thechesslibrary.com Blog

In addition to a new Minev article in the on-going “Mini-Lessons” series, I just posted a new My Chess Viewer file of Prize Winning Games: 1876 - 1927. This is a file I received from Dr. Minev. He indicated that this originally appeared in Shakhmatny Bjulleten in a series of at least 2 - and possibly 3 - articles over the course of several months. The games themselves were compiled by the original author from tournament books from the period, and represent games that received some prize at the indicated tournaments. To this original list from S.B., Nikolay also added a few more that he found from the same time period.

These are the cream of the crop! I think you will enjoy playing through them.

I have posted them in their current state, but the background raises some additional questions. If any readers are able to help answer the mysteries, I would appreciate the help. The questions:
1. What issues of the magazine were they published in? I found one, probably the first. It was 1/1968, pages 14-19. But this accounts for only about 30 of the more than 90 games. What issue contained the others? I have searched page by page for several years after (and before) and have yet to find the answer.
2. What games did Nikolay add? He indicated it was probably 5-6 games. If I can find the articles (question 1), then this question can also be answered.
3. Most interesting - what prizes were the games awarded? Nikolay indicated that the prize varied - some were the best game of the tournament, some may have been something else, such as best ending, best combination, etc. If anyone has access to the original tournament books, there is a chance that the prize is listed. I would like to identify all if possible, but will need help.

Am in the process (today) of posting 34 new or revised crosstables today. Several of the files are adapted from information provided by either Kerry Lawless or C. Sericano. THANKS for your assistance!

The files posted (and sources) are as follows:
From Kerry Lawless:
1932Pasadena.htm
1945Hollywood.htm
1963LosAngeles.htm
1966SantaMonica.htm
1974EagleRock.htm
1991SanFrancisco.htm

From C Sericano:
1880Boston.htm
1880Braunchsweig.htm
1880Graz.htm
1880NewYork.htm
1881Berlin.htm
1881Leamington.htm
1881Milan.htm
1882Vienna.htm
1883Nuremberg.htm
1883Venice.htm
1884Gouda.htm
1885Dublin.htm
1885Hamburg.htm
1885Hereford.htm
1886Belfast.htm
1886London.htm
1886Nottingham.htm
1886Rome.htm
1886Utrecht.htm
1887Frankfurt.htm
1887London.htm
1920Utrecht.htm
1920Viareggio.htm
1920Vienna.htm
1921Brussels.htm
1921Budapest.htm
1921Hamburg.htm

From no outside source:
1977Belgrade.htm

There is a new Minev column that was posted recently.

I’ve gotten a couple of interesting new contributions recently. First, some crosstables contributed from original sources by Kerry Lawless. He runs the California chess history website Chess Dryad. He sent along crosstables for some California events that I will be adding in August.

Finally, in addition to his regular column contribution, IM Minev has given me a set of games that I expect to be posting in August. The collection was based on a couple of articles in Shakmatni Bulletin in the 1960’s. The games are “prize winning” games from tournaments from 1876 - 1927. The prizes could be Best Game, Tournament Brilliancy, Best Endgame, Best Combination, etc. I think you will find this collection of games very interesting!