- Vienna 1882 chess tournament
The second international Vienna 1882 chess tournament was one of the longest and strongest chess tournaments ever played [ [http://www3.sympatico.ca/g.giffen/tournaments.htm The strongest tournaments in chess history ] ] [The
British Chess Magazine , 1882, pp. 213, 261, 292 and 296.] . The Vienna Chess Society was formed in October 1857, and this tournament played from 10 May to 24 June 1882 was held on the occasion of its 25th anniversary. The main sponsors wereIgnác Kolisch and the club's presidentAlbert Salomon von Rothschild , who together donated 7500 francs to be split over the top six.Franz Joseph I of Austria was the patron of the event, who also donated a special prize of 2000 Austrian Gulden ("Kaiserpreis"). The time control was 15 moves per hour, with a 2 hour break after 4 hours. Games not completed after eight hours of play were adjourned to be finished on the rest day [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2117 ChessBase.com - Chess News - International Chess Tournament Vienna 1882 ] ] [ [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1009969 Vienna 1882 ] ] .The tournament was played as a double
round-robin tournament and suffered a number of withdrawals in the second tour. Noa withdrew after the first round of the second tour, Fleissig, Bird, Schwarz and Wittek also lost games by default [*citation| editor-last=Golombek | editor-first=Harry | editor-link=Harry Golombek | year=1977 | title=Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess | publisher=Crown Publishing | isbn=0-517-53146-1 | contribution= | pages=503] . The event was won byWilliam Steinitz andSzymon Winawer , who decided to share the first prize after they each won a play-off game. The special prize was awarded to Zukertort for the best performance against the top three. On the 12th of May Steinitz drew a game with Mackenzie and this ended the longest winning run in the history of chess. Steinitz at the time had won 25 consecutive games, the last draw he conceded was nine years earlier, on the 3rd of August in the Vienna 1873 tournament. After this Steinitz would lose three consecutive games to Zukertort, Hruby and Ware. [ [http://www.rookhouse.com/events/vienna1882.html Rook House - Greatest Events - Vienna 1882 ] ]References
Further Reading
* Alexander Sellman. 1882. Games of the Vienna tournament of 1882: A selection of the best and most brilliant games. Torsch Bros.
* Christiaan M. Bijl, (ed.), Das II. Internationale Schachmeisterturnier Wien 1882, Zürich: Edition Olms, 1984
* [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1009969 The complete game collection from chessgames.com]
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