The Vienna 1873 chess tournament was a side event of the
world exhibition of 1873 (the fifth since the first
Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...
in London in 1851).
Background
The fair was held in the
Prater
The Prater () is a large public park in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria. The Wurstelprater, an amusement park that is often simply called "Prater", lies in one corner of the Wiener Prater and includes the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris wheel.
Name
The n ...
in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, and opened in the
Rotunde
The Rotunde () in Vienna was a building erected for the Weltausstellung 1873 Wien (the Vienna World Fair of 1873).
The building was a partially covered circular steel construction, 84 m (approx. 275 ft) in height and 108 m (approx. 354  ...
on May 1. Companies of all 35 participating countries presented their state of the art products and inventions. The
world exhibitions aimed to promote international trading relations and to propagate the technical and cultural progress. Through this tournament, Austria-Hungary aimed to present itself as a world leader and the equal of England and France.
The Chess tournament
During the epidemic, the tournament took place in the rooms of the ''Wiener Schachgesellschaft'' from June 21 to August 29. The time limit was twenty moves per hour. It was a twelve player tournament. Each participant played every other for a match for two points with a maximum of three games. There were eleven rounds of match competitions. Every short match had to be ended within two days. If the overall score gave no winner (1:1,=1 or 0:0,=3), the result was drawn with a half point given to each player.
Wilhelm Steinitz
William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was an Austrian and, later, American chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first official World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and che ...
won the tournament after a play-off with
Joseph Henry Blackburne
Joseph Henry Blackburne (10 December 1841 – 1 September 1924) was a British chess player. Nicknamed "The Black Death", he dominated the British scene during the latter part of the 19th century. Blackburne learned the game at the relatively late ...
(2–0). Almost everyone now conceded that Steinitz was the strongest chess player in the world.
Emperor
Franz Josef I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...
, Baron
Albert Salomon von Rothschild
Albert Salomon Anselm Freiherr von Rothschild (29 October 1844 – 11 February 1911) was a banker in Austria-Hungary and a member of the Rothschild banking family of Austria. Businesses that he owned included Creditanstalt and the Norther ...
and Baron
Ignaz von Kolisch
Baron Ignatz von Kolisch (6 April 1837 – 30 April 1889), also Baron Ignaz von Kolisch (German) or báró Kolisch Ignác ( Hungarian), was a merchant, journalist and chess master with Jewish roots.
Kolisch was born into a Jewish family in Pr ...
contributed large sums to the prize fund.
The results and standings:
:
References
{{reflist
External links
Vienna 1873 Chess Games
Literature
Lehner, Hermann; Schwede, Constantin "Der Erste Wiener Internationale Schachkongreß im Jahre 1873", Verlag von Veit & Comp., Leipzig, 1874
Chess competitions
Chess in Austria
1873 in chess
1873 in Austria
1870s in Vienna
June 1873 sports events
July 1873 sports events
August 1873 sports events