Hastings 1895
The first Hastings tournament in 1895 was the strongest tournament up to that time. Every top player was invited and they all turned up: World Champion Lasker, ex-champion Steinitz, Steinitz’ challengers Chigorin and Gunsberg, Lasker’s future challengers Schlechter and Janowsky, the old British Champions Bird, Blackburne and Burn, and the new US Champion, Pillsbury, whom no-one knew much about, but he has been taking lessons from Steinitz…
In the end, Pillsbury won in a thrilling finish. Here are four Pillsbury games, two where he showed the power of his approach to the Queen’s Gambit, and then his thriller against Tarrasch where he was clearly worse at times but kept going on the King’s-side then eventually got through.
Before the last round, Pillsbury was half-a-point ahead, and didn’t push so hard against Gunsberg… but then it looked like Chigorin was winning and could catch up, so Pillsbury had to win what seemed to be a pretty even endgame, and did so with an amazing breakthrough…
Pillsbury badgers the backward c-pawn:
An awesome attack with a formation Pillsbury made his own:
The thriller against Tarrasch: Black’s Queen’s-side attack seems triumphant, but Pillsbury sneaks through with limited space on the other side
And the last round breakthrough:
The most famous game from this tournament was actually played by Steinitz. At this point in the tournament, von Bardeleben was leading the tournament, while Steinitz was struggling to show his form, and was upset by a loss to Lasker, and found it hard to sleep.
Rhoda Bowles, chess editor of Womanhood, met Steinitz after this game, and reported in her column.
‘Oh, Madam Bowles, what shall I do?’ he said. ‘I have just lost my game to Lasker and that is my fourth successive loss, I shall never win again…I am utterly broken down.’
The next day she pinned a flower to his coat saying she had come to turn his luck and expected a win.
‘The change in his look was startling; from a haggard expression he developed an eager look of desire for his opponent’…
After White’s last move, von Bardeleben simply left the tournament hall, letting his time run out. Steinitz demonstrated for the spectators how the game might have continued, who, having waited to see the flag fall, burst into applause.