The 12th BCF "Special Victory" Congress, held at Hastings from August 11-23, 1919, was not part of the the series of Hastings Christmas Congresses which began in 1920/21. However, it did provide the opportunity for some international action following the Great War with the usual British suspects being joined by several representatives from foreign lands:Jose Raul Capablanca; Harold Godfrey Cole; Adrian Garcia Conde; Borislav Kostic; Max Marchand; Reginald Pryce Michell; Adolf Georg Olland; Roland Henry Vaughan Scott; George Alan Thomas; Victor Lionel Wahltuch; William Winter; Fred Dewhirst Yates.
The big attraction was Capablanca in his first European tourament in five years. Any thoughts that the supposed lack of first-class practice might have left the Cuban rusty were emphatically destroyed, as he conceded a draw to Kostic while sweeping the rest of the tournament with consummate ease.
OK, it wasn't that easy; he had to keep winning since Kostic was nipping at his heels the whole way. And there was that incredible blip in round 4 against Thomas, who resigned in a drawn position after Capablanca missed a simple win (well, simple later!). See Capablanca vs G A Thomas, 1919 for the details.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
1 Capablanca * ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10.5
2 Kostic ½ * ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9.5
3 Thomas 0 ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 7.0
4 Yates 0 0 ½ * ½ 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 7.0
5 Wahltuch 0 ½ ½ ½ * 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 5.5
6 Michell 0 0 ½ 0 0 * 0 1 1 1 1 1 5.5
7 Scott 0 0 0 0 0 1 * 1 1 1 0 ½ 4.5
8 Olland 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 0 * 0 1 1 1 4.5
9 Marchand 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 * 0 1 1 4.0
10 Conde 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 0 0 1 * 0 1 3.5
11 Winter 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 * 0 3.0
12 Cole 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 1 * 1.5
The following games were not available:Round 2, Game #8: Kostic 1 Michell
Round 4, Game #24: Marchand 1 Winter
Round 6, Game #36: Cole 0 Olland
Round 8, Game #46: Thomas 1/2 Michell
Round 8, Game #48: Winter 1 Scott
Round 9, Game #53: Conde 1/2 Thomas
Round 9, Game #54: Scott 1/2 Cole
Round 10, Game #60: Winter 1 Conde
Round 11, Game #66: Conde 0 Scott
This collection made use of a PGN file of games from PGN Mentor, http://www.pgnmentor.com/. Thanks to <TheFocus> for supplying round dates.
Original collection: Game Collection: Hastings 1919, by User: Phony Benoni.
Kibitzing
