How Good Was Thomas W. Wilson?

     The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States that spanned the 1890s to the 1920s. The main objectives of the Progressive movement were addressing problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption. 
     One of the leaders of the movement was Thomas W. Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924), better known as Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States (1913-1921). 
     Like Theodore Roosevelt before him, Wilson regarded himself as the personal representative of the people. “No one but the President,” he said, “seems to be expected … to look out for the general interests of the country.” That said, Wilson was also an openly racist president.  See THIS article.
     He developed a program of progressive reform and asserted international leadership while trying to build a new world order. In 1917 he proclaimed American entrance into World War I a crusade to make the world “safe for democracy.” 
     Wilson was born in Virginia in 1856, the son of a Presbyterian minister who during the Civil War was a pastor in Augusta, Georgia, and during Reconstruction a professor in the charred city of Columbia, South Carolina. 
     After graduation from Princeton (then the College of New Jersey) and the University of Virginia Law School, Wilson earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University and began an academic career. Wilson advanced rapidly as a conservative young professor of political science and became president of Princeton in 1902. 

     His growing national reputation led some Democrats to consider him Presidential material. First they persuaded him to run for Governor of New Jersey in 1910. In the campaign he asserted his independence of the conservatives and of the machine that had nominated him, endorsing a progressive platform. 
     He was nominated for President at the 1912 Democratic Convention and campaigned on a program called the New Freedom, which stressed individualism and states’ rights. In the three-way election he received only 42 percent of the popular vote but an overwhelming electoral college vote. 
     In 1916, one new law prohibited child labor and another limited railroad workers to an eight-hour day. By virtue of this legislation and the his slogan “He kept us out of war,” Wilson narrowly won re-election. But after the election he concluded that the U.S. could not remain neutral and on April 2, 1917, he asked Congress to declare war on Germany. 
     After the Germans signed the Armistice in November 1918, Wilson went to Paris to try to build an enduring peace. He later presented to the U.S. Senate the Versailles Treaty, containing the Covenant of the League of Nations. But the election of 1918 had shifted the balance in Congress to the Republicans and the Versailles Treaty failed to pass in the Senate by seven votes. 
     Then President Wilson, against the warnings of his doctors, made a national tour to mobilize public sentiment for the treaty. Exhausted, he suffered a stroke and nearly died. Nursed by his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt, he lived until 1924. 
     In the book Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychological Biography, a Supplementary Volume to the Papers of Woodrow Wilson, it describes the household of the young Woodrow Wilson as being like that of most other Presbyterian preachers of that day. 
     Sundays were strictly observed. Daily prayers and Bible readings took place and were conducted by Wilson’s father when he was home and by Mrs. Wilson when he was away. Mrs. Wilson and Woodrow's sisters played the melodion (a type of keyboard) and the family sang hymns and Scottish ballads. 
     In spite of their strict Sunday routine, Dr. Wilson, Woodrow’s father, was not otherwise overly strict and although card playing and games of chance were not permitted, when Woodrow was old enough, he and his father played billiards and chess. 
     The January 5, 1953 edition of Chess Life published the following game attributed to Wilson who was a Princeton University professor at the time. The magazine didn’t give any further details, but it may possibly have been a simultaneous exhibition game. I do not know of any other games attributed to President Wilson and judging by this single game it's hard to say how good he was.
     His opponent was Salomon Langleben (1862 - February 8, 1939), a Polish master who lived in the United States before returning to Poland at the end of the 1800s. From 1900 to 1917 he had considerable success in European tournaments. In 1894 he won in Buffalo city championship. 

Play Online Chess

[Event "Buffalo, New York"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1898.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Woodrow Wilson"]
[Black "Salomon Langleben"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{D07: Queen's Gambit: Chigorin Defence} 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Bf5 {What can you say
about this defense which is generally known as the Baltic Defense? Since black
usually struggles to develop his c8B in the QGD this radical approach has been
recommended by IM Andrew Martin even though it has not found widespread
acceptance. Paul Keres played it on rare occasions and Alexei Shirov used it
against Kramnik at Linares 1994, but said that perhaps it is not so bad, but
it's too experimental to use in an important game.} 3. e3 {In the above
mentioned game Kramnik played 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 c6 5.Qb3 with interesting play.
This game soon transposes into the Chigorin Defense.} 3... Nf6 4. c4 e6 5.
Nc3 Nc6 { The Chigorin is an old favorite of mine...it's unorthodox and chancy
and it usually involves a lot of piece play in the center.} 6. a3 a6 {Also
acceptable is 6...dxc4} 7. b4 {Strunsky,A (2275)-Chasovnikova,E
(2338)/Boeblingen 2008 continued 7.Be2 dxc4, but Stockfish likes Wilson's
move.} 7... dxc4 8. Bxc4 b5 { Weakening. 8...Bd6 was good.} 9. Be2 Bd6 10.
Nh4 Bg6 11. Bf3 Qd7 {So far Wilson has played move acceptable to the engines
and has a slight advantage. He has several reasonable moves here: 12.Nxg6,
12.Bb2 and 12.O-O. Instead, he plays a move that while can hardly be
considered bad, allows black to equalize. } 12. e4 e5 13. d5 Nd4 14. Nxg6
Nxf3+ 15. Qxf3 fxg6 {Surprisingly this move is not considered bad by the
engines. In reality, there is no way to take advantage of the apparent
weakening of black's K-side plus the f-file offers some potential play.} 16.
Bb2 O-O {So far the engines (Stockfish and Komodo) have not faulted the play
of either side, but now white should withdraw his Q from the line of fire of
black's R with either 17.Qd3 or 17.Qe2.} 17. O-O Nxd5 18. Qg3 Nf4 {Not only
has black won a P, but he has gotten his N on a nice square. White now starts
to feel the pressure.} 19. Rad1 Qe7 20. Rd2 c6 { White's best chance is to try
and simplify with 21.Ne2 c5 (eliminating his weak P) 22.bxc5 Bxc5 23.Nxf4
etc.} 21. Rfd1 Rad8 {Once again white should seek to exchange the N on f4 with
22.Ne2 with a reasonable chance of defending.} 22. f3 {This is just too
passive.} 22... Bc7 {White can't exchange the Rs because black's would end up
on d8 and control the d-file (the immediate threat is the crushing ...Qd2)}
23. Qf2 Qg5 24. Kh1 Rxd2 25. Rxd2 Rb8 {It made more sense to play 25...Rd8
threatening ...Nd3.} 26. Rd7 Bb6 27. Qd2 Be3 {Black's last couple of moves
were played hoping to draw white's Q away from the defense of g2, but Wilson
doesn't fall for the cheap shot.} 28. Qc2 Nh3 {A miscalculation that allows
white right back in the game. Correct was 28...Rd8 with the advantage. Of
course white doesn't fall for 29.gxh3 Qg1 mate.} 29. Nd1 Bb6 {White could now
have gained the advantage with 30.g6 leaving black's N with no good square and
out of play.} 30. Qxc6 Nf4 {Threatening mate again.} 31. Qc2 h6 {The P stops
one square short. Pushing it with ...h5-h4 was more promising. White can now
gain the upper hand with 32.g6 and 33.Rd6.} 32. Bc1 { This looks dangerous (it
threatens g3), but it in fact loses.} 32... Qh4 {This time black's mate threat
(...Qe1) can't be met in any satisfactory way.} 33. Qd2 Rc8 34. Ne3 Bxe3
{Black is winning after 34...Bd4. Now his opponent is back in the game.} 35.
Qxe3 Rc2 36. Bd2 Rb2 {After 37.Be1 white would have completely equalized.}
37. g3 {This horrible mistake leads to a forced loss.} 37... Rb1+ 38. Bc1 Qh3
39. Rxg7+ {All white can do is delay the inevitable .} 39... Kxg7 40. Qa7+
Kf6 41. Qb6+ Ne6 42. Qg1 Rb3 {There was a mate in 14 after 42...Nd4, not that
it matters.} 43. Qd1 Nd4 44. f4 Rxg3 45. fxe5+ Kxe5 {Black mates in 6 moves.}
0-1

Dr. David Allen, Sr.

     In response to the mention of the pioneering Afro-American masters in the preceding post, I have been informed that Dr. David Allen, Sr. of Cleveland, Ohio passed away from complications caused by diabetes on November 22, 2019. He was born January 31st, 1960 and was just 59 years old. 
     Dr. Allen graduated from John Adams High School in 1978 and then obtained Bachelors degrees in both Psychology and Mathematics from Cleveland State University and later obtained his PhD in Computer Science from Capella University's first computer science program. He taught children in the Cleveland school district and worked on computer projects for Cleveland Clinic. 
     An inspiration to many, David Allen was a teacher, mentor and father to many whether they were related or not. A Life Master with the USCF, for over 20 years he lead scholastic teams to state and national chess titles. He was the 2005 Ohio Co-Champion. He also played on Chess.com under the name RuffumUP. 
     See Chess Drum articles HERE and HERE. Here is one of his Chess.com games. 

Play Online Chess

[Event "Live Chess on Chess.com"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2018.12.7"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Edu2020"]
[Black "RuffumUP (David Allen, Sr.)"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Closed Sicilian} 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 {When it comes to the Closed Sicilian it is
impossible not to mention Vassily Smyslov and Boris Spassky, both of whom made
enormous contributions to its theory.} 2... d6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 {Normally
white plays 5.d3 Nc6 and then either Spassky's aggressive early f4 followed by
Nf3 or Smyslov's cautious piece development with Be3 and Qd2 followed by
Nge2.} 5. Nge2 Nc6 6. d3 e6 7. O-O Nge7 8. f4 O-O 9. Be3 b6 {White can now
play the solid 10.d4. Instead he chooses an enterprising, but risky,
continuation.} 10. f5 {Good for a blitz game, but it's not really sound.}
10... exf5 11. exf5 {This move only helps black's development, so better was
11.Qd2. Note that for black to recapture with the N could lead to some
complications likely to be in white's favor: 11...Nxf5?! 12.Rxf5 and Bxc6 with
two pieces for the R.} 11... Bxf5 { Note that now 12.Rxf5? would lose the
exchange after 12...Nxf5 13.Bxc6 Nxe3} 12. Bg5 Rc8 13. h3 {Creating a serious
weakness. 13.Qd2 was better.} 13... Qd7 14. Kh2 d5 15. Qd2 d4 16. Ne4 {Now
even better than the move played would have been 16...f6 17.Bf4 g5 leaving the
B with no escape squares.} 16... Nd5 {Even after this move black's position is
still overwhelming.} 17. Bh6 Ne5 18. Bxg7 Kxg7 19. Nf4 Ne3 20. Rfe1 Nxg2 21.
Qxg2 Rfe8 22. g4 Bxg4 23. hxg4 Nxg4+ 24. Kg3 f5 25. Ng5 Ne3 26. Nge6+ {This
turns out to be a very bad move. After 26.Rh1 he could have fought on.}
26... Rxe6 27. Nxe6+ Qxe6 {The ending is hopelessly lost for white.} 28. Qb7+
Kh8 29. Rh1 Qe5+ {29...h5 and ...Re8 would have ended the game.} 30. Kf2
{30.Kf3 would have at least avoided the mate in 10 this move allows.} 30...
Ng4+ 31. Kf1 Qf4+ 32. Kg2 Qf2+ {32...Ne3+ is a quicker mate.} 33. Kh3 Re8
{White can't avoid mate.} 0-1

Hastings 1959

     Vostok Station is a Russian research station in inland Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica. Founded by the Soviet Union in 1957, the station lies at the southern Pole of Cold, with the lowest reliably measured temperature on Earth of 128.6 degrees below zero (F). 
     Both the Arctic and the Antarctic are cold because they don’t get any direct sunlight. However, the South Pole is a lot colder than the North Pole. At both Poles the Sun is always low on the horizon, even in the middle of summer. In winter, the Sun is so far below the horizon that it doesn’t come up at all for months at a time. So the days are just like the nights—cold and dark. Both Poles get the same amount of sunlight, so why is the South Pole colder? 
     The Arctic is ocean surrounded by land. The Antarctic the opposite...it is land surrounded by ocean. The ocean under the Arctic ice is cold, but warmer than the ice! So the ocean warms the air a tiny bit. 
     Antarctica is dry...and high. Under the ice and snow is land, not ocean. And it’s got mountains. The average elevation of Antarctica is about 7,500 feet and the higher you go, the colder it gets. 
     Research at the Vostok Station includes ice core drilling and magnetometry. It was also the location of the oft-repeated story about a researcher killing his opponent with an ax in 1959 after which chess was supposedly banned at Russian Antarctic facilities. 
     I am not 100 percent positive this is a true story. A Smithsonian magazine article I read called it an “unconfirmed story recounted by John Bennett at Canadian Geographic.” The story is also quoted in books, blogs and other assorted locations. 
     One book, Antarctica and the Humanities, edited by Roberts Peder, Lize-Marie van der Watt, and Adrian Howkins said the incident was in the 1980s. It states that “there have been two alleged Antarctic murders, neither leading to a conviction. The more mythic of the two involved an ax and a chess game on a Soviet station in the 1980s. According to some sources, this led the Soviets to ban cosmonauts from playing chess in space.” BTW, the second murder involved an astrophysicist, Rodney Marks, who died of poison at the American Scott-Amundsen station. See Universe Today, Space and Astronomy News.  
     Two people have been murdered on the SA Agulhas, a South African polar vessel from 1978 to 2013, while it was on relief voyages. The first murder occurred on the ship's first ever voyage to Marion Island ( a South African sub-Antarctic station), a member of the crew was killed by another crew member, using a fire axe. On arrival back in Cape Town, the suspected killer could not be found on board the vessel. It was speculated that he jumped overboard before arrival in Cape Town.
     On September 27, 2007, Ordinary Seaman Edward Hudley was stabbed and killed while the Agulhas was near Gough Island. The island is located about 1/3 of the way between the tip of South Africa and South America. It’s one of the most important seabird nesting sites in the world. 
     Two crew members were accused of the murder and the environmental protection vessel Sarah Baartman was dispatched and took custody of the two accused and the deceased's body on October 3, 2007. Both accused were charged with murder on arrival in Cape Town, but all charges were dropped on April 6, 2009. 
     In confirmed chess reports that took place in 1959, Frank Street (born 1943) won the US Amateur Championship. He was the first African-American to win a national championship and the second to achieve a National Master Rating.
    In the 1960s, along with Masters Walter Harris and Kenneth Clayton, he blazed the trail for black players in the country. Just before Street became a National Master in 1965, Walter Harris went over 2200 to become the first after his performance at the US Junior Championship. Later that year Harris was unable to get a hotel room where the U.S. Open was being held in Omaha, Nebraska, because he was black. See A Conversation with Walter Harris HERE.
     The winner of the U.S. Junior Championship, Robin Ault (1941-1994), was allowed to play in the 1959-1960 US championship, but lost all 11 games. After that, the U.S. junior champion was not seeded into the US championship. Ault was the first person to win the US Junior championship three times (1959-1961). 
     Ault dropped out of chess and went on to a successful career in other fields. He was a college mathematics professor, computer software engineer and social justice activist. He passed away at the early age of 52 on September 16, 1994 at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. His brother is National Master Leslie Ault. 
     The big news was in October when Mikhail Tal (1936-1992) won the Candidates Tournament at Bled, Zagreb and Belgrad. Unlike the previous candidates tournaments (Zurich 1953 and Amsterdam 1956) this one consisted of only eight players who played a four games against each other.
     Only a few days before the start of the tournament Tal had been in the hospital to get his appendix removed. Yuri Averbakh reported that Tal looked pale and haggard, but Tal wrote that he was allowed 10 days to recover and during play he felt OK except he just didn’t feel inclined to walk around. Tal became popular during this tournament because of the way he electrified spectators with his risk taking and sacrifices. 
     At the end of the year, starting on December 30th, the 35th Hastings Christmas Congress began; it ended on January 8, 1960. 
     Back in those days the Russians always expected to take first place in any tournament in which they participated. So, when Yuri Averbakh finished tied for 2nd with the East German GM Wolfgang Uhlmann behind the Yugoslav GM Svetozar Gligoric who dominated the tournament all the way, it was disappointing news for the Soviets. Averbakh, a former Soviet Champion, had never played in England before and Uhlmann was the previous year’s winner. 

     This tournament was not so strong as many previous Hastings had been and the poor finish of Arturo Pomar was disappointing. 

     The three players at the bottom aren’t so well known today. The West German Hermann Heemsoth (December 21, 1909-January 20, 2006, 96 years old) was born in Bremen, Germany was awarded the Correspondence IM title in 1972 and the Correspondence GM title in 1987. He was German Correspondence Champion in 1954 and 1969. 
     Burger was Dr. Karl Burger (January 22-1933-April 1, 2000, 67 years old) from the United States.  William Winser was a local player from Hastings. The following Burger-Winser game was interesting. “Burger builds up a kingside attack with great patience. He has two bishops against 2 knights, so when the breakthrough finally arrives it is deadly.” 

Play Online Chess

[Event "Hastings 1959/60"]
[Site "Hastings ENG"]
[Date "1959.12.30"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Karl Burger"]
[Black "William Winser"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Nimzo-Indian Rubinstein Variation} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 {The
most common method of meeting the Nimzo-Indian. White continues his
development before committing to a definite plan of action. In reply, black
has three main moves to choose from: 4...0-0, 4...c5, and 4...b6. The other
most frequent reply is the classic 4.Qc2.} 4... b6 {This is the move preferred
by Nimzo himself because it's more in the spirit of the defense: black
fianchettoes his B to increase his control over e4. White usually continues 5.
Ne2, avoiding the doubled pawns, or 5.Bd3, continuing his development.} 5.
Nge2 {Here the usual continuations are 5..Ba6 (Fischer Variation), 5...c5
(Romanishin-Psakhis Variation), 5...Ne4 (American Variation , a favorite of
Isaac Kashdan) and 5..Bb7. The latter move is a rather passive line in which
white seems to obtain a slight advantage.} 5... O-O {This seldom played move
has not worked out well for black in practice.} 6. a3 Bxc3+ {A reasonable
alternative is 6...Be7.} 7. Nxc3 d5 8. cxd5 exd5 9. Bd3 {Black has tried a lot
of moves here: 9...c6 10.0-0 Qd6 Vince-Rumiantseva, Herceg Novi 2006 with
white being slightly better. 9...c5?! 10.dxc5 bxc5 11.0-0 Nc6
Krush-Rozentalis, Montreal 2001 white is slightly better. 9...Bb7 10.b4!
Zoebisch-Horvath, Oberwart 2009 an black is somewhat restricted.} 9... Nbd7
{It seems that 9...Ba6 is worth considering.} 10. b4 {Putting a big clamp on
black's position.} 10... c5 { Although Rozentalis escaped with a draw against
Krush when he played this move, here black might have better tried something
like 10. ..Re8 or 10...c6.} 11. O-O c4 {At first glance this look
logical...black gets a protected passed P, but in reality it fares poorly
because the position on the Q-side is blocked and he has zero play.} 12. Bb1
{Probably a square too far because it blocks the R. Perhaps burger was
thinking of a B+Q battery by placing his Q on c2.} 12... Bb7 {This B is facing
a bleak future thanks to the P-formation on the Q-side, but to develop it
elsewhere would require time consuming footwork on the part of the N on d7.}
13. f3 Re8 14. Qe1 {Burger probably realize the intended Qc2 can now be
effectively met by ...Nf8 so he finds another good location for the Q.} 14...
Nf8 15. Qf2 Ne6 16. Ra2 {Long range planing. Someday this R will find
employment on the K-side!} 16... Qd7 17. Qh4 Rad8 {Black is pretty much
reduced to just making moves. Note how useless is c-Pawn and B are.} 18. g4
h6 {He simply can't allow the N to be chased away from guarding h7 so this
weakening move is forced.} 19. Rg2 Qe7 20. Kh1 Nh7 21. Qg3 {White has a
promising position, but black's next move only serves to weaken his Ks
position. It would have been better to offer an exchange of Qs with 21..
.Qd6} 21... g5 {Stopping the threat of g4-g5, but the cure is worse than the
disease. Black had been hanging on, but after this move he is pretty much
lost.} 22. Qh3 Kg7 23. Ne2 {Here comes the N. This additional piece will prove
decisive.} 23... Nef8 24. Ng3 Bc8 25. e4 { Nice! Black can hardly capture
25...dxe4 because after 26. fxe4 white dominates the center and black's K is
horribly exposed. He has to try and keep the game closed.} 25... f6 26. Be3
{Better was 26.e5 breaking open the position.} 26... Ng6 27. Nf5+ Bxf5 28.
gxf5 Ngf8 29. Bc2 {Rather pointless. Better was the forceful 29.e5!} 29... b5
30. Qg4 Nd7 31. Re1 Qf7 32. Bd2 {Burger seems to be at a loss as to how to
cash in on his advantage which he could have dome with 32.e5 or even 32. h4.}
32... Kg8 33. h4 Kg7 {The position was bad, and this mistake simply hastens
the end. He could have held out longer with 33...dxe4 and 34...h5} 34. Bc3
{Burger still has not realized that e4-e5 is the way to go. However, this move
prepares to bring the B to d2 from where it will participate in the attack, so
the move is not without merit.} 34... Nb6 35. e5 {Finally. After this black's
position crumbles.} 35... Re7 {If 35...fxe5 36.dxe5 and white's e- and f-Pawns
are monsters.} 36. f4 {Even stronger was 36.hxg5 first.} 36... Rh8 37. fxg5
hxg5 38. Rh2 Ree8 39. Bd2 {Black's position has been decimated.} 39... Reg8
40. hxg5 Nxg5 41. Bxg5 {After a massive exchange of pieces white will end up
with passed e- and f-Pawns and an easily won ending. 41...Rxh2+ 42.Kxh2 fxg5
43.Qxg5+ Kh8 44.Qh6+ Qh7 45.Qxh7+ etc.} 1-0

Cambridge Springs

The Rider Hotel

     Today Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, which lies in the northwestern corner of the state, has a population of around 2,600 which is about 1,000 more than it had in 1904. 
     If you were to checkout the Meadville (Pennsylvania) Tribune for highlights of the early history of Cambridge Springs you would find that in 1902 Mr. Cab Beach offered a free lot to Mr. C.P. McDannell if he would build a house on it, but Mr. McDannell already had a house and turned down the offer. Shortly after that, ex-Mayor Andy Fulton of Pittsburgh paid $1,500 (about $44,000 in today's dollars) for same lot and built his Cambridge Springs mansion. 
     Mr. B.F. Bartlett purchased the new Cambridge Hotel for about $50,000...that's the equivalent of over 1.4 million in today's dollars. Bartlett went on to get elected to city council and develop Cambridge Springs' municipal water, sewers and streets. 
     Paying the equivalent of $1.4 million for a hotel in such a small town seems odd, but back in the early 1900s Cambridge Springs was a flourishing resort town due to a couple geographic oddities. 
     At first glance nothing seems remarkable about the town, but it is located on the Erie Railroad line, halfway between New York and Chicago, which made it an ideal stopover location for railroad travelers. It was also known for its mineral springs which were visited by numerous people seeking to improve their health.
     The hotel had been built in 1895 by William D. Rider Jr. and he hoped it would be the greatest hotel between Chicago and New York City. The mammoth hotel was not completed until 1897. When finished, the hotel featured over five hundred rooms in a seven-story structure spanning five acres. It included a theater for five hundred, a ballroom, a solarium, two gymnasiums, bowling alleys and an indoor pool. The hotel grounds were equally impressive, featuring a nine-hole golf course and a man-made lake. The hotel was destroyed by fire in the winter of 1931. 
     Meadville Tribune also mentions a highlight of 1904: A young priest named John Mark Gannon organized the local Catholics into St. Anthony's Parish, which grew into the beautiful St. Anthony's Church and Rectory. The young priest became bishop of the Erie Diocese in 1915. There is no mention of a chess tournament! 
     Chess Bazaar sells a replica of the chess set that was made for the tournament. It was the first major international chess tournament in America in the 20th century and it was held on April 25, 1904, at one of the greatest hotels of all time The Hotel Rider in Cambridge Springs. 
 

Original Cambridge Springs set

   According to Andy Soltis, at the end of the tournament, the organizers tried to recoup some of their expenses by selling chess boards and sets for $15 ($423.19 today!). Mikhail Chigorin was stunned at the high prices because the sets were cheap, not worth more than $2.50 (about $70 today) and the boards were poorly made and were only worth 10 to 15 cents ($3-4 today). They were all sold anyway. 

Replica set from Chess Bazaar

     I was there in 1988 and no offense if you live in Cambridge Springs, but it seemed like it's in the middle of nowhere...not any place you'd hold a major chess tournament. I was there to watch a round of the 1988 U.S. Championship which was one of the closest U.S. championships ever...only two and half points separated first from last and no one was undefeated. 

The road into Cambridge Springs

     This tournament was held in an aging inn with peeling paint named the Riverside Inn. It was built in the late-1880s at the height of the mineral springs craze and operated as a resort for vacationers visiting the nearby springs. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. You can't get a room there anymore because it was destroyed by fire in the early morning of May 2, 2017. 
     The surprising winner in 1988 was 26-year-old Michael Wilder who had been living in Paris as a professional player but had decided to return to school and study law when his late invitation to Cambridge Springs arrived. GM Tony Miles was playing because he had had some sort of a dispute with the British Chess Federation and had changed federations. His last place finish was disappointing.
     Highlights of this event for me was having a brief chat with veteran master Ivan Romanenko who passed away in Greenville, Pennsylvania in November 1994 at age 77. The other highlight was being the only spectator at the postmortem analysis of the Wilder vs. Miles game (drawn). Miles was a character and and a legend and Wilder seemed a little overawed by him. 
     One interesting observation was that the younger players, after their games were finished, hit the hotel bar. All-in-all, this was probably the least enjoyable of the three championships I witnessed. 
     The chess tournament of 1904 was an outgrowth of Rider's publicity efforts for his hotel. It was originally intended that the chess tournament be a yearly affair, but Rider died in 1905 and the prospect of future tournaments died with him. 
     The tournament back in 1904 was probably a whole lot more interesting than the U.S. Championship of 1988. It was the first major international tournament in America in the twentieth century and featured the participation of World Champion Emanuel Lasker, who had not played a tournament since 1900 and would not play again until 1909. 
     After the tournament Lasker moved to the United States and started publishing Lasker's Chess Magazine, which ran from 1904 to 1907. The tournament also resulted in Hermann Helms starting the American Chess Bulletin. 
     The surprising first place finish of Frank Marshall marked his rise to prominence in American chess and marked the end of Harry Nelson Pillsbury's chess career. He would not play another tournament before his death in 1906 at the age of 33. There would not be another tournament of the same stature in America until the New York 1924 chess tournament. 
     Janowsky, Marshall and Teichmann got off to a strong start: after six rounds Janowsky led with 5.5 points, followed by Marshall and Teichmann with 5.0. After the 6th round Teichmann became ill and only scored an additional 1.5 points in the remaining nine rounds. 
     Marshall and Janowsky continued their pace and after nine rounds they both had 8.0 points. Lasker was a distant third with 6.5 points. In the tenth round Janowsky started to falter and lost two games in a row. 
     Going into the last round Marshall was in first place with 12 points, but he was only one point ahead of Janowsky, who was only one point ahead of Lasker. Marshall won without any trouble when Fox blundered away a whole Rook. Janowsky and Lasker were playing each other for second place. Janowsky, with a one-point lead, only needed a draw with the white pieces to clinch the second prize. Lasker fended off Janowsky's attack and eventually won. 

1) Frank Marshall 13.0
2-3) David Janowsky and Emanuel Lasker 11.0 
4) Georg Marco 9.0 
5) Jackson Showalter 8.5 
6-7) Carl Schlechter and Mikhail Chigorin 7.5 
8-9) Jacques Mieses and Harry Pillsbury 7.0 
10-11) Albert Fox and Richard Teichmann 6.5 
12-13) Thomas Lawrence and William Napier 5.5 
14-15) John Barry and Albert Hodges 5.0 
16) Eugene Delmar 4.5 

Tartakower-Lilienthal Match

     On March 20, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara spoke his last words when he said, "Viva l'Italia! Goodbye to all poor peoples everywhere! Push the button! Go ahead, push the button!" 
     Immediately after uttering those words he was fried in Old Sparky, the electric chair at Florida State Prison. Moments before he had become enraged when he learned no newsreel cameras would be filming his execution. 
     On February 15, 1933, Zangara, an Italian immigrant and naturalized United States citizen, had attended a speech by President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami, Florida, when he opened with a handgun he had purchased a couple of days before. He got off five shots and missed Roosevelt, his intended target. Instead wounded four bystanders and killed Anton Cermak, the Mayor of Chicago. Justice was swift in those days. Zangara spent only 10 days on death row. The story of Zangara is in itself fascinating reading and you can start HERE.

     Unemployment was a whopping 25 percent and President Roosevelt, making his famous “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” speech, launched his New Deal. Additionally, Congress repealed Prohibition and passed the Glass-Steagall Act which banned banks from dealing in stocks and bonds. It was enacted in response to the stock market crash of 1929 and prevent commercial banks from making risky deals with customers' money. 
     The bill was repealed in 1999 under President Clinton because it was seen as being too restrictive for banks and businesses. There was a financial crisis in 2008 that some say was primarily caused by deregulation that allowed banks to once again engage in hedge fund trading. Banks then demanded more mortgages to support their shady deals and that created a financial crisis, the worst since the Great Depression of 1929. Others say its repeal had nothing to do with the law's repeal.
     It's well known that many people who suffer financial loss suffer from depression, sometimes serious. This happened to one chess master that I knew.  He lost his life savings and as a result withdrew from his family and friends and holed up in his apartment even to the point of ordering groceries to be delivered. He survived by living on a small inheritance income. At the age of 64 he was found in his apartment and according to reports had been dead several weeks.
     Another important accomplishment was Edwin Armstrong’s introduction of radio frequency modulation (FM), a static-free method of transmission. 
     In international news there was the Reichstag fire in Berlin. The fire was an arson attack on the home of the German parliament on Monday, February 27, 1933, four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. It was the beginning of Nazi terror. It was also the year Germany and Japan withdrew from the League of Nations. 
     For the time being, things weren’t so bad in France though. France had been somewhat insulated during the Great Depression due to the fact their economy was centered on agriculture. Due to this, France’s social, political, and economic year was far superior to the rest of Europe. 
     The country celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Tour de France and mourned the loss of 200 citizens in the country's second-worst train accident, the Lagny-Pomponne Railroad Disaster.
     The year 1933 was a good year for chess in France. According to Chessmetrics the top 15 players in the world were: Alekhine, Kashdan, Flohr, Euwe, Bogoljubow, Capablanca, Sultan Khan, Canal, Tartakower, Spielmann, Vidmar, Nimzovich, Botvinnik, Maroczy and Lilienthal. 
     In mid-October Paris hosted a tournament that was won convincingly by Alekhine when he scored an undefeated 8-1 to finish two points ahead of Tartakower. Lilienthal finished tied for third with Abraham Baratz. The other paticipants were Znosko-Borovsky, Cukierman, Raizman, Frentz, Gromer and Lazard. 
     Speaking of Tartakower, his Best Games book is excellent and there is an e-book by David Lovejoy titled Moral Victories:The story of Savielly Tartakower in a Kindle Edition that is a good read. A lot of information on Tartakower’s life is actually quite scarce, but Lovejoy incorporated every biographical fact he could locate and when no information was available he invented incidents and characters. i.e. he took historical liberties, but in notes at the end of the book, he has clearly indicated these instances. 
     Tartakower’s book, My Best Games of Chess 1905-1954 (originally in two volumes), lists two matches against Lilienthal that were played in 1933. Tartakower won one in September by a score of +1 -0 =5 and another one by a score of +2 -0 =4. 
     I could find no details on these matches, but while browsing through the Saptember 1933 issue of L'Italia Scacchistica (Chess Italy), I came across a brief mention of the first match: 

 PARIS - There was played recently at the Cafe de La Regence in Paris, a match of six games between the great international master Tartakower and the new chess star, the Hungarian Lilienthal. The games were all drawn with the exception of the following won by the master Tartakower. 

     Savielly Tartakower (February 21, 1887, died February 5, 1956, 68 years old) was born in Russia and moved to Vienna at age 17. He became a doctor of law in 1909, but he never became a practicing lawyer. 
     During World War I, he served in the Austro-Hungarian army. In 1918, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I, he became a Polish citizen (although he did not speak Polish) and moved to Paris. He became a French citizen after World War II. 
     During World War II, he served in the Free French Army under General Charles de Gaulle. His French colleagues found his name too difficult to pronounce, so he changed it to Lieutenant Dr. Georges Cartier. 
     Tartakower was a prolific writer. In addition to chess books, he also wrote a screenplay and a collection of poems. He worked for more than 30 chess magazines in multiple countries and his newspaper correspondence appeared in 11 languages. 
      Andre Lilienthal (May 5, 1911 – May 8, 2010, 99 years old) was born in Moscow to Hungarian parents and was taken to Hungary at the age of two, but emigrated to the Soviet Union in 1935. Awarded the GM title in 1950 he w had the distinction of having met or played every World Champion, with the exception of Steinitz, and was the world's oldest living GM when he passed away. 
     The following game is from their (first ?) match and was played on September 6, 1933. 

Play Online Chess

[Event "Match Paris"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1933.9.6"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Savielly Tartakower"]
[Black "Andre Lilienthal"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{French: Classical System} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Bxf6 {A
rare sideline, typical of Tartakower, that in practice gives black slightly
better chances than he gets after the usual 5.e5.} 5... Bxf6 6. Nf3 b6
{Normally black would castle here.} 7. Bd3 Bb7 8. Qe2 dxe4 9. Bxe4 {Better
than capturing with the N. Now if 9...Bxe4 10.Qxe4 Nd7 11.O-O-O and white
dominates the center and so has good prospects.} 9... c6 10. O-O-O Qc7 11.
Ne5 {Black should no castle and then challenge the N on e5 with ...Nd7.
Instead Lilienthal makes the mistake of immediately eliminating the N and in
doing so he badly compromises the position of his K.} 11... Bxe5 12. dxe5
Qxe5 {This does not win a P as Tartakower immediately demonstrates. All black
has done is weaken his K's position.} 13. Qd3 O-O 14. Bxh7+ Kh8 15. Be4
{Black's position is hardly "lost" but neither is it very promising. Note that
he is facing a mate threat beginning with 16.Qh3+} 15... f5 16. Bf3 Na6 17.
Qc4 {Black's backward e-Pawn has become the object of attack.} 17... Qf6 18.
Rd6 {Instead of his next move defending the e-Pawn, he might have tried the
trappy 18...Nc5! If white carelessly plays 19.b4 to drive off the N from
defending the e-Pawn, black has 19...Na4! sacrificing the N and threatening a
check on a1. If then 20.Nxa4 Rad8! 21. Rxd8 Qa1+. At this point white gets
mated unless he plays 22.Bd5 after which black can't take the R on h1 because
after 22...Qxh1? 23.Qh4+ white wins! But, after18...Nc5! 19.b4 Na4! 20.Nxa4
Rad8! 21.Rxd8 Qa1+ 22.Bd5 Qf6 black has the advantage. As fascinating as all
that is, after 18...Nc5 19.Rhd1 white avoids all danger and stands
considerably better.} 18... Rfe8 19. Re1 {Considering the e-Pawn to be more
valuable than the c-Pawn which he could have had with 19. Bxc6.} 19... b5 20.
Qf4 {Now now matter what black play he is going to lose a P. For example, if
20...Rad8 21.Nxb5} 20... e5 {But this loses immediately.} 21. Rxf6 exf4 22.
Rxe8+ Rxe8 23. Rxf5 1-0

Snippets From Lasker’s Chess Magazine

     Once he became a professional player, Lasker felt the need to give the press his opinion on everything in the chess world from the world championship to sundry problems of the art of chess. A lot of the opinions he expressed were in his own periodic publications which is what led him to found various chess magazines in England, the United States and Germany during his career. 
     The first magazine was the London Chess Fortnightly which was published in 1892 and 1893). Next was Lasker's Chess Magazine from 1904 to 1909. According to Lasker, “The aim of this magazine is to convey correct information of all doings in the chess world, to cultivate a sound taste for the efficient and the beautiful in chess and to spread the love for chess among all peoples speaking the English tongue.” Finally there was The Chess Player's Scrap Book (1907-08). 

     A fourth magazine, Der Shachwart, was published in Germany in 1913 and 1914. It received notice in the chess column of the St. Petersburg magazine, Niva under the headline: "Berlin. E. Lasker has begun editing a monthly magazine, Der Shachwart, a very cheap periodical.” The column also noted the subscription price and the address. This was the only magazine he published that was able to stay afloat more than four years. 
     From time to time Lasker wrote chess columns for general circulation. He also reported from important tournaments and especially from matches for the world championship. Among these were his reporting and information on his matches with Janowsky and Schlechter in 1909-10 for The New York Evening Post, his match with Capablanca for the Amsterdam paper De Telegraaf and on the Alekhine-Euwe match for the Moscow paper Izvestia.
     Lasker had strong opinions on the creativity in chess and the rivalry between Capablanca, Alekhine and Euwe that he published in various magazines and newspapers. Among these were his thoughts on Capablanca and Alekhine, the 1935 Alekhine-Euwe match in Moscow’s Chess Yearbook and in 1937, "Two Matches" in the Russian magazine 64. He also gave his impressions of the 1936 Moscow Tournament in an article published in the Soviet newspaper Pravda in the June 10, 1936 issue. 
     In many newspaper and magazine articles Lasker frequently rendered his opinions regarding the philosophical essence of chess, its aesthetics, the psychology of play, and its historical fate. For example, he philosophically wrote, “Yet, it is a very plain and elementary truth that the life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess.” 
     In Lasker's Chess Magazine he once carried on a transatlantic feud with Tarrasch about whom he wrote that his strength (or weakness) was his self-love and without it he’d be a very mediocre chess player. 
     Browsing the Lasker Chess Magazine, May – October, 1905, revealed a lot of interesting material. 
     James Mason (1849 – 1905) was an Irish-born player, journalist and writer who became one of the world's best half-dozen players in the 1880s. Mason was born in Kilkenny in Ireland and was adopted as a child and took the name James Mason (his original birth name was unknown) when his family moved to the United States in 1861. 
     Under the headline, JAMES MASON'S TRUE NAME, a brief article read:

The statement is made by Robert Buckley, the veteran writer of Birmingham, England. that James Mason confided to him the information that the name he bore was not his family name. He declared that when his father landed in New Orleans he dropped his family name and took the name of Mason, the young lad then being eleven years of age. Mr. Buckley quotes from a letter received from James Mason the following : My father adopted the name of Mason on landing in New Orleans when I was 11, his object being avoidance of the prejudice which obtained against the Irish. Don't split till I'm dead, and even then I would rather you didn't give the name. It's so infernally Milesian, and they'd say that all the faults of the race went with it, particularly love of drink arid laziness. I have them both myself! 

     In medieval Irish Christian pseudo-history, the Milesians are the final race to settle in Ireland and they represent the Irish people. In the letter to Buckley, Mason didn’t reveal his real name. 

DR. TARRASCH'S COUPLET. 
Jacob G. Ascher, of the Manhattan Chess Club and former champion of Canada, wrote regarding “that excellent couplet Of Dr. Tarrasch,” that he was giving a very free translation. I can’t appreciate it, but it sounds like it was poking fun at Tarrasch. 

When a checkmate stares you in the face 
Get up and run at a breakneck pace
Whenever a mate you have to fear 
Run out of the room and shed a tear
Whenever your game has gone to smash 
Get up from your seat and go like a flash 
When playing chess and your game is lost 
Get up and run for fear of a frost. 

     There is a brief mention of Charles Dickens as a chess player by Victoria Tregear. For further information about Dickens and chess see Edward Winter’s site HERE. 
     In an editorial Lasker took a shot at Pillsbury. The Boston Journal, in an article that appeared on May 6, 1905, stated Pillsbury was visiting his brother in Somerville, Massachusetts while recuperating from his recent illness. Pillsbury was to die in June of 1906, but the article stated that he had almost regained his health and was arranging for an exhibition of chess and checkers at the Boston Chess Club, but he had given up blindfold play for a time. 
     Pillsbury expected to make his home in Philadelphia and hoped to take part in the annual telegraph match between the Manhattan and Franklin clubs on May 30, playing for the Philadelphia (Franklin) club. 
     Pillsbury did play in the match and defeated Edward Hymes (1871 – 1938), a New York attorney whose practice left him little time for competitive play. His one major tournament saw him finish tied for 3rd and 4th with Jackson W. Showalter behind Wilhelm Steinitz and Adolf Albin but ahead of Pillsbury at the Second City Chess Club Tournament held in New York City in 1894. 
     Three days before the match, on May 27th, Pillsbury gave a simultaneous series at the Franklin Chess Club, contesting twelve games of chess and one of checkers, but his score wasn’t very good. He beat the checker player, but only scored +4 -5 =3 against the chess players. However, it must be admitted that the opposition consisted of several of the clubs top players, a few of which were Masters. 
     Pillsbury told The Boston Journal that when playing blindfold he did not find it necessary to visualize the board and men, but rather he played just as a pianist plays, without any necessity for seeing the notes (keys?) of the piano.
     Lasker thought Pillsbury’s explanation was malarkey. According to Lasker there is a clearly distinction between playing music from memory and playing blindfold chess. He went on a long dissertation about how the pianist does not create anything, he merely reproduces the sounds in the right sequence. To do this, long training of the muscles of the hand and arm is necessary along with the memorizing of the complicated combinations of sounds, all of which is limited only by the degree of ability the performer possesses. 
     On the other hand, the blindfold chess player is required to construct his game, meet the moves of his adversary, follow the pieces into new and difficult, complex problems and from it all to evolve deeper combinations than his opponent, to effect the victory; it is composition, not reproduction of the work of others. 
     There was also a letter from a Mr. G.R. Williams under the heading PILLSBURY AND MENTAL CHESS. i.e. blindfold chess
     Mr. Williams opined that Pillsbury was the greatest exponent of mental chess the world has ever known, therefore anything he says on the subject must be interesting to those who know what mental chess is. When Pillsbury was in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1904, he was asked how he played blindfold, did he visualize the board? 
     In reply he said, “No, I do not visualize the board. It is a work of memory." He did not explain further. He was then asked what was the color of (c4)? Pillsbury’s answer was, “The white Q stands on a white square, the K on a black, the K's B on a white, the B’s second is black, the third, white and the fourth black. That is the mental process by which I arrive at the result." 
     Mr. Williams concluded that Pillsbury did not visualize the empty board, but it wasn’t conclusive that he did not in some sense see the pieces on the board and the relation they have to each other. Mr. Williams rambled on about whether seeing square colors was part of blindfold chess. 
     Lasker and Mr. Williams weren't the only ones prone to rambling on and on. Mr. W.H. Kimble was able to match their expertise in that area in a letter concerning correspondence chess. 
     Mr. Kimble described himself as taking “a deep interest in correspondence chess play, and knows the facts he has set forth regarding the same to be absolutely true.” 
     By his letter he hoped to do away with “all future collision be tween the two modes of (correspondence) play. What two modes of correspondence play was he referring to?
     Mr. Kimble was appalled that there existed a group of players who when analyzing did not abide by the touch-move rule that is part of the rules of chess!
     It was his contention that the only difference between OTB and correspondence was that the players had to exchange moves by mail. He asked what was there about the term correspondence chess that could lead a rational and honest person to infer or believe he has perfect right to make and retract as many moves as he sees fit in his turn to play and to manipulate both white and black pieces? 
     Mr. Kimble asserted that anything contrary to mental analysis is directly antagonistic to the principles of chess, and should be sternly frowned upon by all honest players. 
     Though he did admit there was no harm done when both players indulged in the manipulation of the pieces, it wasn’t fair when one player did and the other didn’t. In the latter case, the “honest” player could end up feeling “blue” over his lack of success which could lead to him abandoning correspondence play altogether. 
     Mr. Kimble believed that if a player intended to manipulate the pieces during his analysis, he should so inform his opponent at the start of the game. Otherwise he is being dishonest. 
     And that is just a taste from the first 60 pages out of 302. You can read them all HERE.

Old Tournament Books

     Most of my chess library is gone. Years ago I donated a couple of garbage bags full of books to a couple of chess clubs. The most recent donation was before I retired when a coworker got a garbage bag full of books and a few chess sets. 
     All of those garbage bags had a few opening books and a smattering of middlegame and endgame books, but almost all were best game collections and tournament books because those were the books I enjoyed the most.
     Google books is an amazing resource for old chess books. In addition to tournament books, you can find match books. Another source of old chess books is a site that I am sure many people are not familiar with, Hathi Digital Library.
     Most all of the books are out of copyright and are in descriptive notion which is something many players shy away from. But, one should not avoid books in descriptive notation because they can be a treasure trove of information and just good reading. Descriptive notation is not hard to learn...I did it as a ten year old, so how hard can it be? 

     Below is a list of some of the great tournament books that are available in English from Google books and Hathi Trust Digital Library. Most of tournaments and games are available on Chessgames.com, but the books give a detailed account. You can download the games from Chessgames.com and play over them with an engine with the books being a nice supplement. 

London 1851 
Knockout. Adolf Anderssen, Elijah Williams, Marmaduke Wyvil, Jozsef Szen, Howard Staunton etc. 
First American Congress 1857 
Morphy dominated the event, sweeping each of his opponents until Paulsen in the final. Dropping one game in the final match, Morphy finished the tournament with an astounding 14 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss. His victory cemented him as one of the best players in the world and prompted his journey to Europe. 
London 1862 
Anderssen, Paulsen and Owen. 13 players 
Dundee 1867 
Neumann, Steinitz, MacDonnell, De Vere, Blackburne etc. 
Second American Congress 1871 
Held at the Kennard House in Cleveland, Ohio. Won by George H. MacKenzie. Frederick H. Elder, Henry Hosmer, Max Judd etc.
Fourth American Congress 1876 
Held during the World's Fair held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Won by James Mason ahead of Max Judd and Henry Bird, et al. 
Fifth American Congress 1880 
A double round 10-player event held at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York City. George MacKenzie and James Grundy tied for first and MacKenzie won the playoff. 
London 1883 
A double round 13-player event. Won by Zukertort ahead of Steinitz, Blackburne, Chigorin and MacKenzie... 
Ohio State Championship 1887 

     This, the first Ohio Championship, was won by George W. Smith ahead of Edgar Bettmann and E.D. Payne. Of the 32 games played, only three were drawn.
Bradford 1888 
17 players. Won by Gunsberg ahead of MacKenzie, von Bardeleben, Mason, Burn, Blackburne etc. 
Hastings 1895 
Pillsbury' great win ahead of all the best in the world at the time. 
St. Petersburg 1895 
Four of the best players in the world (Lasker, Steinitz, Pillsbury and Chigorin) played each other 6 times. Incredible games. Was this the tournament where Pillsbury caught syphilis from a St. Petersburg prostitute? 
Monte Carlo 1903 
14 players, double round. Tarrasch ahead of Maroczy and Pillsbury. 
Cambridge Springs 1904 
The start of Frank Marshall's international career. 
St. Petersburg 1909 
A 20-player event in memory of Chigorin. Rubinstein and Lasker tied for first ahead of Spielmann and Duras (tied). 
St. Petersburg 1914 
Featured the joint winners of the 1914 All Russian Championship and players who had won at least one major tournament. There were the veterans Blackburne and Gunsberg, established masters such as Tarrasch, Bernstein, Janowski, Nimzowitsch, Alekhine and Marshall as well as the World Champion Lasker and his two most prominent rivals, Rubinstein and Capablanca. The top five played an additional tournament and were awarded the title Grandmaster by the Czar. Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall. 
Rice Memorial 1916 
Capablanca ahead of Janowsky and Chajes. 14 players. 
New York 1918 
Originally planned as an 8-player double round robin tournament. Norman T. Whitaker began a game a day before Round 1, became ill and withdrew from the event, leaving it as a 7-player field. Won by Capablanca ahead of Kostic, Marshall, Chajes, Janowsky, Roy T. Black and John Morrison (Canadian champion). 
London 1922 

     Another great tournament won by Capablanca ahead of Alekhine, Vidmar, Rubinstein, Bogoljubow, Reti, Tartakower etc. 16 players. 

An Exciting Win By Carl Jaenisch

    Carl Ferdinand von Jaenisch (1813 – 1872) was a Finnish and Russian player and theorist. In the 1840s, he was among the top players in the world.
     Jaenisch began a military career in Finland, but soon moved to Russia to teach rational mechanics in Petersburg (now Saint Petersburg). He dedicated his life to mathematics and chess, two subjects which he considered closely related. He tried to show their connections in his work Decouvertes sur le cavalier (aux echecs), published in Petersburg in 1837. 
     In 1842–43 he published a book on the openings in two volumes: Analyse Nouvelle des ouvertures. The work was written in French and published in St. Petersburg, but also distributed in Paris, London and Leipzig. 
     Kotov and Yudovich in the Soviet School of Chess described the book as the first scientific manual on openings with much original analysis, written in co-operation with Petrov, which served as the basis for many later openings manuals including Bilguer’s Handbuch des Schachspiels. However, other sources were less impressed. It must also be remembered that Kotov and Yudovich included a lot of Soviet political propaganda in their book in an effort to show the superiority of the Soviet system. 
     Nevertheless, Staunton acknowledged Jaenisch's important discoveries, in the Preface to his Chess-Player's Handbook in 1847, and English editions of Analyse Nouvelle were published in 1847, 1852 and 1855, but there was no Russian language edition. 
     In 1862–63 he published his major work: Traite des applications de l'analyse mathématique au jeu des échecs, in three volumes. 
     Jaenisch wanted to take part in the London 1851 tournament, but arrived too late and instead played a match with Howard Staunton, which he lost +2–7=1. Three years later he also lost to Ilya Shumov (+3–5=4). 
     Shumov (1819 - 1881) was a Russian master who served as an officer in the Russian Navy until 1847, then worked as a civil servant in Saint Petersburg. He was also invited, along with Alexander Petrov and Jaenisch, to participate in the London 1851 chess tournament but he did not show up. Petrov chose not to attend. The same three were also invited to Paris, 1867, but none of them played there either. 
     Jaenisch is best remembered for having analyzed and helped Petrov develop Petrov's Defense and for his work on the Schliemann–Jaenisch Gambit of the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5) and the dubious gambit 1.c4 b5 is sometimes referred to as the Jaenisch Gambit although Jaenisch mentioned this move he did not advocate it. 
     Jaenisch frequently collaborated with Petrov and together they analyzed the material that poured off of Jaenisch’s pen and was published all over Europe. Jaenisch wrote that in a game where the correct moves were played white’s advantage of the first move ought to cease sooner or later and the game should be drawn. He recommended the French and Sicilian as good defenses to 1.e4.
     Count Grigory Alexandrovich Kushelev-Bezborodko (1832-1870), a Russian writer, publisher and philanthropist who was one of the richest men in Russia, and Jaenisch established the St. Petersburg Chess Club in 1853. The club’s membership was upwards on one hundred and included many prominent figures in Russian culture. 
     Jaenisch was elected secretary and drew up a set of rules and regulations, which he published, again in French, in 1854. He published a revised charter in 1858 in both French and Russian. These were the first Russian chess codes and clarified many of the previously disputed rules. 
     Staunton was most upset at his death in 1872, writing to Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa in November of that year: I was sorry to lose Lewis and St. Amant, my dear friends Bolton and Sir T. Madden, and others of whom we have been deprived, but for Jaenisch I entertained a particular affection, and his loss was proportionately painful to me. He was truly an amiable and an upright man. 
     In 1844, the first match between two masters was held in Russia when Jaenisch played Alexander Petrov and they each won one game. 
     In the following exciting game Petrov employed what is known today as the Elephant Gambit (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5). The opening is also sometimes called the Queen's Pawn Counter-Gambit by older sources. It is an attempt by Black to seize the initiative in the opening “by thrusting both his center pawns forward like the tusks of a charging bull elephant” while others have suggested that the name comes from the power of black's two Bishops which are elephants in Russian. 
     For anyone interested in the Elephant Gambit, IM Andrew Martin has done several videos on it on Chess,com HERE.

Play Online Chess

[Event "Match St. Petersburg "]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1844.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Carl Jaenisch"]
[Black "Alexander Petrov"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Elephant Gambit} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5 3. Nxe5 {Recommended by some, but IM
Andrew Martin does not consider it as challenging for black as 3.exd5. In my
database white almost never plays 3.Nxe5} 3... Qe7 {Martin recommends 3...Bd6
which is, in fact, black's best move.} 4. d4 f6 {If you are shocked by this
appalling beginner's move that weakens black's K, don't be...it is Stockfish's
first choice!} 5. Nf3 {Of all the places the N could go this is the worst
because after black's next move rather than having a slight advantage, white
is not more that equal.} 5... dxe4 6. Nfd2 f5 {If black wants to stay equal he
has to hold on to his extra P and so he must play this sooner or later anyway.
Besides defending the P it also makes room for his N on its best square, f6.}
7. Be2 Nc6 8. Nb3 {8.d5 is effectively met by 8...d4.} 8... Nf6 9. O-O Qf7
10. c4 { Black has an active position} 10... Bd7 11. Bf4 {Black chooses the
obvious way to defend the P...by castling. But he might have done better to
play ...Bd6 and castle K-side. It turns out that on the Q-side his K is more
exposed to an attack.} 11... O-O-O 12. Nc3 {Facing d5 black needs to do
something quickly...like sacrificing a P to open up the g-file. 12...g5! is
his best chance so that after 13.Bxg5 Rg8 he has some chances at developing a
counterattack.} 12... h6 {This does nothing to meet the threat of 13.d5 with a
significant advantage for white.} 13. a3 {Much stronger was 14.d5.} 13... g5
{Black threatens to win material: g5xf4} 14. Bd2 {14.Be3 was better.} 14...
f4 {Black's K-side attack is well underway while white's thrust 15.d5 is too
late to be really effective.} 15. d5 Ne5 16. Nd4 Bc5 {White should now play
17.Nb3 forcing black to retreat his B.} 17. Be1 {Instead he shortens his
misery. Black now has two good moves: 17...f3 or 17.. .g4} 17... Rhg8 {Not
really bad, but in practice it's too slow and now white is able to generate
some play.} 18. b4 Be7 19. f3 {Holding up black's attack as best as he can.}
19... e3 {It's clear that black's attack is going to develop faster than
white's} 20. Qb3 g4 21. c5 gxf3 22. Nxf3 {Wrong recapture, but black missed
the winning shot 22...Bh3! 23.g3 Nfg4 with a winning attack. Correct was 22.
Bf3.} 22... Nxf3+ 23. Bxf3 Ng4 {By this point black's advantage has been
reduced to a minimum.} 24. Qc4 Kb8 25. Qe4 Rde8 26. d6 Bc6 27. Qd4 {Black now
had a complicated win of a piece after 27...e2! 28.Nxe2 Bxf3 29.dxc7+ Kc8
30.Rxf3 Bf6 31.Qxf4 Re2. He can be forgiven for not seeing it.} 27... Bxf3
{With this move black loses his advantage.} 28. Rxf3 Bg5 29. Nb5 {With black's
K-side attack temporarily held up white begins calling the tune.} 29... c6
30. d7 {Now black's best chance lies in giving up the exchange. 30...cxb5
31.dxe8Q+ Qxe8. White's best chance then is to return the exchange for
black's P on f4 and B with 32. Rxf4! with equal chances.} 30... Re6 {A natural
move, but it meets with an ingenious refutation.} 31. Bg3 {Nice!} 31... cxb5
32. Bxf4+ {By deflecting the B from guarding e8 white has a mating attack.}
32... Ne5 33. Bxe5+ Rxe5 34. Qxe5+ {It's mate in 7 so black resigned. A
magnificent finish.} 1-0