Winner's POV Chapter 24: St. Petersburg 1879
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.
Chapter 24: St. Petersburg 1879
1879 was a nice year for chess (and more specifically, my writing) because it has two small, yet important tournaments. The first, which we'll be investigating today, is less important due to the actual games, but more as it's the first fully recorded tournament for a very influential figure in Russian chess. Today we look at the man who started the Russian school of chess, whose play influenced that of future world champion Alexander Alekhine, and who served as the precursor to the overwhelmingly dominant Soviet chess era of the 20th century. I am, of course, talking about Mikhail Chigorin.
Chigorin's chess career begain earlier in the 1870s, with a handful of "St. Petersburg Tournament" appearances since 1875. However, the tournament we'll be looking at today is the first one where I can confidently say that I have all of the games and enough documentation to write a proper summary. After the absolute behemoth that was my last post, I'm welcoming something shorter and less intense.
Format and Prizes
9 players entered and competed in this single round robin, with no replaying draws or other such shenanigans. I'll admit that I don't know the time control; a lot of the details were written in Chigorin's Shakhmatny Listok, which I've been unable to find online (and even if I could, I can neither read nor speak Russian so it'd be an interesting time).
The prizes for the top three places were respectively 125, 50, and 25 rubles.
Players
Seimon Alapin
Andreas Ascharin
Mikhail Chigorin
Vladimir Lizel
Nikolai Nerling
Nikolay Petrovsky
Emmanuel Schiffers
Eugen von Schmidt
Alexander Solovtsov
I've decided to go back to using the current year's Edo rankings at this stage, since it's clear that the future results are taken into account when determining somebody's rating. Thus, the 1879 Edo lists feature Chigorin (9th), Schiffers (22nd), Alapin (32nd) and Solovtsov (33rd) as the top of the field.
The Winner: Mikhail Chigorin
While not the strongest tournament ever, I feel like it's a good time to introduce Chigorin, as he'll be playing a major role in important tournaments as we head into the 1880s. Let's observe the Russian trailblazer's games as we look at the St. Petersburg 1879 tournament from the Winner's POV.
Round 1: vs. Eugen von Schmidt
That's not a typo, his name was not Eugene. Schmidt was, as his name might suggest, initially German insofar as his residence and chess, editing the Berlin Chess Society's newspaper and acting as the vice-president of the Leipzig Chess Club. He moved to Moscow in 1866, and had been there ever since, taking part in Moscow's early tournaments and becoming one of their stronger representatives.
The Ponziani Opening was featured for only the second time in this series (the first being Rosenthal - Anderssen, 1870). After Schmidt gave up his light-square Bishop, Chigorin went for a long Knight walk that resulted in him sitting pretty on f5, likely equalizing for him. It was clear that he felt more comfortable in the middlegame, as Schmidt played very passively and allowed Chigorin to expand and attack on the Queenside.
At some point, Chigorin seemed to run out of gas, and Schmidt stabilized. The pawns on the c- and d-files didn't help Chigorin's Bishop pair much, and Schmidt's advancing Kingside pawns gave his Knights excellent squares. The passed pawn that ended up on e6 signaled that Chigorin was definitely on the worse side of things, and he had to defend accurately.
As the back-and-forth game got closer to 50 moves, Chigorin offered a very tricky exchange with 47... Re1. Schmidt would've had a near-winning endgame if he had accepted, but his refusal gave Chigorin's pieces a startling amount of activity. The last mistake was on move 50, where Schmidt failed to calculate that Chigorin's Quen would hit two different pawns with check, and he resigned just before a forced sequence that would separate him from his Queen. Chigorin's first gamble of the tournament had paid off.
Round 2: vs. Vladimir Lizel
I don't know anything about this guy. His first games are from this tournament, and his only other recorded tournament is from 1903 (though the games aren't known to me).
Lizel's play was scattered with irregularities in this version of the French Defense. 7... Nc6 and 12... f5 strike me as the most obvious examples, the latter reminding me of a game we covered between Blackburne and Bird at the 1868/69 BCA Challenge cup (see here). As expected, the weak e-pawn became an easy target, and Chigorin attacked and won it with minimal pushback. The minor piece endgame was doubtlessly better for Chigorin, who was able to plant a Knight on the e5 outpost to show that Lizel's Bishop pair provides little benefit for the sacrificed pawn.
Things got a little spicy once Chigorin made weakening pawn pushes on the Queenside, allowing Lizel to infiltrate with his Rook down the a-file. The pressure was definitely felt on Chigorin's c-pawn, but he was able to defend it, albeit passively. However, Lizel was unable to come up with a plan to continue, and resorted to stepping around aimlessly with his King. This allowed Chigorin to win a second pawn, and he gradually improved while Lizel continued doing nothing. It's a weird endgame, and very one-sided, but a win is a win.
Round 3: vs. Andreas Ascharin
Another non-native, Ascharin was a journalist for two German magazines based in St. Petersburg. Later in 1879 he would move to modern-day Latvia and act as the president of the Riga Chess Association. He was considered to be among the strongest masters in St. Petersburg, being placed in the same bracket as Chigorin, Schiffers, and Ilya Shumov (who was invited to play at London 1851, but did not arrive in time). Edo has him ranked 44th for 1879, putting him at the halfway mark in terms of rankings for players in this tournament, which isn't bad considering the competition.
The players opted for a Giuoco Piano that was completely symmetric as late as move 8 for this game. The symmetry was broken immediately after, with Chigorin showing aggressive intentions as he planted a pawn on f4 and supported it with g7-g5. The Rooks both went to the g-file, both Bishops pointed at the Kingside, and the Queen and Knight made their way over as well - it was a crazy amount of pressure, as you'll see and hopefully agree with.
Chigorin miscalculated when to start the attack, as his 20... Bxh3 plan wasn't accurate. He ended up losing the Bishop, ultimately only getting one pawn for it. The attack had to succeed now, and Chigorin thrust forth Harry to break open the Kingside. While Ascharin wasn't losing, his advantage quickly dwindled as he found subpar responses, especially after 35. Nd5. All of Chigorin's Kingside pawns stormed forth, and he regained the piece by shifting over to the h-file. After winning an additional exchange in the ensuing tactics, the endgame was relatively easy to convert.
Round 4: vs. Nikolai Nerling
I know literally nothing about this guy, but he blundered his Queen on move 11 so I think we can just leave him alone.
Round 5: vs. Seimon Alapin
This is the same Alapin after which openings like the Alapin Sicilian (2. c3) are named, though they wouldn't be played by him for many years after this. He would later move to Germany, and I've seen his name come up in a few of the tournaments held there in the 1880s, so we'll be seeing him rather frequently in the upcoming chapters.
The Alapin Sicilian was not played in this game, but instead the Rossolimo was seen. While it's normally on the more solid end of the Sicilian spectrum, Alapin threw that notion out of the window with a quick f2-f4-f5. It's a spicy sequence, but the resulting hole on e5 allowed Chigorin to develop his Bishop with tempo. Alapin got spooked by the battery targeting h2, and allowed Chigorin a tempo to play the all-important Sicilian move of d7-d5.
Chigorin made one big mistake, as 18... Bb7 undefended the crucial e6-pawn. However, after Alapin missed taking it, everything went Chigorin's way. The trades in the center were not properly calculated by Alapin, who found himself down a Knight at the end of the road. A very spicy game, and Chigorin's fifth in a row for this tournament. Will he complete the sweep?
Round 6: vs. Nikolay Petrovsky
I know nothing about this guy either, but he blundered a piece on move 5 so I don't think it matters too much.
Round 7: vs. Emmanuel Schiffers
The line of Russian chess dominance roughly looks like the following: Alexander Petrov was considered their strongest player from the early 1800s until his death in the 1860s; following his death, that torch was likely passed onto Szymon Winawer, as Poland was part of the Russian Empire. The informal title of "Russian Champion" was given to Schiffers, who had played and won matches against almost all of the strongest players living in Russia, with the sole exception of Chigorin. He was also known as "Russia's Chess Teacher," with him giving the first public lectures about chess theory later in the 1880s. Needless to say, he was a very strong player, and Chigorin's closest rival.
The first 10 moves were the same as Mackenzie - Zukertort at Paris, though they quickly deviated so as to not exchange so many pieces right away. Schiffers threw his f-pawn up the board, and he nearly came up with a really interesting line of play, as the pawn could be sacrificed for strong King pressure and a very equal endgame. While he didn't pick the perfect continuation, Chigorin also slipped by taking an offered pawn too quickly, resulting in a very similar endgame.
Despite Chigorin being up a pawn, he wasn't really able to push for anything. Schiffers's connected pawns on the Kingside actually offered him chances, and he did push for a little after Chigorin adopted a passive defense of his isolated pawns. But once Chigorin got his King to g3 to hold down the fort, the players entered a drawn Rook and pawn endgame, and the point was split for the first time in the tournament.
Round 8: vs. Alexander Solovtsov
I really wish I had more information about this guy, given that he's among the higher ranked players in this event. His only recorded games prior to this event are four against Schmidt (+2-2), and he has no fully recorded tournaments moving forward. It's a shame, but I'm used to it by now
Chigorin's 8th move in the Open Spanish is a very strange one, which was played twice in the 1910 World Chess Championship by Emanuel Lasker. Shortly after the deviation, Chigorin sacrificed a pawn for compensation that I can't really put my finger on. My initial guess would be due to a fork opportunity if he ever played Nc6, but he didn't, so I'm unsure. In any case, he justified it by throwing his f-pawn up the board, starting an attack as per usual.
There's not too much to comment on, because this game was ultimately decided by a one-move blunder. Solovtsov set up a defense that forced Chigorin to liquidate, but he didn't. This resulted in his Kingside being dismantled, and the attack was ended anyway. A rough final game for Chigorin, who was perhaps relaxing at the end of the event in which he was sure to win... right?
Conclusion?
A single tiebreak game would have to be played between Alapin and Chigorin to ultimately determine first place. Schiffers and Solovtsov also played a tiebreaker for third, but after they drew two games, the prize was split between them. Thus, it all comes down to this.
Tiebreak: vs. Seimon Alapin
The King's Gambit was fearlessly essayed by Alapin in this grudge match, with Chigorin returning the pawn immediately. As the game departed from Zukertort - Winawer, 1878 (the second of their six total games), Alapin made it clear that his game plan was to harass the Black Queen. He succeeded in doing this, though it didn't provide much of a tangible benefit; his 13th move especially freed up Chigorin's game by a fair margin.
Once Chigorin castled on the Queenside, it was obvious that Alapin had accomplished nothing. Chigorin won one of the overextended central pawns, and later an exchange due to Alapin trapping his King's Rook in the corner. Like so many before it, the final game is anticlimactic, but it does the job for one Mikhail Chigorin.
Having remedied his mistake from the final round, Chigorin at last claims the top prize of this national tournament. Of course, this is far from his most prestigious achievement, but we all love a good origin story. Chigorin's next tournament appearance will be in 1881, which I'll talk about in... three chapters, I think. I'll see you there regardless.
