Rudolf Spielmann survived some difficult moments to achieve a draw in his final-round encounter with Richard Reti at the Vienna Jubilee chess tournament, the half-point thus obtained sufficing to secure for the Viennese native first place in the tourney with 11 points, along with a prize of 1000 crowns. Second place and a prize of 700 crowns fell to Dr. S. Tartakower, who defeated Carl Schlechter to finish on 10 1/2. Reti, with 9 1/2, and Schlechter, with 8, took the third and fourth prizes respectively, while Dr. J. Perlis (6 1/2), L. Löwy, Jr. (6), J. Schenkein (2 1/2) and Dr. Arthur Kaufmann (2) rounded out the field.
Spielmann's triumph is well-deserved, as he produced much excellent chess during the contest, winning several artistic games and dropping but a single encounter, to Reti. Dr. Tartakower and Reti can also look with justifiable pride on their efforts, while for Vienna's Schlechter and his many admirers the tourney may well represent a bit of a disappointment, as he achieved only three victories - and those against the bottom markers - and drew 10 of his 14 games, by far the most of any competitor. The others all had their moments, as no participant went without a victory, just as none escaped the sting of defeat. We provide a crosstable of the event for the perusal of our readers:
S T R S P L S K Total
Spielmann xx 1= 0= == 11 11 11 11 11
Tartakower 0= xx == =1 11 11 11 1= 10.5
Reti 1= == xx == 0= =1 11 11 9.5
Schlechter == =0 == xx == == =1 11 8
Perlis 00 00 1= == xx 1= 1= 01 6.5
Löwy 00 00 =0 == 0= xx 11 11 6
Schenkein 00 00 00 =0 0= 00 xx 1=* 2.5
Kaufmann 00 0= 00 00 01 00 0=* xx 2
*The second game between Schenkein and Kaufmann, postponed from the ninth round, was ultimately agreed drawn without play.
The score of the Schlechter-Tartakower game has come to hand, and is presented below. Our report of Spielmann's precarious position during his final game vs. Reti comes from a brief description of the play received from Vienna, but one lacking in particulars. As so often in our world of chess, we find ourselves wishing for more, and more thorough, accounts of the games of the Masters, and we take this opportunity to urge all tournament organizers to make every reasonable effort to provide a full complement of game scores to the public. To fail to do so is to fail to satisfy the chess appetite of aficionados not only of the present, but of the future, and we feel confident in asserting that one day - let us say, a century hence - there will exist those yet unborn who still thrill to the names of Spielmann and Reti, Schlechter and Tartakower, and who will long to examine those very games whose lack is so keenly felt by us in the present day.
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