better reporting

 It features a lot in popular British Victorian writing. Just as one example, you'll find quite a few phrenological references in Sherlock Holmes

Editorial decision based on cost sonstraints? I think you are rigt about good writers existing but going where they can make more money. 

I think this style of writing isn't good form nowadays, people prefer their dignity kept when it concerns the chessboard - I mean if you wrote
"Anand was clearly quivering in his pants at the sight of Kasparov's shiny forehead - its a wonder he could see the board!"

then you could get sued.

Although descriptive journalism does have other applications  

 I corrected my post to read 1900. thanks!

I knew what you meant to write. I was messing with you.

I liked the way Ed Lasker wrote about chess masters in his book Chess Secrets I Learned From The Masters. Here is the way he describes Kurt Von Bardeleben.

 "One master on whose presence at the Cafe Bauer I could unfailingly count any evening, was Kurt Von Bardeleben. He was an easy going person, in his fifties. When he had any money at all, you could tell it by the bottle of Bordeaux on his table; he sipped one glass after another in the leisurely manner of the connoisseur. He always wore a black cut-away suit of dubious vintage. Apparently he could never spare enough money to buy a new suit, although I learned one day that at fairly regular intervals he received comparatively large sums---from one to several thousand marks---through the simple expedient of marrying, and shortly after divorcing, some lady who craved the distinction of his noble name and was willing to pay for it. Von Bardeleben had such an extraordinary face that he was bound to draw every eye on himself wherever he appeared. The left half of his forehead bulged outward and upward as if the left frontal lobe of his brain had irresistibly expanded. A van Dyke beard and a slightly ironic smile which always played on his face gave von Bardeleben a certain Mephistophelian appearance..."

I wonder how many ex-wives the guy accumulated?

Clearly a genius-- he's got to be one of the few people who managed to figure out how to come out ahead financially by collecting ex-wives.

As a Yiddish witticism goes: "Solomon the Wise had a thousand wives, but never forget that, with each wife, he also gained a mother in law"

The piece is very well written as I have come to expect from you.  Writing with "atmosphere" can be inserted in to a story about any event and should no be omitted simply because the topic is, at core, a

serious endeavour as chess is thought to be.  A comment on a pretty girl, a classic smile or a howl of

triumph (defeat?) makes the game more acceptable as not just the play of geeks or geekslings (goslings?) but of the human race.

Remember Twain:  Man is the only animal that blushes...or needs to.

Keep it up.

Curt von Bardeleben was a most interesting chess master who is sadly most remembered and defined for two things: his suicide by jumping out a window shortly before his 63rd birthday (it's said he was financially bereft and an alcoholic) and because of a game lost to Steinitz at Hastings 1895.  Some people have written things like he left a note on the table saying, "Saw it. Went Home," or something similar, but the more reliable sources (Pollock, particularly, who said von B left without resigning in protest to the unseemly applause by the audience - and, in fact, the directors cautioned the audience the next day about such actions) tells us that Count Bardeleben did indeed see the combination - a very deep one - left the table and let his time run out.  What usually isn't mentioned is some of the surrounding facts.  Bardeleben had been a rising German star. He came from a wealthy family but his prodigal nature left him cut off from the money.  Kurt Richter, writing about Carl Oscar Ahues in the Berliner Schachverband, said (translation by Google!) "An original personality who frequented the Cafe Bauer, was also Champion v. Bardeleben. His main fault was that he was too lazy to make money, so he had something rare. He came from wealthy family, but did not care about him. But once he inherited a large sum that evaporated but with some 'good friends' very quickly."

Edward Lasker wrote:
      "He was well-bred and mannered to a fault: He could never be guilty of an aggressive attitude. He could not even muster the strength to fight his own decadence.
     With these attributes, coupled with a wit of literary flavour and wide knowledge of the humanities, made him a delightful conversationalist, but they did not fit him for success as a professional chess master. He had chosen his career as the only alternative, after his aristocratic family had cast him off when his casual treatment of creditors became too embarrassing for them."

Bardeleben had been winning at Hastings and up to that point hadn't lost a single game (he was +6=3).  Steinitz, on the other hand, was very despondent going into this game (see Rhoda Bowles' account). Upon losing the game, it was Bardeleben who became despondant and, as a result, ended up in 7th place. 

Bardeleben was a quite talented player.  He was also a blindfold expert who gave 5 and 6 board blind simuls.  For 4 years, 1887-1891, he co-edited the Deutsche Schachzeitung with Hermann Von Gottschall.  Here is a game between Bardeleben and Gottschall the year the editorial collaboration began:

Edward Lasker met von Bardeleben while a university student in Berlin. They met at the Café Bauer, Unter den Linden.
The exterior:

and the interior:

Again, Kurt Richter tells us:
"In addition, however, there was that time in Berlin a number of chess cafes in areas where there was a daily traffic. The most significant in the period before World War undoubtedly was a  Café Bauer Unter der Linden. Met there all chess players of the city, many masters, good and bad players."

He adds: "The most striking figure among the visitors of the cafe was without doubt master Richard Teichmann for his consistent tournament success (5th place) and 'Richard V.' mentioned. He was a giant in stature and looks more like a boxer than a chess master. He had in his youth due to a careless playmate lost an eye, but did not prevent him to be a shrewd player. . . About a player contnuing in a hopeless situation, he used to say: 'He has unlimited confidence in the inability of his opponent!'"

Chess players in Berlin used to meet at the Café Kaiserhof. When it closed in 1906, the Café Bauer, Unter den Linden filled the void.  Georg Salwe gave an 18 board simul at the Café Bauer,  winning 17 losing 1 in 2 hours on Set. 24, 1907

Both Berthold and his brother Emmanuel played for stakes at the Kaiserhof during the 1880s.   Em. Lasker's first tournament win was the Café Kaiserhof annual Winter tournament in 1888. Max Harmonist, the royal dancer and chess master, often referred to as the "Little Morphy," occasionally played at the Café Kaiserhof.

I dont know the details behind Bardelebens leap to eternity but I think I will go with the French. Whenever a man kills  himself they say    "Cherchez La Femme." 

"Look for the woman."

I think, rather, it was a combnation of failing health, lack of money or means of obtaining any, and alcoholism.  The French just like to say cherchez la femme.

Yeah, but the combination of failing health, lack of money and alcoholism is often explained by ... cherchez la femme.

I think the French just like to cherchez la femme.

For Bardeleben, women seemed more his temporary salvation than the source of his troubles. His laissez-faire, as they say in France or so I'm told, attitude towards responsibility, as noted by several people, seems more the culprit.

Yes, Ivan, I have to agree with you. 

Regarding von Bardelben's resignation (or lack thereof)

On the basis of contemporary chess magazines’ coverage of the Steinitz v von Bardeleben game we commented in C.N. 3114 above: ‘Publications of the time gave no impression that a scandal of any significance had occurred.’ Now Roger Bristow, the Information Services Librarian at Hastings Library, has looked at the local newspapers. He has examined six of them (all weekly publications), in each case checking through the first issue following the date of the game, i.e. 17 August 1895. Mr. Bristow comments:

‘There is nothing about the circumstances in which this game ended. Two of the newspapers reprint (from the Daily News) a report of the game, simply recording the moves, with occasional commentary. But no particular comment is made about von Bardeleben’s resignation, and there is no mention of his walking out at all.’

SOURCE: 

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/steinitzvonbardeleben.html

Regardless of any contemporary newpaper reports, William Henry Krause Pollock, who was present and whose annotated game eventually appeared in La Stratégie of Oct. 1895, wrote in those annotations: "La partie a été terminée ici, M. de Bardeleben s’est retiré sans abandonner et la partie a été adjugée à M. Steinitz à l’expiration du temps limité. M. de Bardeleben a dit à son adversaire que sa conduite était pour protester contre les applaudissements souvent trop prolongés dont les visiteurs saluaient les victorieux et c’est à la suite de cet incident que le Comité du tournoi a défendu toute démonstration."

http://translate.reference.com

"The game was over here, M. de Bardeleben withdrew without giving up and the game was awarded to Mr. Steinitz at the expiration of the limited time. M. de Bardeleben told his opponent that his conduct was to protest against the prolonged applause too often greeted visitors with the victorious and it was after this incident that the Tournament Committee has defended any demonstration. "

It looks like my quote was "out of context" in effect, my cited source does in fact refer to Pollock's report, and here is another citation from the article (which is an amalgamation of several previous entries on the matter). 

Addition on 21 September 2008:

Olimpiu G. Urcan (Singapore) draws attention to a passage on page 731 of Contemporary Review, July-December 1900, in an article by Antony Guest entitled ‘Steinitz and Other Chessplayers’ (on pages 727-737):