Chess-Monthly, 1891 (3rd Problem Tournament)

The initial requirements for the tourney stipulated at most two problems for #2, #3 and #4 each, and at most six problems altogether, but said nothing of selfmates. This was corrected in the following issue when selfmates were given similar restriction. In addition, each problem should have its own motto. However, composers were apparently allowed to send multiple sets, give mottos to sets (not the individual problems), and in some cases even include more than two problems in a set. It seems likely that the initial requirements were modified at some point, but so far no mention of changes has been found.

The first prizes of sections A (#4) and B (#3) were donations, and referred to as special prizes. Previously published problems were not only disqualified from competing, but their presence in a set also disqualified the entire set from competing for these prizes. This rule was modified in the following issue to only disqualify previously published problems from competing.

The awards were intended to be made within a month from the publication of the last problem, but were actually delayed for close to a year (see below). This may have been due to the requirements of the solving tourney, which was arranged, and announced in v. 13, p. 6 (Sep., 1891), the issue following the main announcement. Preliminary solution tourney awards were published together with the final awards of the problem tourney, but no final solution tourney awards seem to have be printed. This left the identities of two of the four prize winners (Aumont and W. E. B.) formally unrevealed.

There was no printed report of the problem tournament, only an awards list. There is no direct information about number of participants, faulty problems, and similar details. The following information has been gleaned from the pages and indices of Chess-Monthly.

One hundred and ninety-eight problems labelled as tourney problems were published under their mottos in Chess-Monthly over a period of 3 years and 4 months. From the time the last problem was published to the time its solution was printed, a period of 11 months elapsed. The report listed the names and authors of sets that did not receive any award, but as this list appears to be somewhat inconsistent in places, it is only possible to extract an estimate of the number of sets sent in (more than 150), and an estimate of the number of problem composers who participated (around 65). One composer from Russia who sent two sets seems to have remained anonymous.


The motto of the 2 pr. #2 was given as Vyrnyw in the final prize report, but in all previous appearances the motto Tyrnyw had been used, and has been taken to be the intended spelling.

During the course of the tournament, the title of the periodical changed from The Chess-Monthly (with a hyphen) to The Chess Monthly (without a hyphen) with volume 14. This change is reflected in source references.

NB: In The Chess-Monthly vol. 14, thirteen problems were accidentally misnumbered from 1515–1527 to *1415–*1427, thus repeating some already used problem numbers. The error does not appear to have been noted, except in the solutions to the affected problems which were printed under their correct numbers.

As source references in this article use the problem numbers actually found on the specified pages, they do sometimes refer to such printed but incorrect numbers: this has been indicated by a * immediately in front of the incorrect number, and typically followed by a correction and a reference to a textual description. Two problems below are affected by this issue: Section A 1st pr., and section B: 6th pr.