100 Years Ago

Major Tournaments:

Mannheim 1914- the 19th DSB Congress, comprising several tournaments, began on 20 July 1914 in Mannheim, Germany. On 1 August Germany declared war on Russia, and on France (August 3), Britain joining in the next day. The congress was stopped on 1 August 1914. Alekhine was leading the Meisterturnier, with nine wins, one draw and one loss, when World War I broke out. German organizers of the tournament decided that the players should be "indemnified" according to their score, but not paid the total prize money. After the declaration of war, eleven "Russian" players (Alekhine, Bogoljubov, Bogatyrchuk, Flamberg, Koppelman, Maljutin, Rabinovich, Romanovsky, Saburov, Selezniev, Weinstein) were interned in Rastatt, Germany. On September 14, 17, and 29, 1914, four of them (Alekhine, Bogatyrchuk, Saburov, and Koppelman) were freed and allowed to return home via Switzerland. A fifth player, Romanovsky was freed and went back to Petrograd in 1915, and a sixth one, Flamberg was allowed to return to Warsaw in 1916.

The ‘final’ standings were: 1-Alekhine 2-Vidmar 3-Spielmann 4-6-Breyer, Marshall and Reti 7-Janowsky 8-9-Bogoljubow and Tarrasch 10-11-Duras and John 12-Tartakower 13-14-Fahrni and Post 15-16-Carls and Kruger

Saint Petersburg International Tournament -This tournament celebrated the 10th anniversary of the St. Petersburg Chess Society. Russian organizers intended to invite the present top twenty chess players, with world champion Lasker and challenger Capablanca, but strong Austro-Hungarian masters could not accept due to tensions of Russia with Austria-Hungary in the year 1914. Finally, eleven top players from Germany, France, United Kingdom, United States, Cuba, and Russian Empire were accepted. The preliminary was won by Capabanca followed by Lasker and Tarrasch, Alekhine and Marshall, Bernstein and Rubinstein, Nimzovich, Blackburne, Janowsky.

The standings of the finals were Lasker followed by Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, Marshall. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, who had partially funded the tournament, awarded the Grandmaster title to the five finalists.

Other Major Tournaments:

8th All-Russian Masters' Tournament, won by Alexander Alekhine and Aaron Nimzowitsch, followed by Alexander Flamberg, Moishe Lowtzky, Grigory Levenfish
New York (Manhattan CC), won by Abraham Kupchik
St. Petersburg (Hexagonal), won by Peter Romanovsky and Sergey von Freymann.
Kiev (Quadrangular), won by Alexander Evensohn ahead of Efim Bogoljubow and Fedor Bogatyrchuk.
Cracow won by Flamberg ahead of Józef Dominik,
Berlin (Quadrangular), won by Erich Cohn and Spielmann.
Vienna (Quadrangular), won by Siegfried Reginald Wolf and Ernst Grünfeld.
Geneve won by Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky.
Paris (Quadrangular), won by Marshall and Alekhine
Chester (British Chess Championship), won by Frederick Yates and Joseph Henry Blackburne. Yates won the playoff on forfeit
Baden-Baden won by Flamberg, followed by Bogoljubow, Ilya Rabinovich
Triberg won by Bogoljubow, followed by Rabinovich, Peter Romanovsky
Vienna won by Grünfeld ahead of Kalikst Morawski,
Vienna (the 6th Trebitsch Memorial), won by Schlechter ahead of Arthur Kaufmann

Major Matches:
Richard Réti defeated Walter John 2 : 1 (+1 –0 =2), Breslau.
Paul Leonhardt drew with Hans Fahrni 1 : 1 (+1 –1 =0), Munich.
Paul Leonhardt won against J. Szekely 2.5 : 1.5 (+2 –1 =1), Munich.
Frederick Yates defeated George Thomas 3 : 1 (+2 –0 =2), London.
Richard Teichmann won against Frank Marshall 1.5 : 0.5 (+1 –0 =1), Berlin.
Richard Teichmann beat Rudolf Spielmann 5 : 1 (+5 –1 =0), Leipzig.

Births:
8 January - Herman Pilnik in Stuttgart, Germany. Argentine GM.
21 February - Arnold Denker in New York City.
6 March - Theo van Scheltinga in Amsterdam.
8 March - Oleg Neikirch in Tbilisi, Georgia.
7 October - Alexander Tsvetkov in Topolovgrad, Bulgaria.
11 October - Reuben Fine in New York City.
20 October - Mona May Karff in Bessarabia. Women's US Champion.
26 October - Adriaan de Groot in Santpoort, the Netherlands.
16 December - Sonja Graf in Munich, Germany. Women's US Champion.
26 December - Albert Simonson in New York City.