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I recently came across some games of Prince Andrei Dadian of Mingrelia that I hadn't seen in any database. I had published some of them elsewhere, but wanted to put them all into this series.
Chess has been called the Game of Kings. It seems to be also the Game of Princes. Part II contains games between Prince Dadian on Mingrelia and three other princes.
The maiden issue of the British Chess Magazine, January 1881 informs us:
Russia.—A tourney for players of the first rank took place recently at St. Petersburg, with three prizes of 400, 200, and 100 francs presented by the Chess Circle of that city. There were six entries, Messrs. Alapine, Bezkrowny, Clemenz, Ourjoumsky, Schiffers, and Tchigorine, and the result was that Messrs. Alapine and Tchigorine tied for the first prize, and had to play a little match of two games up to decide the claim to highest honours. The victory, as we learn from La Strategie for March 15th, ultimately rested with M. Tchigorine. The third prize was gained by M. Clemenz. M. Bezkrowny was unfortunately obliged by ill health to withdraw from the tourney. M. Tchigorine, the editor of the Russian magazine Schakmatni Listok, has been trying his hand for the first time in blindfold play with much success, for he contended simultaneously with five strong opponents, and defeated three of them, but had to strike his flag to the other two. In another tourney which also came off lately
at St. Petersburg the combatants were Prince Dadian of Mingrelia, who gained the first prize, Prince Tristoff, Prince Matchabelli, and Messrs. Jemchoujnikoff (second prize), Kostrovitsky, Liselle, and Pouchkine. Shortly afterwards Prince Dadian engaged in two matches of five games up each; the first with Prince Matchabelli, who did not succeed in making any score, and the other with M. Liselle, the result of which was Prince Dadian 5, M. Liselle 1.
A game with Liselle can be viewed at chessgames.com. Chessgames.com lists it as 1882, but clearly it took place in 1880. We all have heard of Prince Matchabelli perfume (in fact the originator of the perfume line, Giorgi Machabeli, was himself a Georgian prince born in 1885), but I couldn't find much about the Prince Matchabelli above. However Dadian beat him in the tourney and then slaughtered him in a match. Below is a game between the two princes -
The Nuova Rivista degli Scacchi, Aug. 1880 gave a game between Prince Andrei Dadian and Prince Gregorio Dadian. (There were a half dozen or more Prince Grigori Dadians around that time and no real way to determine which one this might have been.)
In the following game, published in the Nuova Rivista degli Scacchi in 1881, Prince Dadian played the Prince de Villafranca who had been a fixture in chess circles for at least 20 years. Prince Dadian had beaten Prince de Villafranca in a match +7-2=1
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