that opens the way for the queen.

The end

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The final position after 25.Re3. Black resigned after 25.Re3.

Why the game is famous

The game won the tournament's first brilliancy prize. For the favorite Najdorf the loss was a heavy blow in a tournament where he never found his form.

Over his career Lilienthal played ten world champions, men and women, and beat seven of them. When he died in 2010, aged 99, he was the oldest living grandmaster and the last of those who had received FIDE's first grandmaster titles in 1950.

The whole game with notes, as text

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3 White puts the question to the bishop at once. Najdorf trades it for the knight, and White gets the bishop pair but doubled pawns on the c-file. 4… Bxc3+ 5. bxc3 c5 6. e3 Nc6 7. Bd3 b6 8. Ne2 O-O 9. e4 Ne8 10. O-O d6 So far the game has followed a famous model, Samuel Reshevsky's win with Black against Mikhail Botvinnik in the World Championship tournament, wrote Tidskrift för Schack. That game reached the same position with White's bishop on e3, and there Black got a clearly better game. Lilienthal chooses a sharper path. 11. e5 dxe5 Najdorf thought that this capture caused his difficulties, according to Tidskrift för Schack. But the position was still level. The mistake came later. 12. dxe5 Bb7 13. Bf4 f5 14. exf6 En passant: the pawn on e5 captures the pawn that has just gone past it to f5. 14… e5 The mistake. Black attacks the bishop on f4, but now the white pawn reaches g7. With 14…Nxf6 the position would have been roughly level. 15. fxg7 The pawn captures on g7 and attacks the rook on f8. 15… Rxf4 Najdorf gives the rook for the bishop. 16. Nxf4 exf4 17. Bxh7+ The bishop sacrifice. The king takes, and the queen comes in with check. 17… Kxh7 18. Qh5+ Kxg7 The king takes the pawn on g7, but now it has no shelter. 19. Rad1 Qf6 20. Rd7+ The rook breaks into the seventh rank with check. 20… Kf8 21. Rxb7 The rook takes the bishop and stays on the seventh rank. 21… Nd8 22. Rd7 Nf7 23. Qd5 Rb8 Black was already in great trouble, and after this move it goes quickly. 24. Re1 f3 25. Re3 Najdorf resigned. The rook on e3 will soon take the pawn on f3, and the black king has no shelter.

PGN – the game as text for other chess programs
[Event "Saltsjöbaden Interzonal, round 5"]
[Site "Saltsjöbaden"]
[Date "1948.07.22"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Andor Lilienthal"]
[Black "Miguel Najdorf"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E29"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3 Bxc3+ 5. bxc3 c5 6. e3 Nc6 7. Bd3 b6 8. Ne2 O-O 9. e4 Ne8 10. O-O d6 11. e5 dxe5 12. dxe5 Bb7 13. Bf4 f5 14. exf6 e5 15. fxg7 Rxf4 16. Nxf4 exf4 17. Bxh7+ Kxh7 18. Qh5+ Kxg7 19. Rad1 Qf6 20. Rd7+ Kf8 21. Rxb7 Nd8 22. Rd7 Nf7 23. Qd5 Rb8 24. Re1 f3 25. Re3 1-0

Download .pgn

Sources

  • Tidskrift för Schack 1948 no. 8–9: the rounds (p. 178) and the game with notes (pp. 197–198)
  • PGN Mentor, Interzonal1948.pgn
  • Mark Weeks: 1948 Saltsjobaden Interzonal
  • Wikipedia: Interzonal tournament, Saltsjöbaden 1948
  • Wikipedia: Andor Lilienthal
  • Wikipedia: Miguel Najdorf

The moves compared in three sources (Tidskrift för Schack 1948, the Swedish federation's magazine, PGN Mentor and Mark Weeks): identical, 49 half-moves. Najdorf resigned after 25.Re3. The date, July 22, 1948, and the round are in the magazine, as is the fact that the game won the first brilliancy prize. Every move has also been replayed by computer and checked against the rules of chess.

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Updated November 14, 2026