Winner's POV: Berlin 1881

In Winner's POV, we take a look at tournaments from the 19th century and see the games that allowed the top player to prevail. Some tournaments will be known and famous, others will be more obscure - in a time period where competition is scarce, I believe there is some value in digging for hidden gems in the form of smaller, less known events.

Berlin 1881: Blackburne's Strongest Tournament Ever

I delayed writing this post for a few days because I bought a physical copy of Johannes Zukertort's Chess Monthly magazine, but I was quite disappointed to find that it was lacking what I sought the most: annotations from Zukertort (I could only find two games in my perusing). I also finally managed to find a copy of the tournament book on Google Books, but again it was lacking in annotations. It seems the good old days of tournament books with annotated games have come and gone... for now.

Anyway, this tournament would be the first step that Germany took to stepping up to, and surpassing, the traditions set forth during the previous English and French congresses held during the World Fairs. The prize fund for the master tournament had been further increased, there were multiple minor tournaments, as well as a problem tournament. We'll naturally be focusing on the master tournament, but I'd like to first talk a bit about the so-called Hauptturnier (or "Main tournament").

Berlin 1881 introduced a secondary tournament that would be open to German players, similar to the Provincial tournament at London 1851 (read about that here). One difference is that the winner would be granted entry into the next DSB Congress, similar to the Tata Steel "Group B" tournament. This particular tournament featured a group stage and a final stage, the results of which are summarized in the tournament book:

The tournament was won by Curt von Bardeleben, a name you may recognize from a famous game played 14 years later. I would have probably made a chapter all about this tournament, but only two of Bardeleben's games are included in the tournament book. However, as they seem to be missing from the databases, I'd like to share what games I do have with you anyway.

Alright, good stuff. Onto the main course.

Format and Prizes

18 players initially entered this tournament, which ended up being more popular than anticipated after the modest (but still successful) turnout in the previous edition. The format was a single all-play-all, with some authors lamenting that the opportunity was missed to have such a strong field play two games against each other (that would be "remedied" soon, to their delight). The time control was again 15 moves per hour, perhaps owing to the players only needing to play one game per day.

The top six prizes were respectively 1200, 600, 400, 300, 200, and 150 marks. As mentioned in the Wiesbaden chapter, the entire prize fund for the first DSB congress was 1150 marks, so things were progressing rapidly.

Players

Per the tournament book:

Missing from this list is the 18th entrant Karl Pitschel, who withdrew after the third round and thus was not included in the final crosstable. Edo says the top of the field is given by Zukertort (2nd in the world), Joseph Henry Blackburne (3rd), Szymon Winawer (5th), James Mason (6th), Mikhail Chigorin (12th), and Louis Paulsen (15th). A few of the strong Austrians we saw at Graz were also present, along with the very respectable German contingent as well. This tournament was considered to be better in both strength and numbers than the previous super-tournament at Paris 1878, which makes the final result even more impressive.

The Winner: Joseph Henry Blackburne

The last time we looked at a Blackburne tournament win was for the London 1876 tournament (read about it here), in which Blackburne bounced back from a horrible match against Wilhelm Steinitz to absolutely demolish the rest of the field. Similarly, Blackburne lost a rather lopsided match against Zukertort (+2-7=5) only a month before this tournament took place. We explore whether history repeats itself, merely rhymes, or does nothing of the sort as we explore the Berlin 1881 tournament from the Winner's POV.

Round 1: vs. James Mason

Following Mason's subpar performance at the Paris tournament, the high opinion formed of him by the American players was somewhat called into question. He defended his honour against none other than Blackburne himself, scoring 2/3 in a small match played in 1879. The two had a 3-3 score going into this tournament following a draw at the Wiesbaden event.

James Mason seemed to be the only person willing to play the French against its most staunch practitioner, and it seemed to do well for him in this game. Blackburne was arguably worse out of this opening, and he ultimately had to settle for a Queenless middlegame where he had the Bishops in exchange for worse pawns. Things went from bad to worse when Mason coerced Blackburne into trading off one of the Bishops, simply leaving him with a worse endgame.

We tend to see Blackburne be the better player in the endgame, and even here, it was clear that he was defending incredibly well. Mason had the chance to apply serious pressure with 37... Rd7, and while he eventually played it, Blackburne was able to play an exchange sacrifice that gave him excellent drawing potential. It wasn't until move 54 that the decisive mistake was made, and Blackburne lost an endgame that was definitely worthy of study. Yet again we start with an early loss from our subject.

Round 2: vs. Johann Nepomuk Berger

We skipped over Berger at his last appearance in Graz as his game was eerily similar to the one played in the previous round, which is quite unfortunate as he's one of the stronger Austrian players. Chess Monthly calls him "the well-known eminent problemist," which is a better descriptor as his play is rather sparse; there's a Graz 1870 tournament that he won (though the strongest player present was Carl Göring) and an 1875 match win over fellow competitor Alexander Wittek (14-4).

It was clear that Berger had done his homework, as he followed one of the games that Zukertort won in their match earlier in the year. Unfortunately for Berger, the particular game featured a weak move in 11. Qd2, which Blackburne properly refuted in typical Romantic style. Despite the strong attack he had going, I'm of the opinion that Blackburne wasn't really feeling too ambitious in this game, as his attack never saw its conclusion, and he acquiesced to a draw by repetition before making the second time control. Perhaps not a model game in isolation, but the tournament is young, and such a reset is wise in as stacked a tournament as this.

Round 3: vs. H von Schütz

I don't know a single thing about this guy (not even his first name), but Blackburne beat him so that's all that matters.

Round 4: vs. Louis Paulsen

After his fantastic performance at Leipzig 1879, Paulsen had to be one of the favourites going into this tournament (doubly so given the lack of Englisch). He wasn't off to the best start, however, as he too lost against James Mason in the third round. Getting back into his groove for the tournament while getting revenge on Blackburne for the last-round drubbing he received at Wiesbaden would make for a fantastic fourth round if he could make it happen.

The Paulsen Variation of the Advance returned for this game (because what else?) and it was clear that we were in for a long middlegame when Paulsen's central pawns were both traded away. Although the game was rife with inaccurate moves, the position following the time control was better for Paulsen, which was nearly compounded by Blackburne's incorrect 34... Qd4+. Two moves later, Paulsen made a threat with the wrong Rook, and the tenacious Blackburne found a clever way to trade Queens and keep the game alive.

Blackburne's main problem in this game was that he had an IQP that made endgames objectively unfavourable, and the fact that it was a passed pawn should have been an indication that Paulsen needed to be going after it harder. He didn't, and as you'll see in the game, he paid the price for it. This is possibly my favourite Blackburne game of the tournament, and in an effort to not ramble on too long, I'll simply say that one does not get lazy in an "equal" endgame against the Black Death.

Round 5: vs. Fritz Riemann

Riemann skipped Wiesbaden, though his second place finish at Braunschweig was a good indicator that he was really coming into his role as a strong German local. He was one of the only people to not lose against Louis Paulsen during the former's absolute obliteration of the field, but can he hold a candle against Blackburne?

Riemann also forced Blackburne to play against one of the openings that Zukertort repeatedly used (and won with) in their match, finally deviating on move 9 with a good novelty. While his 13th move is probably the most deserving of criticism, as he gave himself an isolated pawn for no good reason, the game was (as is often the case) not a positional game. Riemann weakened his Kingside way too much with 20. g4, and Blackburne's attack would not be stopped. Scoring 3.5/4 in the previous four games, all with the black pieces, is certainly a score that's hard to ignore.

Round 6: bye

With Pitschel dropping out after round 3, byes were necessarily implemented moving forward, and Blackburne's occurred here. This round featured a very interesting game played by Zukertort against Minckwitz, which I'd like to share with you now for purely entertainment purposes.

Rounds 7-9

The next three games are played against players who are all below Blackburne's caliber, and so I'm grouping them together. 

Round 10: vs. Szymon Winawer

At Wiesbaden, Winawer ran into issues with the time control in his first-round game against Blackburne, as he didn't realize that it had been changed from 15 moves an hour to 20 (to facilitate 2 games being played per day, as I imagine the Wiesbaden team didn't expect the event to be so big). In a slightly better position, he ended up losing on time, and to this point has yet to beat Blackburne at all. A motivated Winawer is one of the best people to put your money on to quell Blackburne's momentum, I reckon.

Unfortunately for us, the game itself doesn't have too much intrigue. After Blackburne tried to give himself an IQP in exchange for good development, Winawer had no problems equalizing and constructing a symmetrical pawn structure. However, his 28th move ended up dropping a pawn, and that extra pawn was simply pushed up the board to victory.

Really, the only interesting thing to talk about this game is what happened at the end. With Winawer's 37th move, he set up a trap that Blackburne could fall into by promoting his pawn. Blackburne's hand hovered over the pawn for a few seconds, before he ended up making the correct move with a very speedy movement. This elicited laughter from everyone watching, and from Winawer as well. Good guy.

Round 11: vs. Johannes Zukertort

His wins at Paris 1878 and in the Blackburne match earlier this year had firmly cemented Zukertort as the strongest active player in the world (possibly strongest overall, depending on your opinion of Steinitz). He was living up to that title with a present second place position, and a win over his closest rival would do wonders to catapult Zukertort to the top of yet another tournament.

This game, like the last, was rather anticlimactic. After a symmetrical position nine moves in, Zukertort's tenth was a mistake. The resulting exchanges of pawns gave Blackburne two open files to target Zukertort's two weak pawns, and he won them both over the course of the next ten moves. While the opposite-colour Bishop endgame always presents drawing chances, Blackburne isn't one to miss the win that often, and he delivered here with a rather one-sided butchering of his rival.

Round 12: vs. Wilfried Paulsen

These two played their first ever tournament game at Wiesbaden, where Paulsen successfully defended a pawn-down endgame to hold Blackburne to a draw. This accomplishment was made all the better with how easily Blackburne dispatched the other Paulsen brother in that event, but it's not like this can be used as a shield; Blackburne has already won eight games in a row, and Wilfried wouldn't be the biggest giant he's toppled en route to this point.

This game was removed from theory very quickly after Paulsen played 3... a6 and 5... b5 in a g3 Sicilian. While both players could have navigated the opening better, the moves played just before the time control spelled out how the middlegame would proceed: Paulsen had gained lots of space with his many pawn pushes, but his airy King would be Blackburne's target. The attack wasn't without its risks, as Paulsen's Queenside pawns had the potential to strike and give the German a strong passed pawn. While Paulsen never enacted this plan, his defence was solid, if passive.

Had Paulsen taken Blackburne's d-pawn on move 37, he would've had yet another endgame where a draw would be a good result. When he didn't, Blackburne's active Rook gobbled up two Black pawns, and the resulting position was lost for Black. Blackburne ended up going for another checkmating attack in the end, completing his plan from earlier, but the result wasn't in question either way.

Round 13: vs. Mikhail Chigorin

Russia's most brilliant player was making a fantastic tournament debut, scoring wins over both Winawer and Louis Paulsen. However, it was mentioned in Chess Monthly that he had lost a few games unnecessarily due to his youthful lack of caution. This deficit tends to fix itself with experience, and as we know, Chigorin would more than outgrow this as he ascended to the very top of the chess world in later years. But regardless, this is a fun look into his earlier years.

Things progressed quite reasonably in this Colle System (the quintessential Romantic opening) up until move 13, where Chigorin's c7-c6 sacrificed an exchange for, apparently, a Kingside attack. Blackburne respected the attack and refused the exchange, though that didn't stop either player from trying to construct an attack anyway. Blackburne doubled his Rooks on the open h-file while Chigorin thrust forth his Kingside pawns and used his Knights as the vanguard force. It was anyone's guess who was actually doing the attacking.

Chigorin was the first to get an edge as his 26... a5 opened up the a-file to great potential effect. While he could have planted a Rook on the file and swung it in to attack from the side, he instead chose to give up his two Knights for a Rook and the Kingside pawns. This attack was not properly maintained by Chigorin, and once Blackburne consolidated and counterattacked, the young Russian was not able to properly continue. This extremely wild back-and-forth game was Blackburne's tenth consecutive win, if you're keeping track.

Round 14: vs. Alexander Wittek

Wittek made a very respectable debut at Graz, coming very close to beating Adolf Schwarz in their game and only suffering a single loss to Minckwitz, but these two facts resulted in him finishing half a point behind the leaders. His wins against Winawer and Chigorin in this event proved that he was dangerous when on-form, but nobody is in better form than Blackburne at this event.

The players initially followed Zukertort - Mason from Paris, though Blackburne's move 8 deviation (and novelty) was a very strong one. Its strength culminated in an exchange sacrifice that was available on move 13, and while Blackburne didn't play it, the following middlegame was still better for him. His Rooks were doubled on the open file, his Bishop poked holes in the weak Queenside light squares, and Wittek was ultimately stuck. The Austrian succeeded in trading off the major pieces, but the endgame wasn't good for him either.

We've seen Blackburne win "equal" endgames earlier in this tournament, but those games necessarily featured mistakes by his opponents; no such moves were found against Wittek. It was actually Blackburne who went astray, rerouting his Knight from the Queenside to the Kingside in an attempt to infiltrate on the h4 square. Wittek found the right diagonal for his Bishop, thrust forward the h-pawn to lock up the structure, and suddenly the position was drawn. One wouldn't have expected Wittek to do it, but alas, the winning streak is over (but the tournament is not).

Round 15: vs. Emil Schallopp

While I can't thank Schallopp for his notes this time, I can at least thank him for publishing the two aforementioned Bardeleben games, so thanks Schallopp.

Much like at Graz, Schallopp's play was very strange at the tail end of a bad tournament, first with his rare 4... a6 and then objectively bad with 11... Nb4. Blackburne was given easy tempi with his pawns, and his Bishops set themselves on the most aggressive diagonals, foreshadowing Kingside troubles for Schallopp. The motif repeated itself again when he forced Blackburne to "undefend" the g3 square, which resulted in more pawn pushes on the Kingside. The game was ultimately won with a Bishop fork on f6, winning Blackburne a piece that he never gave back.

At this point, with two rounds to spare, Blackburne had already clinched the tournament. You would think that a ten-win streak would get there faster, but as the final crosstable will show, Zukertort kept up a decent race until the very end. We have a little more to talk about before we get there, though.

Round 16: vs. Jacques Schwarz

The upstart nephew who delivered his uncle's only defeat in our last chapter returns, and is facing a Blackburne that has literally nothing to lose. Schwarz is in contention for one of the prizes at this point, and is thus going to be playing for a win himself. Excitement is promised.

Schwarz played the French, ensuring that no spicy gambits would be seen in this game. That didn't stop Blackburne from sacrificing a pawn, allowing trades that opened his own Kingside in exchange for open files for his Rooks. This game was considered to be the best of the tournament, though Blackburne missed multiple winning moves in the middlegame. Still, he was given the chance to sacrifice his Queen on move 26, so that makes up for it, right? Right.

Round 17: vs. Josef Noa

Noa was feeling sick before this game and thus forfeited, which was acceptable given that no prizes were affected.

As for the other players, Zukertort was a point ahead of Chigorin and Winawer going into this final round. He managed to clinch second by drawing against Mason (who himself secured a prize), while the other two did what they could and won their games. I'll show all three below, with the recommendation of looking at Winawer's game because it's amusingly short.

Conclusion

Both times we've showcased Blackburne after losing a rough match, he went on to dismantle the entire field (recall that he won the London 1876 tournament with a round to spare). Winawer and Chigorin agreed to split their prizes, while Wittek left Berlin and didn't play a tiebreaker against Mason, giving the latter the higher prize.

Needless to say, this was the strongest tournament win of Blackburne's career, and the most dominant sweep since perhaps Steinitz at Vienna 1873 (who won 16 consecutive games, despite only winning the event in the tiebreaks). It was a resounding success for him and the German Chess Federation, who would confidently move forward with a biannual congress that we'll be regularly diving into. There are two more tournaments to cover before the next one, however, and they're both very big. I'll see you on the other side (eventually...)