Mintonette was invented in Holyoke, Massachusetts. We known it by its later name, volleyball. The first automobile race took place in France. The winner traveled 732 miles in 48 hours and 47 minutes.
A Sears catalog from 1895 shows you could get a shirt for as little as 50 cents. A carpenter made around 32 cents an hour and an unskilled laborer made about half of that.
That was the year World Champion Lasker moved back to England, first to London and later to Manchester. In the US, Jackson W. Showalter won the 5th US championship by defeating Samuel (or Salomon) Lipschultz in a match by a score of 7-4.
In March the leading English player of the 1870s, William Potter died. In May Martin From died in Copenhagen. He was an analyst and is remembered for the Fromn Gambit (1.f4 e5). Problem composer and the 1886 Scottish champion Georges Barbier died in France.
In 1895, in December, Harry N. Pillsbury contracted syphilis in Russia and in June of 1906, he died from it. Back in those days mercury was the treatment of choice for syphilis. In the early stages of the disease topical applications may have occasionally aborted the infection, but it was undoubtedly ineffective in curing
secondary syphilis. Besides that, the problem was mercury’s toxicity to the central and peripheral nervous systems. It could produce harmful effects on the nervous, digestive and immune systems, lungs and kidneys and it could be be fatal.
Before his trip to Russia, the Hastings international tournament was won by Pillsbury. At that time the tournament was not played over Christmas and New Year; it was played from August 5th to September 2nd.
Today’s’ game was played in that tournament. I remember when I first saw this game (probably back in the early 1960’s) how much I enjoyed it. Recently I played through it again and nothing has changed. The game won Second Brilliancy Prize despite Tarrasch’s rather inept conduct of most of the game. However, his brilliant combination at the end after Walbrodt mishandled the attack, allowed Tarrasch to redeem himself.
Tarrasch's opponent, Carl Walbrodt (November 28, 1871 - October 3, 1902), was a leading German master of the period who participated in many tournaments and matches and wrote several chess columns. In real life he and his brother owned a pantograph factory. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis in the early 1890's and ultimately died from it.
Enjoy the complications!
Siegbert Tarrasch–Karl Walbrodt1–0C77HastingsHastings ENG09.08.1895Stockfish 16
C77: Ruy Lopez 1.e4 e5 2.f3 c6 3.b5 a6 4.a4 f6 5.c3 d6 6.d4
Black has a wide choice here: 6...Bd7, 6...Nd7, 6...Bd7 and 6...exd4 d7
This transposes into the Steinitz Defense Deferred. It's an interesting and
still relatively unexplored system. It appears somewhat passive, but it is
extremely solid and flexible. 7.xc6± xc6 8.e2 exd4 9.xd4 d7 10.0-0 e7 11.b3 0-0 12.b2 b5 One early annotator dubbed this a sly
move threatening...c5, ...b4 and ...Bb5 winning the exchange. Not true. 12...e8 13.ad1 f8 14.d3 e7 15.fe1 ad8 was played in Marco,G-Taubenhaus,J
Ostende 1905. The position is equal. 13.a4 13.ad1 c5 Not the best move.
Both 13...Re8 and 13...h6 are good. 14.f5 b4 Taking the N is a little
better. 15.a4 b5 This loses. 15...Bxf5 leaves white slightly better. 16.f3 e8 16...xf1 17.xf1 c4 18.e5 is decisive. Hust va samplke line... e8 19.xe7+ xe7 20.xa8 17.g3 g5 18.fe1 g6 19.h4 f6 20.e5 g7 21.exd6 xb2 22.e7+ h8 23.xb2 d7 24.c4 bxc3 25.xc3+ f6 26.a4 c6 27.xc6 xc6 28.d7 g7 29.b4 White is winning. 13...b4 This not only
drives back the N, but it also gains space. 14.d1 14.d5 c5 15.f3 15.xe7+ xe7 16.f3 xe4 black has won a P. 15...xd5 16.exd5 f6 17.xf6 xf6 18.ae1 fe8 Black stands slightly better. 14...c5 15.f3 15.f5
was better. xf5 16.exf5 d5 17.e3 d4 18.c4 with about equal chances. 15...c6 In spite of having a backward d-Pawn, black has a nice
position. 16.d2 d5 17.e5 With this move Tarrasch is striving for a closed
position where Walbrodt’s two B’s don’t have a lot of scope, but the
idea fails. 17.exd5 This has been recommended. xd5 18.c4 e8 19.de3 f6 20.xf6 f4 21.xd8 xe2+ 22.h1 axd8 Black has the more active
position. 17...e8 18.e3 d7 19.ad1 d4 This move gives white’s N a
good outpost on c4, but is gives black's light-squared B a great diagonal plus
it also shuts white’s B out of the game. The real surprise is that it is the
buried B on c7 that is going to win the game for Tarrasch!! 20.ec4 e6 21.f4 This looks right...it's part pf Tarrasch's pan to keep the game closed....
but it's actually a poor move. 21.de1 keeps the game about equal. d5 22.d3 c6 23.f3 and it's hard to see how either side can make any headway. 21...f5 Excellent! The position is closed, but Walbrodt's position has a lot
of freedom and he uses it to build up a promising attack. 22.a5 d5 23.d3 h8 This is the kind of move that engines do not readily find. Black’s plan
is to open up the g-file for an assault on White’s K. 24.g3 In view of
black's plan the Q is not well placed here and so 23.Nac4 was better. a7
Another great move. Because he in control of the game Walbrodt is preparing to
bring the R over to the K-side before undertaking an immediate attack. 24...g5 This immediate assault is also extremely good! 25.f3 gxf4 26.xf4 g8
with good attacking chances. 25.ac4 g8 26.de1 g5 27.e2 d8 28.d3 ag7 29.g3 gxf4 This move was criticized as a mistake by Tarrasch and
Reinfeld. Tarrasch recommended ...g4 followed by the advance of the h-Pawn,
saying it would have lead to a quick win, but that does not appear to be the
case. In fact, 29...gxf4 is the best move in thsi position and it leaves black
with a clear advantage. 29...g4 30.d6 f8 30...xd6 31.exd6 xd6 32.xf5 with equal chances. 30...h5 is bad for black... 31.xf5 f7 32.d6 with a significant advantage. 31.xa6 e7 32.ff2 h5 and black's
advantage is minimal. 30.xf4 White's pressure on the f-Pawn is
not quite enough to equalize. g5 This defends the f_Pawnm but it is a small
slip that loses some of his advantage. 30...g4 31.xf5 xf4 32.xf4 32.xe6 xe6 32...f6 33.d6 h5 34.f2 g5 35.f5 xf5 36.xf5 f8
positionally black has the advantage. White has a nifty tactical shot here... 37.xd4 cxd4 38.xd4 g7 39.e6 e7 40.e4 but his chances are only
marginally improved. 31.ef2 g7 32.d6 xe5 This is probably not the
most effective move. That said, suggesting anything a lot better is a
challenge! 32...c7 was recommended without futyher comment by Reinfeld..
After 33.f3 xf3 34.4xf3 xd6 35.exd6 xd6 36.c3 bxc3 37.xc3 Black
is a P up, but it's hard to see how he will make further progress. 32...g6 is the engine suggestion, but it only keeps the advantage while noit
undertaking anything concrete. 33.f3 f8 34.f1 e7 35.xa6 xf3 36.4xf3 xe5 37.c4 d5 38.b5 f4 39.b6 h5 40.c1 e6 41.e2 h3+ 42.e1 g5 43.xf4 e6 44.xf8+ xf8 45.xg5 xe2+ 46.xe2 Black is clearly better...
theoretically at least, but the position is very difficult. 33.xf5 h5
This is a blunder that loses immediately. 33...e6 keeps a
slight advantage. 34.e4 xe4 35.xe4 xe4 36.xe4 5g6 37.xc5 xc5 38.xd4+ f6 39.xc5 c6 40.d4+ f6 34.xd4 An amazing change of
fate! xg3 Perhaps this was the move Walbrodt was relying on, but it is
insufficient. 35.xg3 Rh4 is the strong threat. xg3+ 36.hxg3 xg3+ 37.f1 xd3 38.g4 This is the winner...it leads to mate in 9, so Walbrodt
resigned. 38.xd3 would have been a horrible mistake! xb2 39.xd5 e7 40.e4 and black should be able to draw. 38.g4 h5 38...xb2 39.f8+
mate next move. 39.xe5+ f6 40.xf6+ h7 41.g7+ h6 42.cxd3 c4 43.xc4 h4 44.h2 f7 45.xh4+ h5 46.g5 a5 47.hxh5# 1–0
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