On his returning from Bad Pistyan (1922), Ernst Gruenfeld announced that he would like to play a match. Savielly Tartakower was willing to contest a 6-games match immediately, for a 180,000 Kronen match purse. (1, 2) The financing of the games was secured in a short time, thanks to the Austrian Chess Federation, the Landstrasser Chess Federation, the Chess division Hakoah, the German Chess Club, von Döry and Godai. Theodor Gerbec donated the brilliancy prize. (1)
The match took place in Vienna from 25 June 1922 to 1 July 1922 and ended drawn (+1 -1 =4). (1) Games 1, 2, 4 and 5 were played in the German Chess Club in Vienna, Game 2 in the Chess Club Hakoah and Game 6 in the Landstrasser Chess Federation. (3)
1 2 3 4 5 6
Grünfeld 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 3
Tartakower 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 3
Sources:(1) Alois Wotawa, Der Wettkampf Grünfeld - Dr. Tartakower, Österreichische Schachrundschau, July 1922, issue 5, pp. 33-34. Provided in "ANNO/Österreichische Nationalbibliothek".
(2) The buying power of the Krone in post-War Austria is illustrated by the food prices taken from the Viennese newspaper Reichspost (25 June 1922, issue 172, p. 7, provided in "ANNO/Österreichische Nationalbibliothek"): One loaf of bread cost 1360 Kronen, green peas 500-700 Kronen, this year's potatoes 650-700 Kronen, one egg 260-275 Kronen, butter 7600-9000 Kronen per kg, chicken 12000-13000 Kronen per kg and trouts 13000-16000 Kronen. The hyper-inflation caused the prices to increase drastically, exemplified by prices in Kronen in 1914, January 1921 and January 1923: coal (1 kg) from 0.04 to 4.00 to 965; beer (1 litre) from 0.29 to 8.40 to 3400; bread (1 kg) from 0.32 to 4.76 to 5268; flour (1 kg) from 0.44 to 11.20 to 6910; sugar (1 kg) from 0.84 to 96.00 to 9525; beef (1 kg) from 1.95 to 102.00 to 18600; coffee (1 kg) from 4.50 to 328.00 to 53500; men's suit from 45.00 to 10000.00 to 777000. Workers in the industry could alleviate the effects somewhat through trade unions and earned about 6% more in 1924 than in 1913 (real money supply, still minimum wage level), while people with a fixed income earned 33% less. Those numbers are taken from Erik Eybl, Von der Eule zum Euro - Nicht nur eine österreichische Geldgeschichte, Klagenfurt 2005 (excerpt Die Eiserne Zeit in http://www.geldschein.at/banknoteng...).
(3) Österreichische Schachrundschau, July 1922, issue 5, pp. 34-42. Provided in "ANNO/Österreichische Nationalbibliothek".
Kibitzing
