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 structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...

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 ...

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&nbs ...

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 c ...

won the tournament after a play-off with Joseph Henry Blackburne (2–0). Almost everyone now conceded that Steinitz was the strongest chess player in the world. Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, Baron Albert Salomon von Rothschild and Baron Ignaz von Kolisch 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