Winner's POV Chapter 13: 2nd British Chess Association Challenge Cup
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.
Chapter 13: 2nd British Chess Association Challenge Cup
I'm only partially joking when I say that this series should effectively be titled "BCA's POV," since we've looked at so many of their tournaments. This is, for better or worse, just a result of them keeping the best documentation on their tournaments (especially in the late 1850s where other tournaments are hard to view). However, it was around this time that the BCA began to crumble, and with it their nicely-documented tournaments. Thus, this will be the final event I show from them, though there are connected tournaments that we must talk about.
Our attention should chiefly be drawn to the British Challenge Cup as a whole. Starting at the 1866 congress, the BCA put forth what was effectively the first British Chess Championship. The main gimmick was that the Challenge Cup had to be won twice in a row for the overall champion to be decided. As mentioned in previous chapters, Cecil De Vere won the 1866 edition, however I couldn't find enough of his games for it to be worth an entire chapter. Just know that, were he to win this tournament, the Challenge Cup would be over, and who knows what method by which the next British Chess Champion would be decided?
The 2nd edition, held at the 1868 congress, has the majority of its games readily available, as well as a book dedicated to it; of all the Challenge Cups to look at, this is doubtlessly the best one.
Format and Prizes
This single round-robin was open to all British players, with 11 players signing up. For some reason, they kept the old relic of requiring drawn games to be replayed until there was a winner. Despite Dundee's scoring system providing no flaws, we're back to this. As well, the time control was back to 10 moves an hour, down from 15 at Dundee.
The Cup itself was valued at £50, but in case anyone other than De Vere won it, a cash prize of £1 1s per entrant would be given to the top spot, with £10 10s going to 2nd place (20s = £1). With 11 entrants, the spread between 1st and 2nd place prizes was quite small, but obviously the Challenge Cup was the main attractant.
Players
While all of these players initially competed, Arthur Bolland Skipworth withdrew before he could play against Blackburne. The other games are preserved, so there's lots of content for us.
The 1867 Edo list tells us that the strongest in the field were De Vere (11th), George MacDonnell (16th), Joseph Henry Blackburne (17th) and John Wisker (19th). Not the strongest field we've ever had, but for a single country, it's certainly decent (though Germany held many of the top 10 spots with Gustav Neumann, Adolf Anderssen, and Louis Paulsen).
The Winner: Joseph Henry Blackburne
When we first saw Blackburne in 1862, he was a teenager who was performing blindfold simuls, squaring off with Anderssen in the King's Gambit (in casual games), and learning to deal with the stress of playing the best in the world in international tournaments. Having been half a point shy of a prize at Dundee, you can be certain that Blackburne was preparing for this tournament like crazy. Let's take a look at the 2nd British Chess Association Challenge Cup from the Winner's POV.
vs. George Alcock MacDonnell
MacDonnell was arguably Blackburne's largest bracket demon in his early days, as the clergyman won their individual games at London 1862 and Dundee 1867. MacDonnell had placed higher than Blackburne in both of those events (though only by half a point in Scotland), so Blackburne had more than a score to settle. MacDonnell also had to right some wrongs, as he finished 2nd at the 1866 Challenge Cup, losing only to De Vere. This was certain to be an electric first game.
While MacDonnell's Sicilian was more coherent than at Dundee, it was far from perfect. He was able to push an early d5, but he incorrectly calculated a trap following a b5 push, and Blackburne won the pawn. There was certainly compensation, as MacDonnell's remaining pawns put in work, and Blackburne's imprecise play led to his pieces becoming somewhat cramped. It was a complex position, certainly fit for two of Britain's strongest.
Blackburne eventually parted ways with his extra pawn, but his pieces were better for it, and the most complicated part of the middlegame soon came about. There's probably more I could've written, but this is already the densest set of notes in the entire chapter, so I hope I mentioned the important parts. Suffice to say, both players were able to navigate it without any tangible disaster, though the most exciting part had yet to come.
Feeling the need to push for a win (or else he would have to use Black in the return game), Blackburne started pushing a little too hard. Trading Queens on move 35 would have led to a reasonably equal endgame, but Blackburne declined, and MacDonnell unleashed the most vicious sequence of moves that we've seen thus far. It's such a savage conclusion to an already complex game, I'll just let you see it for yourself.
vs. John William Hampton
I know nothing about this guy, except he's the brother of Thomas Inglis Hampton. Thomas was in two of the earlier tournaments, Birmingham 1858 and Bristol 1861, however we never followed his opponents. Were it that I could say more, but I know nothing.
Blackburne played a Scotch Gambit, and it was clear that the last game was very much weighing on his mind. His attack was premature, and Hampton didn't really have too much issue ensuring that the initial pressure was mitigated. However, Blackburne did quickly regain the gambit pawn and had a fine position, so things could have been worse.
As is often the case, Blackburne was able to find an attack eventually, cramping Hampton's pieces and throwing his h-pawn forward. Once he forced the loss of a piece, Blackburne had no trouble converting the resulting attack into checkmate. An expected win, but a necessary one.
vs. John Lord
Believe it or not, I actually know less about this guy than I do Hampton; no brothers or other family to speak of. He's one of 4 Johns in this tournament (with Hampton, Owen and Wisker), and that's about all I can tell you.
Blackburne had continued to work on his French, and as the drawish nature of the Exchange French had begun to be accepted, players had started playing 3. Nc3. Blackburne used this tournament to test the Winawer Variation, many years before Winawer seriously tried it (we'll see it played in 1883, so stay tuned for that... however far in the future it is). Anyway, this particular opening was a slam dunk for Blackburne, as the doubled c-pawns of Lord were quickly cemented with c5-c4, and Blackburne had the comfier of the two positions.
Anyone playing the Winawer French as White has to be aware that attacking is mandatory, or else suffering is guaranteed. Lord was never really able to get an attack going, and in fact blundered into a bad endgame along the way. This win was much smoother for Blackburne, who had hopefully recovered mentally for his next match, a much more dangerous player.
vs. John Owen
I learned from my mistake and got a different picture of Owen after that nightmare of an editing job in the London 1862 chapter.
Unlike MacDonnell, Owen did not have Blackburne's number. One of Owen's 3 losses at London 1862 was to Blackburne, and aside from their meeting in the 3rd Challenge Cup in 1870, Blackburne never lost against this man. Though Blackburne would obviously later be the better player, it's interesting to see how lopsided their scores were all the same.
Owen loved to play weird openings, and 1. e3 is certainly allowed to be called as such. Blackburne played a double fianchetto instead of playing for the center, and the position soon looked quite hypermodern, with Owen getting pawns on c4, d4 and e4. After Owen captured on d5 with the wrong pawn, Blackburne's Knights quickly jumped into the game, and his Kingside prospects looked very promising.
At London 1862, Owen simply miscalculated and lost a piece. At London 1868, Owen again miscalculated and dropped a piece. Unfortunate.
vs. Cuthbertson
I don't even know this guy's first name. Thankfully the game was a complete stomp, so let's just move on.
vs. John Wisker
John Wisker won the 3rd and 4th Challenge Cups in 1870 and 1872, thereby winning the Cup and causing the British Chess Championship to be discontinued. Like the 1866 version, too few games have survived for me to feel like writing a chapter about, so I'll just mention it here. While his greatest successes were still in front of him, Wisker was still among the strongest players in Britain, and he would be quite the match for Blackburne.
Wisker tried the Exchange French this time, and the hyper-symmetrical position made it clear why this variation was falling out of favour. Still, Wisker's innovation was interesting, as his pawn quickly hit c5 and gained a lot of space. It didn't really amount to much, and Blackburne was the only one who was possibly pushing at the very end. The game was drawn without much drama.
The colours were switched for the replay, so Blackburne got to play a Spanish, opting for the Anderssen Variation. Wisker fired off his pawns aggressively, putting Blackburne on the defensive, but giving him some targets to attack if the pressure ever subsided. It was a somewhat ambitious plan, but for a little bit, Wisker navigated properly.
Things went wrong on move 19 for Wisker, as his b4 thrust opened up the a4 square for Blackburne's Bishop, which created tactics. It took exactly one move for Wisker to go wrong, and almost immediately, Blackburne had won a piece. A subpar showing for the eventual Challenge Cup winner, but these things happen sometimes.
vs. Robert Wormald
The only thing I know about this guy is that there is an opening named after him. In the Spanish Game, Morphy Defense, 5. Qe2 marks the Wormald Attack. Why? I have no idea. I couldn't find a game of his that played this move, so it must be that he wrote about it somewhere. If anyone has more info about this, I'd like to know.
Our next look at the Winawer French wasn't as interesting, as the exchange of pawns happened on the next move and the Bishop soon moved away from b4 anyway. After deflecting Blackburne's early attempt at Kingside pressure, Wormald threw forth his f-pawn, but he wasn't able to double Rooks as Blackburne got a passed pawn on e4.
The second half of the game is somewhat strange, because it's hard for me to pin down exactly what Wormald was trying to do. There was some play happening on the Queenside, but Blackburne was firing his Kingside pawns down the board so this seemed to be the wrong place to focus on. Indeed, Blackburne broke through on the Kingside, winning the h-pawn and having an infiltration set up before Wormald resigned.
vs. Henry Edward Bird
We indirectly saw Bird in the first two chapters of this series, where he was knocked out in the first round both times. An accountant by trade, he was far from a professional chess player, but he had recently been recognized as a master player. In 1866, he narrowly lost a match against Wilhelm Steinitz (+5-7=5) which made it known that he was a serious player. However, he came 4th out of 5 at the 1st Challenge Cup, so his tournament results had yet to match his new reputation.
Blackburne had to sit on the White side of the French this time, and Bird, always the experimenter, played 6... f5. The move was bad, giving Blackburne an easy target in the e-pawn, and immediately made the game much harder for Bird (he already handicapped himself by playing the French, so this was hardly necessary).
Although Bird thrust forth his Kingside pawns, he never really had an attack going. Blackburne won a pawn on the Queenside, and then his major pieces all went left, taking advantage of Bird's weak King and delivering checkmate himself. This certainly isn't the game I'd have liked to shown to introduce Henry Bird, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
With this, Blackburne had won all but one game. The pressure was on to finish strong.
vs. Cecil De Vere
The final boss of British Chess, De Vere had thus far gone undefeated, clearly determined to win the Cup that could only go to him in this event. Blackburne had won their game at Dundee, so perhaps he could repeat the feat here.
I mean, we all know the result already, given that I basically spoiled it at the beginning. However, I'm sure few people saw this coming.
Conclusion?
For the first time in this series, we have a tie for first place. There were very few tiebreaks back in the day, meaning we have to have a playoff game.
Blackburne initially played this French quite aggressively with an early g5, indicating his desire to castle Queenside (which he soon did). However, he didn't really do much attacking, but instead traded pieces whenever they would double De Vere's pawns. This left the defending champ with two sets of doubled pawns, and Blackburne with a passed - but isolated - d-pawn.
De Vere missed his chance to attack, and once the Queens were forced off the board, it was clear that he had to defend the endgame. It was certainly possible to hold, but with two different doubled pawns, Blackburne's passed pawn, and subpar technique, it wasn't going to happen. De Vere ended up miscalculating a mutual promotion, and Blackburne delivered a crucial fork that left the endgame hopeless. A mature endgame win for Blackburne, certainly an impressive one for 19th century standards (and perhaps beyond).
And with that, Blackburne was officially the winner of the 2nd BCA Challenge Cup, receiving the cash prize but not the Cup. As mentioned, if he won again in 1870 then it would be his to keep.
Let's quickly jump ahead to 1870 and take a look at the results of the third Challenge Cup:
Blackburne did not win again; rather, the top spot was shared by Wisker and emerging talent Amos Burn. I could only find 4 games of Wisker's from this event, and two of them were from the playoff for first place. The first game was drawn, and below is the second.
1872 would be the last year that the British Chess Association held an event. One of the events was the 4th Challenge Cup, with another tie for first:
Again, here is the decisive playoff game:
Is it strange that both playoff games feature the same 3... Nge7 Ruy Lopez? Yes. The opening itself is strange, so I guess this isn't too far off.
The second event was a plain international tournament, won by Wilhelm Steinitz with a perfect 7/7 score. It would be a sure sign of things to come in the following year, but this "following year" won't be the subject of this series for another 4-5 chapters, so we'll get back to it later.
With this, we bid farewell to the British Chess Association, to whom I am grateful for providing tournaments for me to look at and share. What comes next is somewhat up in the air, but as the 1870s was a decade chock full of interesting tournaments, we won't be lost for long.
Chapter 10 (contains links to chapters 6-9)
Chapter 5 (contains links to chapters 1-4)
