Swiderski At Coburg, 1904

Rudolf Awiderski

    Coburg is a town in SE Germany with a population of about 41, 500. Because it was little damaged in World War II, Coburg retains many historic buildings making it a popular tourist destination. In 1904, it hosted the 14th tournament of the German Chess Association. 

    Curt Von Bardeleben of Berlin, Carl Schlechter of Vienna and Rudolf Swiderski of Leipsic shared first place. Georg Marco of Vienna and Ossi[ S. Bernstein of Berlin, finished a half point behind. 

    This tournament marked the return to form of the veteran Bardeleben and so for him it was a pleasant result. Swiderski, who first appeared on the German chess scene in 1899 and was still improving, fulfilled expectations. Carl Schlechter performed as expected. 

    Georg Marco was invincible, drawing ten games and winning two. Earlier at the strong Cambridge Springs tournament the good natured Marco had a similar feat, scoring +5 -2 =8/

    The young (21 years old) Bernstein had an enviable result, his only loss being to Caro. Schlechter's single defeat occurred in the sixth round, when he lost to Swiderski. 

    An unusual feature (for that day) of the tournament was the high percentage of draws with 40 of the 78 games (51.3 percent) ending peacefully. 

    The winner of today’s game was the strange Rudolf Swiderski (July 28, 1878 – August 2, 1909, 31 years old. 

 

 

    Writing in My Fifty Years of Chess, Frank Marshall said, "Of all the chess masters I ever met, Swiderski was the most weird…Swiderski, en passant, was a peculiar fellow. He made very few friends, had a gentle but melancholy disposition, was a fine violinist, ate raw meat, committed suicide…” 

    Re eating raw meat...a 2022 article in the Daily Mirror claimed that an American vlogger who had spent the last 166 days only eating raw chicken, fish and beef could have been losing his mind according to some of his concerned Instagram followers. They began growing concerned when he started sharing increasingly bizarre posts and some thought it was due to the raw meat. There are a number of problems associated with eating raw meat, but doing so will not cause insanity. 

    Some people eat raw meat, believing it to be healthier than cooked meat. And, some people just enjoy the flavor and texture. Humans are omnivores and have the digestive juices needed to deal with meat, cooked or not. 

    The dangers of eating raw meat are not related to indigestion, but to infections. Cooking kills germs. In the United States it;s estimated that 48 million people get sick because of food borne diseases and 3,000 die every year. 

    On the plus side, eating raw meat is not entirely without merit because cooking destroys vitamins and other nutrients. Also, raw meat contains animal enzymes that are beneficial for health and it can be easier to digest. 

    I have digressed a bit so back to Swiderski who master who made his mark in 1900 when he won first place at the Munich Hauptturnier. After that he played in eight major tournaments from 1902 to 1908. 

    His death appears to be surrounded by some confusion, but the Trenton, New Jersey Evening Times of August 11, 1909, reported, "The body of M. Swiderski, the noted chess player, who committed suicide on August 2 was found today in the room where he had poisoned himself and then fired a bullet into this head. The body was badly decomposed. The date of the suicide was determined by a note left by Swiderski. Swiderski was recently convicted of perjury in a trial that involved him in a disgraceful scandal." Exactly what the disgraceful scandal was is not known. 

    At Coburg Swiderski was in clear first place in rounds ten and eleven and then he lost g to the tailender Walter John in the penultimate round and allowing both Schlechter and Bardeleben to catch him. 

 

[Event "Coburg (Meisterturnier)"] [Site "Coburg GER"] [Date "1904.07.23"] [Round "6"] [White "Carl Schlechter"] [Black "Rudolf Swiderski"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D60"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "44"] [EventDate "1904.07.18"] {Queen's Gambit Declined} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 Be7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Bd3 b6 8. O-O Bb7 9. Rc1 c5 10. Qe2 Rc8 11. Rfd1 (11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. Bxe7 Qxe7 13. Ba6 N7f6 14. Nxd5 exd5 15. dxc5 bxc5 16. Qb5 {Neither side can boast of any advantage an the game Kotanjian,T (2529)-Hovhannisyan,K (2107) Jermuk ARM 2013 was eventually drawn.}) 11... cxd4 12. exd4 {Of all the captures available to white this is the least effective.} (12. Nxd4 Ne5 13. cxd5 Nxd3 14. Rxd3 Ba6 15. Ndb5 {losing. Correct was 15.dxe6 equals} Bxb5 16. e4 Bxd3 17. Qxd3 Nxd5 18. Bxe7 Nxe7 {White is lost. Masood,S-Azahari,M (2140) Elista 1998}) 12... dxc4 13. Bxc4 Bxf3 14. gxf3 Nh5 15. Bxe7 {White has managed to drift into an inferior position, but keeping the Bs on with 15.Be3 was better.} Qxe7 16. Ne4 Qh4 {It's hard to believe, but in the next few move Swiderski is going to whip up a formidable attack} 17. Kh1 Nf4 18. Qe3 Kh8 19. Ba6 Rcd8 {[%mdl 128]} 20. Bf1 f5 {This move is the key to black's success' it enables a winning Rook lift.} 21. Nd6 Rf6 22. Rc7 {At first glance it may look like white has a good position because the R on the 7th rank looks impressive. In fact, white has managed to set a little trap here, byt Swiderski is alert to it.} Kg8 {White's position is lost so he resigned. There is no way to meet the coming ...Rh6 which is not possible immediately.} (22... Rh6 {loses to} 23. Nf7+ Kg8 24. Nxh6+ Qxh6 25. d5 {and white is winning.}) (22... Kg8 23. Rdc1 Rh6 24. h3 Nxh3 25. Qxh6 (25. Bxh3 Qxh3+ 26. Kg1 Qh1#) 25... Nxf2+ 26. Kg1 Qg3+ 27. Bg2 gxh6 28. Nb7 Nh3+ 29. Kh1 (29. Kf1 Qf2#) 29... Nf4 30. R1c2 Ne2 31. Rxe2 Qxc7 {etc.}) 0-1