Hastings 1895 chess tournament

The Hastings 1895 chess tournament was a round-robin tournament of chess conducted in Hastings, England from August 5 to September 2, 1895.

Hastings 1895 was arguably the strongest tournament in history at the time it occurred. All of the top players of the generation competed. It was one of the first times such a "super-tournament" was conducted.

Harry Nelson Pillsbury won the tournament against a strong competitive group. Pillsbury, a young American unknown in Europe, was the surprise winner with 16½ out of 21 points – ahead of Mikhail Chigorin (16) and world champion Emanuel Lasker (15½). Following the success of the event, the Hastings tournament would become an annual feature.

The organizers and players produced a Book of the Tournament, in which the participants annotated their own games. Like the Tournament, the Book too became an annual feature and was of very high instructional value.

Many of the games were of high quality and hard fought. Here are two examples:

In round ten, the position on the right arose after a Giuoco Piano: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 d5 8.exd5 Nxd5 9.0-0 Be6 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Bxd5! Bxd5 12.Nxd5 Qxd5 13.Bxe7 Nxe7 14.Re1 f6 15.Qe2 Qd7 16.Rac1 c6?! 17.d5! cxd5 18.Nd4 Kf7 19.Ne6 Rhc8 20.Qg4 g6 21.Ng5+ Ke8.

At this point Steinitz played one of the most famous moves in history: 22.Rxe7+!!. Black cannot capture the white rook (22...Qxe7 23.Rxc8+ Rxc8 24.Qxc8+ Qd8 25.Qxd8+, etc. and White wins with his extra piece, while 22...Kxe7 23.Re1+ Kd6 24.Qb4+ Rc5 25.Re6+! wins as well (the often mentioned 25.Ne6 doesn't amount to much for example 25....Rc8 26.Qf4+ Kc6 27.Qa4+ Kd6), however, White's replies are also limited because Black is threatening mate with Rxc1, as well as threatening to capture White's queen and knight. As a result, Steinitz's rook now "thumbs its nose" at the black king, so to speak: repeatedly checking right in front of the king, which cannot capture it, in order to prevent Rxc1.

The game continued 22...Kf8 23.Rf7+ Kg8 24.Rg7+ Kh8 25.Rxh7+!!

This crucial move eliminates the h-pawn and allows White to bring in his queen to attack without ever allowing Black to play Rxc1 and mate. Bowing to the inevitable (or perhaps frustrated that even with mate in one, he could not capitalize), von Bardeleben simply left the tournament hall, letting his time run out. Steinitz demonstrated for the spectators how the game might have continued:

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