Winner's POV Chapter 14: Baden Baden 1870
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 14: Baden Baden 1870
Most historians remember the summer of 1870 for the Franco-Prussian war, fought between Emperor Napoleon III's French Empire and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's rapidly-unifying Germany (under the Kingdom of Prussia). On July 19, 1870, Napoleon declared war, keen on ensuring Germany did not replace them as the dominant European land power; on July 18, 1870, the first round of the Baden Baden chess tournament took place. We all know which landmark event we'll be focusing on today, right?
I don't believe I'm exaggerating when I claim that the Baden Baden 1870 tournament was the first super-tournament of the 1800s. What held back the preceding tournaments in England, France and Scotland was that the ranks were filled with locals who weren't quite at the caliber of the international competitors. However, three Germans had previously won tournaments in this saga, so their locals were among the best in the world. It was, without question, the most packed field to this point in history.
In addition to being the most talented field to date, it was also the first tournament ran by Ignatz von Kolisch, who had officially retired from competitive chess. I don't have many details on how he ran the tournament, but it's known that all of the players found it to be the most efficient and hassle-free tournament played, for which everyone was grateful. Given what was going on around them (the playing hall was as close as 30km from the battleground), some good news was doubtlessly appreciated.
Format and Prizes
10-man double round robin, with a time control of 20 moves per hour - previous time controls were 10 and 15 moves per hour, so this was faster than usual. Thankfully, the half-point draw was back in effect for this tournament, eliminating the redundant replays (unfortunately, we'll still be seeing tournaments try other systems for quite some time, so don't get comfortable).
Top prize was the "Baden Prize" of 3000 francs. All sources I've read make note of only a second prize, consisting of the sum of entrance fees, however there were four prize winners overall; I'll touch on this again at the very end, so stay tuned.
Players
Adolf Anderssen
Joseph Blackburne
Johannes Minckwitz
Gustav Neumann
Louis Paulsen
Samuel Rosenthal
Wilhelm Steinitz
Adolf Stern
Cecil De Vere
Szymon Winawer
Hopefully it's clear why I'm claiming this to be a super tournament: the "local entrants" were Anderssen, Neumann and Paulsen! Lesser-known names like Minckwitz and Stern were present as well, but still, what a field.
The 1969 Edo lists set the top of the field as Steinitz (1st), Anderssen (2nd), Neumann (4th), and Paulsen (7th). Winawer, De Vere and Blackburne were ranked 10th, 11th and 12th respectively, and Rosenthal was 17th. This kind of talent had never before been seen at this type of tournament, and wouldn't be seen again for quite some time.
The Winner: Adolf Anderssen
Anderssen was a pioneer in the chess tournament scene: he had won the first ever international tournament, the first international round robin tournament, and with this, he won the first ever international super tournament. We sit behind Anderssen for the third time in this series as we look at the Baden Baden 1870 tournament from the Winner's POV.
Round 1: vs. Samuel Rosenthal
For the first time (I think), there were actual dedicated rounds and days of play, so I can confidently claim this to be the first round. Anderssen's first round opponent was Rosenthal, who tied for 9th place at Paris 1867, however he had improved his play over the last few years. In fact, he promised to give a "slap," "ein schmitzel" to all of the strong players. It's hard to say exactly what this means, so let's instead look at the play.
Anderssen opened with the dubious Ponziani Countergambit, foreshadowing the kinds of openings we would see later in this tournament. The players opted for an extremely complex position, with Anderssen sacrificing the exchange but getting tremendous attacking chances. Indeed, once Rosenthal committed to castling on the Queenside, Anderssen attacked the Frenchman like... well, like other Germans were attacking other Frenchmen, I guess.
The complexity of the position makes it near impossible for the events to be succinctly summarized, but I'll just say that Anderssen's moves 22-26 each received at least one ! from the analysis board at depth 30. After Anderssen lost his 1866 match to Steinitz, and with the large German chess clubs starting to host national tournaments 1-2 times per year, Anderssen had committed to bringing his chess to the next level; at 52, this was what he was capable of.
Round 2
Anderssen made his first attempt at the Evans Gambit for the tournament, which Rosenthal declined (gasp). It was still a successful opening for Anderssen, who gained plenty of space on the Queenside and got two strong center pawns after Rosenthal was too quick to plant a Knight on d4. However, Anderssen's attempts to attack the King weren't entirely successful, as Rosenthal put up a staunch defense.
Anderssen planted a Rook on g6, and while it was intimidating, it was also vulnerable. This was learned the hard way when Rosenthal's Bishop snuck behind enemy lines, gaining crucial tempi that let him trap Anderssen's Rook. While it's generally despicable to decline the Evans Gambit, it allowed Rosenthal to give his first schmitzel (I think), so that's something.
Round 3: vs. Johannes Minckwitz
Minckwitz was probably the closest thing to a "local who wasn't quite at the caliber of the international competitors." He had participated in the two German Chess Federation tournaments of 1869, both of which were won by Anderssen (they were 6-player round robins, and were early tournaments for future challenger Johannes Zukertort). Editor of the "Deutsche Schachzeitung" magazine, he was also a great author and problem composer. He actually had a stronger start than Anderssen, winning both of his games against Adolf Stern.
The second consecutive Evans Gambit was declined for Anderssen, without any early slips to give him a dominating position. Minckwitz's play wasn't bulletproof, however, as he allowed his c-pawns to be doubled which resulted in Anderssen gaining a passed pawn. He also struggled from not knowing where to put his King, refusing to castle but eventually moving it to the Kingside anyway.
Minckwitz's rapid piece trading was unfortunately ineffective, as Anderssen had strong prospects on both sides of the board. It was too much for the editor to deal with, as Anderssen eventually broke through in the center as well, dominating all sections of the board as well as Minckwitz's King.
Round 4
Frustratingly, the score for this game doesn't exist. It was won by Anderssen.
Since this tournament carried so much weight, I figure I should show off some other games that took place. The first concerns the winners of our previous two chapters, in the mini-match between Blackburne and Neumann. Neumann had won their game at Dundee, as well as the game in round 3. Blackburne's desire to win was palpable, but he wasn't able to get his revenge this time.
The second game doesn't carry as much sentimental weight, but it's just really cool. We've not seen De Vere salvage a single game in this series, and so I figure that he needed to have this one shown.
Let's take a look at the standings after the first four rounds, to get an idea of the climate:
Adolf Stern was a reserve in the Bavarian army, and it was after this round that he departed to go fight. As a result, his games were annulled and he was essentially removed from the tournament standings. I'll keep him in the crosstable to make the formatting more uniform, but he'll be taken out of the final product. And, for the curious, he did survive the war.
Round 5: vs. Wilhelm Steinitz
Despite wresting the "title" from Anderssen in their 1866 match (Steinitz won +8-6), Wilhelm Steinitz had yet to win an international tournament; 3rd at Paris and 2nd at Dundee had shown less-than-dominant form in his initial years atop the world. He wasn't off to a great start at this tournament either, scoring 2.5/4 with the assistance of two forfeits from Stern.
The pair picked up right where they left off 4 years prior, debating 5... Bc5 in the Evans Gambit (accepted!). It was a system Steinitz was especially familiar with, as they followed one of his Paris 1867 games against Neumann for quite some time. Anderssen's deviation probably wasn't an improvement, but he was able to create enough complications that Steinitz had trouble navigating the storm.
At the critical juncture, Anderssen sacrificed his Queen for both of Steinitz's Rooks, a surefire way to create an uncertain imbalance. Steinitz failed to prevent Anderssen's Rooks from doubling up against a pinned Bishop, and they crashed through like a battering ram to force the King into the cellars. Steinitz resigned before his monarch was smoked out.
Round 6
The Steinitz Gambit had been racking up a long list of victims, but Anderssen declined any gambit in exchange for aggressive play on his end. His Bishop on c5 was paired with lightning-fast Queenside pawn thrusts that made Steinitz's King incapable of castling. However, the center was closed up enough that the King could stay there if Steinitz was careful enough.
Anderssen was a little too aggressive, painting himself into a corner which could only be escaped by sacrificing a piece. He did get two pawns for it, as well as access to Steinitz's King, so it's not like the game was beyond hope. Indeed, Steinitz incorrectly allowed Anderssen to give a deadly Rook check, and the German master made no further mistakes on his vicious King hunt. Not including the forfeits, Steinitz had started the tournament 0.5/4, while Anderssen sat quite comfortably atop the leaderboard with 5/6.
Round 7: vs. Gustav Neumann
To say these two played a lot would be a massive understatement; the chessgames.com database has 78 games played prior to 1870, with Neumann actually having a plus score (+40-31=7, or 43.5/78). It's safe to say that these games weren't all serious, consisting mostly of our favourite dubious gambits (Evans, King's, Staunton) but anyone who could hold their own against Anderssen was worthy of respect.
Anderssen's Evans was accepted again, restoring the balance at a 50% acceptance rate. Neumann opted for the Compromised Defense, which even future world champion Emanuel Lasker had doubts about. It's one of those openings where it's technically equal because White has a ton of good stuff for the two pawns, and the play is razor sharp throughout.
As it turned out, Neumann's defense was sufficient to deal with Anderssen's ambitions. As pieces began coming off the board, Anderssen's attacking potential disappeared with it. It was actually Neumann who fired off the final tactical shot, reducing the material to the point where Anderssen had nothing left to give.
Round 8
Neumann's 1. d4 is a move that I think more people should have invested time into to beat Anderssen, since he's historically faired quite poorly in these games (I know of 2 games he lost with White opening 1. d4, there's the bad draw he played against Marmaduke Wyvill at London 1851, and don't forget his only loss at London 1862 was in a Dutch against John Owen, to name a few). Here again, it seems like Anderssen wasn't fully sure of how to properly play the position, as he was positionally outplayed on both ends of the board.
Neumann found a chance to liquidate his advantage into a material one, winning the exchange and recapturing the pawns Anderssen gained from him. The endgame was extremely difficult for Anderssen, and Neumann clearly knew his King and pawn endgames as he correctly simplified the game into one at the end. The plus score wouldn't be shrunken this time, it seems.
This seems like a good time to check the standings once again, since Anderssen's two consecutive losses doubtlessly hurt his staying power at the top:
While Neumann and Paulsen technically had a higher score than Anderssen, they each benefitted from the Stern forfeits, so it's not a super clean lead at this point. Blackburne was also having a good tournament, winning both games against the struggling Cecil De Vere, who happened to be Anderssen's next opponent. Let's move on.
Round 9
Sadly, this game score doesn't exist either - there are 3 missing game scores, and 2 of them belong to Anderssen. Super frustrating. In any case, Anderssen defeated De Vere with the Black pieces.
Is there anything else worth discussing in round 9? This was the round where Steinitz and Neumann faced off, which saw an interesting little triangle: Anderssen defeated Steinitz twice, Neumann defeated Anderssen twice, and...
along with a second win by Steinitz in round 10. Chess is weird sometimes.
Round 10: vs. Cecil De Vere
De Vere's short career could thus far be summed up as "always chasing Neumann and Steinitz," as those two had placed higher than him at the previous tournaments - De Vere's 5th at Paris and tie-3rd at Dundee were both below the two aforementioned men. He hadn't yet faced either of them, but he was defeated twice by the new English #1 Joseph Blackburne, so his chances of making a statement were slim. His loss against Anderssen certainly didn't help matters, and having to survive with Black was doubtlessly daunting for the young ex-champion.
Usually the Black side of the Sicilian is tasked with drumming up activity on the Queenside, but De Vere decided to flip that script and throw everything at the Kingside. There was certainly a lot of pressure, but Anderssen had a relatively straightforward defense that allowed him to stave off the worst of it. De Vere had trouble adding fuel to the fire, allowing Anderssen to consolidate in the center. Eventually, De Vere had to call off the assault, putting the ball in Anderssen's court.
Anderssen's position was certainly better as pieces came off the board, but the win turned out to be incredibly hard to spot. Anderssen grabbed a pawn at the wrong time, and the position soon simplified to Bishops of opposite colours. De Vere sacrificed a piece to demonstrate the equality, and Anderssen suffered his first draw of the tournament (certainly not his worst result).
Round 11: vs. Szymon Winawer
Winawer's "beginner's luck" seemed to hold much less weight in this tournament than at Paris; after a solid start, he had lost 3 of the previous games, with only a bye in round 9 to stop the bleeding. When you're on a losing streak, I don't think that Anderssen is an ideal foe, but perhaps Winawer could prove me wrong.
Winawer's Ruy Lopez was met with the Open Defense, however it didn't lead to any fireworks as two pairs of minor pieces were traded early on. It was a rather normal position that allowed the players to demonstrate how they could construct plans when an immediate attack was not on the table.
Unfortunately for Winawer, he seemed second best in this regard. Anderssen's Rooks were especially impressive (as usual), and he was the one doing any of the pressing later into the game. Once he found a beautiful Bishop sacrifice on f4, Winawer blundered a fork that left him down the exchange in the endgame. A rather high-level game for the most part, marred by only a handful of subpar decisions and only one true blunder.
Round 12: vs. Joseph Henry Blackburne
It's around this point that the pairings start to become weird, with Anderssen never facing the same opponent twice in a row. I'm not exactly sure why this is the case - I know that Samuel Rosenthal would drop out of the tournament near the end, but he was still playing at this time, so I can't quite explain it. In any case, I'll put the names of each opponent in the subject line, so hopefully it's clear enough with each new round.
The Winawer French that gave Blackburne so much success in his Challenge Cup run was on display again here, as he tried to improve upon his performance at London 1862. It certainly worked, as Anderssen felt the need to play slightly irregularly to get Blackburne "out of book." The opening saw Anderssen part ways with both Bishops, in exchange for saddling Blackburne with horrible Queenside pawns that benefitted his Knights.
Blackburne doubled Rooks on the e-file, but Anderssen set a trap that forced Blackburne to sacrifice the exchange. There would have been compensation for Blackburne if he navigated things correctly, but the critical moment was on move 19, in the heart of time trouble. He played well for being down the exchange, but Anderssen made things difficult enough that Blackburne eventually succumbed to the pressure and gave up a checkmate.
Let's take one more look at the standings, before it becomes too hectic to track anyone's individual performance:
The tournament was starting to be a runaway for Anderssen, who had a good segment of 3.5/4. With two of his byes still to come, it was his tournament to lose for sure.
Round 13: vs. Szymon Winawer
We're back to finish the mini-match against Winawer, so let's get down to business.
Yet another Evans Gambit was played, and the 5... Bc5 variation was debated again, following the earlier Anderssen - Steinitz game for quite some time. It was extremely well defended by Winawer, who turned the tables quite quickly when Anderssen went pawn grabbing. I don't really have much to say about this game, it was just a good defensive (and counterattacking) effort.
Round 14: bye
Anderssen's first bye took place on this day, so he didn't play. What else was going on with the top seeds?
Louis Paulsen, Anderssen's closest competitor, had White against Johannes Minckwitz on this day. He needed a win to maintain the chase, but they agreed to a draw on move 24 after mass trades.
Steinitz was in the group that shared third, and he also drew a tail-ender in Rosenthal. He, too, failed to secure more than a half point.
With only four rounds to go, the chance of catching Anderssen was getting smaller and smaller.
Round 15: vs. Louis Paulsen
The rivalry between these two could not be understated. After Anderssen won their game at London 1862, they drew a match (+3-3=2) before a many-year hiatus. It wasn't until 1869 that these two would once again meet in a tournament, with Paulsen winning their individual encounter, but Anderssen winning the tiebreaks 1.5-0.5 after they tied for 1st. Paulsen needed to make something happen if he didn't want Anderssen to run away with the tournament.
Paulsen curiously opted for the King's Gambit, however Anderssen immediately gave back the pawn, not wanting to mess around with the defense. When Anderssen started making threats against Paulsen's King, Paulsen sacrificed another pawn to trade Queens and get his Rook on the 7th rank; this turned out to have little benefit, as the Rook had no targets, and was eventually kicked back to h1. Anderssen had the upper hand.
There were ways to liquidate into an endgame that had drawing potential, but Paulsen was unable to see it through. The endgame they simplified to was leagues better for Anderssen, who converted it without any issues at all. The final result was looking more and more likely.
Round 16: vs. Joseph Blackburne
Samuel Rosenthal had dropped out by this point, so I suppose the irregular schedules might make sense now. Maybe
Blackburne had certainly been watching the Steinitz - Anderssen game from round 6, because the players repeated the first 9 moves of that Vienna. Blackburne deviated first, demonstrating that he had done his homework and was ready to fight. He got a very promising attack, building up significant pressure on the Kingside while Anderssen dominated the Queenside and kept the White King in the center, just like against Steinitz.
Anderssen put on a clinic about defensive counterplay, sacrificing the exchange to buy just enough time to capitalize on his strong Queenside. While Blackburne tried to coordinate an attack, Anderssen harassed the King with check after check. Blackburne eventually agreed to a draw when it was clear that his King would never find comfort on the board. The British Champion (for another few weeks) did what he could, but Anderssen would not be stopped this event.
Round 17: vs. Louis Paulsen
Anderssen had White for his last game against Paulsen, and if he won, he would clinch the tournament before the last round (in which he had a bye). Let's see how it went.
Anderssen understood that Paulsen was arguably the best defender on the planet, and thus he sidelined the Evans Gambit in exchange for the opening these two had been debating for years, the Ruy Lopez. Despite castling in the other direction, Anderssen stalled on any pawn storms, instead weakening the center and allowing Paulsen easy play on the Queenside. Paulsen yet again showed that he understood this opening better than Anderssen.
As the game continued, Anderssen did find ways to make threats, and Paulsen's King ran over to the Queenside to avoid danger. He had the win all but assured, though he needed to find a Bishop sacrifice on c4 to put it away. Either due to fatigue from the long tournament, lack of ambition due to being out of prize contention, or something else, he never found the knockout blow, and Anderssen broke through.
The game wasn't lost until Paulsen allowed Anderssen a free move to reroute his Knight, and from there, Anderssen executed the attack perfectly. A thrilling final game, and a massive relief for Anderssen, who had won when it mattered the most.
It's a little messed up due to the withdrawal of Rosenthal, but the important point is unperturbed: Anderssen had won with a round to spare, as he "faced" Stern in round 18. Blackburne also had a bye, so the only drama to remain was if Steinitz could hold onto 2nd place.
Round 18: bye
If Steinitz won his game, he would finish in 2nd place. He didn't disappoint.
Conclusion
Thus the first ever super-tournament drew to a close, with Anderssen atop the standings as if nothing had changed. The Baden prize of 3000 francs was his, adding to his previous winnings to doubtlessly make him the most successful tournament player to date. Steinitz, unofficial world #1, was half a point behind, earning 600 fr but still left searching for a major tournament win. As I mentioned earlier, there were only writings about prizes for the top 2, but chessgames.com claims that Blackburne and Neumann each won 200 fr for shared 3rd place; I don't have the means to fact-check this, so I'll just mention it and let more interested investigators come to their own conclusion.
For now, Anderssen stood at the top of the strongest tournament ever held. The next World Fair was set for 1873, so that's the next time we'll see a tournament with this much importance. There are a few other events I want to touch on before then, so stay tuned.
Chapter 10 (contains links to chapters 6-9)
Chapter 5 (contains links to chapters 1-4)
