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Wilhelm Steinitz and Szymon Winawer shared first and second place at
the
Second International Chess Tournament in Vienna,
Austria from May 10th to June 24th, 1882.
The tournament was held to celebrate the 25th
anniversary of the Vienna Chess Society. Vienna
was previously the site of one of the very first
international tournaments in 1873, which was also won by
Steinitz in a two-game playoff over Joseph Henry
Blackburne.
Coming into
the tournament, Steinitz was the favorite despite his
long absence from tournament chess (nearly 10
years). Steinitz was also bringing a 25-game
winning streak into the tournament, but was bound to have that streak broken
as a result of being rusty from his long layoff. The
streak was indeed broken early on in the tournament in round three, as he drew a game with
George Henry Mackenzie. Ironically enough,
this was Steinitz's first draw since the 1873 Vienna
tournament. He would then lose three consecutive
games to Johann
Zukertort, Vincenz Hruby, and Preston
Ware.
The game
format for the event was a grueling double round-robin,
consisting of 34 games. The time control was 15
moves an hour, with 2 hour breaks after 4 hours of play.
All games started at 10:00am and were adjourned at
Midnight if necessary. The rigorous format took
it's toll on several players, as Henry Bird would
become very ill between rounds 29 and 33; and Bernhard
Fleissig would actually withdraw from the event
after the 20th round.
Steinitz would regain his form and storm back
to the top of the tournament leader board, moving into
third place at the halfway point, just a point behind
the leader MacKenzie. His strong play continued in
the second half of the tournament and he would end up tying for
first place with Winawer, subsequently splitting a
2-game playoff with the Polish player.
The
American contingent of MacKenzie and James Mason
made a very strong showing for the United States.
MacKenzie would lead for much of the tournament and
eventually tie for fourth place with Zukertort. Mason,
in one of the best performances of his career, would
finish by himself in third place in a tournament
considered by many to be the strongest of the 19th
century.
Vienna marked the greatest success in Winawer's career,
but
he withdrew from competitive chess
only a year later.
Steinitz, on the other hand, had strengthened his
reputation as the best player in the world, with the
realization that his competitors were not far behind
him.
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