St. Petersburg 1914

In 1993, Dale A. Brandreth wrote: 'St. Petersburg 1914 will forever be remembered as one of the greatest chess tournaments of all time. Not only did its competitors include most of the strongest players of the day, including the legendary chess heroes Lasker, Alekhine, Capablanca, Tarrasch, and Rubinstein, but in addition the course of the tournament was quite dramatic.' (Siegbert Tarrasch, St. Petersburg 1914 International Chess Tournament, trans. Robert Maxham, ed. Dale A. Brandreth, 'Publisher's Foreword').

Tarrasch's book appears for the first time in English. His annotations are perceptive and included also are analyses by George Marco whose comments had appeared previously only in German. All games are included, along with photos, and other interesting features. This is a splendid tournament book--a 'classic' in its own right.

Resources

On the tournament itself, see the fine piece here on Chess.com: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/tournaments/st-petersburg-1914-chess-tournament

Other resources include:

      https://en.chessbase.com/post/revisiting-st-petersburg-1914-april-21-1914-may-22-1914

      https://lichess.org/study/YighlXh6

Not to be missed is "St. Petersburg 1914: The Door to Another Age." This piece tells us of the present-day apartment which had been "the headquarters of the St Petersburg Chess Society. The kitchen door is all that's left of the original rooms." See this account at  https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25631272.

The Crossword here gives some glimpses of the tournament and its participants. I hope you enjoy them!

The Tournament took place in a vastly different world than our world today. But it also stood on the precipice of World War I which was soon to begin.

To see the Answers to the Clues, click on the View Solution button below.

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