Xavery (Saveilly) Tartakower was the wittiest of masters, and, it was said, "too in love with chess to ever become world champion", as he would often play an interesting move over a plain one, and perhaps throw the result into question. He was the champion of chess journalists, and his epigrams, or Tartakowerisms, will be quoted as long as chess is played. Everyone loved to talk with Tartakower, not just for his wit, but also his great knowledge and appreciation of books and art.

"The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made."

“The move is there, but you must see it”

"An isolated Pawn spreads gloom over the whole chessboard"

“Any opening can be played as long as its reputation is bad enough”

"Some part of a mistake is always correct." (very wise)

"A chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope you have the advantage, the second when you believe you have an advantage, and the third... when you know you're going to lose!"

"A draw can be obtained normally by repeating three moves, but also by one bad move."

"The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake."

The chessplayer's proof of existence:
"Erro ergo sum" (I blunder, therefore I am).

But the chess is superb too. A tireless experimenter in the openings, a true hypermodern, a fearless attacker and a master whom Nimzowitsch called one of the top endgame players in the world (rather teasing with the reference "the third best endgame artist of all the living masters", without naming the first two). His style matured, from early heroics and later love of complexity ('a system consisting in the lack of system"), into a player who could play any sort of position well - a hallmark of all the great masters. He was also a decorated war veteran, fighting for Austria in WW1 and the Free French in WW2.

Tartakower's most famous sacrificial game, played with great verve:

[Event "St Petersburg"]
[Site "St Petersburg"]
[Date "1909.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Tartakower, S."]
[Black "Schlechter, Carl"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C30"]
[Annotator "sacrifices"]
[PlyCount "63"]
[EventDate "1909.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. f4 Bc5 3. Nf3 d6 4. fxe5 dxe5 5. c3 Nf6 6. Nxe5 O-O 7. d4 Bd6 8.
Nf3 Nxe4 9. Bd3 Re8 10. O-O h6 11. Nbd2 Nf6 12. Nc4 c5 13. Nfe5 cxd4 14. Nxf7
Kxf7 15. Qh5+ Kg8 16. Rxf6 Re1+ (16... gxf6 17. Qg6+ Kf8 18. Bxh6+ Ke7 19. Qh7+
Ke6 20. Qf5+ Kf7 21. Nxd6+ Qxd6 22. Qh7+ Ke6 23. Bc4+) (16... Qxf6 17. Qxe8+)
17. Rf1 Rxf1+ 18. Bxf1 Bf8 19. Bxh6 Qf6 (19... gxh6 20. Qg6+ Bg7 21. Nd6) 20.
Bg5 Qf5 21. Nd6 Bxd6 22. Bc4+ Be6 23. Rf1 Qxf1+ 24. Bxf1 Nd7 25. Bd3 Nf8 26.
cxd4 Bf7 27. Qf3 Ne6 28. Be3 Rb8 29. g4 g5 30. Qf6 Bf8 31. Bh7+ Kxh7 32. Qxf7+ 1-0

And a miniature blockade: the gambit opening suggests a dashing attack, but Black is positionally strangled:

[Event "Baden-Baden"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1925.04.24"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Tartakower, S."]
[Black "Mieses, Jacques"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A82"]
[Annotator "strategy: dark squares"]
[PlyCount "29"]
[EventDate "1925.04.16"]
[EventRounds "20"]
[EventCountry "GER"]

1. d4 f5 2. e4 fxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. g4 d5 5. g5 Ng8 6. f3 exf3 7. Qxf3 e6 8. Bd3
g6 9. Nge2 Qe7 10. Bf4 c6 11. Be5 Bg7 12. Qg3 Na6 13. O-O Bd7 14. Bd6 Qd8 15.
Qf4 1-0

We all play the Greek Gift sacrifice Bxh7, as we have all seen it before; it is part of chess technique. But here is a sacrifice that no-one had played before! Do you know the expression, three pieces are mate? Tartakower sacrifices when he can get only two pieces into the attack, but bets that he can bring his far-off reserves into the fight before White can organise a defence.

[Event "Teplitz-Schoenau"]
[Site "Teplitz-Schoenau"]
[Date "1922.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Maroczy, G."]
[Black "Tartakower, S."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A85"]
[Annotator "Top 10: attacks"]
[PlyCount "70"]
[EventDate "1922.??.??"]

{If this sacrifice looks more routine now - like one of Tal's - it is a
tribute to the influence this game has had on sacrificial technique. Once SGT
had shown that this sort of thing can work, other players felt brave enough to
have a go. But you can search the games of earlier masters of attack like
Morphy and Andersson and find nothing like it. Fabulous.} 1. d4 e6 2. c4 f5 {
This is an important bit of move-order: the option of ...Bb4(+) gives Black
several nice ways of avoiding the main lines of the Dutch.} 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. a3
Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Bd3 d5 7. Nf3 c6 8. O-O Ne4 9. Qc2 Bd6 10. b3 Nd7 11. Bb2 Rf6
12. Rfe1 Rh6 13. g3 Qf6 14. Bf1 g5 15. Rad1 g4 16. Nxe4 fxe4 17. Nd2 {#} Rxh2 {
Spielmann remarked that when you see a player make a sacrifice of a Rook, you
can also see the immediate concrete threats that motivated it. The only
exception to this he knew was this extraordinary sacrifice of Tartakower,
where tactical threats manifest themselves only later.} 18. Kxh2 Qxf2+ 19. Kh1
{There is no calculated win, just the judgement that Black will be able to
bring up reserves before White organises a defence.} Nf6 20. Re2 Qxg3 21. Nb1
Nh5 22. Qd2 Bd7 23. Rf2 Qh4+ 24. Kg1 Bg3 25. Bc3 Bxf2+ 26. Qxf2 g3 27. Qg2 Rf8
28. Be1 Rxf1+ 29. Kxf1 e5 30. Kg1 Bg4 31. Bxg3 Nxg3 32. Re1 Nf5 33. Qf2 Qg5 34.
dxe5 Bf3+ 35. Kf1 Ng3+ 0-1

And we had better give one endgame, to see what might have impressed Nimzowitsch:

[Event "Hastings 4546"]
[Site "Hastings"]
[Date "1945.??.??"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Thomas, George Alan"]
[Black "Tartakower, Saviely"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C13"]
[Annotator "Lessons from Tartakower"]
[PlyCount "66"]
[EventDate "1945.12.??"]
[EventRounds "11"]
[EventCountry "ENG"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. Nxf6+ Bxf6 7. Bxf6 Qxf6
8. c3 O-O 9. Bd3 Nc6 10. Nf3 e5 11. dxe5 Nxe5 12. Nxe5 Qxe5+ 13. Qe2 Qxe2+ 14.
Bxe2 {Another "... additional half-point" is in the offing. I can imagine this
game being given up as a draw here at our club, and in loftier arenas too.} Be6
{Here is the first clue: White is not yet free to develop as he wishes.} 15.
O-O Rfd8 16. Rfd1 Rxd1+ 17. Bxd1 Rd8 18. Bf3 Kf8 19. b3 b6 20. Rd1 Rxd1+ 21.
Bxd1 Ke7 22. Bc2 a5 23. a4 {Weakening. Leave your Pawns alone!} (23. Kf1) (23.
Bxh7 $4 g6) 23... Kd6 24. f3 Kc5 25. Kf2 {White still looks solid enough, but
Black can break through on the Queen's-side.} c6 26. Ke3 b5 27. axb5 cxb5 28.
g4 {Now the Ph7 is vulnerable.} h6 29. h4 Bd7 30. g5 hxg5 31. hxg5 a4 32. Kf4
a3 33. Bb1 b4 {"Such victories, achieved by imperceptible means, show no
surface brilliance, but are all the same rich in instruction". SGT} 0-1