St. Petersburg All-Russian tournament, Round 13: Alekhine still 1st, Flamberg, Niemzowitsch tied for 2nd, Levenfish 4th after all score victories

The leading group of players all recorded victories in the 13th round of the St. Petersburg All-Russian Masters' tournament. Tourney leader Alexander Alekhine recovered from his unexpected 12th-round defeat at the hands of Berhard Gregory to top Sergey Lebedev as second player in a Dutch Defense and increase his total to 10 1/2 points. Alexander Flamberg and Aron Niemzowitsch, in joint second place one half-point behind Alekhine, kept pace with the leader, the former winning easily after a Fingerfehler on the part of Sergey von Freymann and the latter outplaying Jean Taubenhaus in a Queen's Gambit Declined. Grigory Levenfish, an early front-runner of the event before suffering three consecutive defeats in the middle rounds, assumed sole fourth position by besting Stepan Levitsky in a Ruy Lopez; the 24-year old Levenfish has now tallied 4 1/2 points from his last five games and, standing 1 1/2 points to the rear of Alekhine with four rounds yet to play, again enjoys some slight hopes of overall success in the tournament. The day's full slate of results was as follows:

Lebedev  0-1  Alekhine

von Freymann  0-1  Flamberg

Niemzowitsch  1-0  Taubenhaus

Levenfish  1-0  Levitsky

Evtifeev  ½-½  Lowtzky

Smorodsky  0-1  Salwe

Evensohn  0-1  Alapin

Znosko-Borovsky  1-0  Bogoljubow

Gregory  0-1  Eljaschoff

Standings after 13 rounds: Alekhine 10 1/2; Flamberg, Niemzowitsch 10; Levenfish 9; Lowtzky 8 1/2; Salwe, Alapin, Znosko-Borovsky 7 1/2; Bogoljubow, Evensohn 7; Smorodsky 6; von Freymann, Levitsky 5 1/2; Taubenhaus 4 1/2; Lebedev, Evtifeev 3 1/2; Eljaschoff 2 1/2; Gregory 1 1/2

We have four games to share with our readers today, including the victories by the three leading Masters. Alekhine succeeded in advancing his central pawns in a Dutch Defense and won a piece through continuous pressure against Lebedev's Queen-side castled position.

  

Flamberg received a gift point when von Freymann, who had intended to play 16.Nf5, took hold of the wrong Knight at his 16th turn.

Niemzowitsch accepted an isolated Queen's pawn vs. Taubenhaus and scored the game to his credit via some clever play on the Queen-side.

Znosko-Borovsky essayed the Ponziani Opening vs. Bogoljubow, the two imaginative fighters engaging in a lively struggle that ended in favor of the first player after Black erred with 24...Nf5?