It is well known that the place where one is born can be decisive for a happy or unhappy life. But less is said about the time in which one sees the light. Isaac Kashdan (1905-1985) was, in some ways, privileged to have been born in New York. But he had extremely bad luck because his moment of greatest potential as a chess player coincided with the Great Depression (1930s), one of the most brutal economic crises the world has suffered. And chess stopped being a priority for Kashdan, a double US champion and winner of nine medals with the Olympic team, because it barely gave him any money. At the same time, the current world champion, Alexánder Alekhine (or Aliokhin) pointed him out as one of his most likely successors.
The game in this video proves that Alekhine was right. Kashdan achieves good coordination of his pieces and accumulates them on the kingside. When the position has matured enough, it turns that strategic superiority into a beautiful tactical storm. And sign an immortal work.
