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🏆 London (1900)

  PARTICIPANTS (sorted by highest achieved rating; click on name to see player's games)
Joseph Blackburne, Richard Teichmann, Rudolf Loman, James Mason, Isidor Gunsberg, Francis Lee, Edward Owen Jones, Samuel Passmore, Thomas Lawrence, Louis van Vliet, William Ward, Arthur Ernest Tietjen, Thomas Physick

Chessgames.com Chess Event Description
London (1900)

London, England (5 April-5 May 1900)

1 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 Score Place/Prize ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 1 Teichmann • ½ 1 1 ½ 0 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 9½ 1st £20 2 Mason ½ • 1 ½ 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 9 2nd-3rd £12 3 Gunsberg 0 0 • 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 9 2nd-3rd £12 4 Ward 0 ½ 0 • ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 8½ 4th £8 5 Van Vliet ½ 1 0 ½ • 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 8 5th £6 6 Blackburne 1 0 ½ 0 0 • ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 1 7½ 6th £4 7 Lawrence 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ • 1 1 1 0 1 1 6 7th £2 8 Lee 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 • 0 ½ 1 1 1 5 9 Loman ½ 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 • 0 1 1 1 4½ 10 Tietjen 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 1 • 0 1 1 4 11 Jones 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 • 1 ½ 3½ 12 Physick 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 0 • 1 2 13 Passmore 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 • 1½ ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————


Introduction
City Club Masters/Amateurs Tournament. They don't make clubs like that any more. The City Club of London was used to holding tournaments, and in 1900 came up with the idea of inviting several leading British masters and prominent amateur players to see how the lesser lights would hold up.

The Masters: Joseph Henry Blackburne, Isidor Gunsberg, Francis Joseph Lee, James Mason, Richard Teichmann, Louis van Vliet.

The Amateurs: Edward Owen Jones, Thomas Lawrence, Rudolf Loman, Samuel Passmore, Thomas Physick, Arthur Ernest Tietjen, William Ward.

Blackburne started well by winning his first four games, but stumbled badly with only two draws in his next five. Teichmann then took a comfortable lead, but Mason made up ground until he was only a half-point behind going into their last round game. However, this turned into a relatively short draw, while Gunsberg closed fast to catch Mason for a share of second place.

An excellent showing for Ward, while Blackburne had to be somewhat disappointed with his result.

Sources
(1) http://www.365chess.com/tournaments...
(2) The New York Times dates available from daily reports

Credit
Original collection: Game Collection: City Club Invitational (London, 1900), by User: Phony Benoni.

 page 1 of 4; games 1-25 of 78  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. E O Jones vs W Ward  0-1441900LondonB73 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical
2. T F Lawrence vs L van Vliet  ½-½431900LondonB45 Sicilian, Taimanov
3. F Lee vs A Tietjen  ½-½451900LondonC13 French
4. R Loman vs Blackburne 0-1401900LondonB45 Sicilian, Taimanov
5. S Passmore vs J Mason  1-0251900LondonC61 Ruy Lopez, Bird's Defense
6. Teichmann vs Gunsberg 1-0161900LondonC65 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defense
7. Blackburne vs E O Jones 1-0311900LondonC00 French Defense
8. W Ward vs Teichmann 0-1351900LondonD43 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
9. Gunsberg vs S Passmore  1-0421900LondonC01 French, Exchange
10. J Mason vs T F Lawrence  1-0811900LondonC77 Ruy Lopez
11. T Physick vs F Lee  0-1521900LondonB45 Sicilian, Taimanov
12. A Tietjen vs R Loman  1-0331900LondonD00 Queen's Pawn Game
13. E O Jones vs A Tietjen  1-0441900LondonC11 French
14. R Loman vs T Physick 1-0241900LondonC30 King's Gambit Declined
15. S Passmore vs W Ward  0-1391900LondonB30 Sicilian
16. Teichmann vs Blackburne 0-1831900LondonB45 Sicilian, Taimanov
17. T F Lawrence vs Gunsberg  0-1391900LondonC60 Ruy Lopez
18. L van Vliet vs J Mason 1-0661900LondonC42 Petrov Defense
19. F Lee vs R Loman  0-1511900LondonD00 Queen's Pawn Game
20. T Physick vs E O Jones  0-1641900LondonB32 Sicilian
21. W Ward vs T F Lawrence  1-0361900LondonD50 Queen's Gambit Declined
22. A Tietjen vs Teichmann  0-1371900LondonC78 Ruy Lopez
23. Gunsberg vs L van Vliet 1-0311900LondonD00 Queen's Pawn Game
24. Blackburne vs S Passmore 1-0251900LondonA13 English
25. J Mason vs Gunsberg  1-0581900LondonC67 Ruy Lopez
 page 1 of 4; games 1-25 of 78  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)  

Kibitzer's Corner
Mar-05-23  Baxer: There is a chess book for sale that I assume to be of this specific event. However, there is little information on it and was wondering if anyone could provide insight into this matter.

https://www.houseofstaunton.com/che...

The book appears to be quite rare, limited to only 700. And made by the prestigious Caissa Editions, however, it is an old book made in 1972 and even predates the now customary red Caissa edition covers.

The main concern for me is that it says the book is only 46 Pages long. This makes me highly doubt its readable value - I assume it only contains the game scores of this event which again would make the entire book redundant considering the great website I presently am commenting on.

Mar-05-23  vonKrolock: <Preface: "For this second volume of the 'Caissa Limited Editions' we have chosen <a facsimile edition of the tournament book for the City of London Chess Club Tournament in 1900>. Though this tournament is not of the very first rank, the tournament book itself is scarce and the games little known; yet with an entry of Teichmann, Gunsberg, Mason, and England's greatest player, Blackburne, it was certainly not an insignificant event.> From a 'Russian Chess House' online http://chessm.com/catalog/show/7588
Mar-12-23  Baxer: Seems like the book is pretty much only for absolute collectors. Thank's for the additional info.
Mar-12-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  MissScarlett: I changed the closing date of this event from May 5th to the 3rd, the date of the final round, only to discover that the adjourned twelth round game E O Jones vs J Mason, 1900 took two extra sessions to finish.

The main reason the tournament took so long is there was a week's break around the Easter holidays, from Thursday, April 12th to Wednesday, April 18th, inclusive.

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