Mannheim 1914 chess tournament

The 19th DSB Congress (19. Kongreß des Deutschen Schachbundes), comprising several tournaments, began on 20 July 1914 in Mannheim. Germany declared war on Russia (on August 1) and on France (August 3), Britain joining in the next day. The congress was stopped on 1 August 1914.

The tournament took place in the "Ballhaus", a building situated in the Mannheim Palace garden area.

The following participants played in the Masters tournament (Meisterturnier):

• from the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Gyula Breyer (Hungary), Oldřich Duras (Bohemia), Richard Réti (Slovakia), Rudolf Spielmann (Austria), Savielly Tartakower (Poland), and Milan Vidmar (Slovenia)
• from the Russian Empire: Alexander Aljechin (Russia), Efim Bogoljubov (Ukraine), and Alexander Flamberg (Poland)
• from France: Dawid Janowski (France)
• from the German Empire: Siegbert Tarrasch (Nürnberg), Walter John (Breslau), Paul Krüger (Hamburg), Carl Carls (Bremen), Ehrhardt Post (Berlin), and Jacques Mieses (Leipzig)
• from Switzerland: Hans Fahrni (Switzerland)
• from the United States: Frank James Marshall (USA).

Alexander Alekhine was leading the Meisterturnier, with nine wins, one draw and one loss, when World War I broke out. German organizers of the tournament decided that the players should be "indemnified" according to their score, but not paid the total prize money. Thus Alekhine got 1100 marks, Vidmar 850, Spielmann 600, Breyer, Marshall and Reti 375 each, Janowski 250, Bogoljubov and Tarrasch 180 marks, and all the others 100 marks. Calculated in terms of purchasing power in 2005, the sums would be multiplied ten times in euros. So Alekhine's "consolation prize" was 11,000 Euros.^[1]