Dundee 1867

At the Dundee International Tournament of 1867 there were three events:
1. The Grand Tourney; 2. The Handicap Tourney; 3. The Scotch Tourney.

The first round was held on 4th September, and the last round was played on September 13th.

The following information is taken from The Story of Dundee Chess Club, by Peter W. Walsh (1984). Additional information on the Scotch Tourney has been supplied by the chess historian and publisher, Tony Gillam.

1. The Grand Tourney

This consisted of invited players and included:

Wilhelm Steinitz, regarded as world champion and favourite to take first prize.

Joseph H. Blackburne, a British Grandmaster and highly successful tournament player who became a prominent master in the 19th century. Blackburne was already famed for his blindfold play and was destined to become the second official british champion in 1868, the year that he went professional.

Dr Gustav R.L. Neumann, a german born in Gleiwitz, and regarded as one of the very strongest mid-nineteenth-century masters.

Cecil de Vere, a young star who had become the first official British champion in 1866.

Rev. G.A. MacDonnell, the strongest of all the chess-playing 'reverends' in Britain during the nineteenth century - and there were many.

S. Hamel, a well-known Nottingham player and possibly related to L. Hamel, one of our [Dundee CC] founder members.

Scotland's invited experts were:

Sheriff W.C. Spens from Glasgow, [he did not hold the title of Sheriff at the time of the tournament - AMcG] who was to instigate the founding of the Scottish Chess Association in 1884, and after whom the Spens Cup is named.

Dr J. Fraser and Colonel J.A. Robertson, both from Edinburgh and both strong players.

Finally, of course, our [Dundee CC] own George B. Fraser, who had become by this date a well known analyst and discoverer of many important and interesting variations in different openings.

The tournament was held in the Board Room of the Caledonian Railway Company under the auspices of the then British Chess Association. For the first time "to obviate the difficulty experienced in the recent Grand Tourney at Paris, it was proposed that each draw should be reckoned at half a game".
[This was the first international tournament to have drawn games score a ½ point to each player.] An oddity of this tournament was that the players tossed for colour at the start of each game.

Dundee 1867

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9
10

Pts

1

Neumann

0

1

½

1

1

1

1

1
1

2

Steinitz

1

0

1

0

1

1

1

1
1

7

3

De Vere

0

1

1

0

1

1

½

1
1

4

MacDonnell

½

0

0

1

1

1

1

1
1

5

Blackburne

0

1

1

0

1

0

*

1
1

5

6

Robertson

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0
1

3

7

Dr Fraser

0

0

0

0

1

0

*

1
½

8 G.B. Fraser
0
0
½
0
*
0
*
1
1
9 Hamel
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
2

10

Spens

0

0

0

0

0

0

½

0

0

½

An asterisk (*) in the cross table indicates that G.B. Fraser resigned these games without play as they did not affect the prize money.

Prizes in the international event were announced as: 1. £40 2. £20 3. £10. De Vere took third prize following his play-off win against MacDonnell.

Notable personalities who watched the proceedings throughout were:

George Armitstead, one of the Club's founder members, later to become an M.P.
Baron Ebner, a Colonel in the Austrial Engineers
William Lowson, the President of the Club
A. Russell, a well-known member of the Cupar (Fife) Club
Mr Barnes, of the London Chess Club
Mr Lemmens, the famous organist.

Amongst the spectators was also William Neish Walker, who later joined the club and became a leading member.

2. The Handicap Tourney

This consisted of all Grand Tourney competitors except Hamel, plus seven others. It was contested on a knock-out basis. The players were grouped into four classes with the pairing done by lot for each round. Class I gave to Class II pawn and move; to Class III pawn and two moves, and to Class IV Queen's KNight. The total prize money for this event was £37.10s, divided as follows: First £20, Second £10, Third £5, Fourth £2.10s. These sums indicate the standing that this event had, and the importance of handicap chess in general at that time. The deciding games were:

Dr Fraser v Steinitz and Neumann v Scott (Dundee Chess Club). Neumann defeated Scott to take third prize but the other game proved controversial. Steinitz claimed a win, in a hopeless position, on the grounds that Dr Fraser had over-stepped the time allowance - two hours for thirty moves. Fraser had made only twenty seven moves when his one hour sand-glass ran out for the second time. Fraser wished the game to be annulled, which it duly was, as no rule or procedure had been laid down for deciding the penalty for over-stepping the time limit. No replay was possible for Steinitz "had to leave per steamer in the afternoon". They mutually agreed to share the first and seond prizes.

1-2. Steinitz & Dr Fraser 3; 3. Neumann 3; 4. Scott 2. The other results were Blackburne, Keating, Spens & Robertson 1; de Vere, Baxter, Thoms, Dumon, G.B. Fraser, MacDonnell, Baxter & Sine 0.
(A tie-breaking system was used.)

3. The Scotch Tourney

The tournament was open to Scottish players only. Eight players entered and it was run on an all-play-all basis, without handicaps. Draws counted ½ (as in the Dundee international). There were three prizes as follows:

1. Silver Cup and £20 - Dr Fraser (Edinburgh) 6/7
2. Set of ivory chessmen and £5 5s - Charles R. Baxter (Dundee) 5½/7
3. Set of ivory chessmen and £2 2s - George B. Fraser (Dundee) 4½/7

The tournament could be regarded as the first Scottish Championship but, as Tony Gillam has mentioned, he has not found a single use of the phrase in any of the reports of the tournament he has consulted. Also, from the occasional results given in the press and the total results given for each player, Tony found that there was just enough information for him to be able to reconstruct the complete crosstable:

Scotch Tourney

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Pts

1

Dr Fraser

1

1

0

1

1

1

1

6

2

C.R. Baxter

0

1

1

1

½

1

1

3

G.B. Fraser

0

0

½

1

1

1

1

4

A.B. Baxter

1

0

½

½

1

1

0

4

5

Dr Robertson

0

0

0

½

½

1

1

3

6

W.C. Spens

0

½

0

0

½

1

1

3

7

P. Scott

0

0

0

0

0

0

*

1

8 J.A. Lake Gloag
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1


Sources:
The Story of the Dundee Chess Club, by Peter W. Walsh (1984)
Centenary Tournament Dundee 1967, by R.G. Wade (The Chess Player, Nottingham, 1967)
Anthony J. Gillam, Historian, Author, Editor.