Todo: 1870-1879

The following tourneys are known or suspected to have existed. A few have been researched in detail, and may be possible to add with little additional work, while others may be just a note taken from a problem seen in an anthology or column somewhere, and will need more research to finish.

Just as earlier, this page will be updated as tourneys are reported in standard form. Please let me know if you have traces of additional tourneys not included for this or earlier periods.

Tourneys that can’t be traced or appear to have ‘died’ are moved to their own section at the end.

Amateur World (London)? “Experimentum Prize” [ in Whyld; B.L. only? ]

4th Bohemian Tourney, 1874 (Award list in DSz 1875)

Brighton Herald 1879 (1 pr J. G. Nix, Detroit Free Press 1879-12-21, prb. 803)

British Empire 1879? (partial; short-lived magazine; in Whyld; B.L. only? Marks appear to have been awarded for competitions, which included problems, solutions, etc., and whoever collected most marks would presumably get a prize. (see HCM v7 p253).)

Canadian Chess Association, 1875 (Ottawa meeting, partial), 1878 (Montreal meeting, natl. only)

Chess Journal (Dubuque), 187?. 4th (same req. as 6th)

Chess Journal (Dubuque), 187?. Position Tourney (from v3? 200 diagrams, solver’s percentages)

Chess Journal (Dubuque), 187?. 5th (s#3, -1#2, either to #2 or s#2) report in v5, p. 180)?

Courier (Hannibal, Missouri), 1876. (The Daily Hannibal Courier?)

Derbyshire Advertiser, 1879 (partial; Not on-line? Found a mention that D.A. is rather alone in upholding the rules from 1862, which involved the dummy pawn. Hull Bellman is also mentioned in the same context … does that affect their tourneys? }

Design and Work, 1879. (1 pr Laws, 2 pr Deane; announced April, 1879)

Detroit Chess Association: 3rd State Chess Tournament, 1879-02? (said to include a problem tourney for 1-3 pr. for #2-#4 problems.)

Dubuque Chess Journal. (See Chess Journal, above.)

L’Echiquier, 1870. (NBSz 1870 p 192 has some additional details, but not all.; The Field also)

The Felstedian, 1873? (1 pr Haddon, 2 pr Frederick, 3 pr Forder)

The Globe (Toronto), 1870, 1872, 1875?, 1876, 1879 (Proquest?)

Hartford Sunday Globe, 1878. (partial)

Herald (Lebanon), 1872, 1875, 1877 (C:1877-09-01; partial), 1878.

Hull Bellman, 1879 (#2: 1 pr Keeble, 2 pr Finch) (partial)

London and Brighton Magazine, 1876

Michigan Chess Association, 1874? 1877? (2 pr Detroit Free Press 1877-04-29)

News of the Week, 1875 (Glasgow; two half-yearly, informal?) (partial).

North Middlesex Magazine, Walter Pelham Problem Tourney, 1879 (partial)

Ny illustrerad Tidning, 1872 (Nordisk Skaktidende 1873 p 12-13, 30)

L’Opinion Public (Montreal, Canada) (1879?)

Philadelphia Centennial Tournament 1877? (Not the same as the one in which Loyd won most of the prizes …)

Prager Schachcongress, 1872. (DSz 1872 p 200)

Pravo Lidu, 1872.

Royal Exchange, 1879 (partial) (finished in Preston Guardian?)

La Strategie, 1877 (self-mates).

Weekly Mail, 1871. (UK? AU?)

Western Advertiser, 1873 (London, Ont., Canada; 3rd problem tourney, so there should be two earlier as well. partial. N. Y. Clipper 1872-02-10 refers to one restricted to Canadian amateurs just having finished, and a new one being proposed.)

Western Chess Congress, 1872.

Wiener Residenzblatt, 1873 (partial; results printed after May 1873? Not online.)

Some very unspecific jottings:

Dutch tourney around 1872 or 1873 (see Dutch Chess Association, 1875?)

Need additional work:

Note: Incompletely known tourneys are now posted, tagged with ‘Incomplete’. Recent entries do not necessarily have entries here anymore, but instead contain a special section that describes known shortcomings.

Centennial Chess Problem Tourney, 1877: The Letter Tourney: The four-fold letter problem with double doubleness that Cook gave a special commendation should be identified, even if it is not a prize-winner.

Gentleman’s Journal: Volume 1-2 checked, volume 3 remains. See also Recreational Supplement … as closely connected with this periodical.

Italian Problem Tourney, 1878 (2nd Italian Chess Congress, Leghorn/Livorno): Full requirements are missing. Not known from Nuova Rivista degli Scacchi, and is unlikely to be found in non-Italian sources.

Lebanon Herald, 1875-1876: The title of the newspaper should be established by reference to original pages or equivalent. The identity of the third, pseudonymous member of the Committee of Awards would be nice to have.

Mitteldeutscher Schachbund, 1876: The original tourney announcement, apparently printed on a cover page of Deutsche Schachzeitung, has not been located. There are also reports suggesting that a honorary mention was awarded (see Norddeutscher Schachbund, 1876, below), although the printed report does not clearly indicate any such awards.

Paris, 1878: Should be checked and updated with information published in La Stratégie, v. 11 (1878).

Recreational Supplement to Gentleman’s Journal: Volume 1 checked, and parts of volume 2. Volume 2-3 need to be rechecked. See Gentleman’s Journal.

La Stratégie, 1875: Should be checked and updated with information published in La Stratégie, v. 9 (1876).

Apparently ‘dead’ tourneys:

Maryland Chess Review, 1874. Problem Tourney No. 1. (Started, but does not appear to have been concluded.)

Maryland Chess Review, 1874. Curiosity Problem Tourney. (Also started, but not concluded.)

The Recreationist, 1873. An informal(?) prize for best problem in Christmas issue was announced, but does not appear to have been finished – at least not in The Recreationist.

Nonexisting tourneys:

Cleveland Voice 1877/1878. Several chess problem sources refer to S. Loyd winning 2 pr in Cleveland Voice 1877/1878. It’s in White’s Loyd book, and probably goes back to Loyd’s columns in American Chess Journal and Scientific American Suppl. However, the cited problem is from the Cleveland Leader, 1876 tourney.

Counties Chess Association (1870, Newcastle-on-Tyne). Meeting was initially planned to include a problem tourney, but it was cancelled.

English Mechanic, 1878. While this might be referred to as a problem tourney, it was not a normal composition tourney, but more in the nature of a competition. One prize was offered to the “contributor of the best and the greatest number of sound and original problems” in the period from 1877-12-01 – 1878-12-01; the problems would be scored by some unspecified method. In January 1879, a short note said that G. J. Slater had won the prize for sending in the most numerous problems.

Neue Berliner Schachzeitung, 1871. No traces found in this volume.

Norddeutscher Schachbund, 1876. Entry based on Breuer 411 (Braune, “Norddt. Schachbund 1876, ehr. Erw."), but the problem turns out to be from Mitteldeutscher Schachbund, 1876 where it competed under the motto “Jeder wirkt in seiner Weise”.

Turf, Field and Farm, 1878. (Based on Breuer 430, but that problem is clearly from the A.C.P.A. tourney, 1878: Turf, Field and Farm is only its first publication.)