Winner's POV Chapter 25: Leipzig 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 25: First DSB Congress (Leipzig 1879)

The second tournament of the year, and the one that ends the decade, was briefly mentioned in the introduction to the previous Leipzig tournament (see here). In 1877, the Deutsche Schachbund (German Chess Federation) was formed, and would spend the next two years assimilating the many German clubs under its banner. At their reconvention in 1879, they held the first official DSB congress, and would thereafter hold some of the most prestigious tournaments of the following decade (more on those in later installments).

Now, as first times tend to be, this one was rather timid. It wasn't a hugely international affair, with three invitations being sent to the masters of Austria, and the remaining spots being taken up by German masters. In addition, there would be no tournament book written at the time, with the recap only being published in 1883. On that note, if anyone knows of a way to access Schallopp's Der Erste und Zweite Kongreß des Deutschen Scachbundes, I'd love to hear it; it's not available on Google Books, and I've yet to find an online retailer that hasn't made it prohibitively expensive (though I'm not sure how much I'd trust a physical copy anyway).

Format and Prizes

Practically everything was the same as two years ago - 12 players, single all-play-all, 20 moves per hour time control, two games played per day. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The prizes for the top four competitors were 600, 300, 150 and 100 Marks, according to the Danish periodical Nordisk Skaktidende. We're using very unorthodox sources for a little bit, folks.

Competitors

From the same periodical:

Hopefully this screenshot is readable and you can recognize some of these names. The 1879 Edo lists naturally give the top of the field as Louis Paulsen (3rd) and Berthold Englisch (6th), before we see a long drop leading to Adolf Schwarz (13th) and Fritz Riemann (27th). A stronger tournament overall than St. Petersburg, naturally, but obviously not the strongest tournament we've ever seen.

The Winner: Berthold Englisch

Englisch was one of the Austrian masters to receive an invitation (the others being Pitschel and Schwarz), and what good that invitation clearly did. This man remains an enigma to me - he has no recorded games outside of the three tournaments he's thus far been in, so it's intriguing to see him already win a tournament after middling results prior (5/11 at Leipzig 1877 for 6th place and 11.5/22 at Paris 1878 for 7th place). Nevertheless, we follow the Austrian master closely as we look at the 1st DSB Congress from the Winner's POV.

Round 1: vs. Johannes Minckwitz

We haven't seen Minckwitz since 1870, so what's he been up to? He continued editing Deutsche Schachzeitung until 1876, though he picked it back up in this year. He also took a long break from tournaments, lasting from Wiesbaden 1871 to Frankfurt 1878. A break is always healthy, so let's see how much it helped him.

After a handful of opening missteps, the game began in earnest when Minckwitz thrust forth with 11... d5, giving himself an IQP. Now, unfortunately, this game shows its age with how such a position was handled. Englisch didn't trade off the minor pieces very quickly, which is known to be the best way to exploit this positional weakness. As a result, Minckwitz coordinated and had a perfectly playable position for the first 20 or so moves.

Now, much of the drama was taken away from this game due to Minckwitz's 24th move. He thrust forth with g7-g5, which lost him a pawn for basically nothing. The resulting trades and endgame were always going to be better for Englisch, and while it took him quite some time to ultimately convert, he did so in the end.

Round 2: vs. Ernst Flechsig

Having now completed his doctorate in chemistry, Dr. Flechsig returns for his second and final tournament in the series. After this, he has no recorded games until 1886, though apparently he drew an 1885 match with fellow competitor Fritz Riemann (5/10 for both).

The players started this game by following the line Englisch played as Black against Blackburne at the Paris tournament. While Flechsig's response to the deviation in 10. g4 had the potential to be spicy, it wasn't for two reasons. The first is that the positional battle was primarily waged on the Queenside, with the players' Knights using the c4 and d4 squares to great effect. The second, and probably more important reason, is that Flechsig blundered on move 18, which spoiled his entire position and cost him a pawn.

Once again, the game was a long one that terminated in favour of Englisch. One connection I'd like to throw out is that Englisch was like a prototype GM Wesley So, in that his style is very solid and hard to topple, and his conversions are very professional and risk-free (of course So does it much better, but that's what happens over the course of more than a century).

Round 3: vs. Louis Paulsen

This round is interesting for a couple of reasons. Obviously, this matchup is possibly the most anticipated of the entire tournament, but it's the other Paulsen that participated in the most noteworthy event of the round. In the game W Paulsen - Minckwitz, Wilfried exceeded the time limit on move 39, apparently believing that he was on move 41. Minckwitz agreed to play on, supposedly believing he was winning anyway, but he ended up losing. The arbiters ultimately decided to score the game as a loss for both players, which is one of the most bizarre events I've ever heard of. That aside, let's look at the other Paulsen's game.

This game featured a rarity from Paulsen, in that he made a mistake very early. He refused to trade his Bishop for the Knight on c3, and this resulted in Englisch ultimately making the move on the chapter banner. The resulting exchanges saw one pair of Paulsen's pawns being doubled, and Englisch made sure to give him a second before picking up one of the pawns. Positionally, Paulsen was completely cooked before move 20.

There's not much to talk about because the same song and dance was played out in this game. Paulsen failed to generate any meaningful counterplay, and Englisch slowly won the endgame. If he could do this against the strongest player in Germany, who couldn't he do this against?

Round 4: vs. Fritz Riemann

A student of the recently passed Adolf Anderssen, Riemann was playing in his first major tournament at 20 years old (this picture of him is from 1894). He'd return in future DSB congresses, so this is just a taste of the young German's power.

We are only allowed to play two types of openings: Taimanov Sicilians, and Spanishes that Englisch also used at Paris. This game was the latter, with Riemann deviating from Englisch's game against Zukertort, and playing a nifty un-developing move on move 9 that helped him equalize smoothly. A few moves later, he was possibly even better after Englisch allowed a trade on e3 that doubled his pawns. For the first time in this tournament, it was actually Englisch who had to play the worse position.

Now, as we've seen multiple times already, things changed in favour of Englisch after an opponent's blunder, and Riemann's 21st move continued the pattern. One key difference is that this move didn't lose any material, it just gave Englisch the means to create multiple weaknesses in his opponent's camp. The techniques were much more questionable during this endgame, so it receives more notes than the previous games. Against more seasoned players, Englisch very well may not have won this game, which goes to show you that he still had room to improve at this point.

Round 5: vs. Carl Wemmers

Wemmers is our token "I don't know much about this guy and he isn't all that great" player that all of these tournaments have. At this point he was at 1/4, and he would drop out after the eighth round after scoring only 2/8. 

Like this guy's intro, the game is rather short and unimpressive, so I'll let you look it over yourself.

Round 6: vs. Arnold Schottländer

Another student of the late Anderssen, he suffered from a physical handicap that I've been unable to narrow down to anything specific. Anderssen, for reasons I do not want to think about, nicknamed him "Elender Patzer" (which directly translates to "miserable blunder," so I hope the connotation saves this). While Zukertort was clearly the greatest of Anderssen's pupils, Schottländer was the most promising for a time, though an apparent nervous affliction prevented him from fully meeting these expectations of him. However, we'll be seeing him in many future DSB congresses, so don't forget this man's name.

Englisch deviated from his game against Paulsen on move 6, though this deviation prompted Schottländer to thrust forth with d5 immediately after. This weakened his Queenside pawns, but his novelty on move 10 was very correct, and won him multiple tempi against Englisch's wandering Knight. The position was very tricky, with Englisch needing to sacrifice his c-pawn in order to properly gain an advantage, but he didn't, and ended up having to defend against Schottländer's attack.

As the Black pawns raced up the board, Englisch's Knight got harassed more and more, ultimately ending up far away on b3. Had Englisch moved it once more on move 21 and attacked the powerful Black Bishop, he may have saved the game; upon moving his Queen instead, Schottländer executed the most powerful attack we've ever seen anyone unleash against Englisch, blowing open the King's position and winning enough material to force resignation.

As the story goes, Englisch consumed about 2 hours over the course of the game, while Schottländer only took 16 minutes. All in all, an incredible win, the first blow inflicted to Englisch thus far.

As we've finished the third of six total days, it's a good time to look at the current standings:

The Austrian invitees are putting in work, occupying three of the top four spots. Naturally, the battle for first is closely contested between Englisch and Paulsen, and it'll develop quite dramatically as we go into the tournament's second half, so let's keep going.

Round 7: vs. Adolf Schwarz

We last saw Schwarz at the Vienna 1873 tournament, whose format is a rough one for someone making their tournament debut. He's clear third at this point in the event, so it's apparent that he's doing much better now than six years ago. What does he bring to the table for us now?

The Double Spanish continues to be very trendy, and it makes its first appearance (for us) here. Its symmetry persisted until the 10th move, and Schwarz punished Englisch for breaking it via 12. g4. The Kingside opened up, and Englisch was initially forced to defend a second consecutive attack. This one was much easier to defend, as Englisch's King tiptoed on the light squares and took haven on f7. When the dust cleared, it was an opposite-colour Bishop endgame.

While this endgame does have a draw-ish reputation, the Queens still being on the board made all the difference. Englisch's Queen was free to roam around on the Queenside, winning Schwarz's isolated pawn and giving him a passed a-pawn. This alone wasn't enough to win, but Englisch played very wisely, and Schwarz failed to properly account for the possibility of f6-f5. It was Englisch who ultimately executed the successful Kingside attack, and one of the more tense games of the event fell in his favour.

Round 8: vs. Wilfried Paulsen

Wilfried took part in the West German Chess Federation congress in 1878, where he finished with 4.5/9 but notched a win against Anderssen (who came third with 6/9; second was Schwarz with 7.5/9, and Louis Paulsen won with 8/9). While he's still firmly in the "other Paulsen" position, he's a dangerous player for sure.

For his third foray into this Sicilian setup, Englisch played his third different sixth move, opting for g3 this time. This game is a model example of why castling on move 9 is important, because the move order played in the game gave Paulsen a very dangerous Bishop pair, which joined the Queen in applying tremendous pressure to the Kingside. However, Englisch had a trick up his sleeve, and unleashed a Greek Gift sacrifice that blunted all attacking hopes and immediately simplified things down into his favourite endgame.

As expected, Englisch was much more comfortable in the simplified position than Paulsen. The German's Knight indecision cost him a pawn, and that was all the motivation Englisch needed to simplify down to a pure Rook endgame. As per usual, you can pick apart the technique if you look at it for long enough, but it was always going to be hard for Paulsen to defend. The pawns simplified in a disadvantageous way, and Englisch pushed his Queenside pair up the board to secure another point.

Round 9: vs. Karl Pitschel

Has Pitschel won a single game in all the times he's been featured? I honestly don't think so. Is that going to change today? Well...

The Austrian Pitschel improved upon the Paulsen Variation of the Vienna that was repeatedly tried at the Vienna 1873 tournament, favourably pushing f2-f4 and having terrific attacking potential. He was a little too slow, however, in pushing his Kingside flank, giving Englisch time to solidify and prepare Queenside counterplay. That's indeed how the course of the game went: Pitschel worked towards attacking on the Kingside, but 25... b5 opened up the Queenside and gave Englisch a very active defense and counterattack. 

It wouldn't be an Englisch game without mass trades and an endgame, and that's what we ended up with here. Englisch's Rooks dominated the open Queenside files, infiltrating the second rank and putting the squeeze on Pitschel's camp. The final few moves are of questionable quality, though I do have my doubts as to whether or not they were correctly recorded in the first place - see my note at move 40 for the most obvious example.

Round 10: vs. Martin Bier

Bier had a busy month of July 1879. In addition to this tournament, he also won a tournament in Wesselburen, though I don't know the exact dates. He and Riemann dominated the event with 8.5/9 and 8/9 respectively, though I can't speak to the strength of the opposition to know how impressive this is. 

Thankfully, we don't need to analyze this game too deeply. Englisch went for Bird's opening, which didn't really net him anything, and he was even worse for most of it. However, the players agreed to a draw after only 25 moves, so the nuances of the position aren't too important. Englisch had a one-point lead at this stage, due to Louis Paulsen losing in round 8 to Flechsig, so he could take a draw and focus on winning tomorrow if needed (this was the second game played this day, and the fifth consecutive day of such activities, so I imagine fatigue was playing a big role for everyone).

Round 11: vs. Emil Schallopp

Hello, Schallopp. I wish I had access to your tournament book, it'd be nice to have some contemporary analysis to compare with. Alas.

Let's quickly go over some context before this final game. As mentioned, Paulsen lost a second game, giving Englisch a half-point lead going into this final round. On top of that, the Paulsen brothers were paired up, and I just want you to look at this thing.

What a farce, right? Anyway, I'm sure Englisch was watching this game very carefully, and probably expecting to have to play for a win, given the brothers' history (after this game, Louis had a 3-0 record over his brother. Their lifetime tournament record was +3-0=2 for Louis).

Englisch immediately started abnormally with his 4th move, and Schallopp matched his energy with 6. h4. While the idea had merit, it meant that he wasn't going to castle, which came back to bite him immediately. Englisch had very interesting tactics that revolved around the hole on f3, and while Schallopp didn't lose any material, the position on move 13 is so obviously better for Black that it almost hurts physically.

The trend continues of very anticlimactic last games, although we do get to see a rare Englisch attack that worked to perfection. Even after winning material, his pieces maintained enough coordination to continue the assault, and Schallopp was blown off the board. After very middle-of-the-pack performances thus far, this was doubtlessly Englisch's tournament, and what a statement he made.

Conclusion

Ok that text is smaller than I expected. I'm going to change how I make crosstables moving forward, because damn that's tiny. Anyway, the event was clearly a runaway for the two strongest players, with Englisch just barely edging out the German #1. Following this, Paulsen challenged Englisch to a longer match in order to properly settle the score, but Englisch had to return to Austria before this could take place. They would meet again in an 1880 tournament, and while I'm still unsure how I'll be handling that event (if at all, more on that later), I'll make sure to include their game if able. This rivalry is exactly what Paulsen needed after the death of Anderssen, and so I'll try to feature it frequently.

Alright, that's the 70s done. Let's see what the 1880s have in store for us, eh?