Winner's POV: Hamburg 1885 Hauptturnier
In Winner's POV, we take a look at tournaments from the 19th century and see the games that allowed the top player to prevail. Some tournaments will be known and famous, others will be more obscure - in a time period where competition is scarce, I believe there is some value in digging for hidden gems in the form of smaller, less known events.
Hamburg 1885 Hauptturnier: Filler Tournament #2
I was initially pretty hesitant to make this post. This is the second not-master tournament in a row, and even compared to previous iterations of this event, the subject is rather obscure. However, the next post (the one about the master tournament at Hamburg) will benefit from some de-cluttering, so here we are. It'll be a pretty short read, at least compared to some of my other posts.
For those unaware, the Hauptturnier (translates to "Main Tournament") was a tournament open to all German and Austrian (and sometimes other) amateurs held during the German Chess Federation Congress of that year. The winner of the tournament would receive the Master title, as well as an invitation to the next congress. Previous winners of this event were Curt von Bardeleben and, perhaps more consequentially, Siegbert Tarrasch, so one can understand the importance of such events. If you haven't seen Tarrasch's campaign at the previous congress, see here.
Format and Prizes
With 32 total entries, the players were split into four groups of eight, where the top two after a single all-play-all would move onto the final stage. Another all-play-all would take place, and that winner would win the tournament. As was the norm, 20 moves per hour was the time control in effect.
The prizes, per the tournament book:
Additional prizes of 80, 60, 50 and 40 Marks were given to the bottom half of the field as well.
Players
Like last time, most of the field probably won't be recognized by most, but there are some names worth mentioning. Returning from the Nuremberg tournament were Salomon Rocamora, Hermann Neustadtl, and Wilhelm Bauer. Making their tournament debuts were Marcus Kann (yes, the same Kann as from the Caro-Kann opening) and future master Jacques Mieses. The last name worth mentioning is Levi Benima, who apparently requested to participate in the master tournament (likely on the basis of success in the Netherland Chess Federation tournaments), but was denied; given that he went 0/7 in his group, I think the organizing committee was justified.
The Winner: Max Harmonist
Harmonist was a ballet dancer with the Royal Opera by profession, but he was no slouch on the chessboard apparently. His only recorded event prior to this was a tournament in Berlin 1883, where he shared first place with established masters Hermann von Gottschall, Berthold Lasker and Emil Schallopp (all scored 9.5/13). That level is certainly strong enough to win a tournament such as this, so let's see exactly how Harmonist did it as we explore the Hamburg 1885 Hauptturnier from the Winner's POV.
Group Stage
In order to lighten my burden, I decided to mostly pass over the group stage for this event. Only three games were recorded, so it's not very easy for me to make a good narrative. I'll present the games below with the tournament book's notes (light as they are).
With that out of the way, let's take a look at all of the standings, and then we can begin the all-important winner's group.
So the real starting cast for this event is Salomon Mendelssohn, Paul Seuffert, Neustadtl, Richard Schurig (I wasn't able to find on what criteria he beat out Arthur Joseph), Harmonist, H. Zimmerman, Bauer and Franz Gutmayer.
Round 1: vs. Wilhelm Bauer
Bauer's last campaign ended with a disappointing 1/5 in the winner's group, though he was the only one to beat Tarrasch in that group. With a 6.5/7 score in the first half of this event, he was doubtlessly one of the favourites to win it this time.
The Scotch was the opening battleground for this first game, with Bauer electing to play Blackburne's seventh move and enter a very interesting dynamic. White could take the c7 pawn pretty much whenever he wanted, and the battle would center around just how much compensation Black would get for it. Unfortunately for Harmonist, such a sharp position meant that every tempo mattered, and his 13th move gave away a tempo and then some. His limp-wristed play in the endgame didn't help his case either.
Rounds 2 and 3: not recorded
These were the rounds in which Harmonist faced Schurig and Seufert respectively, and he won both games with the white pieces. Neither game was recorded in the tournament book, and I didn't bother searching for them elsewhere; if anyone happens to know where (if) the games were published, do let me know.
These wins were quite important for the standings, as Bauer also won both to keep first place with a perfect 3/3. However, in round four he would face Neustadtl (who was on 2/3 like Harmonist), who had beaten him twice at the last Hauptturnier. Let's focus on our subject for the moment.
Round 4: vs. Franz Gutmayer
Gutmayer also competed at Nuremberg, but his 4/7 wasn't enough to escape the group stage. However, he also managed to get a scalp against Tarrasch, so him being here is no fluke. He was also on 2/3 at this stage, so a win would be basically mandatory for both players to keep their tournament hopes alive.
This was yet another opening mishap for Harmonist, who took a reasonably common Spanish motif (pushing b7-b5 and Na5 to gobble up White's strong Bishop) and applied it at a horrible time, ultimately dropping the exchange after a precise sequence of moves from Gutmayer. The ballet dancer kept on dancing, and was rewarded right after the time control. Gutmayer's 21st move was questionable, and the follow-up was somehow even worse, ultimately ending in Harmonist gaining a piece. Despite the material count being numerically equal, Harmonist's Bishops easily outvalued Gutmayer's Rook, playing solid defensive roles as the Black Queen paved the path for the central pawns to follow.
On another board, Neustadtl completed the hat trick and took down Bauer once more, putting three people on 3/4 going into the back half of the tournament. The final few rounds would be tense.
Round 5: vs. Salomon Mendelssohn
This was Mendelssohn's only recorded event, so it's hard to say much about him. He defeated previous finalist Rocamora and strong British amateur William Pollock in his group, so he's certainly no slouch.
The opening errors continued in this game, with Harmonist finally ending up on the better side of one. Mendelssohn had gotten his Bishop trapped on move 11, though the poor thing would suffer for another 16 moves before finally being put out of its misery. I thought this would be a pretty lame game to cover, and it definitely was, but Harmonist's 33rd move almost made it even worse, somehow.
With Bauer being held to a draw, Neustadtl's win in the fifth round meant that the tie for first had been shrunk to two people. Round six would be the most important round yet.
Round 6: vs. Hermann Neustadtl
Despite Neustadtl's unbeaten streak coming to an end in the second round (scoring an incredible 16.5/20 up to that point), he was really starting to show his class in this final stage. He would have White against Mendelssohn in the final round while Harmonist played Black against Zimmerman, so Harmonist would really benefit from a win here. As we saw last time, Neustadtl is no easy player to beat.
Both players seemed quite well prepared in this Anderssen Spanish, with Harmonist deviating on the move order - but not the overall spirit - of a previously played Steinitz-Blackburne game. Neustadtl improved on the English legend's play by expanding in the center and trading off the Bishops, ensuring he wouldn't have to face the Steinitz Squeeze™. Some of that meekness from Nuremberg showed itself on move 18, however, and the Queen trade left Harmonist with the better endgame.
As has been the case for basically every game so far, the intrigue was removed with a single bad move. Neustadtl's 21st move gave Harmonist a sequence to win a pawn, and once it was won, the resulting endgame was a long, slow suffering for the more experienced player.
The stage is set for the final round. Harmonist in clear first with 5/6 wins outright with a final-round victory. Bauer with 4.5/6 needs a little help, but is still within striking distance. Neustadtl's 4/6 doesn't leave him completely out of contention, but the stars would really need to align. Let's see if they did.
Round 7: vs. H. Zimmerman
I don't even know this guy's first name.
With games like this, I'm not sure if I want to.
Conclusion
As always, by winning this tournament Harmonist received an invite to the next Congress's master tournament, which we'll see when we get to 1887. Before that, we of course have to cover this year's, which I'll start work on right away (it'll take me a while because these German tournaments love being massive, but we'll get there).
