Dadian Revisited

    A little over 5 years ago I published an article called Lesser Known Games of Prince Dadian in which I presented 29 games absent from all of the databases I consulted.  I had found them in and transcribed them from various periodicals and newspapers.

     Prince Dadian, for those who never heard of him, was a member of the former ruling class of Samegrelo, Georgia. A highly educated, multi-lingual military man, Prince Dadian of Mingrelia was also a talented amateur chess player whose games were frequently published in different periodicals, such as La Stratégie, edited by Numa Preti and Chess-Monthly, edited by Leopold Hoffer and Johannes Zukertort,  even The International Chess Magazine, edited by Wilhelm Steinitz, the Nuova Rivista degli Scacchi, edited by Emilio Orsini and the Deutsche Schachzeitung, edited by a variety of well-known chess experts over the years.  Dadian was known for his Romantic style and original attacks. 

    After a conflict with Fyodor Dus-Chotimirsky in 1902 which eventually involved Mikhail Tschigorin and resulted in Dadian expelling Tschigorin from the 1903 Monte Carlo tournament which the prince was helping sponsor,  a lot of accusations were thrown against Dadian's integrity, mainly by Dus-Chotimirsky, which have clouded his legacy ever since. 

      I happened across some more games that seem outside the range of most databases.

     In the first game, Dadian played someone named de Pennes in Paris. Apparently de Pennes was a decent Parisian player, though not at Dadian's level.

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     In the next game Prince Dadian plays against Mikhaylo Staritzky and V.Brjecky in consultation. There are several games recorded between Dadian and Brjecky.  Staritzky was a playwright from Kiev and a denizen of the Warsaw Café which Dadian was also known to have frequented, playing chess  various amateurs. This game may even have been played there.

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     The next game in against an amateur known only by his initials.

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  This game was played in Moscow some time before 1895 when it was published in the June edition of the Deutsche Schachzeitung. The notes are in the spirit of those given by the magazine.

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    I found a few partial games, generally presented as a position, allowing the reader to deduce the tactical ending:

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