The country was also having its problems. Riots broke out in January when miners went on strike. The Second Boer War was being fought between the British and two Boer Republics.
As a result, the German steamer Herzog was seized by the British warship HMS Thetis outside Delagoa Bay in East Africa, on suspicions that it was carrying supplies to Boer troops. After no supplies were found, the ship and its crew are released.
In China, the Boxer Rebellion (an attempt to drive all foreigners out of China) was taking place and when three Chinese Boxers got too close to the German legation, a young Chinese man was captured by the German guards.
The German minister, thrashed the young man with his cane and ordered the guards to continue the beating and the Chinese Foreign Ministry was told the prisoner would die.
Over the next few days, the foreign diplomats begin shooting at Chinese nationals that came near their headquarter. In the shootings, the German minister was, himself, killed as were a number of Chinese.
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| US Marines in the Boxer Rebellion |
On June 21st, China declared war on Germany. By the end, several countries sent troops to China to end the siege of Peking (Beijing), including 49 officers and 1,151 enlisted US Marines. Peking was captured in August 1900, and after extensive discussions, the rebellion officially ended on September 7, 1901.
In the 1960s I was with the Marines aboard the USS Boxer (one of several Navy ships with that name), but name had nothing to do with the Boxer Rebellion. The ships were named after His Majesty's Brig Boxer which the US Navy captured off the coast of Portland, Maine in late 1813.
In the midst of it all the German Chess Federation Congress, featuring several of the world's best players, was held in Munich from July 22nd to August 18th, 1900.
By round 4 the tournament had developed into a three-way race among Maroczy, Pillsbury and Schlechter and round 10 they were a full point ahead and remained there to the finish.
To settle the tie the three were to play two games with each other, but after making an elementary oversight in a dead equal position and losing the his first game to Pillsbury, Maroczy withdrew claiming illness.
The format was then changed to a four-game match between Pillsbury and Schlechter. Schlechter won the first game, Pillsbury the second, then after two more draws it was determined tht they would share first.
The following short, sharp game is another Albin Countergambit. In this game Burn's score stood at 1-2 while Cohn was tied for the lead with 2.5 points. after this loss, he never recovered and was relegated to being an also ran.
Amos Burn (1848-1925) was born in Hull, Yorkshire, which lies on England's east side about half way up the coast on the North Sea. He learned how to play chess at the age of 16 and became one of the country's leading player. In 1913, he became chess editor of The Field, a monthly sports magazine, a position he held until his death in 1925.
Wilhelm Cohn (1859-1913) was born in Berlin and in the late 1800s and early 1900s had a few good tournament results.
[Event "Munich"]
[Site ""]
[Date "1900.07.27"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Amos Burn"]
[Black "Wilhelm Cohn"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D08"]
[Annotator "Stockfish/Komodo"]
[PlyCount "55"]
[EventDate "1900.07.23"]
{Albin Countergambit} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 d4 4. e4 {Today this is known
as the Spassky Variation. The main line is 4.Nf3} Nc6 5. f4 Bc5 {This game was
played in round 4. In round 8 Schlechter played the wild 5...g5 which was
given a ! in the tournament book.} (5... g5 6. Bd3 gxf4 7. Bxf4 Nge7 8. Bg3 Ng6
9. Qh5 {This does not turn out well. Better was developing with 9.Nf3} Bb4+ 10.
Ke2 {Burn,A-Schlechter,C Munich 1900. Blacj is better and eventually won.}) 6.
a3 {Burn is preparing to advance his Q-side Ps in the hopes of exploiting the
position of blacks B. It's interesting that he doesn't play it immediately
though, preferring to complete his development first.} ({Relevant:} 6. Bd3 Nh6
7. Nf3 Ng4 8. h3 Ne3 9. Bxe3 dxe3 10. Nc3 {with equal chances. Janowski,
D-Marshall,F New York 1899}) 6... a5 {Hindering the advance of white's b-Pawn.}
(6... f5 {was a sharp possibility, but after} 7. exf5 Bxf5 8. b4 {white is in
good shape.}) 7. Nf3 Bg4 (7... a4 {stopping b4 was a reasonable alternative.}
8. Bd3 Bg4 9. Nbd2 Nge7 {etc. But, here, too, white can still claim an opening
advantage.}) 8. Bd3 {Cohn's next move has been criticized. It's is, in fact, a
poor choice, but the alternatives of 8...Nge7 or 8...Bxf3 or even 8...g5 are
not much better.} f6 9. exf6 Nxf6 10. h3 Bxf3 11. Qxf3 O-O 12. O-O Qe7 13. Nd2
{Burn has been in no hurry in rushing to the attack, having preferred to first
develop his pieces.} Nd7 14. Qe2 (14. e5 {Looks good, but it's tactically
faulty.} Ncxe5 15. Qd5+ Nf7 {Black has equalized.}) 14... Qh4 (14... g5 {
For better or for worse this had to be played.} 15. g3 Kh8 16. Nf3 gxf4 17.
gxf4 Rg8+ 18. Kh2 Bd6 19. Bd2 Rae8 20. Rae1 {White is clearly better, but
there is no forced win.}) 15. e5 Rad8 16. Ne4 Bb6 17. Bd2 {White has finally
completed his development by connecting his Rs and there is little black can
do except try to defend as best as he can because counterattacking is out of
the question.} Nc5 {No better was 17...a4} (17... a4 18. Ng5 g6 19. Ne6) 18. b4
{Finally!} axb4 19. axb4 Nxd3 20. Qxd3 Ra8 21. Rxa8 Rxa8 {All these exchanges
have eliminated white threats like Ng5-e6, but they have not altered the fact
that white is actually winning quite easily.} 22. c5 Ba7 23. Qc4+ Kh8 24. Ng5
h6 25. Nf7+ Kh7 26. f5 Re8 27. f6 gxf6 28. Ng5+ {A nice finishing touch. Cohn
resigned.} (28. Ng5+ hxg5 29. Qf7+ Kh8 30. Qxf6+ Kh7 31. Qf7+ Kh8 32. Qxe8+ {
mates in 3}) (28. Ng5+ fxg5 29. Qf7+ Kh8 30. Qxe8+ {mates in 3}) (28. Ng5+ Kg7
29. Qf7+ Kh8 30. Qh7#) 1-0
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