Chess Events in Brief
- St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament - the tournament celebrated the 10th anniversary of the St. Petersburg Chess Society. President of the organizing committee was Peter Petrovich Saburov. Russian organizers intended to invite the present top twenty chess players, with world champion Emanuel Lasker and challenger José Raúl Capablanca, but strong Austro-Hungarian masters could not accept due to tensions of Russia with Austria-Hungary in the year 1914. Finally, eleven top players from Germany, France, United Kingdom, United States, Cuba, and Russian Empire were accepted. The winner was Lasker who played magnificently in the doubled rounded finals. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, who had partially funded the tournament, awarded the Grandmaster title to the five finalists.
- Mannheim 1914 chess tournament - the 19th DSB Congress, comprising several tournaments, began on 20 July 1914 in Mannheim, Germany. On 1 August Germany declared war on Russia, and on France (August 3), Britain joining in the next day. The congress was stopped on 1 August 1914. Alexander Alekhine 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. After the declaration of war, eleven "Russian" players (Alekhine, Bogoljubov, Bogatyrchuk, Flamberg, Koppelman, Maljutin, Rabinovich, Romanovsky, Saburov, Selezniev, Weinstein) were interned in Rastatt, 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.
Read more about this topic: 1914 In Chess
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