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Karlsbad (1911) The second (1) international chess master tournament (Karlsbad (1907) preceded it and Karlsbad (1923) was the third in this series) held in the health resort of Karlsbad (located in present day Czech Republic) was conducted from August 20 to September 24, 1911. The opening ceremony was held in the Kurhaus. Twenty-six chess masters were invited to participate in the enormous round robin tournament. Among the players were established masters such as Akiba Rubinstein, Carl Schlechter, and Frank James Marshall, as well as younger stars such as Alexander Alekhine, Aron Nimzowitsch, and George Rotlewi. As the tournament went on and the grueling schedule of games took its toll on the players, the expected names emerged as leaders with one noticeable addition: Richard Teichmann! From Teichmann's return to international play in 1902 (after having lost the use of his right eye to an infection) to 1910 he had drawn many games due to poor health, which earned him so many fifth place prizes that he was known as "Richard the Fifth." In 1911, however, Teichmann received a small inheritance from his mother that provided him more leisure time to focus during ongoing tournaments without having to work at the same time. This tournament proved to be Teichmann's greatest international achievement. He earned clear first over the massive field, including victories against shared seconds Rubinstein and Schlechter and fourth place Rotlewi. The final standings and crosstable: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pts 1 Teichmann * 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 0 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 18 =2 Rubinstein 0 * ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 0 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 17 =2 Schlechter 0 ½ * 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 0 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 17 4 Rotlewi 0 ½ 1 * 1 1 0 0 1 ½ 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 16 =5 Marshall ½ 1 ½ 0 * ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 0 1 ½ 1 0 1 1 1 15½ =5 Nimzowitsch 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ * ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 15½ 7 Vidmar ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ * 0 ½ 1 0 1 ½ 0 1 ½ 1 0 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 15 =8 Leonhardt ½ 0 0 1 ½ 1 1 * ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 13½ =8 Tartakower 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ * 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 13½ =8 Duras 1 0 1 ½ 0 1 0 1 0 * 0 0 ½ 1 0 0 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 13½ =8 Alekhine 0 0 0 1 ½ ½ 1 0 1 1 * 0 0 1 ½ 1 0 ½ 0 0 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 13½ 12 Spielmann 0 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 * 0 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 0 0 1 0 13 13 Perlis ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 * ½ 1 ½ 1 1 0 1 ½ 0 0 0 0 1 12 =14 Cohn ½ 0 0 1 ½ 0 1 1 ½ 0 0 0 ½ * ½ ½ 1 0 1 1 0 0 ½ 1 1 0 11½ =14 Levenfish ½ 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 0 0 ½ * 1 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 0 1 0 11½ =14 Süchting 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 * 1 1 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 1 1 1 11½ =17 Burn 1 0 0 1 ½ ½ 0 0 1 ½ 1 ½ 0 0 0 0 * 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 0 0 11 =17 Salwe ½ 0 1 0 0 0 1 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 0 1 * 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 11 =19 Johner ½ 0 ½ 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 * ½ 1 0 1 1 0 0 10½ =19 Rabinovich ½ ½ 0 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 ½ 1 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ 1 ½ 0 1 1 10½ =19 Kostic 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 0 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ * ½ 1 1 0 1 10½ 22 Dus Chotimirsky 0 ½ 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 ½ * 1 0 0 1 10 =23 Alapin ½ 0 ½ 1 1 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 * ½ ½ 0 8½ =23 Chajes 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 1 ½ * 0 1 8½ =23 Fahrni 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 ½ ½ 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 ½ 1 * 0 8½ =23 Jaffe 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 ½ 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 * 8½ (1) Wikipedia article: Carlsbad 1911 chess tournament. Original collection:Game Collection: Karlsbad 1911, by User: suenteus po 147.  page 1 of 13; games 1-25 of 325  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Alekhine vs Vidmar 1-0 38 1911 Karlsbad C49 Four Knights 2. O Chajes vs Schlechter 0-1 62 1911 Karlsbad D15 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 3. Duras vs P Leonhardt 1-0 70 1911 Karlsbad C77 Ruy Lopez 4. F Duz-Khotimirsky vs Tartakower 1-0 46 1911 Karlsbad D08 Queen's Gambit Declined, Albin Counter Gambit 5. H Fahrni vs A Nimzowitsch 0-1 43 1911 Karlsbad B13 Caro-Kann, Exchange 6. C Jaffe vs H Suechting 0-1 48 1911 Karlsbad D02 Queen's Pawn Game 7. P Johner vs Teichmann   ½-½ 48 1911 Karlsbad D32 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tarrasch 8. Kostic vs Marshall   ½-½ 31 1911 Karlsbad D34 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tarrasch 9. Levenfish vs Salwe   ½-½ 52 1911 Karlsbad C84 Ruy Lopez, Closed 10. J Perlis vs Burn 1-0 35 1911 Karlsbad C25 Vienna 11. A Rabinovich vs E Cohn 0-1 50 1911 Karlsbad C36 King's Gambit Accepted, Abbazia Defense 12. Rotlewi vs Rubinstein ½-½ 43 1911 Karlsbad D33 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tarrasch 13. Spielmann vs Alapin 0-1 53 1911 Karlsbad C14 French, Classical 14. Alapin vs Levenfish 0-1 52 1911 Karlsbad D32 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tarrasch 15. Burn vs F Duz-Khotimirsky   1-0 43 1911 Karlsbad C63 Ruy Lopez, Schliemann Defense 16. E Cohn vs Rotlewi 1-0 53 1911 Karlsbad C84 Ruy Lopez, Closed 17. P Johner vs Spielmann 0-1 28 1911 Karlsbad A84 Dutch 18. Marshall vs Alekhine ½-½ 45 1911 Karlsbad A40 Queen's Pawn Game 19. A Nimzowitsch vs A Rabinovich 1-0 46 1911 Karlsbad C46 Three Knights 20. Rubinstein vs Duras 1-0 52 1911 Karlsbad A22 English 21. Salwe vs C Jaffe   ½-½ 47 1911 Karlsbad D04 Queen's Pawn Game 22. Schlechter vs J Perlis 1-0 45 1911 Karlsbad D11 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 23. H Suechting vs O Chajes 1-0 41 1911 Karlsbad B73 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical 24. Tartakower vs Kostic 1-0 63 1911 Karlsbad A03 Bird's Opening 25. Teichmann vs P Leonhardt ½-½ 64 1911 Karlsbad C84 Ruy Lopez, Closed  page 1 of 13; games 1-25 of 325    REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)   < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 4 ·  Later Kibitzing> May-09-17    offramp: I WOULD ALSO like to ask some of the stronger players here a question. <Without false modesty, and having looked through Hugo Süchting's games from this tournament, how do you think you would have done?> Seriously. I reckon that <FSR, <Perfidious> and a few others, would have easily achieved the halfway mark. Would anyone like to give an estimation of his or her own score as compared to Süchting's? May-09-17    nok: <I have put a more specific example at its right place: Fahrni vs Burn, 1911> This smells of someone trying to convince himself or the reader that his blunder didn't really matter. Of course, holes in analysis voluntary or not, were ubiquitous until the computer era... And even afterwards. A french IM has written extensively about holes in modern endgame books, including incidentally... Nunn's. Some of his painstainking work here: http://www.france-echecs.com/articl... May-09-17    keypusher: <tamar> <Suchting strikes me as a 2400 strength player if he had all the guideposts that master level players have now.> OK, but...I came across this one more or less at random. Hugo's first loss in the tournament. click for larger view It's White's move, what should he do? You can click on the link to see what Suechting did. H Suechting vs Alekhine, 1911 May-09-17    Paarhufer: <keypusher: Hugo's first loss in the tournament.> Well, this game was played in round six, when Suechting had wins against Jaffe, Chajes, and Dus Chotimirsky, a draw with Perlis and a loss against Kostic - if all games were finished. Then he commits this blunder. What does this single oversight mean for his playing strength? Nothing. Or would someone like to judge Kramnik based on that famous mate in one? May-09-17    tamar: <keypusher...It's White's move, what should he do?> I am reminded of Tony Miles reply "I wouldn't be in that position." Actually when I read Nunn's comments, his main complaint was the poor planmaking ability of these midrange players at Karlsbad. There is no good move for White, but giving away a piece is daft. Suechting must have had some good qualities, or he would not have been able to garner points. From just a cursory glance, he was a poor man's Burn. He got most of his points exploiting the many errors that occurred during those times, consolidating reasonably, except in instances where he blundered himself! He got a gift point from Duras for example, H Suechting vs Duras, 1911 in which both his bad points and good points are displayed. May-09-17    keypusher: <tamar> <Actually when I read Nunn's comments, his main complaint was the poor planmaking ability of these midrange players at Karlsbad. There is no good move for White, but giving away a piece is daft. > Poor planning but also an incredible propensity to blunder. I was in a lengthly discussion of Nunn's critque back in 2012. Unfortunately my link to Watson's review of Nunn's work doesn't seem to function anymore, but there are some long excerpts at that page. Harry Nelson Pillsbury <Paarhufer> <Then he commits this blunder. What does this single oversight mean for his playing strength? Nothing. Or would someone like to judge Kramnik based on that famous mate in one?> If Kramnik blunders like that once in 1,000 games, and Suechting blunders like that once in 20 games, that's going to have an enormous effect on their relative playing strength. I know from bitter personal experience how much a propensity to make absolutely boneheaded errors can affect rating. I did miss the Kostic loss, but I just clicked on the game with Alekhine -- I wasn't looking for horrible blunders, just tripped over one. If you stick your hand in a haystack and jab your hand on a needle, there are probably a lot of needles in there. May-09-17    tamar: <keypusher> It seems like a well-traveled debate. Thanks for the link. While my guess of 2400 is possible based on his score, the examples of his play make me revise downwards to 2300 for Suechting. He was lucky in several games. He may have been out of practice, as his previous tournament games are two and three years previous. But his play was awful. May-10-17    nok: The old masters were often out of practice indeed as they played much less than modern pros. In the Alekhine game I guess Suechting had decided that on 9...Nf6 he'd go 10.Nc3 a6 11.O-O and tripped over the "transposition". May-10-17    offramp: I admire <IlluminatoSavio> who, over 3 years posted 6 times to chessgames.com. She was lucky enough to be the first kibitzer to post on Karlsbad (1911). You can read her enlightening post on page 1. But that stroke of luck seemed to have unsettled her slightly, for that was her last ever post. I wonder how we could lure her back. May-10-17    morfishine: Yes, <offramp> the admirable <IlluminatoSavio> posted a mere 6 times spread over a meager 16 months And in answer to your question: <Would anyone like to give an estimation of his or her own score as compared to Süchting's> I am confident I would've scored 12.5 (+0=25-0). Yes, I'm perfectly confident I would've drawn every game ***** May-10-17    zanzibar: <offramp> You need to learn how to paste in exact links for a given comment, comme ça - Karlsbad (1911) (kibitz #1) . May-10-17    zanzibar: <keypusher> and a tip - one can provide a link to any position to any game on <CG> by appending the &m=# to the url link. So, if it's White to move, at move 10, use &m=10 And if it's Black to move, at same, &m=10.5 Here's an example: H Suechting vs Alekhine, 1911 Note that <CG>, unlike for a kibitzing link (like I showed <offramp>), doesn't indicate which move you're specifying. I'm asked them to, but sans success. So I normally add the move extension by hand, because I care about the poor little readers: H Suechting vs Alekhine, 1911 (&m=10) . May-11-17    WannaBe: I think that only works for default viewer (pgn4web), will not work for Chess Viewer Deluxe or Deluxe part Deux. The reason being CG.com have stopped direct Java support. And if you wish to have the feature/advantage of branching off a move (must use CVD, or CVD II) vs the headache of getting Java to work on your PC and/or browser, CG chose to go the less stressful route. May-11-17    zanzibar: < What PGN viewers are favored by registered users? [what is this?] pgn4web (Default) (99.01%) Chess Viewer Deluxe II (0.36%) Chess Viewer Deluxe (0.29%) None (text only) (0.12%) MyChess (0.09%) ChessTutor (0.08%) Sjkbase (0.03%) MistyBeach (0.02%) > ChessGames.com Statistics Page May-11-17    WannaBe: I know those numbers... May-11-17    zanzibar: I figured as much... but for those lacking context. May-11-17    thegoodanarchist: <zanzibar: <offramp> You need to learn how to paste in exact links for a given comment, comme ça - Karlsbad (1911) (kibitz #1)> Yes, and no pudding until you do! May-11-17    casaschi: WannaBe: not sure exactly what you mean with "branching off a move", but if you just want explore alternative move sequences, you can do that with pgn4web by clicking the E8 square: the analysis board should open in a popup window and you can make moves on the analysis board (click from/to squares, no drag&drop) with the added benefit of engine analysis in the background May-11-17    keypusher: <zanzibar> Thanks! Here's a test, let's see if this takes us to the position before Richard Teichmann's brilliancy-prize-winning sacrifice: Teichmann vs Schlechter, 1911. <nok: The old masters were often out of practice indeed as they played much less than modern pros.> That may be; this tournament must also have been very exhausting. I think the double blunder in Rubinstein-Kostic happened in Round 22, after the tournament had been going on for more or less a month. Also, some respect for Suechting from Whiteshark: <whiteshark: <FHBradley: <Why is Süchting called a natural player, by the way?>> He was a pure amateur with hardly any practice. Ludwig Ernst Bachmann has described him as 'starker Naturschachspieler' He was born and lived most of his life as a peasant proprietor in a secluded village of a few souls named 'Brackrade' near Eutin in Schleswig-Holstein, North-Germany. The nearest bigger cities with chess societies, Kiel and Luebeck, were more than 40 resp. 50 km away. (Could you imagine how a peasant some 110 years ago, after a hard working day on the fields jumped on his horse to ride to the next town, play some hours chess rode back and stand up in the fresh of the next day?)> May-11-17    offramp: <zanzibar: <offramp> You need to learn how to paste in exact links for a given comment, comme ça - Karlsbad (1911) (kibitz #1)> Thank you for that. But have you seen Karlsbad (1911) (kibitz #25) ? May-11-17    offramp: <tamar: <keypusher> It seems like a well-traveled debate. Thanks for the link. While my guess of 2400 is possible based on his score, the examples of his play make me revise downwards to 2300 for Suechting. He was lucky in several games. He may have been out of practice, as his previous tournament games are two and three years previous. But his play was awful.> There seems to me to be an inconsistency here. There is an estimate of his rating based on his score. "2300-2400" based on his minus 2 score. Then there is a series of qualifications. He was out of practice, he was lucky, and that his play was awful. May-11-17    tamar: offramp, the explanation is that I posted before examining the games. May-11-17    keypusher: How do you link to a specific post such that the kibitz number appears? It doesn't seem to be on the kibitzing tricks page. May-11-17    chancho: Go to search kibitz, right click the post, copy link and then paste. Karlsbad (1911) (kibitz #48) May-11-17    keypusher: Hugo Suechting (kibitz #12) Thank you, chancho! Jump to page #    (enter # from 1 to 4) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 4 ·  Later Kibitzing> NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion. Please observe our posting guidelines: No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language. No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts. No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members. Nothing in violation of United States law. No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members. No trolling. 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