New York Tribune 11/19/1893
The 1893 match between Mikhail Chigorin of Russia and Siegbert Tarrasch of Germany, was held in St. Petersburg (Russia) from October 8 to November 14, and was one of the most closely contested matches of the late nineteenth century. The format was the first player to secure 10 wins (draws not counting) would be awarded the match stakes of 5,000 marks per side. The time control was standard for the era at 15 moves per hour.
There was no history to date between the two masters, as they had yet to meet across the board. Tarrasch (31) was 11 years the junior of Chigorin (42) and had recently gained notoriety by winning the strong international tournaments at Manchester (1890) and Dresden (1892).
However, the young German had no significant match experience, while his opponent was a battle-tested veteran in this arena. Chigorin had won two of his three matches against Emanuel Schiffers between 1878-79, lost to Isidor Gunsberg in 1887 (+2-5=6) but later played him to a draw (+9-9=5) in 1890, and he famously lost two close contests for the world championship to Wilhelm Steinitz in 1889 (+6-10=1) and 1892 (+8-10=5).
Tarrasch dominated the contest in the early stages and was comfortably ahead after 17 games by a margin of eight wins to five (with four draws along the way). However, the Russian resiliently turned the tables on his young opponent, winning the next three games consecutively to even the contest at eight games apiece. The articles stipulated the match would be declared drawn in the event of the score reaching nine games each.
The favored German quickly recovered with a dominating 31-move victory for his ninth match win. This set the stage nicely for a dramatic game 22 in which Chigorin had the white pieces in desperate need of a win. Tarrasch defended with a French Defense for the seventh time in the match, a strategy with which he had mixed results (+2-3=1) to date.
The game was fiercely contested with Chigorin securing a dangerous passed pawn on the sixth rank of the e-file on his 29th move. Tarrasch expertly defended the difficult position and eventually managed a passed pawn of his own, but it was to no avail as he was forced to resign after White’s 58th move and the match was declared drawn. The game is shared below with notes from Tarrasch and James Mason.
To play through ALL of the games from this match, visit our match-viewer page.
GAME & ANNOTATIONS: Three Hundred Chess Games (Tarrasch); British Chess Magazine (Jan. 1894)
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