MANNHEIM 1914 TOURNAMENT

The Mannheim Masters’ Tournament was held from 20 July 1914, and was organised by the German Chess Federation to celebrate its thirty-fifth Jubilee in connection with its nineteenth Chess Congress. After eleven rounds, the young Russian star Alexander Alekhine was leading comfortably in the tournament, when on 1 August, the tournament was stopped, because of the outbreak of World War I. Much confusion broke out and the organiser had to immediately face an unexpected situation when the police and the army arrested the Russian player and stopped the tournament! Frank Marshall managed to escape to Holland at the last minute, but Alexander Alekhine could not avoid being interned. Without a closing ceremony the organiser declared Alexander Alekhine the winner of the tournament with 9,5 points (and seven games unplayed).

Alexander Alekhine, a young prodigy of St. Petersburg, was the leader throughout the tourney, finishing ahead of Dr. Milan Vidmar from Prague with 8,5 points, and the third prize was won by Rudolf Spielmann from Munich with 8 points. The 4th-6th prizes with 7 points were shared by Gyula Breyer from Budapest, Frank Marshall from the USA and Richard Reti from Vienna. The last prize winner with 6,5 points was David Janowski from Paris. Only a little more than half of the tournament was played when it was ended, and the prizes were distributed according to the existing position of the participants. A chess tournament unfinished due to a war situation was perhaps unique.

During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, a Congress of the German Chess Association was in progress at Baden-Baden, and it was played until its completion. The great German Master, Professor Adolf Anderssen finished in first place. The second place was won by the World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz, and the third by English master Joseph Blackburne.

The prize of the best game was awarded to the Hungarian Master Gyula Breyer for his win against Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch.