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from The Hastings Chess Tournament 1895 By Horace F. Cheshire
INTERNATIONAL CHESS CONGRESS HASTINGS 1895
Royal Patron— H.R.H. THE DUKE OF YORK, K.G.
PATRONS.
PRINCE DEMIDOFF DE SON DONATO (Attaché Russian Embassy).
EARL OF DARTREY, K.P. (President of the St. George's Chess Club).
EARL OF ASHBURNHAM.
VISCOUNT CANTELUPE.
LORD BRASSEY, K.C.B.
HON. T. A. BRASSEY. SIR GEORGE NEWNES, BART. (President of the British Chess Club).
THE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON (President of the Metropolitan Chess Club).
THE MAYOR OF HASTINGS (MAJOR WESTON).
THE DEPUTY-MAYOR OF HASTINGS (B. H. W. TREE, ESQ.).
SIR ISRAEL HART (President of the Leicester Chess Club).
A. MOCATTA, ESQ. (President of the City of London Chess Club).
CANON DEANE (Chairman of the Southern Counties Chess Union).
DR. HUNT (Vice-Chairman of the Southern Counties Chess Union)
JAMES WHITE, ESQ. (President of the Leeds Chess Club).
G. E. BARBIER, ESQ. (President of the Glasgow Chess Club).
W. H. JACKSON, ESQ. (President of the Wilts Chess Club).
REV. F. J. SUGDEN (President of the Battersea Chess Club).
PLAYER ISAAC, ESQ. (President of the Brighton Chess Club).
E. J. BRADFIELD, ESQ. (President of the Warminster Chess Club).
H. S. LEONARD, ESQ. (President of the Guildford Chess Club).
F. FREMLIN, ESQ. (President of the Maidstone Chess Club).
W. NICHOI.LS, ESQ. (President of the Jersey Chess Club).
J. E. HALL, ESQ. (President of the Henfield Chess Club).
CAPTAIN BEAUMONT (Prrsident of the South Norwood Chess Club).
D. POWELL, ESQ. (President of the Liverpool Chess Club).
WM. KIRKI.AND, ESQ. (President of the Cyprus Chess Club).
L. RAYMOND, ESQ. (President of the Southsea Chess Club).
H. HAYWARD, ESQ., J.P. (President of the Dover Chess Club).
R. CHIPPERFIELD, ESQ., J.P. (President of the Southampton Chess Club).
W. LUCAS SHADWELL, ESQ., M.P.
COLONEL BROOKFIELD, M.P. C. J. FLEMING, ESQ., Q.C., M.P.
W. J. EVELYN, ESQ.
JOSEPH COOKE, ESQ.
CHARLES ANTHONY, ESQ.
EDWYN ANTHONY, ESQ.
REV. C. E. RANKEN.
ROBERT STEEL, ESQ.
WILSON NOBLE, ESQ.
REV. W. SAYER-MILWARD.
I. M. BROWN, ESQ.
J. W. ABBOTT, ESQ. LIEUT.
A. E. STUDD.
W. LEUCHARS, ESQ.
G. HEYWOOD, ESQ. (President of the Newcastle Arts).
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.
President: J. WATNEY, ESQ. | Vice- President : H. CHAPMAN, ESQ.
Chairman: T. COLE, ESQ.
Joint Trustees : A. H. HALL, ESQ. ; J. COLBORNE; ESQ.
COMMITTEE. (Including those added for executive purposes.)
A. ALOOF, ESQ.
G. BRADSHAW, ESQ.
H. CHAPMAN, ESQ.
H. CHESHIRE, ESQ.
H. COLBORNE, ESQ.
J. COLBORNE, ESQ.
T. COLE, ESQ.
REV. E. CROSSE
H. E. DOBELL, ESQ.
A. EARL, ESQ. J. ELSDEN, ESQ.
A. HALL, ESQ.
J. HALLAWAY, ESQ
G. HERINGTON, ESQ.
E. JUKES, ESQ.
H. KING, ESQ.
F. KÜHN, ESQ.
C. LOCOCK, ESQ.
E. McCORMICK, ESQ.
H. TRENCHARD, ESQ.
F. TUDDENHAM, ESQ.
J. WATNEY, ESQ.
F. WOMERSLEY, ESQ.
Hon. Treasurer : A. H. HALL, ESQ. | Hon. Secretary: H. E. DOBELL, ESQ.
LIST OF COMPETITORS.
A. ALBIN (America)
H. E. BIRD (England)
A. BURN (England)
D. JANOWSKI (France)
J. MIESES (Germany)
G. MARCO (Austria)
W. H. K. POLLOCK (Canada)
C. SCHLECHTER (Austria)
DR. TARRASCH (Germany)
S. TINSLEY (England)
B. VERGANI (Italy)
C. VON BARDEI.EBEN (Germany)
J. H. BLACKBURNE (England)
I. GUNSBERG (England)
E. LASKER (England)
J. MASON (England)
H. N. PILLSBURY (America)
E. SCHIFFERS (Russia)
W. STEINITZ (America)
M. TCHIGORIN (Russia)
R. TEICHMANN (England)
A. WALBRODT (Germany)
Reserve: N. W. VAN LENNEP (Holland).
THE INNOVATIONS.
Some of our successors will perhaps be asking wherein the Hastings Tournament differed from the preceding ones, especially as regards its method of management, so we will endeavour to indicate the chief points, some of which were new. Starting with a considerable home guarantee before the Congress was announced, we freely invited suggestions from any and all, and as freely gave them full consideration and discussion in a small working committee, which entirely lacked merely ornamental members. No one knew, till the morning of each day, who would meet, though the tables at which each game was to be played were arranged beforehand, avoiding unseemly scrambles and securing the maximum of fairness for the competitors. On the draw being made, ornamental cards bearing the competitors' names were put into their places, and at once acted as labels both for the seats to the players and for the players to the visitors. It was, however, after some debate, thought better to decide the first moves beforehand, and a card bearing all these particulars was displayed in the room, the names being filled in according to the draw at the opening ceremony.
There was no cancelling of scores ; if a competitor retired he was to forfeit the rest of his games as they became due — in other words, no retirements were to be acknowledged. This is and can be the only fair method, for a retiring one will always be either weak or incapacitated in some way, so that he would probably or certainly lose his games. And further, a little consideration will show that in all cases more injustice is done by cancelling a score than letting it stand, especially as between those the defaulter has played.
The Committee paid (as consolation money) for wins rather than draws, which answered the purpose of encouraging players to complete their games and avoid drawn ones, much better than the replaying system sometimes adopted.
Seeing that the object of the time limit is to prevent undue protraction of games, and that so very few are completed within the first hour, when the pressure is generally most felt, the limit was not to be reckoned till a player had consumed two hours, thus just fitting the first four hours' sitting ; the second sitting was three hours only, but no game could be adjourned till sixty moves, including the sealed one, had been made on each side, which of course might take eight hours, but it avoided trouble with the time limit and left very few adjourned games.
But the item which probably did most to attract so strong an entry was our announcement that we should make no official appointments outside our own Committee ; it will easily be seen that amongst professionals conflicting interests arise, and perhaps sometimes unfortunate jealousies. On the other hand, it was the only one which gave rise to trouble, not so much on account of the obvious disabilities, as in reference to the brilliancy prizes. When these were given, the donors, one of whom was the vice-president, eventually selected the judges, and most naturally chose two who had acted satisfactorily for a preceding International Tournament; but when these were made known two of the competitors dissented, declining to agree to 'anyone outside our own Committee.' We were therefore on the horns of a dilemma ; our announcement had been strained into a construction which, apparently, it would bear, though never intended, and we had accepted the prizes and proclaimed them. It seemed at first inevitable that we must either return the prizes or let them be given as a purely private affair, robbing them of most of their glory. After some
correspondence, however, the two judges relieved us in our perplexity by retiring, and the donors consented to the altered arrangements.
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