Manhattan vs. Franklin match: Score tied with one game pending

The annual match between the Manhattan Chess Club and the Franklin Chess Club of Philadelphia took place on Decoration Day, the latter club serving as host for this year's event.  The match, contested over 16 boards, proved exceptionally hard-fought, and at the time agreed in advance for the cessation of play - a necessary circumstance in order to allow the Manhattan men to return by train to New York - the score stood at 7 1/2 - 7 1/2, with one game unfinished and awaiting adjudication.  This task falls to the match referee, our colleague Hermann Helms, who we are certain will perform it with the consummate skill and impartiality for which he is so deservedly admired.

We present below two games from the match, the first a victory by United States Champion Frank Marshall, representing the Manhattan Club, over Philadelphia's Walter Penn Shipley, as true a friend of our wonderful game as the City of Brotherly Love has ever known.  The second game offered below is the unfinished contest from Board 16 between Mr. Philip Driver of the Franklin Club and Mr. Herbert Rosenbaum of the Manhattan side.  Many of our readers, we are sure, will wish to examine the final position for themselves so as to form their own judgment of its evaluation.

We expect to have to hand in the very near future more games from this match, along with the eagerly-awaited decision of Mr. Helms.

    

Dr. Tarrasch on tour: Sweden (continued)

The Praeceptor Germaniae continues his Swedish tour, having now undertaken simultaneous exhibitions in Boras, Skara, Linköping, and, yesterday, Ekilstuna, where the final result of 25 wins and 7 draws, against only 5 defeats, did much credit to the single player.  We present below three games from this latest exhibition, the first a short victory by Dr. Tarrasch and the others drawn contests.  Now, knowing the liking of many of our readers for only those encounters that finish decisively, we suggest that the latter two games well merit attention, and urge that they not be overlooked.  One contains a most delicate pawn endgame in which Dr. Tarrasch, quite understandably under the circumstances, misses a chance to win.  In the other, the exhibitor, through a moment of inattention, is caught early on by a standard sacrifice and loses a pawn, whereupon a battle royal ensues.  Dr. Tarrasch offers a Knight at his 10th turn and, despite playing the entire remainder of the game a piece to the bad, succeeds in creating a long series of difficulties for his opponent - though without ever quite shaking the latter's hold on the position.  Near the finish, just when it seems that his amateur opponent will at last record a victory, Tarrasch barely manages to escape with a draw thanks to a faulty King move on the part of his adversary.  A very narrow escape indeed!   

     

Correspondence chess: Surprise moves

We continue to dip into the large stock of excellent correspondence games that have come to our attention, and today feature two contests in which surprise moves play a deciding role.  In the first, Mr. Mordecai Morgan, a strong Philadelphia player, takes the measure of D.R. Wyeth in a just-completed game from the Pennsylvania State Chess Association correspondence tournament.  Mr. Morgan overcomes his opponent with a slew of unexpected moves, including a sacrifice of the Queen and two offers of a Rook, all in the interest of furthering the victorious advance of his pawns.  The game, with notes based on those by the winner, is not to be missed:

  

Our second feature game of the day was played between teams from the Copenhagen Chess Club and the St. Petersburg Chess Circle, the former comprised of the Danish Masters Krause and Möller and the latter of the adepts A. Kubbel and H. Hansen.  White wins a King's Gambit in sprightly style, notwithstanding the early exchange of Queens.  His unexpected 24th move, which decides the contest, was likely spotted in advance, and required precise calculation.

 

Janowski in Paris

We present a consultation game played recently in Paris in which David Janowski, along with his patron, Leonardus Nardus, took on the formidable pair of B. Hallegua and A. Kramer.  The hand of the Master is clearly visible in this fine contest: of particular merit is Black's sacrifice of the exchange at the 18th move, not for any immediate material gain, but rather for a large and enduring advantage in position.  Noteworthy, too, is the principal illustrative variation, beginning with 30.Nxe4, given in explication of White's surrender - the two magnificent Black Bishops at the close smack unmistakably of Janowski.  We have learned that the French Champion intends to participate at this summer's tournament in Scheveningen, and thus the chess world will likely soon be graced with still more exemplars of his attractive style, a most pleasurable prospect indeed.

Sharp battles from intra-city matches

We present today a pair of sharp games taken from recent matches between teams representing the same metropolis, a circumstance virtually guaranteed to produce uncompromising play.  On the 25th inst. two squads from the oldest and strongest chess clubs in Munich, the Schachklub Altmünchen and the München Schachklub, met in a match over 24 boards, held at the rooms of the Schachklub Altmünchen and won by the hosts by the convincing score of 15 1/2 - 8 1/2.  The following fine game, the lone score from the contest to have come to hand, represents one of only 5 victories recorded by the losing side.  In it Black wards off White's early attempts to mount an attack on the King-side, later deciding matters through some attractive Queen-side fireworks of his own:

Our second game comes from the South London vs. North London match in the top ("A") Division of the recently-completed 1912-13 London League season.  South London came within an ace of winning this year's league title, falling only in a play-off vs. Hampstead, while North London turned in a solid performance, finishing in the middle of the pack.  In the following encounter, played on Board 2, Mr. Parley of South London engineers a pretty checkmate via a Queen sacrifice against Mr. Hooke of the Northern side.

Boston Chess Club: Harold L. Perrin is new Champion after three-man play-off

The Championship of the Boston Chess Club has been captured after a play-off by Harold L. Perrin of Wellesley, Massachusetts, a recent graduate in law from Boston University currently engaged in further study at Harvard.  The play-off was necessitated after the main Championship tournament saw Mr. Perrin and two others, Harlow B. Daly and Godfrey L. Cabot, both well-known on the Boston chess scene, all finish with seven points from ten games played.  Mr. Perrin then convincingly settled matters by scoring four consecutive victories in the double-round tie-breaking tourney to lay claim to the title.  Mr. Daly and Mr. Cabot each finished the play-off with one point scored from four games, a result that will occasion a further contest between the two to determine the allocation of second prize.  We present below three games from the play-off.

Scores from the Championship tourney:  Perrin, Daly, Cabot 7; Miller 5; Hamblin 2 1/2; Howe 1 1/2.

Scores from the play-off:  Perrin 4; Daly, Cabot 1.

Here Perrin defeats Cabot through some attractive tactics on the Queen-side.

In the following spirited game, Perrin and Daly contest a sharp opening without either seeming to gain the advantage, after which the new Champion steadily outplays his opponent in the endgame.  It was this game that assured Perrin of the title.

 

Finally, Daly wins a pawn early on against Cabot in a Petroff Defense and presses home his advantage, carrying an attack through to victory.

  

 

Games from the Kent and Sussex Congress, continued

We have received a further pair of games from this joint event, covered in two earlier entries.  In the first contest, Mr. Yates, winner of Open Tournament A, registers a powerful victory against the French Defense of Mr. Brown:

And here Mr. du Mont at his 19th move hopes to win the isolated Queen's pawn of Mr. Beamish, only to be out-calculated by his wily opponent.  We invite our readers, before playing through the game, to consider the position just before the capture of the pawn by 19.Nxd4, as diagrammed below, and to attempt to work out for themselves its refutation.

Dr. Tarrasch on tour: Sweden

Dr. Tarrasch's current tour, mentioned in an earlier entry, has now taken him to Sweden, where he will fulfill a number of chess engagements over the coming weeks.  On the 21st inst. in Skifarp the Doctor contested a free game on even terms against the strong Swedish player Victor Sjöberg, scoring it to his credit in 28 moves.  This result must have provided a special satisfaction to the touring Master, as he had lost a brilliant game against same opponent during a similar Swedish tour almost exactly two years ago.  We present both games below.

Here, in an encounter from 23 May 1911, Sjöberg successfully sacrifices his Queen against his formidable foe.  It will be recalled that the Swedish player had originally agreed not to publish the game, deciding later to do so only after Dr. Tarrasch had attributed his loss not to the skill of his adversary, but rather to fatigue from his travels.

  

And here Dr. Tarrasch gains a measure of revenge, achieving victory as White against one of his own favorite lines, the Open Defense to the Ruy Lopez.  Notes by the winner.

American Consul defeats Masters at chess

Alfred W. Donegan, a 30-year old native of Mobile, Alabama currently serving as United States Consul at Magdeburg, Germany, is, in addition to his diplomatic attainments, an avid and accomplished chess player, to the extent that he is capable of defeating even those known as Masters of the game.  As evidence, consider that in a recent home-and-home set of matches between the Magdeburg Chess Club and the Berlin Chess Society, Consul Donegan, playing second board for Magdeburg, scored two victories, first besting Willi Schlage in Berlin and later topping Bernhard Gregory in the return match on home ground.  The Consul has been kind enough to furnish us with the game scores of his recent successes, along with brief notes, which we are happy to pass along to our readers:

2nd Baden Chess Congress

The 2nd Baden Chess Congress, which concluded a few days ago in Heidelberg, proved a worthy successor to the inaugural gathering held at Karlsruhe in 1911.  The principal event of this year's fest, a round-robin Championship tourney with six participants, was won by Herr Andreas Duhm of Neckgargemünd with 4 points, followed closely by Herr S. Rosenthal of Heidelberg with 3 1/2.  Herren Ottensooser (Mannheim), Hans Duhm (Konstanz - brother of the winner), and Palitzsch (Munich) shared 3rd-5th places, each with 2 1/2 points, while Herr Heinz of Pforzheim brought up the rear with 0.  Herr Andreas Duhm thus becomes the Champion of the Baden Chess Association, and it is hoped that he will be afforded the opportunity to try his skill against the stalwarts of our game in next year's international tournament scheduled to be held at Mannheim.  We have appended two games by the winner, along with a curiosity from the concurrent Hauptturnier.  To the games:

To begin, the battle between the first and second prize winners:

And here the new Champion makes quick work of Herr Palitzsch, for whom White's 16th move must have  come as an unpleasant surprise.

We conclude on a lighter note, which perhaps warrants a word of explanation.  We hold in the highest regard all well-meaning devotees of our royal game, and would never expose any to mockery or ridicule.  In publishing the game subjoined we express our firm belief that the loser, Herr Heilmann, is an accomplished player who merely found himself off-form on the day in question, an unfortunate occurrence with which we ourselves have far too often been familiar.  We share the game for the simple reason that we have never before encountered a position in a King's Gambit such as that which obtains after White's 20th move, and, with luck, neither we, our readers, nor the good Herr Heilmann will ever find ourselves in a like predicament again.

  

   
      

Dr. Tarrasch on tour: Hamburg

In recent days Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch contested three games against consulting partners at the Hamburg Chess Club, the Master's first stop on a tour that will take him north to fulfill several engagements in Sweden.  On the 17th inst. the doctor, playing Black, drew a short but spirited game against Herren Bier and Dimer.  On the 19th he played two games simultaneously, one with White and one with Black, winning both through a fine display of endgame skill, the consulting teams being Herren Crüsemann and Kluxen on one board and Herren Hallgarten and von Groningen on the other.  We present all three games below.

Here Bier and Dimer sacrifice the exchange against their illustrious guest and develop a dangerous initiative which Dr. Tarrasch succeeds in blunting through a timely return of material.

  

In our next game the doctor applies pressure in a French Defense, ultimately winning a pawn, and later scores the victory in a Rook endgame that, one suspects, the consulting partners might perhaps have defended better.

 

In our final offering, played contemporaneously with the preceding contest, the consulting team loses a pawn early on, but then puts up a stiff resistance, carrying the fight deep into the endgame before being forced to surrender.