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🏆 Monte Carlo (1903)

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Player: Heinrich Wolf

 page 1 of 2; games 1-25 of 26  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. Pillsbury vs H Wolf 1-0331903Monte CarloD63 Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense
2. H Wolf vs G Marco  0-1571903Monte CarloC78 Ruy Lopez
3. Tarrasch vs H Wolf 1-0571903Monte CarloC87 Ruy Lopez
4. H Wolf vs Marshall 1-0411903Monte CarloC46 Three Knights
5. A Reggio vs H Wolf 1-0341903Monte CarloC44 King's Pawn Game
6. H Wolf vs Maroczy 1-0661903Monte CarloC62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense
7. Taubenhaus vs H Wolf  0-1341903Monte CarloC67 Ruy Lopez
8. H Wolf vs Moreau  1-0471903Monte CarloB45 Sicilian, Taimanov
9. J Mieses vs H Wolf 1-0221903Monte CarloC21 Center Game
10. H Wolf vs Teichmann  ½-½321903Monte CarloC42 Petrov Defense
11. Mason vs H Wolf 0-1741903Monte CarloC50 Giuoco Piano
12. Albin vs H Wolf  1-0431903Monte CarloC23 Bishop's Opening
13. H Wolf vs Schlechter 0-1561903Monte CarloC73 Ruy Lopez, Modern Steinitz Defense
14. H Wolf vs Pillsbury ½-½451903Monte CarloC42 Petrov Defense
15. G Marco vs H Wolf  ½-½271903Monte CarloC42 Petrov Defense
16. H Wolf vs Tarrasch 0-1461903Monte CarloC63 Ruy Lopez, Schliemann Defense
17. Marshall vs H Wolf  ½-½571903Monte CarloC79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred
18. H Wolf vs A Reggio  1-0341903Monte CarloC82 Ruy Lopez, Open
19. Maroczy vs H Wolf 1-0241903Monte CarloC66 Ruy Lopez
20. H Wolf vs Taubenhaus  1-0271903Monte CarloC54 Giuoco Piano
21. Moreau vs H Wolf  0-1231903Monte CarloC67 Ruy Lopez
22. H Wolf vs Albin  1-0391903Monte CarloC11 French
23. Schlechter vs H Wolf  ½-½331903Monte CarloC30 King's Gambit Declined
24. H Wolf vs J Mieses 1-0251903Monte CarloB01 Scandinavian
25. H Wolf vs Mason  1-0421903Monte CarloC12 French, McCutcheon
 page 1 of 2; games 1-25 of 26  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Wolf wins | Wolf loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
May-12-13  thomastonk: From Emil Kemeny's tournament book, which appeared some months after the tournament as "The American Chess Weekly, Special Series No.1, The Monte Carlo Tournament of 1903".

"The committee invited Dr. E. Lasker, Blackburne, Burn, Napier and Schieffers (sic), and others, but they were unable to participate. Janowski as is known was not invited ; Mr. de Riviere informed the writer that Janowski publicly stated if invited he would decline on account of de Riviere managing the contest. Gunsberg received no invitation and Mr. de Riviere states that this was due to an article in a London paper." See pages 2-3.

"Alapin was last year on the persona non grata list and he remained so this time." See page 3.

These two quotes contradict the introduction above, where it is stated that "Semion Alapin, Isidor Gunsberg, and David Janowski were forced to decline due to their invitations being sent last minute."

May-12-13  thomastonk: From the same source (s. page 1):

"First and second prize were fixed at 4.500 and 2.250 francs respectively, while the other prizes to be gotten up in proportion of games won ; a sliding scale was adopted, each for third prize amounting to 68 frcs., for fourth prize 64, then 60, 56 and gradually reduced by 4 frcs. to 24 frcs., which was to be remuneration for each game won by the least successful one. Drawn games to count half a point, but the contestants to receive for such a point but half their share in money, the other half to go towards a fund, to be divided equally among all competitors (except the first and second prize winners)."

The resulting prizes are listed here: http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/a....

Maybe it is remarkable that Chigorin got 1.500 francs for being excluded, but Pillsbury got 1180 francs for the third place (and 250 francs for one of the two brillancy prizes - s. Kemeny's book, p. 111).

Sep-25-15
Premium Chessgames Member
  Chessical: "Baron Rothschild's special prizes for the best announced mates in recent Monte Carlo tourney have been awarded to Maroczy for his wins against Albin and Marshall and to Mieses for his game with Albin".

Source: <Exeter and Plymouth Gazette>, Tuesday 11th August 1903, p.3.

Jan-21-16  zanzibar: <Notes by the Way.

Prince Dadian of Mingrelia has abundantly proved his reality. He is no myth, but a very active, even formidable personage. If the extraordinary story told in the Field is correct, he will be reckoned among the Tyrants— in fact chess players will have to plan a revolution if the free worship of Caissa is to continue. We are told that His Serene Highness, on arriving at Monaco, declared that Tschigorin must be excluded from the tournament, on account of some alleged offensive references to the Prince in chess periodicals. In default of such exclusion the Prince would resign his presidency and depart. And Tschigorin, the most distinguished player—with the exception of Tarrasch—from his long standing among masters, was ignominiously turned out!

At the time these words are before our readers the issue of the Tournament will be known. But at the time of writing this, there seems hope that Marco, one of the most genial and unlucky of players, will attain a high place. In Vienna he is considered second to none; but when he leaves his “native heath” he never as yet has shown his full powers.>

Checkmate v2 p154 (April 1903)

Batgirl provides a few more details:

<Tournaments were held in Monte Carlo during the winters of 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1904. For the first three tournaments, the co-organizers were Jules Arnous de Rivière and Prince Dadian. According to the tournament book, one of the contestants in the 1902 tournament, David Janowski, was involved in a dispute with de Rivière and as a result refused to participate and, since he indicated that he wouldn't play if invited, he was never sent an invitation to play in the 1903 tournament. Tschigorin was invited instead but after he arrived after traveling to Monaco from Russia, Prince Dadian objected to Tschigorin playing in this tournament. Tschigorin was compensated 1500 francs, more than the value of the second prize, for his troubles while the Austrian master, Heinrich Wolf, was allowed to play in his stead.>

http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/Dadi...

It would be interesting to see some of these "offensive references" referenced!

Dec-14-16  RookFile: Got to hand it to Colonel Moreau for having the resilience to play all 26 games and not give up.
Jul-17-18  TheFocus: There is a tournament book of this tournament. Kemeny provided the notes in <Chess Weekly> and copies of his magazine were incorporated to create the book. The problem was that he put the games in order of the players, such as Tarrasch's games (first place) first; then 2nd place finisher Maroczy's games; and so on. I don't like this kind of tournament book.

There really needs to be a good and proper book done on this tournament, with the rounds in order.

Sep-05-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  jnpope: <<thomastonk>: The resulting prizes are listed here: http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/a...>

Odd. When I do the math per Kemeny, I get a strange difference:

Reggio should be 264 francs (rate of 28 francs, 6 wins, 3 draws, 75 base, gets: 28*6+28*3/4+75=264 not 210. The only way to get 210 francs if his rate drops to 20 francs.

All the other player's totals check out fine (once I remembered to adjust both Taubenhaus and Mason to a rate of 38 francs each, i.e. split the 40 and 36 rates).

The Deutsche Schachzeitung and The Field match the Wiener Schachzeitung, so I'm a little puzzled. Albin's rate of 32 francs is correct, so Reggio's rate should be 32-4=28 francs, per Kemeny.

All I can think of is that Reggio was penalized or those totals originated from a bad Reuter's report that everyone else copied.

Does anyone have any idea what happened to Reggio's rate and share of the pool?

Sep-09-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  jnpope: Strange. I ran the numbers for Monte Carlo 1902 and I get a similar type of result. In '02 for consolation money each full point got 36 francs, ½ point got 18 francs and a ¼ got 9 francs. Each player's totals work out except for Eisenberg, who got 152 francs and not 162 francs. All the sources I checked confirmed the 152 francs: <La Stratégie>, 1902, p101; <The Field> 1902.03.15, and <British Chess Magazine>, 1902, p162.

When I totaled the consolation amounts for 1902 (with Eisenberg getting 152 francs) the result was 3500 frans, which was the amount specified for consolation prizes.

When I totaled up the 1903 amounts, with Reggio getting 210 francs, it exceeded the allotted amount of 7250 francs by 41 francs, i.e. 7291 francs. I'm not sure where the extra 41 francs came from, but they obviously didn't have an additional 54 francs to give to Reggio to hit 264.

My current theory is that Eisenberg in 1902 and Reggio in 1903, were deprived of their mathematically computed share of the consolation money because the funds were depleted. And perhaps the rule was that the lowest player above a certain minimum threshold, say 100 francs, was the player who got deprived?

Are there any historians out there familiar with the practices of early 1900s tournament prize distributions?

Sep-09-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  jnpope: Re: Alapin and Monte Carlo.

New York Tribune, 26 Jan 1902, Part II, p9:

<Of the last named, Alapin, though he took a minor prize, will not be permitted to play again, so it is said, because he sued the management for 10,000 francs on account of a change in the amounts of the prizes in the salta tournament, which made him stay out of the contest. When brought to trial the verdict was in the expert's favor.>

New York Tribune, 6 July 1903, p9:

<Janowski, of France, and Alapin, of Russia, were not invited to the third tournament, held in Monaco, this year, for they were both under the ban of the Casino management [...]>

I don't think Alapin was ever sent an invitation. I get the feeling that Alapin may have gotten bumped-off if he had ever stepped foot in Monte Carlo after 1901.

Sep-18-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  Check It Out: Sorry if this has already been covered, but what happened with Alapin in Monte Carlo in 1901?
Oct-01-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  Chessical: <CHESS. M. de Riviere has written to Captain Beaumont to tell him that the special prize of 250 francs which he gave for competition in the recent Monte Carlo Tourney has been awarded to G. Marco.

M. de Riviere says that Captain Beaumont’s prize was given to Marco for the general excellence of his play throughout the tournament and in particular for the brilliant game he played against Dr. Tarrasch.>

Source: "Streatham News" (London, UK) - Saturday 9th May 1903, p.3.

G Marco vs Tarrasch, 1903

Dec-29-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  Chessical: Marco's eye-witness report in the (Neue) Wiener Schachzeitung of February 1903

"The Third International Chess Tournament in Monte Carlo was held from February 10th to March 17th. Fifteen fighters had gathered at the battlefield, but only fourteen were allowed to participate in the tournament.

The great Chigorin was excluded. Prince Dadian of Mingrelia, the president of the tournament committee, announced his resignation if Chigorin, who had repeatedly insulted him in the press for years, was allowed to take part. This difference resulted in Chigorin's exclusion. For chess fans, the elimination of this giant is a regrettable loss, and for Chigorin, who had completed the long (four-day) journey.

It is rare in tournament history that a master who had been duly admitted to the tournament and arrived on time is subsequently struck off the list of participants. However, Prince Dadian of Mingrelia generously (sic) granted the excluded player 1,500 francs in compensation and also granted him the right to write about the matter.

...Thanks to the tireless efforts of the "Chess Masters Association" and the willingness of the tournament director Arnous de Riviere, the principles of reason and justice have once again prevailed in the tournament. The dragon's teeth which S. Rosenthal had sown in 1900 at the Paris tournament by punishing drawn games—without regard to their intrinsic value—by scoring them as 0 as if they had been lost, had borne fruit, and this sheer nonsense threatened to take permanent hold even in superior minds. It is therefore to be welcomed that in the last tournament, there was a return to nature and drawn games were again credited as a half point to each player in the old-fashioned way. Equally important is the fact that every participant was given the opportunity to win a fee commensurate with his performance. The result of this arrangement was extremely favourable. The play was carried out with joy and love right up to the end, resulting in many excellent games. The results of the individual games can be seen in the following tables. Dr. S. Tarrasch won first prize (4,500 francs and an object d'art) winning 20 games, while Maröczy won second prize (2,250 francs) with 19 points. The other participants only received game fees."

<I understand that the Franc was in the Latin Monetary Union (a.k.a the Monetary Convention of 23 December 1865) at the time and a franc represented 0.290322 grams of fine gold. This means that Tarrasch's prize was the equivalent of 1.306kg of gold. Currently, gold is $84,337.20/kg, which would mean that the first prize would be worth $110,182 today. This seems a very high figure!>

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