| Cambridge Springs (1904) |
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In the spring of 1904, American and European chess masters gathered at Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, to compete in a large round robin tournament. Among the competitors were seven of the top ten players of the world, including the World Champion Emanuel Lasker and various national champions of Russia, France, Austria, and the United States. The participants were Lasker, Mikhail Chigorin, David Janowski, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, Carl Schlechter, Frank Marshall, Georg Marco, Jacques Mieses, Richard Teichmann, Jackson Showalter, William Napier, Albert Hodges, Eugene Delmar, Albert Fox, John Barry and Thomas Lawrence. Marshall stunned the chess world with a phenomenal victory of 13/15 over the chess elite, including wins against Janowski, Schlechter, and Pillsbury (two of which were brilliancy prizes). His win marked the beginning of a career that would include a reign as US Champion for 27 years and challenger for the world championship in 1907. The final standings and crosstable:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
01 Marshall * 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 13.0
02 Janowski 0 * 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 11.0
03 Lasker ½ 1 * ½ ½ 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 11.0
04 Marco ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 1 0 ½ 1 0 1 ½ ½ 1 1 9.0
05 Showalter 0 ½ ½ ½ * ½ 1 1 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 8.5
06 Schlechter 0 0 1 ½ ½ * 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 7.5
07 Chigorin ½ 0 0 0 0 1 * 1 ½ 0 1 ½ 1 1 0 1 7.5
08 Mieses 0 0 0 1 0 ½ 0 * 1 1 1 0 1 ½ 1 0 7.0
09 Pillsbury 0 0 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 * 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 7.0
10 Fox 0 1 0 0 ½ 1 1 0 0 * 1 1 0 1 0 0 6.5
11 Teichmann 0 0 0 1 1 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 * ½ 1 0 1 1 6.5
12 Lawrence 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 1 0 ½ * 1 ½ 0 ½ 5.5
13 Napier ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 0 * 1 1 ½ 5.5
14 Barry 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 0 1 ½ 0 * 0 1 5.0
15 Hodges 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 ½ 1 0 1 0 1 * 0 5.0
16 Delmar 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 1 0 ½ ½ 0 1 * 4.5
Lasker tied for 2nd-3rd. Janowski also finished equal second, and the Janowski - Marshall, Match 2 (1905) was soon given backing.Original collection: Game Collection: Cambridge Springs 1904, by User: suenteus po 147. This collection would not have been possible without: http://home.roadrunner.com/~etzel/c...
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| page 1 of 5; games 1-25 of 120 |
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| page 1 of 5; games 1-25 of 120 |
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Mar-12-13
 | | FSR: A stunning triumph for Marshall, far and away his best result ever. Lasker won almost every tournament he played in from 1892 through 1924. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanue...
To finish <two points ahead> of the great man was unheard of. |
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| Apr-09-13 | | Wyatt Gwyon: Marshall in top form was something to behold. |
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Jun-02-14
 | | keypusher: Has anyone seen a tournament book for this event? I saw Phony Benoni quoting Marshall's analysis of the Lasker-Marshall game from the American Chess Bulletin... The reason I'm asking is I'm curious to see what contemporary annotators had to say about Lasker vs W Napier, 1904. |
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Jun-02-14
 | | perfidious: <keypusher> Seems to me I have, though I do not recall when or where and have never owned a copy. |
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Jun-02-14
 | | TheFocus: I have a book about this tournament by Fred Reinfeld, but different people annotate the games. I would have to see who annotated Lasker vs W Napier, 1904. |
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Jun-02-14
 | | zanzibar: Did we vote this in without exact dates? Hmm...
According to BCM v24 May 1904 p191 (208 of PDF) the match took place between April 25th and (about) May 20th. http://books.google.com/books?id=5p... <Four games only per week [...] Saturdays are reserved for experimental studies of the Rice Gambit.> And from p221 of June (p240):
<In short, Marshall is no ordinary strong player, he is man of clever original ideas, and does not fear to carry them into practice even with the most formidable of his opponents. The American opinion of Marshall is that he is of all players the most erratic, but that as a tactician he has no equal.> The tournament took place at the Hotel Rider, and the six prizes consisted of 1000, 600, 300, 200, 165, and 135 dollars. Wednesdays were devoted to unfinished games, the Sat. games were consultation games at the Rice Gambit, with special prizes. Seven hundred dollars were divided among the non-prize winners, in proportion to games won. The joint managers were Mr. Cassel and Helms (of German origin). The BCM quotes the Brooklyn Eagle:
<Some of his [Marshall's] moves, made in the face of all recognised [sic!] principles, are so utterly audacious, though ingenious withal, that his fellow masters refer to them as "Marshall's swindles".> |
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Jun-02-14
| | zanzibar: And from same BCM, p468 (p493):
Brillancy Prizes - £20 given by Baron Albert de Rothschild, of Vienna, divided 4 ways: 1st: £10 Schlechter, for defeat of Lasker
2nd: £5 Napier, defeat of Barry
3rd: £3.5 Janowski, defeat of Tchigorin
4th: £3.5 Delmar, defeat of Hodges |
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Jun-02-14
 | | Phony Benoni: <Zanzibar> If you're looking for round dates for Cambridge Springs 1904, this is probably the best source: http://books.google.com/books?id=li...
Things are a little out of order since it starts with Marshall's games before getting into the various rounds (and things are a bit out order), but this is definitely on-the-spot information. Round 1: April 25
Round 2: April 26
Round 3: april 28
Round 4: April 29
Round 5: May 2
Round 6: May 3
Round 7: May 5
ROund 8: May 6
Round 9: May 9
Round 10: May 10
Round 11: May 11
Round 12: May 13
Round 13: May 16
Round 14: May 17
Round 15: May 19
Here is a report, with full final standings, indicating that the final round finished on May 19th: http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%... |
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Jun-03-14
| | zanzibar: <PB> Thank you for those references - especially the <American Chess Bulletin (ACB)>. Notice that the publishers are <Hartwig Cassell> and <Hermann Helms>, i.e. the organizers of the tournament. Now, I wondered why a tournament book wasn't written for such an important tournament - at least until 35 years or so later (by Reinfeld). The reason, now obvious, is that the very first issue of <ACB> served the purpose of a tournament book (as the publishers were obviously hoping to capitalize on Marshall's popular success): <This, the first number, is in reality a supplement to the Cambridge Springs publication and in fact will serve all the purposes of a "Congress Book". As such its value is at once apparent.> (ACB v1 p21 1904)
Between us, I think we've provided the essentials of the missing biographical information. But for those wanting a little more, I suggest a quick read of Spraggett's writeup, which is both very informative and lushly illustrated (no, not the usual lush Spraggett illustrations, more chess-centric). http://kevinspraggettonchess.wordpr... |
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Jun-04-14
| | zanzibar: BCM v24 1904 June p225 (p244 pdf) has the breakdown by openings, from White's perspective:
Ruy Lopez: 33 +7 -12 =14 44.4%
QGD: 24 +11 -10 =3 52.0%
Sicilian 19 +7 -7 =5 50.0%
Petroff 11 +6 -1 =4 72.7%
Queen Pawn 9 +5 -1 =3 81.3%
Four Knights 6 +1 -5 =0 16.7%
(It looked better when I was typing it in!)
Speaking wrt the tournament managers the BCM has this curious phraseology: <Messrs. Cassel and Helms [...] are both of German origin. <Nevertheless> in the discharge of their all-important duties they have displayed a degree of enterprise and energy worthy of the country of their adoption, and the success of the tournament was very largely due to their unwearying efforts.> On July the BCM p277 (p296) there is a reference to the famous photograph of the tournament: <[...] on the steps of the Hotel Rider, by Mr. C. P. McDannell, of Cambridge Springs. [...] The portraits are very good, and the group includes Mr. Cassel and Mr. Helens [sic- Helms], the indefatigable managers [...]> So, typos and misspellings of names can be a common occurrence, even in esteemed publications. They have several games, including Barry--Napier (June/annotated by Napier) and Tchigorin--Showalter (July from Novoe Vremya, notes by Tchigorin). Many of the other games seem copied verbatim, moves and notes, from several newspaper sources. Although attributed, I wonder if permission was granted? |
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| Jul-13-14 | | GumboGambit: In case anyone was curious, I took a detour through Cambridge Springs on a recent trip. Although it was hailed as a resort town back in 1904, its currently just another small rust belt town. The hotel that hosted this tournament is gone, but the 1988 US championship took place at the Riverside Inn, which is still standing. <http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rive...(Cambridge_Springs,_Pennsylvania)> |
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Jul-13-14
| | perfidious: Curious how it had never occurred to me to see where this town is located, though I have visited Pennsylvania numerous times, including nearby Erie at least twice. Lots of small resort towns dried up with the coming of the automobile; seems that this is just another. |
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| Jul-14-14 | | Granny O Doul: The New York (one state away from Pennsylvania) Daily News, in writing a snidely witless editorial in the wake of the partial birth-aborted Karpov-Kasparov match in '85, referred to Cambridge Springs as an English town, just in case anyone reading didn't realize how stupid and unlearned the editor was. The name came up just because that was the opening in one of those two Kasparov wins at the end. |
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Jul-14-14
 | | Nosnibor: <Zanzibar> Do you know the values of the regular prizes? It would seem that although Baron Rothschild was a banker his contribution of £20 does not add up to your list of prizes for best game winners which total £22.Is this a typo or were the last two prizes actually £2.50 each and why were they paid in sterling and not dollars? |
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| Nov-23-14 | | CambridgeSprings1904: Thanks to<suenteus po 147> for creating this collection and for his reference to my CS1904 web site above. As an update, I had to move the site so it now has its own "permanent" domain: http://cs1904.com/ |
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Feb-06-16
| | TheFocus: Cambridge Springs Brilliancy Prizes:
First Prize ($40) - Carl Schlechter, for his game against Dr. E. Lasker in the 11th round. Second Prize ($25) - William E. Napier, for his game against John Barry in the first round. Third and fourth Prize ($35) - divided equally between David Janowski, for his game against M. Tschigorin in the sixth round, and to Eugene Delmar, for his game against A.B. Hodges in the fifth round. See <American a Chess Bulletin>, November 1904, pg. 127. |
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Nov-25-16
 | | MissScarlett: The Leicester Chronicle and Leicestershire Mercury, February 13th, 1904, p.5: <The committee of the tournament at Cambridge Springs are arranging a “good time" for the visiting masters. The following fixtures have been made:April 15th-Mayor's reception, City Hall, New York. April 15th (evening).—Dinner at the residence of Isaac L. Rice. April 16th—Annual dinner of the Manhattan Chess Club. April 17th—Reception at the Cosmopolitan Chess Club, New York. April 18th-Reception at the Brooklyn Chess Club. April 19th—President Roosevelt’s reception at the White House. April 25th-Opening of the tournament.> |
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Nov-25-16
| | MissScarlett: The (London) Daily News, Thursday, April 21st, 1904, p.11: <The Pretoria arrived at New York on Friday, and the European masters are, no doubt, enjoying the entertainments which American hospitality prepared for them. In the meanwhile some alterations have been made in the list of competitors in the interesting tournament now pending. Maroczy has withdrawn, owing to failure to obtain leave of absence from the authorities of his University, and Lipschuetz, who was so successful at the last American Congress, has been persuaded by his medical adviser to retire, in view of the severe strain of such a contest. For the vacancies thus caused, the Committee have admitted Mr. Albert W. Fox, the young player who won the Brooklyn Championship. and whose games bear unquestionable marks of genius; and Mr. Julius Finn, of the Manhattan Chess Club, who lately headed the score in a Rice-Gambit tourney. It is announced that Mr. E. Hymes, of the American cable team, would have been chosen, but for inability to spare the time from his professional duties.> |
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| Nov-25-16 | | JimNorCal: Mr Finn doesn't show in the scoretable. But Fox played and achieved a decent result. |
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Apr-01-17
 | | Fusilli: One draw in 15 games. That Fox was a take-no-prisoners kind of guy. |
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May-27-17
| | zanzibar: Here's a CPL photograph of the participants - sans key - http://cplorg.cdmhost.com/cdm/singl... * * * * *
<Nosnibor> - looks like I missed your question the first time round, sorry. I'll post this note as a reminder, and will hopefully get a chance to return later. . |
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