Author: Gilberg, Charles Alexander (1835-1898)
Year: 1881
Publisher: Brentano's Literary Emporium
Place: New York
Description:
xii+539 pages with frontispiece and diagrams. Small octavo (7 1/4" x 5 1/2") issued in in original publisher's brown cloth with gilt lettering, covers blind stamped. (Betts: 15-14) First edition.
Contains, in addition, 92 games from the Grand Tournament with notes by Mackenzie and others; 10 games from the minor tournament and 128 problems submitted for the problem tourney. An account of the preceding chess congresses held in the United States and biographical sketches of noted chess players.
The 5th American Chess Congress was held at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York City, the United States from January 6th to the 31st, 1880. Ten American chess masters and players participated in the nine double rounds of the main event. The participants included two-time US Chess Congress winner George Henry Mackenzie, 4th American Chess Congress (1876) runner-up Max Judd, the previous Congress participants James Congdon and Preston Ware, as well as Albert Cohnfeld, Eugene Delmar, James Grundy, Charles Moehle, John Ryan and Alexander Sellman. Each of the players gained entrance to the masters tournament via a $20 entry fee. Games began at 1 pm each day with a break for dinner between 5 and 7 pm, whereby the games resumed until 11 pm. Games were adjourned if the players could not reach a conclusion by midnight. The time control for the tournament was 15 moves an hour, with unspent time being carried over to the next time control. Sundays were reserved for rest days. The final of the event saw a tie for first between Mackenzie and Grundy. The rules stipulated in the event of a tie that a playoff match would follow with the grand prize going to the first player to win two games. Mackenzie defeated Grundy handily and claimed the prize of $500 and a gold medal to commemorate his victory. Grundy received $300 for second place, while Moehle received $200 for third, Sellman $100 for fourth, and Judd $50 for fifth. It was Mackenzie's third and final US Congress victory and cemented his legacy as one of the strongest chess players living and playing in the United States in the 19th century.
Condition:
Book plate on back paste down, title page separated and reattached with archival tape, re-spined with ends professionally repaired. A good to very good copy.
SOLD 2020