Winner's POV Chapter 8: Bristol 1861
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 8: Bristol 1861
We're now at the final smaller tournament organized by the Chess Association, who in 1861 changed their title to the British Chess Association. England would host another World Fair in 1862 (similar to the one in 1851) and with it would come another major chess tournament. However, we have one more minor tournament to get through, so let us check this last event off our list.
Format and Prizes
Eight competitors, each playing a single game like at Manchester 1857. The final was supposedly first-to-three as in previous years, but it too was ended after a single game.
For the first time, I have no idea what the prize fund was, since it's not mentioned in any writing on the topic. Something tells me that even the BCA were aware of how subpar their tournaments were in this era, which is why I'm glad they overhauled everything starting in 1862.
Players
Samuel Boden
Thomas Hampton
Bernhard Horwitz
Ignatz Kolisch
Louis Paulsen
Charles Henry Stanley
William Wilson
William Wayte
Using the 1860 list from Edo, the strongest players were Kolisch (3rd), Paulsen (4th), then Boden (19th). A step up from the previous event, however there would be a rather unfortunate event at the very outset, as you'll shortly see.
The Winner: Louis Paulsen
Louis Paulsen had his European tournament debut here, and started it with a bang. Despite losing the final match to Paul Morphy at the First ACC tournament four years ago, it was very evident by his otherwise undefeated score that he was the second best player present. Paulsen would be a very common name in tournaments for years to come, so to help prepare ourselves for this man's career, let us look at the Bristol 1861 tournament from the Winner's POV.
Round 1: vs. Ignatz Kolisch
This is the unfortunate event I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, the first round paring between the two strongest players in the field. This was bound to happen with no seeding, as was discovered 10 years ago in London, but alas, such things happen.
Paulsen used Morphy's Defense against Kolisch's Ruy Lopez, and play resembled something like what we'd see today. Kolisch elected to play in a similar fashion as many Italian games back then, with an h3-Nh2-f4 sequence to open the center. However, nothing really came of it, and Paulsen wasted no time chopping off every piece he could. With Rooks and Queens being the sole survivors before 25 moves had passed, the players agreed to the shortest draw of the series (so far).
The Sicilian expert Paulsen had to face his old favourite weapon in game two, where he handled himself quite well. Kolisch's early expansion with d5 and then c4 soon left him with an isolated Queen's pawn, and as the game went on, he had to adopt a very passive defense to hold onto it. Paulsen continued improving, and it seemed like he would eventually find something to target and win.
However, in chess, you often need to create two weaknesses to win, and Paulsen never found a second. Kolisch took the opportunity to trade off a few key pieces, and the endgame was another drawn one. So much for a single game match, I suppose.
At this point, people were getting a little restless, as one of the finalists had already been determined; Samuel Boden had beaten two other people to reach the finals. Something had to give in this match.
Throwing caution to the wind, Kolisch played the Evans Gambit, and Paulsen played the slightly less common 5... Bc5 version. Play followed the same lines as many games played by Adolf Anderssen, however Paulsen broke out a strong novelty: 18... c4 followed by 19... c3! returned the pawn and gave Paulsen amazing play on the Queenside. Not the opening Kolisch wanted, I imagine.
Kolisch only made one real mistake, but it cost him the exchange and threw away any hope he had of having a good game. Not wanting to play on and delay the tournament any further, Kolisch resigned before move 30, and at long last we had a decisive result.
Round 2: vs. William Wilson
Dr. William John Wilson was a surgeon by day, but especially in 1861 was fairly active in British chess. There are reports of another smaller chess tournament held in Leeds in which Wilson participated, among various activities. He defeated Stanley in round one, which must have certainly been something of an upset. With that, neither of the finalists from Cambridge 1860 made it out of the first round.
I find it hard to give meaningful commentary for this game, honestly. Wilson's play started out fine, sacrificing a pawn to keep Paulsen's King in the center of the board and allowing him to kick Paulsen's Queen around. However, towards the tail end of this game, Wilson made strange moves with his own Queen, and succumbed to a simple fork. I'm honestly a little perplexed at this game, but here we are.
Round 3: vs. Samuel Boden
As said before, Boden made the finals relatively quickly, dispatching Horwitz and Wayte in a single game each. For the third time in as many tournaments, Boden had reached the final round.
In a Cozio Spanish, both players made mistakes that stemmed from chess principles we tend to take for granted: Paulsen didn't trade off his doubled pawns when given the opportunity (13... Nxd3 14. fxd3 cxd4), and Boden didn't deal with Paulsen's strong Bishop pair (19. Qc1 and 20. Bh6). When Paulsen played 19... Rfd8, there wasn't much choice for Boden other than to trade down into an endgame where Paulsen had a passed pawn (but a doubled pawn, still).
While the endgame was certainly holdable, Boden didn't respect the c-pawn enough and immediately went for a perpetual check setup. Paulsen's calculation skills were just a little better, and he ended up winning Boden's Bishop. It took a little longer than that to get there, but it was only a matter of time before Paulsen won his third straight game with Black.
The tournament likely had a first-to-three finals system, but Boden once again had to forfeit the match due to outside arrangements. Had the first round not taken so long, perhaps this would have gone differently.
Conclusion
Paulsen immediately made himself known as a strong chess figure, both as a tournament player and as a blindfold exhibitionist - he gave a simultaneous exhibition at this event, and would do so again in the following year. Speaking of, we now have every event covered before the grand tournament of London 1862, which will shake up the game in a few different ways. I look forward to seeing you there.
Chapter 5 (contains links to chapters 1-4)
