The Bradford Tournament. A Selection of Games played in the Internatinal Master's Tournament of the British Chess Association and Yorkshire County Chess Club, Bradford, Yorkshire, 16th August, 1888

80 pages with tables and index. Octavo (8 1/4" x 5 1/4") bound in original publisher blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine. (Betts: 25-21; Bibliotheca van der Linde-Niemeijeriana: 5224) First edition.

It was in Bradford in 1888 that the British Chess Association held an international master-tournament and the British Amateur Championship. This was the first international tournament ever held in the provinces. For Bradford to be chosen was a tribute to the town and to its Chess Club. Indeed, no chess club in the provinces can boast a greater honor. Until then there had been four international tournaments in this country-1851, 1862, 1872, and 1883, the last three of which had been organised by the British Chess Association. All four had been held in London. To increase the interest in chess the B.C.A. had decided that master-tournaments should be held alternately in the capital and the provinces, but at first, it could find no provincial committee which would undertake the responsibility. Then the Yorkshire County Chess Club showed initiative. It offered to make arrangements for a tournament in Bradford. There were eighteen entries, but one of them, the Rev. A. B. Skipworth retired after five rounds and his score was cancelled. The others included six masters resident in Britain—Henry Bird, Joseph Black­burne, Amos Burn, Isidor Gunsberg, James Mason and William Pollock—and Captain George Mac­kenzie, who came from New York, Jean Taubenhaus (Paris), Curt Von Bar­deleben (Berlin) and Miksa Weiss (Vienna). There were a number of amateurs, among them J. E. Hall, a member of the Bradford club. Gunsberg, who scored 13 points out of a possible 16, was the winner, Mackenzie with 12 was second, and Bardeleben and Mason with 11 were equal third. Hall was sixteenth with 3 points. He defeated three amateurs and drew with Bardeleben. There were thirteen competitors in the British Amateur Championship.

Condition:

Corners bumped, some foxing, age toning to preliminary pages else a very good copy of one of the scarcer tournament titles.