The Book of the Cambridge Springs International Tournament 1904
The Book of the Cambridge Springs International Tournament 1904
The Book of the Cambridge Springs International Tournament 1904
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The Book of the Cambridge Springs International Tournament 1904

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Author: Reinfeld, Fred (1910-1964)

Year: 1935

Publisher: The Black Knight Press

Place: New York

Description:
vi+84+[2 ad] pages with diagrams and tables. Octavo (8 1/4" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's red cloth with black lettering to spine and cover in original jacket. Annotations by Irving Chernev, Ruben Fine, David Janowski, Georg Marco, Frank Marshall, W E Napier, Fred Reinfeld, Richard Reti, Carl Schlechter, Dr S Tarrasch and M Tchigorin. The Modern Chess Library Volume 1. First edition.

The 1904 Cambridge Springs International Chess Congress was the first major international chess tournament in America in the twentieth century. It featured the participation of World Champion Emanuel Lasker, who had not played a tournament since 1900 and would not play again until 1909. After the tournament Lasker moved to America and started publishing Lasker's Chess Magazine, which ran from 1904 to 1907. However, that was not the only chess magazine spawned by the tournament. The Daily Bulletins produced by Hermann Helms proved so popular that Helms started the American Chess Bulletin as a direct consequence of the tournament. Volume 1, Issue 1 of the magazine was devoted to Cambridge Springs. Helms was somewhat more successful than Lasker as a publisher and American Chess Bulletin would be edited and published by Helms from 1904 until his death in 1963.

The tournament started on April 25, 1904 and ended on May 19, 1904. It was a single-round-robin tournament where each player would play one game against the other players, for a total of fifteen games. Games were played on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Wednesday was for adjourned games and Saturdays were for Rice Gambit consultation games. Games started at 10:00 am and played until 3:00 pm and then continued at 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm if necessary. The time control was 30 moves in 2 hours, then 15 moves per hour. There was a "grandmaster draw" rule that prohibited draws of less than 30 moves, unless the draw was forced. Among the competitors were seven of the top ten players of the world, including the World Champion Emanuel Lasker and various national champions of Russia, France, Austria, and the United States. The participants were Lasker, Mikhail Chigorin, David Janowski, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, Carl Schlechter, Frank Marshall, Georg Marco, Jacques Mieses, Richard Teichmann, Jackson Showalter, William Napier, Albert Hodges, Eugene Delmar, Albert Fox, John Barry and Thomas Lawrence. Janowski, Marshall and Teichmann all started the tournament very strongly. After six rounds Janowski led with 5½ points, followed closely by Marshall and Teichmann with 5. Teichmann became ill and would only score an additional 1½ points in the remaining nine rounds. Marshall and Janowski continued their torrid pace through the ninth round where they both had eight points, followed by Lasker in third with 6½. In the tenth round however, Janowski started to falter and lost two games in a row, including one to Fox. Going into the 15th and final round Marshall was in first place with 12 points, but he was only one point ahead of Janowski, who in turn was only one point ahead of Lasker. Marshall played black against Fox who was up a pawn after 20 moves. However, Fox quickly blundered a rook and Marshall won. Meanwhile, Janowski and Lasker were playing against each other for second place. Janowski, with a one-point lead, only needed a draw with the white pieces to clinch the second prize. Janowski launched a very spirited attack against Lasker's king, which was stuck in the center of the board. Lasker was up to the challenge though, and built a defense that turned back Janowski's attack and eventually won the game. Marshall stunned the chess world with a phenomenal victory of 13/15 over the chess elite, including wins against Janowski, Schlechter, and Pillsbury (two of which were brilliancy prizes). His win marked the beginning of a career that would include a reign as US Champion for 27 years and the challenger for the world championship in 1907.

Condition:

Corners gently bumped. Jacket lightly soiled, spine age darkened, small chips at points else a near fine copy in a very good to fine scarce jacket.

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