The 19th

DSB Congress The '' Deutscher Schachbund'' (DSB) was founded in Leipzig on 18 July, 1877. When the next meeting took place in the Schützenhaus on 15 July 1879, sixty-two clubs had become member of the chess federation. Hofrat Rudolf von Gottschall became Ch ...

(''19. Kongreß des Deutschen Schachbundes''), comprising several tournaments, began on 20 July 1914 in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

. Germany declared

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

on Russia (on August 1) and on France (August 3), Britain joining in the next day. The congress was stopped on 1 August 1914. The tournament took place in the "Ballhaus", a building situated in the

Mannheim Palace Mannheim Palace () is a large Baroque architecture, Baroque palace in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was originally the main residence of the Prince-electors of the Electorate of the Palatinate of the House of Wittelsbach until 177 ...

garden area. The following participants played in the Masters tournament (''Meisterturnier''): *from the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Gyula Breyer (Hungary), Oldřich Duras (Bohemia),

Richard Réti Richard Réti (28 May 1889 – 6 June 1929) was an Austro-Hungarian and later Czechoslovak chess player, chess author and composer of endgame studies. He was one of the principal proponents of hypermodernism in chess. With the exception of N ...

(Slovakia),

Rudolf Spielmann Rudolf Spielmann (5 May 1883 – 20 August 1942) was a Jewish-Austrian chess master of the romantic school, and chess writer. Career Spielmann was born in 1883, second child of Moritz and Cecilia Spielmann, and had a younger brother Edgar, an ...

(Austria),

Savielly Tartakower Savielly Tartakower (also known as ''Xavier'' or ''Ksawery'' ''Tartakower'', less often ''Tartacover'' or ''Tartakover''; 21 February 1887 – 4 February 1956) was a Polish chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (chess), Internatio ...

(Poland), and

Milan Vidmar Milan Vidmar (; 22 June 1885 – 9 October 1962) was a Slovenian electrical engineer, chess player, chess theorist, and writer. He was among the top dozen chess players in the world from 1910 to 1930 and in 1950, was among the inaugural recip ...

(Slovenia) *from the Russian Empire: Alexander Aljechin (Russia), Efim Bogoljubov (Ukraine), and Alexander Flamberg (Poland) *from France:

Dawid Janowski Dawid Markelowicz Janowski (25 May 1868 – 15 January 1927; often spelled ''David'') was a Polish chess player. Several opening variations are named after Janowski. Biography Born into a Jewish-Polish family in Wołkowysk, Russian Empire ...

(France) *from the German Empire:

Siegbert Tarrasch Siegbert Tarrasch (; 5 March 1862 – 17 February 1934) was a German chess player, considered to have been among the strongest players and most influential theoreticians of the late 19th and early 20th century. Life Tarrasch was born in Bresla ...

(Nürnberg), Walter John (Breslau), Paul Krüger (Hamburg), Carl Carls (Bremen), Ehrhardt Post (Berlin), and

Jacques Mieses Jacques Mieses (born Jacob Mieses; 27 February 1865 – 23 February 1954) was a German chess player. Mieses, who was Jewish, fled the Nazi regime in 1938 and later became a British citizen. Hooper, David and Kenneth Whyld 1996. ''The Oxford comp ...

(Leipzig) *from Switzerland: Hans Fahrni (Switzerland) *from the United States: Frank James Marshall (USA).

Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine. He disliked when Russians sometimes pronounced the of as , , which he regarded as a Yiddish distortion of his name, and insisted that the correct Russian pronunciation was . (March 24, 1946) was a Russian ...

was leading the ''Meisterturnier'', with nine wins, one draw and one loss, when World War I broke out. German organizers of the tournament decided that the players should be "indemnified" according to their score, but not paid the total prize money. Thus Alekhine got 1100 marks, Vidmar 850, Spielmann 600, Breyer, Marshall and Reti 375 each, Janowski 250, Bogoljubov and Tarrasch 180 marks, and all the others 100 marks. Calculated in terms of purchasing power in 2005, the sums would be multiplied ten times in euros. So Alekhine's "consolation prize" was 11,000 Euros.

Meisterturnier

Hauptturnier A

The following participants played in the Main tournament (''Hauptturnier A''): *from the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Lajos Asztalos (Hungary) and Karel Opočenský (Bohemia) *from the Russian Empire: Fedor Bogatyrchuk (Ukraine), Boris Maljutin, Ilya Rabinovich, and Alexey Selezniev, all from Russia *from the German Empire: Carl Ahues, Wilhelm Hilse, Oscar Tenner, Wilhelm Schönmann, and B. Studt (Germany) *from Switzerland: Hans Duhm (Germany), Walter Henneberger (Switzerland) *from Netherlands: Willem Schelfhout (Netherlands) *from Australia: Gunnar Gundersen (Norway) *from Romania: Sigmund Herland (Romania) *from the Ottoman Empire: B. Hallegua (Turkey).

Hauptturnier B

The ''Hauptturnier B'' started with five preliminary groups of 10 players each. The two winner groups comprised 9 players each and completed their nine rounds respectively. The first winner group was won by Julius Brach (Brno, Moravia), 6 (out of 8) points, ahead of

Peter Yurdansky Peter Konstantinovich Yurdansky (Yurdanski, Yordansky, Jordansky) (1891–1937) was a Russian and later Soviet chess player. He won Moscow City Chess Championship in 1913 and tied for 8-9th at Moscow 1913, shared 2nd at Mannheim 1914 tournament ...

and

Peter Romanovsky Pyotr Arsenyevich Romanovsky (; 29 July 1892 – 1 March 1964) was a Russian and Soviet chess player and author. He won the Soviet Championship in 1923 and, jointly, 1927. Biography At the beginning of his career in Saint Petersburg, he shared f ...

(both from Russia) and František Schubert (Mlada Boleslav, Bohemia), 5 points each. The following players were G.J. van Gelder (4½) (Netherlands), and C. Thönes (3½) (Germany),

Salomon Szapiro Salomon Szapiro (Schapiro) known as ''Dr. Szeffer'' (1882–1944) was a Polish chess master. Born in Łódź, he moved to Germany where he studied medicine and received his M.D. degree. He tied for 3rd-5th at Hanover 1902 ( DSB Congress, ''Haupttu ...

(Lodz, Poland), H. Thelen (3 each) and P. Müller (1) (both from Germany). The second winner group was won by Nikoly Rudnev (Kharkov, Ukraine), 7 (out of 8) points, followed by Józef Dominik (Cracow, Poland, 6), Max Lange (Berlin, Germany), 5) − not related to

Max Lange Max Lange (August 7, 1832, Magdeburg – December 8, 1899, Leipzig) was a German chess player and problem composer. Chess career Lange was an editor of the ''Deutsche Schachzeitung'' (German Chess Newsletter) from 1858 to 1864. He was a founder ...

−, Asch (4½) (Austria), M. Gargulak (Husovice near Brno, Moravia), and

Heinrich Wagner Heinrich Wagner (9 August 1888, Hamburg – 24 June 1959, Hamburg) was a German chess master. In 1920/21, he won in Kiel. In 1921, he took 8th in Hamburg (the 21st DSB Congress, Erhardt Post won), and won in Hamburg (''Quadrangular''). ...

(both 4), A.N. Hallgarten (3), K. Pahl (2) (all from Germany), and Anton Olson (½) (Sweden).

Plans for an International Chess Federation

During the tournament, a group of Russian and German masters, including

Peter Petrovich Saburov Peter Petrovich Saburov (Sabouroff) (, Saint Petersburg, Russia – 26 March 1932, Geneva, Switzerland) was a Russian diplomat, chess master and organizer, and musical composer. He was a son of Peter Alexandrovich Saburov, a diplomat and chess ...

and World Champion

Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher. He was the second World Chess Champion, holding the title for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially ...

, who did not enter the tournament itself, followed an initiative from the Saint Petersburg 1914 tournament and made concrete plans for an International Chess Federation (see also

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

Outbreak of war and internees

The next DSB congresses, it was decided, were scheduled for

Bad Oeynhausen Bad Oeynhausen () is a spa town on the southern edge of the Wiehengebirge in the district of Minden-Lübbecke in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe, East-Westphalia-Lippe region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The closest larger towns are Bielefeld (39 ki ...

(1916) and

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

(1918). But history took a different turn. The political situation became more and more tense while the tournament went on.

, in his autobiography ''Goldene Schachzeiten'', gives a fine report about the melancholic mood of the masters participating in the unfinished Mannheim "chess symphony". Soldiers of the German army began to dominate the city panorama. When Germany put first an ultimatum (July 31) and then declared war the following day against Russia, the tournament had to be interrupted. After the declaration of war, eleven "Russian" players (

Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine. He disliked when Russians sometimes pronounced the of as , , which he regarded as a Yiddish distortion of his name, and insisted that the correct Russian pronunciation was . (March 24, 1946) was a Russian ...

, Bogoljubov, Bogatyrchuk, Flamberg, Koppelman, Maljutin, Rabinovich, Romanovsky, Saburov, Selezniev, Weinstein) were interned in

Rastatt Rastatt () is a town with a Baroque core, District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 51,000 (2022). Rastatt was an ...

, Germany. On September 14, 17, and 29, 1914, four of them (Alekhine, Bogatyrchuk, Saburov, and Koppelman) were freed and allowed to return home via Switzerland. A fifth player, Romanovsky was freed and went back to Petrograd in 1915, and a sixth one, Flamberg was allowed to return to Warsaw in 1916. Whilst imprisoned, some participated in the Triberg chess tournament. Ukrainian master Efim Bogoljubov stayed in Triberg im Schwarzwald, married a local woman and spent the rest of his life in Germany, where he settled permanently since 1926. Frenchman

, born in the Russian Empire, as well as Alekhine, was interned but released to Switzerland after a short internment. Then he moved to the United States. The American Frank James Marshall, being from a neutral country, was allowed to leave. It took him five days to travel to London, and he left almost at once for

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In his ''My Fifty Years of Chess'' Marshall wrote: "I made for the Dutch border and arrived in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

after many adventures. Usually a seven-hour trip, it took me 39 hours. Somewhere on the border I lost my baggage, containing all my belongings and the presents I received in St. Petersburg and elsewhere...Five years later, much to my astonishment, my trunks arrived in New York, with their contents intact!"

References

Literature

* Werner Lauterbach (1964), ''Mannheim 1914'', Düsseldorf: Walter Rau Verlag (tournament book) * A. J. Gillam (2014), ''Mannheim 1914 and the Interned Russians'', Nottingham: The Chess Player,