Historic Last Round Victories
Before
the last round of the Hastings tournament 1895,Harry Nelson Pillsbury(1872-1906)
was leading a field of distinguished masters like Lasker, Steinitz, Tarrasch and
Tchigorin by half a point.
In
order to win the tournament, which was probably the strongest up to that time,
Pillsbury had to win his last round game against Gunsberg.
Last Round Game
[Event
"Hastings International tournament 1985"]
[White
"Pillsbury"]
[Black
"Gunsberg"]
[Result
"1-0"]
[ECO
"D94"]
["Queens
Gambit Declined"]
1.
d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. e3 g6
4. Nc3 Bg7 5.
Nf3 Nf6 6. Bd3 O-O 7. Ne5 dxc4
8. Bxc4 Nd5 9.
f4 Be6 10. Qb3 b5 11. Bxd5 Bxd5 12. Nxd5 Qxd5 13. Qxd5 cxd5
14. Nd3 Nd7 15.
Bd2 Rfc8
(26….a5 27.f5 g5 28.c6 Nb6 29.Nc5 exf5 30.gxf5 Kd6 31.Nb7+ Kxd6 32.Na5
Kc7 is rather favourable to Black according to Dr.Emannuel Lasker)
27.
f5 g5 28. Nb4 a5
29. c6 Kd6 30. fxe6 Nxc6
31. Nxc6 Kxc6 32.
e4 dxe4 33. d5+ Kd6 34. Ke3 b4
35. Kxe4 a4 36.
Kd4 h5 37. gxh5 a3 38.Kc4 f5
39. h6 f4 40. h7
The
Final Position
1-0
BY winning this game Pillsbury won the coveted(!) first prize of 150
pounds. He edged out Tchigorin by half a point and Lasker by one point in
the final analysis.
Journalists likened Pillsbury to Abraham Lincoln with his prominent nose, hollowed cheek bones and piercing eyes. Long afterwards rumours went afloat that the great Sherlock Holmes 'impersonated' Pillsbury at the tournament!! Pillsbury was also very fond of blindfold chess and had a wonderful memory to go with his special aptitude. Truly, he was one of the mental marvels of his age.
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