17 May 2015

Third All-Russian Masters' Tournament

Once in a while on Top eBay Chess Items by Price, I find an item that reminds me how little I know about chess history. The photo shown below, from an auction titled, 'III Russian Chess Tournament - Collection of games of the tournament. 1904', sold for US $950 after receiving two bids. The event was the Russian championship of its time.

Akiba Rubinstein is sitting in the leftmost chair facing Salwe. The other seated players are identified as Chigorin, Yurevich, O.Bernstein, and Duz-Khotimirsky. The description for the auction added,

Tournament book with a report on the tournament, a group photo, individual photos, and pictures of Kiev. M.I. Chigorin edited commentary on the games. M.I. Chigorin Publishing house: Shakhmatnoe Obozrenie (Chess Review). The book is in the original hardcover and it contains:
- All of the games (Kiev, 1903, Chigorin took home 1st place) with round descriptions.
- An introductory article containing the tournament program and regulations.

The last time, Mikhail Chigorin (1850-1908), the father of the Russian chess school and one of the best chess players of his time, triumphed at a large-scale tournament.

For more about the event, see Kiev 1903 chess tournament [Wikipedia], which informs,

The 3rd All-Russian Masters' Tournament took place in the rooms of the Kiev Chess Society in the Popov Building at No. 29 Kreshchatyk in Kiev on September 1–26, 1903.

The last time Chigorin was featured on this blog was in 1890 Chigorin - Gunsberg (February 2012).

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