Coinciding with the 7th Congress of the German Chess Association, a series of chess events were held in Dresden in 1892, including the Dresden 1892 Chess Tournament that brought together renowned chess players of the time: the German champion of the era Siegbert Tarrasch, the English master Joseph H. Blackburne, the strong Austrian player Georg Marco, the outstanding Romanian chess player Adolf Albin, the Polish player Szymon Winawer or the great German promise Carl August Walbrodt, among others.
Dresden 1892 Chess Tournament: Tournament Data
- Name: Dresden 1892 Chess Tournament.
- Location: Hall of the Dresden Philharmonic – Germany.
- Start date: July 17, 1892.
- Finish date: July 30, 1892.
- Nº of players: 18 chess masters (retired S. Alapin due to illness).
- Winner: Siegbert TARRASCH.
In the photograph you can see some of the participants in this historic Dresden 1982 International Chess Tournament.
Standing from left to right: Heyde, Schmid, Joseph H. Blackburne, Josef Noa, Hoffer, Theodor von Scheve, Carl A. Walbrodt, Zwanzig.
Sitting from left to right: Rudolf J. Loman, Arnold Schottländer, Szymon A. Winawer, James Mason, Schallopp, Curt von Bardeleben, Siegbert Tarrasch, Jacques Mieses, Adolf Albin, Semyon Z. Alapin. ( chess players are highlighted in bold).
Source: Feenstra Kuiper (Amsterdam, 1964) | Photo: published by Hundert Jahre Schachturniere
Dresden 1892 Chess Tournament: Crosstables and Games.
Tarrasch started a priori as favorite given that he had been awarded the two previous major tournaments: Breslau 1889 and Manchester 1890 but started the tournament very imprecisely, with two draws and one defeat in the first four rounds.
Despite his 51 years old, Blackburne shared that stigma of favorite for his victory in Berlin 1881 and his second place in Manchester 1890 and so it seemed at first to prove it with 3 wins and a draw in his first 4 games, but as the tournament progressed his game became inaccurate and somewhat disappointing, losing defeats to players theoretically inferior to his level of play.
Highlight the performance of the young G. Makovetz of Budapest and M. Porges of Prague that ended with 8 games won, 5 draws and 3 losses.
Below is the crosstable of the Dresden 1892 Chess Tournament.
Dresden 1892 Chess Tournament – Final Standing
The next game represents the defeat of tournament champion Siegbert Tarrasch in round 4 against the Romanian master living then in Vienna: Adolf Albin, in my opinion it could well have been the most brilliant game of the tournament, a great example of a pure romantic style game.
The game chosen by the jury as a prize for brilliance and awarded to the English master Joseph Henry Blackburne is reproduced below, in my opinion it is more a consolation prize in a bad tournament.
The Dresden 1892 Chess Tournament has been covered extensively by the monographic book written in 1894 by the German player Paul Lipke who was the winner of the secondary tournament that was held simultaneously and that would serve as a classification for the Masters tournament that would take place in Kiel 1893 , and also the German player Jacques Mieses participant in the main tournament.
Finally the Dresden 1892 Chess Tournament was won by S. Tarrasch who won a first prize of 1000 marks. The second place was shared by the Hungarian player Gyula Makovetz, editor of the chess magazine ‘Budapesti Sakkszemle‘, and the Czech player Moritz Porges, resident in Prague, who shared equally 700 marks and 500 marks of the 2nd and 3rd prize. The third place with prizes of 350 marks (4th prize) and 150 marks (5th prize) was shared by the Austrian player Georg Marco who would subsequently win the Vienna 1895 chess tournament and become the editor of the well-known magazine ‘Wiener Schachzeitung‘ from 1898 to 1916 and the young German player Carl August Walbrodt of Berlin who would win along with Curt von Bardeleben the Kiel 1893 Chess Tournament belonging to the 8th Congress of the German Chess Association.
