SUPER TOURNAMENTS
Free game files be downloaded on this page. Information about single or combined tournaments can be found on linked internet pages.
At least one participant in a super tournament belongs to the top ten. Criteria for the selection of an event are 1) playing strength of the participants, and 2) historical interest. New annotations were written by Jan van Reek. The quality might surprise, because analysis used to be the domain of over-the-board grandmasters. Nowadays, a computer can calculate variations at the same level. Scientific ability has become more important.
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Zip-file of 205 super tournaments (1.5Mb) |
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A spectacular historical super tournament was Baden-Baden 1870 (won by Anderssen). New annotations have 16 of the 80 games. |
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Tournaments were organised during the world exhibitions London 1851, London 1862, Paris 1867, Wien 1873, Philadelphia 1876, Paris 1878 and Paris 1900. New annotations have the 32 selected games. |
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Important super tournaments were Wien 1882 and Wien 1898. Steinitz won in 1873, shared the first prize in 1882 and became fourth in 1898. pgn-file (69 selected games) zip of CBase-files Wien 1882 and 1898 |
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Zukertort, Steinitz, Blackburne and Chigorin competed in London 1883 (Zukertort won). Lasker won London 1899 and Capablanca London 1922. pgn-file of London 1883, 1899 and 1922 (58 games) zip-file of CBase-files |
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N�rnberg 1896 conincided with a regional fair (Lasker won the tournament). New comments got 22 selected games. pgn-file of N�rnberg 1896 (22 games) zip-file of CBase-files |
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The first candidates' tournament was New York 1889 (Chigorin and Weiss won). New York 1924 was won by Lasker before Capablanca. pgn-file of New York 1889 (46 games) zip-file of CBase-files pgn-file of New York 1924 (39 games) zip-file of CBase-files |
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Gentlemen played on the seaside in Hastings 1895, Monte Carlo 1901-4, Scheveningen 1905, Oostende 1905-7 and San Sebastian 1911-12. New annotations got 191 selected games. |
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A classic tournament was Cambridge Springs 1904 (Marshall won). Twenty games are selected. pgn-file of Cambr. Springs 1904 (20 games) zip-file of CBase-files |
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Landmarks in the history of chess were St.Petersburg 1909 and 1914. pgn-file of St. Petersburg 1909 (20 games) zip-file of CBase-files pgn-file of St. Petersburg 1914 (25 games) zip-file of CBase-files |
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Berlin 1897 was won by Charousek before Walbrodt.
Gro�meister-Turnier 1918 was won by Lasker.
Berliner Tageblatt 1928 was won by Capablanca before Nimzowitsch. pgn-file of Berlin 1897, 1918 and 1928 zip-file of CBase-files |
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Karlsbad 1911 & 1923, Semmering 1926, Bad Kissingen 1928, Bad Sliac 1932 and Semmering/Baden 1937 were played in health resorts.
pgn-file of Bad events zip-file of CBase-files of Bad events
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Aaron Nimzowitsch triumphed in Copenhagen 1923, Marienbad 1925, Dresden 1926, Hannover 1926 and Karlsbad 1929. |
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M�risch-Ostrau 1923 was a victorious tournament for Lasker.
pgn-file of M�hrisch-Ostrau 1923 (16 games) zip-file of CBase-files
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Early Soviet tournaments: Moscow 1920, Petrograd 1923, Moscow 1924, Leningrad 1925, Moscow 1925 and 1927, Odessa 1929, Leningrad 1931, 1933 and 1934, Moscow 1935-36, Tbilisi 1937, Leningrad 1939, Moscow 1940, 1944 and 1945, Leningrad 1947, Moscow 1948 - 1952 and Kiev 1954 are presented. Special attention goes to Bohatirchuk, Levenfish, Botvinnik, Keres and Tolush. |
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One-sided super tournaments were Baden-Baden 1925, San Remo 1930 and Bled 1931 because Alekhine showed superiority. Moscow 1956 was a Alekhine Memorial. Tal and Fischer competed in Bled 1961. pgn-file of five tournaments (105 games) zip-file of CBase-files |
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Many strong players participated in Nottingham 1936 (Capablanca and Botvinnik won). pgn-file of Nottingham 1936 (30 games) zip-file of CBase-files |
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The eight strongest players participated in AVRO 1938 (Keres won). |
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The most important Nazi tournament was Salzburg 1942 (won by Alekhine). All 30 games have been annotated. |
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FIDE interzonal and candidates
tournaments pgn-file zip-file FIDE interzonal and candidates tournaments Information about interzonal and candidates tournaments |
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A candidates' tournament was Neuhausen / Z�rich 1953 (won by Smyslov). Selected games have been annotated. Tal and Fischer raced for the first place in Z�rich 1959. Mischa won. pgn-file of Z�rich 1953 and 1959 CBase-file of two tournaments |
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Thirteen Spassky tournaments: Bucharest 1953, Moscow 1955, Leningrad 1956, Moscow 1957, Riga 1958, Tbilisi 1959, Leningrad 1960, Moscow 1961, Baku 1961, Moscow 1964, Teams Moscow 1966 and Moscow 1973. New comments have been added to many games. |
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The best of the West played double rounds in Dallas 1957. |
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The Capablanca Memorial was founded by Ch� Guevara in 1962. |
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Kortschnoj wins in Kiev 1964 |
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Planinc plays in the Vidmar Memorial 1969, 1973, 1975 and 1977 |
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The Piatigorsky Cup was at stake in Los Angeles 1963 and Santa Monica 1966. |
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Later Soviet championships |
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All super tournaments in Tilburg 1977-94 and 1996-98 (297 games): |
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Six important tournaments, won by Euwe, Donner, Timman, Piket and Timmerman, are presented as Dutch Glory. |
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Five super tournaments were played in Bugojno from 1978 until 1986. |
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A Canadian super tournament was Montreal 1979. Karpov and Tal won. Their 34 games have been included. |
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The USSR championship, Moscow 1988 with Kasparov and Karpov (111 of 153 games have been annotated): pgn-file of Moscow 1988 zip-file of CBase-files |
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The World Cup Skelleftea 1989 with Kasparov and Karpov (29 games): pgn-file of Skelleftea 1989 zip-file of CBase-files |
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One Euwe Jubilee and ten Euwe Memorials: |
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Dortmund 1928, 1973, 1992 - 2009 |
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The six best players of the world
participated in Las Palmas 1996. Kasparov won: pgn-file of Las Palmas 1996 (30 games) zip-file of CBase-files |
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Ten top players participated in Dos Hermanas 1996. Kraminik won: |
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Beverwijk and Wijk aan Zee 1938 - 2009 |
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World Championship 13, NBC-25, NPSF-50, World championship 15, Von Massow Memorial 1996, Peter Korning 1998, CAPA X, Millennium Tournament 2000, World champions Jubilee 2001, Elite Grandmasters Jubilee 2002 and World championship 18 (correspondence chess): |
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Six players played double rounds in Sofia 2005 until 2009. Topalov won twice. |
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Top players
participated in Linares from 1978 until 2009. All
events have been analysed. pgn-file of all tournaments (494 games) zip-file of CBase-files |
Explication
My work on chess tournaments started in 2001. At that time I was still working on chess matches. Normally I plan my work precisely, but this did not happen with the selection of tournaments. The task was too immense probably. I started with a list of forty events. The work kept me busy until the end of 2002.
A new idea came from a record by Glenn Giffen. He had rank ordered chess tournaments by the number of participating top ten players. His list has been extended to one hundred events. Another problem was the selection from series. This has been solved for Linares by the inclusion of all events. The result became a fine mix of outstanding and historical tournaments. There was no other site with annotated games from old events. So I had to develop a standard. When I started to analyse, all games of Moscow 1957 were investigated. The mental effort was immense, and the time-consuming computer work caused mouse arms. Thereafter game selections were made generally.
Previous analysis can be found in tournament books, journals and computer files. Arend Booij helps me in the literature search. Some games have never been analysed, but abundant information is available mostly. Then the real work begins, because the quality of the original data is often poor and later authors add little valuable information. All selected games are deeply analysed with the latest chess programs and a fast computer. Mostly one or two known comments survive the test on correctness and relevance. I often add a few notes. Despite this drastic method, other annotators have been treated respectfully, because their contributions are mentioned correctly and without sarcasm on errors. I have made fewer comments on tournaments than on matches, because the interest for historical tournament games is limited. If a reader wants to investigate an extra detail, a chess engine can be started.
The method of short comments has been applied by Euwe many times. This routine looks simple but the application is difficult. When Spassky and I were cooperating, we favoured annotations as a string of brief reflections on critical positions. It makes the highlights of a chess event quickly accessible for the reader.
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Example of a correction: The shown position occurred in the famous game Spassky - Fischer, Santa Monica 1966. Boris played 28. Qd2?! When I was analysing, I saw the witty 28. Nh5! A computer test revealed the variation 28. .. Qf7 29. Qc3� Kh7 30. Qg3 Bc8 31. Rc1 and White has a strong attack. Thereafter I noticed the retort 28. .. Be4! Computer analysis disclosed the line 29. Nxf6 Bxc2 30. Nd7 Bxd1 31. Nxf8 and White has a fine endgame.
Therefore, the computer research supported the search for better variations. |
I regard the combination of an internet page and file as an internet book. The oeuvre has been 'work in progress' for eight years. More than 500,000 match and tournament books have been downloaded.
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Other tournaments: Dutch championships (from 1851) German chess congresses (from 1861) History of correspondence chess (from 1824) All Hastings tournaments (from 1895) IBM Amsterdam (1961-1981) Leopold Trebitsch Memorial (1907 - 1938) Cloister tournaments (1966-1997) Matches: Chess matches (from 1574) Females: Women beat men
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