Prince Dadian Games, Pt. III

batgirl

Updated: May 21, 2013, 7:15 PM | 2

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.

The BCM reported in 1899
M. Schirmer writes to the Stratigie, that " Kieff has organised a tourney between the students of the town, and that they propose to set on foot one still more important. Prince Dadian, of Mingrelia, whose brilliant play is much admired, has been recognised as the strongest player there. His last victory was against M. Saloucha, professor of music in the cadets' corps, although the latter won four games following with M. Levin (Alexander Mitrofanovich Levin), who is esteemted stronger. Mons. Levin won a match against M. Tchigorin in consultation, and his friends think that he may aspire to the championship."

The Deutsche Schachzeitung gave essentially the same report from Schirmer but with the added information:
Das Café Warschau ist der hervorragendste Zusammenkunftsort der Schachspieler in Kiew. Dort erscheint zuweilen auch Prinz Dadian von Mingrelien. Seitdem er Schabelsky und Nicolaew besiegte, gilt er als der stärkste Spieler. Loosely translated means that Prince Dadian sometimes makes appearances at the Warsaw Cafe, the most outstanding meeting place for chess players in Kiev.

Schirmer had the opportunity to test himself against Prince Dadian two years earlier. This game and the next one both came fron the April 1899 issue of the Nuova Rivista degli Scacchi :

Here is a game between Prince Dadian and Michael Sicard. I had previously published another game between the two from the same time with annotations by Tschigorin.

In 1879-80 Prince Dadian had played a match with the Italian champion, Serafino Dubois, which resulted in an even score. Here's one of the games from that match.

Chessgames.com lists one short game between Prince Dadian and F. I. Duz-Chotimirsky. Duz-Chotimirsky, the Kiev champion in 1900, 1902, 1903 and 1906, is sometimes credited with teaching Alekhine chess. Although he and Prince Dadian had some association, any friendliness ended after Prince Dadian lost a match to Duz-Chotimirsky, but only offered for publication a game he, Dadian, had won, but none that Duz-Chotimirsky had won. (There's both a photo from the 2nd All-Russian contest, including Duz-Chotimirsky and Tschigorin, and excerpts for Duz-Chotimirsky's essay, Memories of Tschigorin.)

Also, from his memoirs:
"Dadian as a general could not participate in official games, therefore he invited strong players to his home and played with them there. Personally I, a 23-year old fellow, was often there, and stayed to have dinner. Once we played a match of 12 games from which Dadian won only 3, losing the rest. In one game, it is true, he won beautifully. Dadian had the habit of sending a good game with his own notes to Paris, to the journal "La Strategie", where he had many friends. This game he won was, of course, immediately sent there. The magazine soon published it. I was outraged. The Mingrelian Prince himself was also dissatisfied. " I did not send it in this form ", - he said. Friends did not give me any rest, insisting that I also have published the most beautiful game won by me from the Prince in the newspaper. And so that game appeared in the press …"
I posted another win by Prince Dadian over Duz-Chotimirsky, annotated by Tschigorin, HERE -

Below is a game between Dadian and Duz-Chotimirsky, played in 1902, won by Duz-Chotimirsky originally published in the Kievskaya Gazeta.(found by WilhelmThe2nd ).

Prince Dadian played and won a 5-game match with Albert Clerc, a middle-weight master, in Paris, 1882.

Pt. I
Pt. II
Pt. III
Pt. IV
Pt. V
Pt. VI
Pt. VII

Prince Dadian Games, Pt. III

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