St. Petersburg All-Russian tournament, Round 8: Alekhine 1st, Niemzowitsch 2nd, Flamberg 3rd after victories

The leaders of the St. Petersburg All-Russian Masters' tournament all recorded victories in the eighth round, with Alexander Alekhine topping Grigory Levenfish, Aron Niemzowitsch besting Efim Bogoljubow, and Alexander Flamberg taking the full point from Stepan Levitsky. With nearly half the tourney's 17 rounds completed, the field has spread out, and at least one competitor is to be found on nearly every possible point total between 1/2 and 7, as the reader may verify by examining the standings given below.

Eighth round results:

Alekhine  1-0  Levenfish

Bogoljubow  0-1  Niemzowitsch

Flamberg  1-0  Levitsky

Lowtzky  1-0  Lebedev

Evensohn  1-0  Gregory

Alapin  ½-½  Smorodsky

Znosko-Borovsky  1-0  v. Freymann

Taubenhaus  0-1  Salwe

Eljaschoff  ½-½  Evtifeev

Standings after 8 rounds:  Alekhine 7; Niemzowitsch 6 1/2; Flamberg 6; Lowtzky, Evensohn 5 1/2; Bogoljubow, Alapin, Smorodsky 5; Levenfish 4 1/2; Salwe 4; Levitsky, Znosko-Borovsky 3 1/2; Evtifeev 3; Taubenhaus, v. Freymann 2 1/2; Lebedev 1 1/2; Eljaschoff 1; Gregory 1/2

We have been favored with a full half-dozen games to present to our readers today, including the victories by the three leaders. We begin with Alekhine, who scored his seventh consecutive triumph, the victim in this case being Levenfish. Young Alekhine, who is capable of producing head-spinning complication in both attack and defense, has kindly supplied a few notes to this turbulent game.

 

Niemzowitsch overcame Bogoljubow from the Black side of a French Defense, scoring the game to his credit shortly after the collapse of White's central bastion on e5. Bogoljubow, who not long ago stood only one-half point from the lead, now trails Alekhine by two full points and finds himself sharing 6th-8th places with Smorodsky and Alapin.

Flamberg defeated Levitsky in fine style, shattering his opponent's position via the Rook sacrifice 31.Rxg7!

Alapin and Smorodsky played to a draw in which the veteran Master seems to have missed a winning chance at his 31st turn.

Znosko-Borovsky emerged from a brief spell of complications with a winning endgame vs. von Freymann.

Only the concluding moves of the Evensohn-Gregory encounter have come to hand. With three extra pawns to his credit, White can win in many ways; he chooses to begin with a Queen sacrifice. Gregory has to date scored but one half-point from eight games and stands alone at the bottom of the score table. A man in such a position is generally marked by his fellow competitors as a prospective victim and thus can expect uncompromising play from his future opponents, with no respite in sight. May he find the strength to soldier on.