The Vienna 1873 chess tournament was a side event of the world exhibition of 1873

Weltausstellung 1873 Wien

]The Weltausstellung 1873 Wien was the large World exposition was held in 1873 in the Austria–Hungarian capital of Vienna. Its motto was Kultur und Erziehung ....

 (the fifth since the first Great Exhibition

The Great Exhibition

The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations or The Great Exhibition, sometimes referred to as the Crystal Palace Exhibition in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held, was an international exhibition that took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October...

 in London in 1851).

Background

The fair was held in the Prater

Prater

The Wiener Prater is a large public park in Vienna's 2nd district . The amusement park, often simply called "Prater", stands in one corner of the Wiener Prater and includes the .-Name:...

 in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, and opened in the Rotunde

Rotunde

The Rotunde in Vienna was a building erected for the Weltausstellung 1873 Wien .The building was a partially covered circular steel construction, 84 m in height and 108 m in diameter...

 on May 1. Companies of all 35 participating countries presented their state of the art products and inventions. The world exhibitions

World fair

World Fair can refer to:* Expo , a large public exhibition* This World Fair, an American rock band...

 aimed to promote international trading relations and to propagate the technical and cultural progress.

Austria-Hungary aimed to present itself as a world leader and the equal of England and France, and had the intention to show the new Vienna (buildings of the Ringstrasse

Ringstraße

The Ringstraße is a circular road surrounding the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, Austria and is one of its main sights...

, parks). Unfortunately, the stock exchange

Wiener Börse

The Wiener Börse AG is the only stock exchange in Vienna, Austria, and one of the most established exchanges in Eastern- and Southeastern Europe.-History:...

 crashed on May 9 (see Panic of 1873

Panic of 1873

The Panic of 1873 triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. The depression was known as the Great Depression until the 1930s, but is now known as the Long Depression...

), and cholera

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

 plagued the city from July to September. Finally many guests visited the fair in October and November.

The Chess tournament

During the epidemic, the tournament took place in the rooms of the Wiener Schachgesellschaft from June 21 to August 29. The time limit was twenty moves per hour. It was a twelve player tournament. Each participant played every other for a match for two points with a maximum of three games. There were eleven rounds of match competitions. Every short match had to be ended within two days. If the overall score gave no winner (1:1,=1 or 0:0,=3), the result was drawn with a half point given to each player. Wilhelm Steinitz

Wilhelm Steinitz

Wilhelm Steinitz was an Austrian and then American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894. From the 1870s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz was effectively the champion earlier...

 won the tournament after a play-off with Joseph Henry Blackburne

Joseph Henry Blackburne

Joseph Henry Blackburne , nicknamed "The Black Death", dominated British chess during the latter part of the 19th century. He learned the game at the relatively late age of 18 but quickly became a strong player and went on to develop a professional chess career that spanned over 50 years...

 (2–0). Almost everyone now conceded that Steinitz was the strongest chess player in the world.

Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, Baron Albert Salomon von Rothschild

Albert Salomon von Rothschild

Albert Salomon von Rothschild was a banker in Austria-Hungary and a member of the Rothschild banking family of Austria. Businesses that he owned included Creditanstalt and the Northern Railway.-Personal life:...

 and Baron Ignaz von Kolisch

Ignác Kolisch

Baron Ignatz von Kolisch , also Baron Ignaz von Kolisch or báró Kolisch Ignác , was a merchant, journalist and chess master with Jewish roots....

 contributed large sums to the prize fund. The prizes winners were: Steinitz 10 points & winner of playoff (1000 guldens (F) & 200 golden ducats), Blackburne 10 points (600 F), Anderssen 8½ points (300 F), Rosenthal 7½ points (200 F). Scores of the other players were: Paulsen and Bird 6½, Fleissig and Meitner 3½, Heral, Schwarz and Gelbfuhs 3, Pitschel 1.

The results and standings:

#	Player	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Total	Final Total
1	/  Kingdom of England	x	1 1 ½	1 0 1	0 0 ½	1 1 0	1 1	1 1	1 1 0	1 1	1 1 0	1 ½ 1	0 1 1	21.5	10.0
2	/  Bohemia	0 0 ½	x	1 1	1 1	1 1	1 1	1 1	½ ½ 1	½ ½ 1	1 1	1 1	1 1	20.5	10.0
3	/   Prussian Silesia	0 1 0	0 0	x	1 0 1	1 1	1 0 1	1 0 1	0 ½ 1	½ 1 ½	1 1 0	1 1	1 ½ 1	19.0	8.5
4	/  Poland	1 1 ½	0 0	0 1 0	x	0 ½ 1	0 0	1 1 0	1 1	1 1	1 1	0 1 1	1 1	17.0	7.5
5	/ Lippe Principality of Lippe Lippe was a historical state in Germany. It was located between the Weser River and the southeast part of the Teutoburg forest.-History:...	0 0 1	0 0	0 0	1 ½ 0	x	1 1	0 ½ 1	1 1	1 ½ 1	1 ½ 0	1 1	1 1	16.0	6.5
6	/  Kingdom of England	0 0	0 0	0 1 0	1 1	0 0	x	1 0 ½	1 1	1 1	1 1	1 1	1 1	14.5	6.5
7	/  Austria	0 0	0 0	0 1 0	0 0 1	1 ½ 0	0 1 ½	x	½ 1 0	0 1 ½	1 0 ½	½ 1 0	0 0 1	12.0	3.0
8	/  Hungary	0 0 1	½ ½ 0	1 ½ 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	½ 0 1	x	1 0 1	0 1 ½	0 1 0	1 1	11.5	3.5
9	/  Austria	0 0	½ ½ 0	½ 0 ½	0 0	0 ½ 0	0 0	1 0 ½	0 1 0	x	½ 1 1	1 ½ ½	1 1	11.5	3.5
10	/  Hungary	0 0 1	0 0	0 0 1	0 0	0 ½ 1	0 0	0 1 ½	1 0 ½	½ 0 0	x	½ ½ ½	1 ½ ½	10.5	3.0
11	/ Austrian Silesia Austrian Silesia Austrian Silesia , officially the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia was an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Austrian Empire, from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...	0 ½ 0	0 0	0 0	1 0 0	0 0	0 0	½ 0 1	1 0 1	0 ½ ½	½ ½ ½	x	½ 1 1	10.0	3.0
12	/  Austria	1 0 0	0 0	0 ½ 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	1 1 0	0 0	0 0	0 ½ ½	½ 0 0	x	5.0	1.0