The Tarrasch–Mieses Match
Berlin, 9 September to 5 October 1916
Origin: The May Games
In the spring of 1916, Tarrasch undertook a chess tour through German cities. Mieses invited him to Café Kerkau in Berlin on 14 May 1916, where they played two serious games. Mieses won the first with Black after 38 moves (French Defence against Tarrasch’s poorly chosen 3.Bd3 setup); the second was drawn.
In his newspaper columns, Mieses proclaimed victory in the “little match.” Tarrasch demanded a correction; the papers refused. Tarrasch then challenged Mieses to a proper match to “restore his wounded honour.”
Format and Conditions
Played from 9 September to 5 October 1916 at Café Kerkau, Behrenstrasse/Friedrichstrasse in Berlin. Victory was originally set at five wins, later extended to seven. Time control: 15 moves per hour. Playing hours: weekdays 4:30 to 9:30 pm, Sundays 3:30 to 9:00 pm. Rest days: Mondays and Tuesdays, plus three optional rest days per player.
Referee: Emanuel Lasker, reigning world champion. Lasker opened the match with a speech but never had to intervene as arbiter during the entire four weeks.
Organiser: Jacques Mieses himself, with Josef König (café proprietor) as host and Bernhard Kagan (publisher) in the background. Treasurer: Paul Dyrenfurth.
Prizes
The German Chess Federation declined to sponsor the match; the players’ registered letter went unanswered. Three private donations materialised:
- 100 marks from Otto Rosenfeld, a Stuttgart industrialist (chairman of the Swabian Chess Federation), for the most beautiful game. Awarded to Tarrasch (game 3).
- 100 marks from Kurt Steinweg, a chess enthusiast from Cologne, for the best-played game. Awarded to Mieses (game 8).
- Half a pound of butter, donated by Fritz Neuhaus, a medical student from Herleshausen in Thuringia. By 1916, Germany was deep in the “Turnip Winter” – the Allied naval blockade had caused severe food shortages, and butter had become a near-unobtainable luxury. Given the length of the match, the players pragmatically divided the butter between them, “in the spirit of the kind donor” (Tarrasch).
The Match
| Game | Date | Colour | Moves | Opening | Result | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 Sept | Tarrasch | 36 | French Defence | 1–0 Tarrasch | 4½ hrs |
| 2 | 10 Sept | Mieses | 42 | Scotch Game | Draw | 4 hrs |
| 3 | 13 Sept | Tarrasch | 20 | French Defence | 1–0 Tarrasch | 2 hrs |
| 4 | 14 Sept | Mieses | 31 | Scotch Game | 0–1 Tarrasch | 4 hrs |
| 5 | 16 Sept | Tarrasch | 31 | French Defence | 1–0 Tarrasch | 3½ hrs |
| 6 | 17 Sept | Mieses | 26 | Scotch Game | Draw | 3 hrs |
| 7 | 20 Sept | Tarrasch | 32 | French Defence | Draw | 3 hrs |
| 8 | 21/22 Sept | Mieses | 57 | Scotch Game | 1–0 Mieses | 6½ hrs |
| 9 | 23/24 Sept | Tarrasch | 41 | French Defence | 1–0 Tarrasch | 5½ hrs |
| 10 | 24/27 Sept | Mieses | 37 | Scotch Game | 0–1 Tarrasch | 5 hrs |
| 11 | 28/29 Sept | Tarrasch | 56 | French Defence | Draw | 7½ hrs |
| 12 | 1/4 Oct | Mieses | 64 | Scotch Game | 1–0 Mieses | 8 hrs |
| 13 | 5 Oct | Tarrasch | 19 | French Defence | 1–0 Tarrasch | 2½ hrs |
| Final score | Tarrasch 7, Mieses 2, 4 draws | |||||
Illness and Extension
Mieses contracted a catarrh from the third to the fifth game and lost 0–3 during this phase, which Tarrasch himself described as decisive in his preface. A devoted regular spectator named Dora Hiller, whose greatest pleasure was her daily visit, suggested before the sixth game that the format be extended to seven wins.
Tarrasch later fell ill with influenza and missed “the simplest winning continuations” in the eleventh game.
Mieses’ Two Wins
Both of Mieses’ victories came with the Scotch Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4).
Game 8: Mieses Wins the Beauty Prize
This game was awarded the special prize of one hundred marks by a Cologne jury led by Kurt Steinweg as the “best-played game” of the match. Tarrasch considered the award questionable and noted drily in his match book that it “may have caused general head-shaking.” The annotated score is taken from that match book and contains Tarrasch’s own assessment from Black’s perspective.
Game 12: Eight Hours, a Rook Sacrifice, Influenza
According to Tarrasch’s own analysis, Black should have won this game several times over. On move 26, f7-f5 offered a decisive simplification. Tarrasch missed it and attributes this and subsequent errors openly to his influenza: “In the first five games, such oversights never occurred; but from then on, suffering from influenza and its after-effects, I tired easily.” Mieses defended the nominally lost position with the “brilliant move” 41.Qf5! for over twenty moves until winning in a pawn endgame.
Press Coverage
The match received regular coverage in the Berlin press (Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, Berliner Tageblatt, Vossische Zeitung, B.Z. am Mittag) and across Germany (Münchener Neueste Nachrichten, Fränkischer Kurier, Breslauer Zeitung, Frankfurter Zeitung). Internationally: Berlingske Tidende (Copenhagen), the Stockholm press, and in the United States the Washington Post and the Commercial Appeal (Memphis).
Tarrasch on Mieses’ Match Career
In the preface to his match book, Tarrasch drew an ironic yet respectful balance of Mieses’ career in matches: against Janowski and Walbrodt he drew (both “got off with a black eye”), Marshall won 5–4 (“if one can still call that a victory”), against Leonhardt and Schlechter Mieses was the winner, and against Rubinstein he won the first three games “in brilliant style” before losing “honourably” 5–3.
His conclusion: “So Mieses need not be ashamed of his failure; he finds himself in the best of company.”
Sources
- Siegbert Tarrasch, Der Schachwettkampf Tarrasch–Mieses im Herbst 1916, Veit & Comp., Leipzig 1916. 102 pages. Preface pp. 1–7. Game 8 with annotations pp. 45–54, game 12 with annotations pp. 75–85.
- Washington Post, 5 August 1917, p. 7 (game 13).
- Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 24 December 1916, p. 19 (Mieses’ winning game).
- Tidskrift för Schack 1916.
Tarrasch’s match book from 1916 – the primary source for this match.
View bookFrom the Upcoming Biography
The Tarrasch–Mieses match of 1916 will be covered in full in the Mieses biography by Johannes Geppert (JUG Verlag, Q1 2027). All thirteen games with complete annotations, press reports and previously unpublished sources.
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