Deutscher Schachbund, 1881 (2nd Congress, Berlin)

Participation may have been open to everyone, as announcements in foreign press did not mention any restrictions.

The program for the problem tourney was decided on Feb. 2 1881, and then sent to interested parties as well as foreign chess periodicals. At present no earliest printing of the full rules is known, although parts of it were printed in in March and April.

The program reprinted in the congress book said that received sets would be printed in a supplement to Deutsche Schachzeitung. The Einsendungen ... (see above) may be that supplement, but as it is printed in Berlin and not in Leipzig, where Deutsche Schachzeitung was printed, there are still some unanswered questions. As it reprints set 7, which was withdrawn, it was probably published in June 1881.

The program also stated that prizes (which all were for single problems, not for sets), would be awarded only to problems of fully correct sets. The authors of the 1883 tourney book state that this was not a requirement present in the original program, but added at some later point.

Thirty-two sets were received. Two were withdrawn, and eighteen further sets were disqualified due to incorrectness, but with no further details reported. As no two-move problems were found to be prizeworthy, the #2 section prize fund was reallocated to the #4 section.

As the tournament ended, the congress committee and the judges agreed not to publish the names of the competitors, except for the prize-winners. (This caused a protest from three of the prize winners, but it did not lead to any change.) The right to dispose of the problems was also returned to their respective authors. The authors of the problem tourney book of 1883 add some information on the protest (p. 12).


The motto of E. Pradignat is given in slightly different ways, even within the same source. The report prints it as Malayou! Malaya! on p. 60, and as Malayou, Malaya! on p. 61.

Set 24 (Krieg im Frieden) is said to be faulty in the report (tourney book, p. 59), but the fault is not described. The book of the 1883 tourney mentions that the #3 of the set was correct, while the #4 was found to be faulty, as part of their criticism against only allowing problems from correct sets to compete for prizes.

Comparison with other sets also identified as faulty indicates that they have technical faults, such as multiple solutions, or short or non-existing solutions. Computer testing of set 24 does not find any such faults, although it finds a large number of tries in the #4. As the reason for the disqualification is not documented, the possibility of an error in examination cannot be excluded; however, neither can the possibility of a different kind of error, such as a faulty author's solution.

The set is almost certainly by Robert Braune: the 1883 tourney book identifies it as such (p. 11). It is not known how the authors obtained that information, however.

The source for the prize problems below has been given as Deutsche Schachzeitung 1882, as the status of the Einsendungen ... is not entirely clear. It may be a supplement to Deutsche Schachzeitung 1881, in which case it would be the first publication. However, it may also have a more limited distribution, and so not intended for the general public.