Hypermodern

Richard Réti is one of the most fascinating figures in the history of chess thought. The author of two seminal books, Modern Ideas in Chess and Masters of the Chessboard, Réti was an expert in simultaneous blindfold chess, successfully taking on many opponents at one and the same time. In terms of his theories and games, his assertion that the centre need not be occupied by pawns must have seemed the chess equivalent of Dada to the classically minded grandmasters of his day, such as Tarrasch, Teichmann and Rubinstein. At the time it was dubbed ‘Hypermodern’ by Savielly Tartakower.
 
Réti’s successes at the significant tournaments of Kaschau 1918, Amsterdam 1920, Gothenburg also 1920 and Teplitz-Schonau 1922, seemed to presage at least a challenge for the world title, but while developing his revolutionary ideas on central control for white, Réti somehow lost the ability to defend with black. At the great tournament of New York 1924, for example, he scored seven wins out of ten against the world’s elite, with the white pieces, but conversely lost the same total of games as black.