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| Suicide painting by Edouard Manet |
What's not generally known is that there was also a concurrent minor tournament. It took place from February 3rd to the 10th, also at the Manhattan Ches Club. The prizes for this minor event were $100, $60, $30 and $20. That $100 in 1880 would amount to over $2,600 today...not a bad prize for a minor tournament. The final standings:
I posted on David Baird and J.W. Baird back in July. But, of special note was the fourth place finisher Nicolai Gadalia who was born in Denmark on February 13, 1857 and died on November 13, 1880, just a few months after the tournament.
He was the youngest son of Baron Gedalia, the Railway King of Denmark and a financier in Denmark. The Baron’s parents were destitute and as a youth he was apprenticed to a saddler in Copenhagen where he worked as a journeyman saddler there for years. He saved enough to open his own saddling firm and later a banking house in Copenhagen. His success was speculator and enabled him to become the agent of the Rothschilds in Denmark. He was bestowed the title of Baron by the Austrian government after he helped them in several financial transactions. He served as the consul general of Portugal in Copenhagen and received the Order of Jesus from the King of Portugal.
He encountered financial reverses in 1875 and 1876, finally going bankrupt after unsuccessfully speculating in railroads. He came to the United States in 1877 in the hopes of starting a new career, but when that failed he returned to Denmark the same year where he began a small banking business. His wife, Nicolai and Nicolai’s older brother Charles remained behind in New York.
Nicolai had been educated in the office of his father in Copenhagen and after arriving in the US had been employed in the financial office of W.W. Hanly when he decided to start in business for himself as a stockbroker.
After only eighteen months he had lost money on 200 shares of stock and was unable to make good on the debt. They were sold under the rule of the Mining Board on which he had a seat. His friends, however, came to his aid and a settlement was made with his creditors. This turn of events left him greatly discouraged, but more financial woes were lurking just around the corner.
As a result, he decided his best course of action was to sell his seat on the mining board and find employment in a bank or broker’s office. Unfortunately, he found it impossible to sell his seat and became even more depressed, moody and despondent to the point he stayed out of his office for a week.
Then one morning his mother and brother sat down to breakfast at about 8 o’clock on Saturday, November 13, 1880 and sent a maid to summon Nicolai. While walking down the hall she heard the report of a pistol. Charles also heard the shot and hurrying into Nicolai’s room found him lying dead on the floor with a bullet wound in his right temple and the pistol still clutched in his right hand.
His brother maintained the shooting was accidental because Nicolai had bought the pistol to defend against any would be burglars but discovered it was defective. They planned to take the gun to a gunsmith that Saturday, so his brother believed that he may have been examining it when the weapon accidentally discharged.
Lasker’s Chess Magazine, May-October, 1905, mentions the passing of long time Manhattan club member Charles de Gadalia, son of Baron de Gadalia of Copenhagen. Gedalia was known to club members as “Mr. Gedalia.” He had been employed by leading banking firms and according to the article died of “rheumatism of the heart” at the home of his sister, Mrs. Rosalie Dufrenois. Apparently Charles was also a strong player as his name appears in many old magazines in the late 1800s as a participant in the Manhattan CC championships.
Sarah’s Chess Journal has written an interesting history of the first 21 years of the Manhattan Chess Club and the Gadalia’s name is mentioned several times.
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| Manhattan CC west room about 1905 |
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