A Century of Chess: Stockholm 1906

I notice that, in my write-ups of these tournaments, I’m not spending much time on Schlechter. Schlechter announced that he was truly world-class with a string of results around 1900, particularly his match victory over Janowski in 1901, and then for several years he settled into good but not spectacular form, finishing third or fourth place in the top international tournaments - which was part of the legend of Schlechter the drawing master, always acquitting himself well but not pushing for full points in the style of Marshall or Janowski.

Stockholm 1906, a quiet 12-player event evenly divided between international European masters and local Swedish players, was his first win in years. He played elegantly, defeating Marco and six of the Swedish players.

Then he took a draw in the last round and Ossip Bernstein, who had lost early to Marco, caught him with his eighth win of the tournament. Bernstein was the first of the sturm und drang generation to join the elite. He excelled at Barmen 1905 where he stayed with the leaders and proved himself again at Stockholm.

In terms of standings, the tournament offered few surprises, with the Continental masters, Schlechter, Bernstein, Marco, Mieses, Suechting taking the top places with none of the Swedes particularly distinguishing themselves.