Winner's POV: Fourth DSB Congress (Hamburg 1885)
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.
Hamburg 1885: Isidor's Encore
Near the inception of this series, there was a period where five of six consecutive chapters were dedicated solely to events of the British Chess Association (1857-1862). Technology is cyclical, and we're apparently in another time period where really only one group is consistently putting out tournaments. This trend will be broken in the next chapter, but for now, we've got yet another German Chess Federation tournament to look at.
There's little to say about this tournament in terms of independent value, as it's quite similar to the events we've previously covered. Siegbert Tarrasch's win of last edition's Hauptturnier made him eligible to enter, so I would say this event is most significant for his debut in top-level chess. The winner of this year's Hauptturnier, Max Harmonist (see here), will be competing in the next one, which we'll get to soon enough.
Format and Prizes
Single round robin, 20 moves per hour, three games played every two days (with adjourned games being played off in the evening of each other day). Business as usual around these parts.
The prizes, per the tournament book:
We see a decrease in the overall prize fund this time around, with first prize being 200 Marks below Nuremberg's. Again, additional prizes (of 150, 120 and 100 Marks for places 6-8) were not included in this section of the book.
Players
As stacked a field as ever. The 1885 Edo ratings give the top of the field as Joseph Blackburne (2nd), Tarrasch (3rd), Berthold Englisch (4th), George Mackenzie (6th), Max Weiss (7th), and Isidor Gunsberg (10th). A handful of the top 20 are also present, cementing the German Chess Federation as the organization with the most consistently strong tournaments.
The Winner: Isidor Gunsberg
It's actually quite astonishing how rapidly Gunsberg's results have been improving with each appearance. At Nuremberg, he scored 5/18 and tied for second-to-last; at the 1884 handicap tournament (see here), he finished second in his group. His best result was achieved earlier in this year, as he won the first edition of the (new) British Chess Association's tournament.
I decided against writing a post about this tournament, partly due to the relatively weak field, partly due to there being a bunch of missing games. In case you're curious, here are all of the games he played that I know of:
Quite a lot of good smackdowns in that collection, I must say. Things aren't so easy this time around, however, so the stakes are definitely higher as we look at the Hamburg 1885 tournament from the Winner's POV.
Round 1: vs. James Mason
These two have 20 recorded games in the database with a perfectly even +5-5=10 score between them. Nuremberg was their first encounter, with Mason winning the White side of a London; Gunsberg has quite a bit of revenge to take.
This was not a good game for revenge, as Gunsberg was making subpar decisions as early as move 4. His Queenside pawn structure was horrid (peep the tripled pawns on move 15) and he later dropped a pawn with the Kingside push 27. h4. However, Mason's play wasn't pristine either, and he was very capable of losing the game after the time control as both players had connected passed pawns. Gunsberg's plan starting on move 42 was the slower of the two, and the Black passed pawns were faster yet again.
Weirdly specific statistic for everyone: this is the 2nd German Chess Federation tournament where James Mason defeated the subject in the first round on the black side of a French (he did this to Blackburne in 1881).
Round 2: vs. Arnold Schottländer
Here's another player Gunsberg has to get revenge against, as Schottländer also beat Gunsberg at Nuremberg - in only 23 moves with Black, no less.
The Center Game was an unusually popular choice at this event, and it was present in this game as well, with the players castling early in opposite directions. Gunsberg's attack came faster, though there were tactics present in the moves leading up to the time control that both players missed. After the time control, the players took to trading off pieces, and each one exchanged reduced Gunsberg's advantage until each player only had a Rook.
While chess is a game in which luck plays no objective part, Gunsberg was quite lucky multiple times in this event, and this was perhaps the first such game. Schottländer's first move in the Rook endgame was a bad one, and from there Gunsberg was never remotely in trouble. His Rook was perfectly placed on the 7th rank, his King activated quickly, and his first win of the tournament was secured.
Round 3: vs. Martin Bier
You're never going to guess who won their game at Nuremberg, and thus who needs to get revenge in this game. The pattern continues.
Bier played the same opening he did in the previous round, with Gunsberg deviating only at move 12. This deviation wasn't necessarily a good one, and while it didn't cost him any material, Bier was allowed to get quite a bit of space as a result. While he was able to get a Queen trade in just before the time control, Gunsberg was far from comfortable in the face of Bier's mighty center.
Bier missed how easily his pawn would be attacked once it got to e6, and Gunsberg quickly snapped off the entire pawn center to reach a rather equal endgame. It was still Bier with more reasons to play, and play he did, snapping up a pawn and forcing Gunsberg's King to the back rank. However, his Rook went to the wrong square on move 38, and suddenly Gunsberg was doing the attacking, taking advantage of awkward geometry to pick up the exchange and the game. Does a win by time pressure count as luck?
Round 4: vs. Berthold Englisch
These two only played twice, here and at the 1887 edition (which was drawn). Englisch actually lost an early game to Emil Schallopp, but was also the first person to give Tarrasch a lick, so his tournament hasn't started too terribly either.
For our first d4 game, Gunsberg elected for a Queen's Gambit Declined, and the first 30 moves made up the standard Englisch game: he gets a slight positional advantage (hanging pawns in this case) and he tries to press without creating much risk. At that 30th move, Englisch had the opportunity to go into a pawn-up Queen endgame, but he instead allowed Gunsberg to create a passed pawn in the center. Any positional advantage was doubtlessly gone, and a draw was the proper result.
The players kept playing, however, through the second time control and even halfway through the third before anything got interesting. In the pure Rook endgame, Gunsberg played two consecutively questionable moves, sidelining both his King and one of his Rooks while both of Englisch's sat on the 7th rank. There were two times that Englisch had a forced checkmate in this game, and he somehow missed them both, with his 65th move trading down into a drawn endgame. There's no time pressure to blame for this one; Englisch messed up, and Gunsberg got away.
I'd like to mention that at this point, the two players remaining on perfect scores (Blackburne and Mason each started with 3/3) drew their games (against Berger and Noa respectively). Thus they currently shared the lead on 3.5/4, with Minckwitz and Tarrasch behind them at 3/4, and Gunsberg and a handful of others chasing at 2.5/4.
Round 5: vs. Emil Schallopp
According to the tournament book, Schallopp resigned this game after 19 moves, and the game overall was "not suitable for publication." I disagree, but with my complaint coming about 140 years too late, there's not much to be done.
There's still something interesting to talk about in this round, however. Blackburne and Mason were set to square off in this round, and the game would doubtlessly be the marquis matchup. However, the tournament book messed something up, as the published game was actually one played at a tournament a month later. The game was won by Blackburne (see below), but this particular round was won by Mason, giving him sole first at this stage.
Round 6: vs. Max Weiss
Add Weiss to the "beat him at Nuremberg so he needs revenge etc etc" list.
This French saw Gunsberg go for very aggressive Queenside expansions in exchange for a pawn structure that meant Weiss could go on a Kingside attack. This turned out to be a decent decision, because just like in his game against Winawer in the last DSB event, Weiss didn't have the attacking spirit to fully capitalize on his gift. Although he had multiple winning positions through the first two time controls (or winning moves, at least), he lacked the tactical vision to follow through, and Gunsberg held on to move 40.
The resulting endgame wasn't easy for either player, and Gunsberg actually had the advantage for a brief moment. After missing this chance, he never got another one, and Weiss basically played perfectly until the end of the game to hold the draw. I don't think luck played a part in this game.
Round 7: vs. Josef Noa
Noa didn't compete at Nuremberg, so his name isn't on the list. His 1.5/6 score up to this point doesn't land him on any lists worth being on, either.
Remember at the start of this tournament where Gunsberg played Bd3 in a French and it sucked? It happened again, with Noa even being allowed to snap up a pawn on move 9 without danger. Gunsberg's attempt to drum up some sort of trickery backfired, and he was forced to exchange Queens just before the time control. Gunsberg had to defend a pawn-down endgame, which wasn't an unaskable task, but certainly not an easy one either.
Noa actually made the first strategic mistake when he traded down into a pure Rook endgame, correctly exposing Gunsberg's advanced pawn but not quite taking into consideration how active his King became. Taking the pawn would lead to a loss, so action had to be taken elsewhere. As Noa's Queenside pawns ran up the board, Gunsberg infiltrated on the Kingside with his monarch, which turned out to be an incorrect plan. Noa gobbled up the exposed pawn, and his Queenside phalanx easily broke through.
Round 8: vs. Siegbert Tarrasch
After his early loss to Englisch, Tarrasch stormed back to go into this round on 6/7 and be equal first with Mason. Interestingly, despite Gunsberg and Tarrasch starting their careers at about the same time and both challenging for the World Championship, they only played eight (recorded) games over their 30 years of shared competition. We'll now take a look at the first.
We saw Tarrasch demolish the French a couple of times in his chapter (see here), and this game looked to be going about the same. Gunsberg insisted on playing a similar sort of Queenside expansion strategy, but this time, he was facing an opponent who was much more willing to strike on the Kingside. In one of his later books, Tarrasch even noted that he had a direct win on move 16, which he passed up on in exchange for winning a pawn. This extra pawn was later sacrificed to open up a diagonal, so the attack wasn't gone yet.
The turning point happened on move 28, with Tarrasch underestimating Gunsberg's ability to sacrifice a pawn of his own to force a Queen trade. The resourceful German sacrificed the exchange for another pawn, creating an unbalanced endgame with plenty of winning potential. After making it to the time control, the first person to go astray was Tarrasch, whose King was not well-placed to handle the Rooks that surrounded him and ultimately snapped up his Bishop. I wouldn't call this one lucky, but Gunsberg was as resourceful as one needs to be to withstand the might of Tarrasch (even this young).
Mason beat Taubenhaus and thus reclaimed sole first, with Minckwitz(!) right behind on 6.5/8, and Tarrasch alone in third on 6.
Round 9: vs. Johann Berger
In addition to being on the aforementioned list, Berger had the weird distinction of being the only player to draw every single one of their games up to this point. I don't know how much of an accomplishment that is, but it's certainly noteworthy.
We finally deviate from the dreadful French, instead taking a look at a Mackenzie-flavoured Spanish that Gunsberg didn't properly evaluate. When Berger castled Queenside, our subject spent a few moves creating a weakness to attack, while his antagonist simply developed his Rooks in the center and waited for the attack to come. Gunsberg's attack came and went rather toothlessly, and he spent the second time control defending a worse endgame.
Seeing Berger's play leads me to understand how he drew eight consecutive games until now. Willingly entering into an opposite-colour Bishop endgame from a position of strength isn't the easiest way to win, and without wanting to dive into his games (and make this project take longer than it already has), it wouldn't surprise me if he left some points on the table thus far. But this time, after one sloppy move from Gunsberg, there was no mistake in Berger's technique as he precisely converted.
As we've crossed the halfway point of the tournament, I'll make it known that Mason and Tarrasch currently shared the lead with 7 points, Minckwitz just behind at 6.5, and Blackburne at 6. Gunsberg's 5 point left him a bit further back, but still within striking distance with eight rounds to go.
Round 10: vs. George Mackenzie
Mackenzie had started this tournament on the wrong foot with three consecutive losses, but he hadn't lost a game since then and battled back to just under 50%. We've seen how dangerous this guy can be in tactical bloodbaths, and to expect anything less for this game would be a mistake.
Mackenzie went for a rarely-played fourth move in this Center Game, and it worked to perfection as Gunsberg went very wrong right away. As early as move 10, Mackenzie had a sequence available that could have won him at least an exchange; he instead channeled the Mackenzie of old and sacrificed a Knight to blow open the center. Neither player found the most optimal continuations, as can be expected from such a nonsensical position, but the onus seemed to be more on Mackenzie to find the proper path to clarity.
In the moves following the time control, the truth revealed itself to be that Mackenzie needed to pull the breaks and win back his piece. His old optimism shone through as he kept searching for the attack instead, but it just wasn't there. Gunsberg eventually consolidated, and the extra piece was very helpful in cleaning up the endgame.
Minckwitz toppled Tarrasch in this round, who had apparently received some bad opening advice during lunch from Johannes Zukertort (who was giving an exhibition). Thus, Mason once more had the sole lead with seven rounds left to play.
Round 11: vs. Wilfried Paulsen
Paulsen is actually not on the list, as he was one of the people Gunsberg beat in his international debut.
This game was nearly deprived of all interest with an early blunder, as Paulsen's 9... Bb7 dropped a pawn for absolutely nothing in return. He was, however, given a second chance right at the time control as Gunsberg kind of blundered back the pawn (though as the analysis shows, things had the potential to get very messy). When he recaptured with the wrong piece, Gunsberg quickly won an exchange, and then spent the next 30 moves converting with it.
Minckwitz met his match at the hands of Blackburne, who thus grew Mason's lead to a full point. Blackburne and Tarrasch shared second with 8, Minckwitz just behind on 7.5, and Gunsberg and Riemann shared fifth with 7.
Round 12: vs. Jean Taubenhaus
Every tournament has a "who the heck is this guy?" guy, and Mr. Taubenhaus gains that distinction for this entry. I've seen one tournament that this guy played in before here - a handicap event in Paris which he didn't win - so I'm not quite sure by what means he entered. He's thus far the only person to beat Berger (who is back on 50% with nine draws) so I guess that counts for something.
This time on the Black side of a Center Game, Gunsberg was gifted a pawn in the center, and showed strong resourcefulness to hold onto it without losing any material. The game was once again a bit of a longer one, but there wasn't much drama as Taubenhaus failed to cook up any properly challenging counterplay.
This was a horrible round for the players at the top, with Mason, Minckwitz and Blackburne all losing (to Schallopp, Mackenzie and Bier respectively) and Tarrasch only drawing against Berger. Gunsberg's win put him only one point behind first place.
Round 13: vs. Johannes Minckwitz
This was a game of immense importance and opposing fortunes, as Gunsberg was on a winning streak while Minckwitz's momentum had stopped with two consecutive losses. With both players right at the top of the standings, the implications of this game need not be said.
Minckwitz castled Queenside in this Center Game, but there wasn't much of an attack as the Queens were traded and his e-pawn was isolated. Gunsberg provoked an attack anyway, however, with his Kingside pawn storm that gave him a majority at the cost of a weakened King. Minckwitz was a little slow to take advantage, and when Gunsberg turned his attention to the Queenside, we got the same kind of armageddon one would expect from opposite-side castling games.
Despite defending for most of the game, Minckwitz missed a rather straightforward defensive resource on move 31, allowing Gunsberg to double Rooks on the d-file and crash through with his pawns. Despite winning a Rook for two pieces, Minckwitz's Rook was easily dominated by Gunsberg's Bishop, and a couple more tactics finished off the game with no questions asked. This isn't an unexpected result, I don't think, but in the context of the event this was monumental.
Mason also couldn't do more than draw against Berger, and so Tarrasch was able to catch him with a win, the two once again sharing the lead with 9.5 points. Blackburne and Gunsberg trailed by only half a point, and would meet in the most important round yet.
Round 14: vs. Joseph Blackburne
Blackburne was, to an extent, Gunsberg's main roadblock when it came to getting international recognition. Blackburne won their first match in 1881 quite convincingly (+7-4=3), and he had won their first tournament game at Nuremberg (we saw their second in the 1884 handicap tournament). Gunsberg really needed to make something happen in their head-to-head, or he would never be able to carve his own path in the chess world.
Blackburne deviated from his usual French, opting instead for a Philidor with a move four novelty. It worked quite well, as Gunsberg soon misstepped and dropped his Bishop pair, giving Blackburne a smooth equality. However, he seemed to rush in opening up the center, and Gunsberg gained a rather large center that shut off the Bishop Blackburne had unorthodoxically fianchettoed. Matters had become very complicated, and the players were not given much time to navigate these waters.
Right at the time control, Blackburne snapped up a pawn which was doubtlessly the result of being low on time and not finding good alternatives. This pin along the e-file was instrumental in Gunsberg immediately going in for a ferocious attack, and Blackburne's pawns were falling like Autumn leaves. The Black Death did make a heroic effort at the very end to save the game, but this was Gunsberg's moment, and no swindles would ruin his time in the spotlight.
In the all important Mason-Tarrasch game, Mason might have regretted choosing the Bird opening as it took Tarrasch a little over 40 moves to coerce resignation and take the sole lead with three rounds to go.
Round 15: vs. Henry Bird
Hello, Bird.
Goodbye, Bird.
Tarrasch was the victim of a beautifully played game by Mackenzie, so with his win (six in a row for those keeping track at home) Gunsberg took first place for the first time in the tournament.
Round 16: vs. Fritz Riemann
The last name on The List™, Riemann is a player that I never really appreciated much before this tournament. He was right up there with the leaders in the earlier parts of the tournament, and took games off Mason and Englisch, but also lost games to Bird and Noa and failed to find wins against other underperformers. This is (maybe) the last tournament we'll cover with him, so let's use this last game to complete our understanding of this young master.
In the final Center Game of the tournament, Riemann opted for a favourite of the opening's most consistent practitioner, Wilfried Paulsen. While neither player played the resulting position super well, Gunsberg doubtlessly had the worse of it, being dissuaded from castling Kingside but making no efforts to go Queenside either. Slowly but surely, Riemann amassed forces in the center, and made Gunsberg's life very difficult after the time control.
This game, to me, reads like the pressure was really getting to Gunsberg. He failed to find anything close to a good defensive setup, and Riemann was enabled to almost win both by checkmate and by just converting a better endgame. The German prodigy won this one very convincingly, and while he personally wasn't really in contention for prizes, he made sure that situation was properly muddied.
Tarrasch won his game, and so the scores going into the final round were as follows:
Tarrasch: 11.5
Englisch, Gunsberg, Mason, Weiss: 11
Blackburne: 10.5
Blackburne was set to play Tarrasch, as were Mason and Weiss, so we will unfortunately not be looking at the most anticipated games of the final round. It's still an important one, of course.
Round 17: vs. Hermann von Gottschall
We saw Gottschall in passing at the Nuremberg Hauptturnier, where he came third in Group A (behind Hermann Neustadtl). I found a tournament win for him later in 1883, shared first with Harmonist, Schallopp and Berthold Englisch, which I imagine was the evidence used for his invitation to the master event.
Gunsberg's desire to win at all costs was apparent quite early, as he refused piece trades and castled Queenside - an uncommon maneuvre in the Spanish. His 14th move could have gotten him in trouble, as it set a trap that didn't actually exist, but once von Gotschall retreated, all hell broke loose. The Black a- and b-pawns raced forward, while the White g-pawn did the same and opened up the g-file for attack. It was anyone's game to win.
Following the time control, it became clear that Gunsberg's attack was going to be just a bit quicker. When transitioning from offence to defence, von Gottschall played some moves that I can't quite wrap my head around - whether it's because they're actually nonsensical or I'm just losing my mind I cannot answer. But the resulting position allowed Gunsberg to play the move in the thumbnail, and while it's far from the most impressive move we've seen in this series, the context in which it was played more than justifies its place.
Conclusion
The stars aligned for Gunsberg in this final round in a way that's kind of hard to believe. Blackburne beat Tarrasch very quickly, owing to the latter making a huge blunder right before the time control and resigning on move 22. Mason and Weiss traded down to an endgame at the first time control, and called it a draw at the second. The most surprising result to me was Englisch agreeing to a draw on move 16 against the real draw-master, Berger (14 draws in 17 games is a lot by even our standards). All of this allowed Gunsberg to edge out five(!) other players by half a point and claim the victory at Hamburg.
This was a tournament full of storylines, and one that I'm glad I looked into a little more closely. Gunsberg's middling first half followed by a 7-1 tear in the second, Tarrasch being right in the lead for most of his first ever master tournament, Minckwitz starting strong but ultimately falling a half point short of the prizes, and more crazy happenings took place at this absolute monster of a tournament. I hope you all enjoyed this ride as much as I did (ideally more, honestly), stay tuned for what comes next. Hopefully something a little smaller...
