Vienna 1873 Chess Tournament - The Chess Tournament

The Chess Tournament

During the epidemic, the tournament took place in the rooms of the Wiener Schachgesellschaft from June 21 to August 29. The time limit was twenty moves per hour. It was a twelve player tournament. Each participant played every other for a match for two points with a maximum of three games. There were eleven rounds of match competitions. Every short match had to be ended within two days. If the overall score gave no winner (1:1,=1 or 0:0,=3), the result was drawn with a half point given to each player. Wilhelm Steinitz won the tournament after a play-off with Joseph Henry Blackburne (2–0). Almost everyone now conceded that Steinitz was the strongest chess player in the world.

Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, Baron Albert Salomon von Rothschild and Baron Ignaz von Kolisch contributed large sums to the prize fund. The prizes winners were: Steinitz 10 points & winner of playoff (1000 guldens (F) & 200 golden ducats), Blackburne 10 points (600 F), Anderssen 8½ points (300 F), Rosenthal 7½ points (200 F). Scores of the other players were: Paulsen and Bird 6½, Fleissig and Meitner 3½, Heral, Schwarz and Gelbfuhs 3, Pitschel 1.

The results and standings:

#	Player	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Total	Final Total
1	Joseph Henry Blackburne (United Kingdom) / England	x	1 1 ½	1 0 1	0 0 ½	1 1 0	1 1	1 1	1 1 0	1 1	1 1 0	1 ½ 1	0 1 1	21.5	10.0
2	Wilhelm Steinitz (United Kingdom) / Bohemia	0 0 ½	x	1 1	1 1	1 1	1 1	1 1	½ ½ 1	½ ½ 1	1 1	1 1	1 1	20.5	10.0
3	Adolf Anderssen (German Empire) / Prussian Silesia	0 1 0	0 0	x	1 0 1	1 1	1 0 1	1 0 1	0 ½ 1	½ 1 ½	1 1 0	1 1	1 ½ 1	19.0	8.5
4	Samuel Rosenthal (France) / Poland	1 1 ½	0 0	0 1 0	x	0 ½ 1	0 0	1 1 0	1 1	1 1	1 1	0 1 1	1 1	17.0	7.5
5	Louis Paulsen (German Empire) / Lippe	0 0 1	0 0	0 0	1 ½ 0	x	1 1	0 ½ 1	1 1	1 ½ 1	1 ½ 0	1 1	1 1	16.0	6.5
6	Henry Edward Bird (United Kingdom) / England	0 0	0 0	0 1 0	1 1	0 0	x	1 0 ½	1 1	1 1	1 1	1 1	1 1	14.5	6.5
7	Josef Heral (Austria-Hungary) / Austria	0 0	0 0	0 1 0	0 0 1	1 ½ 0	0 1 ½	x	½ 1 0	0 1 ½	1 0 ½	½ 1 0	0 0 1	12.0	3.0
8	Max Fleissig (Austria-Hungary) / Hungary	0 0 1	½ ½ 0	1 ½ 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	½ 0 1	x	1 0 1	0 1 ½	0 1 0	1 1	11.5	3.5
9	Philipp Meitner (Austria-Hungary) / Austria	0 0	½ ½ 0	½ 0 ½	0 0	0 ½ 0	0 0	1 0 ½	0 1 0	x	½ 1 1	1 ½ ½	1 1	11.5	3.5
10	Adolf Schwarz (Austria-Hungary) / Hungary	0 0 1	0 0	0 0 1	0 0	0 ½ 1	0 0	0 1 ½	1 0 ½	½ 0 0	x	½ ½ ½	1 ½ ½	10.5	3.0
11	Oscar Gelbfuhs (Austria-Hungary) / Austrian Silesia	0 ½ 0	0 0	0 0	1 0 0	0 0	0 0	½ 0 1	1 0 1	0 ½ ½	½ ½ ½	x	½ 1 1	10.0	3.0
12	Karl Pitschel (Austria-Hungary) / Austria	1 0 0	0 0	0 ½ 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	1 1 0	0 0	0 0	0 ½ ½	½ 0 0	x	5.0	1.0