Dresden 1926
Ten masters gathered in April 1926 to celebrate the Dresden chess club's fiftieth anniversary, among them three contenders for the world championship. Aron Nimzowitsch swept the field with an astonishing 8½ from 9 — a point and a half clear of Alexander Alekhine, who did not lose a game — and produced two of the most celebrated games of his career along the way.
◈A golden jubilee
The Dresden chess club, founded in 1876, marked its fiftieth anniversary in 1926 with a chess congress whose centrepiece was a masters tournament held from 4 to 14 April. The invitation list was formidable: three men then regarded as contenders for the world championship — Aron Nimzowitsch, Alexander Alekhine, and Akiba Rubinstein — headed a ten-player field completed by Savielly Tartakower, Walther von Holzhausen, Paul Johner, Fred Yates, Friedrich Sämisch, Max Blümich, and Lajos Steiner. First prize was 1,000 marks, and the organisers added brilliancy prizes paid, in the fashion of the day, in cigarettes.
◈Eight and a half from nine
The race was close among the three favourites in the early rounds, but Nimzowitsch pulled relentlessly away. He won eight games and conceded only a single draw — to Alekhine — for a near-perfect 8½/9. Alekhine himself went through the tournament undefeated on 7/9 and still finished a full point and a half behind; Rubinstein took third on 6½ despite two losses. It was one of the great winning performances of the era, and a year before Alekhine won the world title it was Nimzowitsch who stood above him on the table.
◈Games for the anthologies
Two games from Dresden entered the canon. Against Paul Johner, Nimzowitsch defied ordinary development to shuttle his queen across the board to h7, strangling White on both wings before the position collapsed — a blockading masterpiece that Bent Larsen later chose as his favourite game in Learn from the Grandmasters. It earned the first brilliancy prize of 5,000 cigarettes, a comic reward for a man famous for detesting tobacco smoke. Nimzowitsch's win over Rubinstein, an extended sequence of creative manoeuvres, was a game he ranked among the very best of his career; both his and Alekhine's victories over Rubinstein shared the second brilliancy prize.
◈Final Standings
| # | Player | Score | Record | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nimzowitsch, Aron | 8½/9 | +8 -0 =1 | games → |
| 2 | Alekhine, Alexander | 7/9 | +5 -0 =4 | games → |
| 3 | Rubinstein, Akiba | 6½/9 | +6 -2 =1 | games → |
| 4 | Tartakower, Saviely | 5/9 | +3 -2 =4 | games → |
| 5 | Von Holzhausen, Walther | 4/9 | +3 -4 =2 | games → |
| 6 | Johner, Paul F | 3½/9 | +3 -5 =1 | games → |
| =7 | Saemisch, Friedrich | 3/9 | +2 -5 =2 | games → |
| =7 | Yates, Frederick Dewhurst | 3/9 | +2 -5 =2 | games → |
| 9 | Bluemich, Max | 2½/9 | +2 -6 =1 | games → |
| 10 | Steiner, Lajos | 2/9 | +2 -7 =0 | games → |
Cross Table
| Rank | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nimzowitsch, Aron | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | Alekhine, Alexander | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 3 | Rubinstein, Akiba | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 4 | Tartakower, Saviely | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | |
| 5 | Von Holzhausen, Walther | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 6 | Johner, Paul F | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 7 | Saemisch, Friedrich | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | |
| 8 | Yates, Frederick Dewhurst | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 9 | Bluemich, Max | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | Steiner, Lajos | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Each cell shows the row player's per-game results against the column player (in round order). ● = same player.