Saturday, March 15

Berlin quadrangular tournament: Spielmann, Cohn tie for 1st, Teichmann 3rd, Mieses 4th

The four-man Master tournament at Berlin's Café Kerkau has concluded in a joint victory by Rudolf Spielmann and Erich Cohn, each with a score of 3 1/2 - 2 1/2. Richard Teichmann, who drew all six of his games in the event, took third place with an even 3-3 score, while Jacques Mieses brought up the rear on 2 points after falling to both Spielmann and Cohn in the only two decisive games of the tourney's second tour.

This shared victory will certainly offer at least some solace to Spielmann, who in recent months has suffered two heavy defeats in matches vs. Dr. Tartakower and Teichmann. Cohn, too, must be congratulated on more than holding his own in such illustrious company and on duplicating his feat of 1909, when he shared first place with Teichmann in a similar double-round event at the Café Kolosseum, ahead of Spielmann and von Bardeleben. Teichmann's performance in the present tourney underscores the unpredictability of chess results: having only recently concluded a six-game match vs. Spielmann in which not a single draw was recorded, the German Master here completed a tournament of similar length without a decisive result on his ledger. As for Mieses, he will remain a most welcome participant in Master tournaments, as he can always be counted on to produce enterprising chess, win or lose - see, for example, his struggle vs. Cohn below.

We present a crosstable of the results, along with two further games from the event.


                                   S              C           T           M         Total
Spielmann             xx           1=        ==        01         3 1/2
Cohn                       0=            xx        ==        11         3 1/2
Teichmann           ==           ==        xx        ==        3
Mieses                   10            00        ==        xx         2


In this game from the first tour Spielmann sacrifices the exchange in return for a powerful mass of central pawns. White's 18th and 20th moves are particularly fine.



Mieses here plays an enterprising piece sacrifice vs. Cohn, but proves unable to prevail against the solid defense of his opponent. A blunder by the veteran Master decides matters at the end.




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