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Alexander Fritz (15 January 1857, Kirchlotheim - 22 April 1932, Alsfeld) was a German chess master.
He ... took 9th at Braunschweig 1880 (the 13th WDSB-Congress, L. Paulsen won), took 13th at Wiesbaden 1880 (Joseph Henry Blackburne, Adolf Schwarz, and Berthold Englisch won).
His name is attached to the Fritz Variation in the Two Knights Defense or Prussian Game:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nd4.
Amusing comments about Alexander Fritz: "He was a minor master." "He was a weak, strong master." What is a minor master? Looking at his games he was adept at the king attack and somewhat of an opening expert on the black side of e4 - e5. Steinitz - Alexander Fritz 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4 d5 4.d3 d4 5.Nce2 Bd6 6.fxe5 Bxe5 7.Nf3 Nc6 8.Nxe5 Nxe5 9.Ng3 Nfg4 10.Bf4 Qh4 11.Qd2 f6 12.Be2 g5 13.Bxe5 Nxe5 14.Bh5+ Ng6 15.Qf2 Bg4 16.Bxg6+ Kxg6 17.Qxf6 Rd8 18.Qe5+ Kd7 19.Qxd4+ Kc8 20.Qe3 Rhf8 21.Kd2 Rf4 22.Raf1 Rdf8 23.Qxa7 R8f6 24.Qa8+ Kd7 25.Qa4+ c6 26.Qd4+ Ke6 27.Rxf4 Rxf4 28.Qg7 Rf2+ 29.Kc3 Bh5 30.Rf1 Rxf1 31.Nxf1 Qf2 32.Nd2 b5 33.Qd4 Qxg2 34.Nb3 Bd1 35.Qg7 Qxc2+ 36.Kb4 Qf2 37.d4 Qe1+ 38.Kc5 Qxe4 39.Na5 Qd5+ 40.Kb6 Qd8+ 41.Qc7 Qxd4+ 42.Ka6 Qd6 43.Qxc6 Be2 44.Kb6 g4 45.b4 Bf1 46.a3 Bd3 47.Qxd6+ Kxd6 48.Nc6 Kd5 49.Na7 Ke4 50.Nxb5 Kf3 51.a4 Kg2 52.a5 Kxh2 53.a6 g3 54.Nd4 g2 55.Nf3+ Kh1 56.a7 Be4 0-1 An exciting game. Both kings go for long walks. A beautiful endgame results after a resourceful swindle. A game anyone could be proud of. The following game sees Jacque Mieses king position crushed in Alexander Fritz's last? tournament, at age 51, at Duesseldorf, Germany 1908. (Both games are not blindfold but they illustrate Alexander Fritz's skills nicely) Mieses-Fritz 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Bb4 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 Qxf6 8.Ne2 Ne7 9.00 g5 10.Ng3 h5 11.Nxh5 Qh6 12.g4 Ng6 13.Qf3 Nf4 14.h3 d6 15.Rab1 c6 16.Nxf4 gxf4 17.Kg2 Ke7 18.Rh1 b5 19.Bb3 Qg5 20.d4 Rh4 21.dxe5 dxe5 22.Qd3 Bxg4 23.Kf1 Rd8 24.Bd5 cxd5 25.exd5 f3 26.Qxb5 Bxh3+ 27.Ke1 Re4+ 28.Kd1 Re2 29.Qd3 e4 30.Qd4 Rxd5 0-1
Headline: SPORTING INTELLIGENCE from the Toronto Globe, Monday, January 28, 1884. ZUKERTORT's GREAT FEAT "Those who visited the Athenaeum Club Room in the Public Library building on Friday night, and stayed till the conclusion of Dr. Zukertort's "blindfold" performance, were rewarded with an exhibition of marvelous memory and skill that they will not readily forget. From 5 in the afternoon till 7 and from 8 till 4 in the morning, he kept up the intense mental strain necessary to recall and dismiss the various mental photographs of boards and men which were hidden away somewhere in Dr. Zukertort's phenomenal brain. At two rows of tables six each sat twelve of the strongest players in Canada with men in battle array before them, but no opponent apparently. At a table some distance away, with his face to the wall, sat Dr. Zukertort. For ten long hours, away into the morning (so late that our Saturday edition had gone to press long before the contest had finished) this little man, who wears a 8.25 inch hat, fought his twelve opponents inch by inch, with nothing but his wonderful memory to aid him, avoiding with ease traps and snares three and four moves deep that any player with the board and men before him might well be excused for overlooking. The teller, Mr. A.E. Phillips, who was one of the Doctor's opponents in the simultaneous games of the previous evening, performed his very arduous duties with a precision and clearness that gained the appreciation of both the champion and his opponents. Up and down between the two rows he walked hour after hour, announcing to the Doctor the move made by his opponent, at the same time giving the number of the table. The Doctor would immediately recall the position, no matter how complicated, and in a very short time reply, and the teller would then make the move on the board and pass to the next. The players at the various boards were as follows: Goodwin Gibson Bd. 1, J.H. Gordon Bd.2, K.B. Freeland Bd.3, H.J. Rowe Bd.4, A.C. Meyers Bd.5, W.M. Stark Bd.6, Dr. Ryall (from Hamilton) Bd.7, W.A. Littlejohn Bd.8, Charles W. Phillips Bd.9, Wm Boultbee Bd.10, W.H. Judd (from Hamilton) Bd.11, H.N. Kittson (from Hamilton) Bd.12." Continued next posting.
Continued. "The first game to be finished was board 10, at which Mr. Boultbee won in splendid style. About two hours later Mr. Gibson, at Board 1, scored victory, the Doctor transposing two moves and losing his queen. Mr. Gibson offered to allow it back, but the great player offered a gentle rebuke which may be applied to themselves by several of our Toronto players. He said, "No sir, I have played chess too long to recall moves." A little while later Mr. Littlejohn and Mr. Gordon resigned, both gentlemen making rather extraordinary oversights. Half an hour later the Vice-President of the T.C.C., Mr. A.C. Meyers, resigned, followed shortly after by Mr. H.J. Ross. Two o'clock came and went and still the battle raged. At board 7 Dr. Ryall had a dead lost game, and in the opinion of the onlookers should have resigned. In fact after the conclusion Zukertort said, "Doctor, had I been you and you me I should have resigned." However he worried on, and finally won through a slight oversight of the champion. Mr. Judd, of Hamilton, now turned the tide by winning his game after a careful, painstaking contest. Mr. W.M. Stark about 3 o'clock resigned, and in a few minutes more Mr. Kittson, of Hamilton, won his game. But one game remained, Board 9, at which the Secretary, Mr. Phillips, had fought about the most stubbornly contested game of the evening. About 330 am he got a pretty draw on the Doctor, and the most memorable chess fight ever held in the Dominion (of Canada) was brought to conclusion. The score stood: Dr. Zukertort, 6 won, 5 lost, and 1 drawn. The Toronto and Hamilton players have made a finer record against the Doctor than has been made by any club since he came to America - New York, Baltimore, Brooklyn, St. Louis, Louisville, and Chicago all losing more games than our men. Below is the score in the game won by Mr. William Boultbee:" White: Dr. Zukertort - Black: Mr. W. Boultbee 1.e4 e5 2.f4 Bc5 3.Nf3 d6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Bc4 Be6 6.Bxe6 fxe6 7.fxe5 dxe5 8.Qe2 Ng4 9.h3 Nf6 10.Nxe5 00 11.Qc4 Bf2+ 12.Kxf2 Ng4+ 13.Kg3 Qf6 14.Nxg4 Qf4+ 15.Kh4 Rf6 16.Kh5 Kh8 (threatening 17...Rh6+ 18.Nxh6 g6#) 0-1 Looks like Dr. Zukertort went fishing and gambitted his king. Were the Toronto and Hamilton players really that good or was Dr. Zukertort having a bad evening?
"The Doctor has gone to Ottawa to attend the D.C.A. meeting there. The Marquis of Lansdowne has accepted the position of patron of the Dominion Chess Association, and will give his covenance to the tourney." (probably referring to the Canadian Championship)
I will be covering Zukertort's 1884 visit to Canada, along with Blackburne's 1889 visit, in part two of "Canada's Nineteenth Century Chess Visitors"; part one, featuring Bird and Mackenzie, may be found in the member's section of the CFC webzine, under history.
From the Toronto Globe, Saturday, June 21, 1902: "At the Athenaeum Chess Club, Camden Town, London, recently, Mr. H.N. Pillsbury gave a remarkable exhibition of simultaneous blindfold chess. He sat at the end of a room with his face to the wall, and behind him were ranged ten first-class members of the club, with boards in front of them. Mr. Pillsbury had the white men, and therefore the first move against each of his opponents. He opened all the games with the familiar P-K4. Two of his opponents played the Sicilian Defence, and two the French game; there were two centre counter gambits, one King's Gambit declined, one Ruy Lopez, and some irregular defences, so that the American champion had plenty of variety to exercise his memory. Many of the games were interesting, and it was wonderful to watch the accuracy with which Mr. Pillsbury made his moves. Anyone who has attempted to play a single game without seeing the board will be ready to admit that it is a task which demands one's total attention. Very few know from actual experience what it entails to play a number of such games simultaneously. Mr. Pillsbury, however, sat for five hours playing, and during all that time he retained an exact knowledge of the position on every board, and not a single false move did he make. This effort was by no means the limit of his capabilities, for after two hours play the games were adjourned for half an hour, and during that time the young American performed, without seeing a board, what is known as the "Knight's Tour", and further demonstrated his remarkable memory with a pack of cards in the following manner: - Mr. Elliott, the Secretary, drew from a complete pack about thirty cards, naming each one as he turned it over. Mr. Pillsbury then told him with absolute accuracy every card left in the pack. Shortly after the resumption of play, the first game was finished, Mr. Pillsbury resigning to Mr. Hamlyn, playing board No. 6. Mr. Hamlyn was the only player to defeat the American. He has been a member of the Atheneaum for 25 years, and has had the honor of defeating Mr. Pillsbury in a similar encounter before. Mr. Passmore, playing top board, Mr. Sutton, board No. 2, and Mr. Baker all drew their games. On each of the other six boards Mr. Pillsbury scored a win, making a total of 7 and a half games to 2 and a half, a highly credible performance, for which he was loudly applauded." This article was followed by a large artist's rendition showing Pillsbury dressed elegantly in an evening suit, smoking a cigar, with his back turned to a number of gentlemen, also dressed in formal attire, playing at individual tables, surrounded by many spectators (with a good mix of gentlemen and ladies.)
Remember that rules were slightly different in those days - there was a subtle difference between "first move" and "white men" - i.e. the holder of the "first move" privilege had the choice of colours (he normally chose White - but you will sometimes see games in old books with Black moving first). The rule of "White moves first" was never officially instated until the 1920's.
So - although the article assumes that Pillsbury "had the White men, and therefore the first move" was not necessarily accurate for the time.
Back to Harry Nelson Pillsbury. Pillsbury, after giving regular blindfold exhibitions in 1893-1894 basically gave few blindfold exhibitions from 1895-1897 as he studied ways to improve his blindfold play. From reading between the lines on various literature on Pillsbury it becomes apparent that he did three important things, he shortened the playing time of his moves, he learned mnemonic techniques to help remember positions, and he learned how to prevent the insomnia after exhibitions. This made him the first true blindfold professional combining excellent play with showmanship and a friendly outgoing public manner and also sideshows where he did memory tricks, knight tours and engaged in other board games at the same time.
During the years 1900-1901 on tour he gave about 150 simultaneous displays, mostly blindfolded!(thats over a 7 month period - averaging about one a day!!) Also after exhibitions he would often correct from memory mistakes made on his opponents scoresheets effortlessly (think about that! - although many great masters - Capablanca, Fischer, Tal etc. often showed that ability). He also often asked in his exhibitions for the strongest players present - he enjoyed the challenge.
Finally in 1902 at Hanover, Germany and later at Moscow, Russia Pillsbury gave his two greatest blindfold performances. At Hanover he played in a tournament and on the rest day! he set a new world record of 21 boards with the strongest opposition ever encountered (by anyone) in a blindfold simultaneous exhibition! His opponents were almost all candidate masters!! (Several later became international masters and grandmasters) Pillsbury won 3, lost 7, and drew 11, a minus score. However for those critics who point at his minus score, other grandmasters who faced such tough opposition (actually not even as tough!) in SIGHTED (normal) simuls did considerably worse. Example: Capablanca at Leningrad against 30 scored +7, -14, = 9 against first - category opponents, Flohr scored +5, -13, =12!!!! A truly amazing feat by Pillsbury!!!!! Pillsbury's opponents were also offered financial incentives for wins and draws!!!! and on top of that Pillsbury allowed consultation and moving the pieces around before deciding on moves just to make the challenge tougher!!!! WOW!!!! The next day he showed up for his tournament game looking fresh and had a hard battle against his opponent. Pillsbury - your da man!! (It sent chills down my spine when I read this!)
At Moscow in December of 1902 Pillsbury raised the world record blindfold simultaneous mark to 22 boards winning 17, losing only 1, and drawing 4 for his highest winning percentage (86.4%) of all his record breaking simuls. However the opposition was nowhere near that of Hanover and in fact there were many weak performances and blunders by many of his opponents. However there were still some very nice games. The most important feature probably was the attendance as a spectator by 10 yr old Alexander Alekhine, who was very impressed by the performance of Pillsbury. This grand moment must have played a great role in setting the stage for Alekhine's later great blindfold performances that amazed and dazzled the chess world for many years.
Pillsbury - Bernstein (the later grandmaster) Hanover 1902 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bxe7 Qxe7 7.Nb5 Nb6 8.c3 a6 9.Na3 c5 10.Qd2 Nc6 11.Nc2 cxd4 12.cxd4 f6 13.f4 fxe5 14.dxe5 g5 15.Nf3 gxf4 16.Qxf4 Bd7 17.Bd3 Rf8 18.Qe3 Nb4 19.Nxb4 Qxb4+ 20.Qd2 Qxd2+ 21.Kxd2 h6 22.Rhf1 Na4 23.b3 Nc5 24.Nd4 Ke7 25.Bc2 Bc6 26.Rae1 Nd7 .5.5 Pillsbury has an excellent position at the end and good chances in the endgame. His pieces are well placed, especially the blockading knight on d4 and he has a kingside pawn majority.
Pillsbury - Brody - Hanover, Germany July 27, 1902 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 d4 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Nbd2 Nge7 6.Nb3 Nf5 7.e4 dxe3 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.fxe3 Bb4+ 10.Kf2 Be7 11.Nbd4 Bd7 12.Bd3 Nh4 13.Nxc6+ Bxc6 14.Nd4 Bxg2 15.Rg1 c5 16.Nb3 Bc6 17.Rxg7 Nf3 18.Rxh7 Rxh7 19.Bxh7 Nxe5 20.Na5 Bh4+ 21.Kf1 Bf3 22.Bd2 b6 23.Bc3 Ng4 24.Nb3 Ke7 25.Nd2 Nxe3+ 26.Kg1 Be2 27.Be5 Rd8 28.Ne4 Bd3 29.Bg3 Bxg3 30.hxg3 Rd4 31.Ng5 Bxh7 32.Nxh7 f6 33.Re1 Rd1 34.Rxd1 Nxd1 35.g4 Nxb2 36.g5 fxg5 37.Nxg5 Kf6 0-1 Pillsbury's opponents meant business on this day. In this game Pillsbury's opening is good with interesting ideas. If he had played 14.e4 everything would have been different. However as he played led to a knightmare game with trapped knights - the kind of game that one can have in a major blindfold exhibition. The fact that he had several of these games indicated that he was having a bad day but the games and many of the positions are interesting nonetheless.
Pillsbury - Carls, Hanover 1902, 21 board simul 1.e4 e6 2.Qe2!? c5 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Nd4 5.Qd3!? Nc6 How often do you see a French Defence where White forces Black to back up the Nd4 back to c6? 6.a3 a6 7.g3 b5 8.Bg2 Bb7 9.00 d6 10.Qe2 g6 11.d3 Bg7 12.Nd1! Nd4 13.Nxd4 cxd4 14.f4 Rc8 15.c3! A subtle pawn move and strategically excellent. 15...Ne7 16.cxd4 Bxd4+ 17.Be3 Nc6 18.Qf2 Qb6 19.Rc1 Bxe3 20.Nxe3 00 21.f5! Strategic breakthrough 21...exf5 22.exf5 Ne5 23.Rxc8 Rxc8 24.Bxb7? Pillsbury misses a simple shot here, not like Pillsbury at all 24...Qxb7 25.fxg6 hxg6 26.d4 Nc6 27.Nd5 Qa7 28.h4? Again Pillsbury misses some excellent moves which shows he was distracted. 28...Rf8 29.Nf6+ Kg7 30.d5 Qxf2+ .5 - .5 agreed drawn but Pillsbury still has excellent endgame chances. Both the opening in this game and the one in the Bernstein game have given me easy wins more than once against tournament opponents.
Pillsbury - E. Cohn Hanover 1902 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.00 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a4 Bg4 9.c3 00 10.h3 Bd7 11.d4 exd4 12.cxd4 Qc8 13.axb5 axb5 14.Rxa8 Qxa8 15.Nc3 Na5 16.Bc2 g6 17.e5 Nh5 18.Be4 Qc8 19.Nd5 Nc6 20.Bh6 Re8 21.Ng5 Ng7 22.exd6 cxd6 Pillsbury builds a commanding position out of the opening but here fails to pull the trigger. This is a rich position for analysis with several attacking continuations and possibilities. That Pillsbury did not choose any of these is further evidence that he was having a bad day. Instead he transposes to a long ending a pawn up which he fails to win. This was the longest game of the simul. 23.Bb1 Nf5 24.Bxf5 Bxf5 25.g4 Be6 26.Qf3 Bxd5 27.Qxd5 Bxg5 28.Rxe8+ Qxe8 29.Bxg5 Kg7 30.Qxd6 Qe6 31.Qxe6 fxe6 This ending is worthy of study to determine better possibilities for White. 32.Be3 Na5 33.Kf1 Nc4 34.Bc1 Kf6 35.Ke2 e5 36.Kd3 Ke6 37.dxe5 Kxe5 38.f4+ Kd5 39.Kc3 Kc5 40.b3 b4+ 41.Kd3 Na5 42.Be3+ Kd5 43.Bd2 Kc5 44.f5 gxf5 45.gxf5 Kd5 46.Bxb4 Nxb3 47.Bc3 Nc5+ 48.Ke3 Ne4 49.Ba1 Nd6 50.Kf4 Nf7 51.Bb2 Nd6 52.Kg5 Ke4 53.f6 Nf7+ 54.Kg4 Kd5 55.Kf5 Nd6+ 56.Kf4 Ke6 .5 - .5 (draw)
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