Edward Winter
Walbrodt’s forename is given in various sources as either Carl or Karl, and we should like to find specimens of his signature. The illustration below comes from opposite page 290 of The Hastings Chess Tournament 1895 by H.C. Cheshire (London, 1896):
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From the unpublished 1994 edition of Jeremy Gaige’s Chess Personalia:
C.N. 3146 (see page 187 of Chess Facts and Fables) quoted an observation by Pillsbury in Saturday Review of 31 August 1895 (regarding Hastings, 1895) that Carl Walbrodt was ‘a very small man also, the smallest of all the competitors’. We then commented:
‘Pillsbury’s remark is confirmed by other descriptions and photographs, with one exception: in the Dresden, 1892 photograph on page 56 of A Picture History of Chess by F. Wilson the player identified as Walbrodt appears taller even than Blackburne’.
The photograph also appeared on the dust-jacket of the Edition Olms compendium of three tournament books (Breslau, 1889, Dresden, 1892 and Kiel, 1893):
A detail of the player in question (from A Picture History of Chess) is given below:
Neil Kaplan (Edenvale, South Africa) now suggests that this figure, identified as Walbrodt by Fred Wilson, was Georg Marco.
For purposes of comparison, we reproduce two parts of the rare group photograph of Hastings, 1895 referred to in C.N. 4663:
C.A. Walbrodt, B. Vergani, A. Albin
H.E. Bird, G. Marco, M. Chigorin
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The group photograph of Dresden, 1892 was the frontispiece in Hundert Jahre Schachturniere by P. Feenstra Kuiper (Amsterdam, 1964). The apparently tall player was, as in Fred Wilson’s later book A Picture History of Chess, identified as Walbrodt:
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Michael Negele (Wuppertal, Germany) notes that in addition to the familiar group photograph of Nuremberg, 1896 – published, for instance, opposite page 49 of Hundert Jahre Schachturniere by P. Feenstra Kuiper (Amsterdam, 1964) – a slightly different picture was on page 279 of Tijdschrift van den Nederlandschen Schaakbond, November 1932:
Our correspondent remarks that the second photograph is relevant to the discussion on Carl Walbrodt’s height (C.N.s 5832 and 5913).
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Eduardo Bauzá Mercére (New York, NY, USA) quotes a remark about Carl Walbrodt in the Brooklyn Daily Standard Union, 1 April 1893:
‘He is about five feet five inches in height.’
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From page 788 of the Illustrated London News, 23 November 1901:
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Eduardo Bauzá Mercére draws attention to a report on page 5 of the Akron Daily Democrat, 22 April 1893:
‘In appearance Walbrodt is small, pale and slender. He is almost frail looking, and his head is the only large thing about him.’
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Carl August Walbrodt – Eugene Delmar
First match game, New York, 1893
Philidor’s Defence
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nc3 d6 4 d4 Nbd7 5 Be2 Be7 6 O-O c6 7 b3 Qc7 8 Bb2 Nf8 9 Qd2 h6 10 Rad1 Bg4 11 dxe5 dxe5
12 Nxe5 (Later examples of a similar sacrifice include Nimzowitsch-Marco, Göteborg, 1920 and Castaldi-Tartakower, Stockholm, 1937.) 12…Rd8 13 Nd3 Bd6 14 e5 Bxe5 15 Bxg4 Nxg4 16 Qe2 h5 17 h3 Ne6 18 Nxe5 Nxe5 19 Nb5 cxb5 20 Bxe5 Qc6 21 Rxd8+ Kxd8 22 Qe3 Ke7 23 Re1 Rh6 24 c4 Rg6 25 f3 bxc4 26 Rc1 Qc5 27 Qxc5+ Nxc5 28 Rxc4 Nd3 29 Bb8 f5 30 Rc3 Nb4 31 Rc7+ Kd8 32 Rxb7 Nxa2 33 Bxa7 Nc1 34 Be3 Nd3 35 Bd4 Ne1 36 Rxg7 Nxf3+ 37 Kf2 Rxg7 38 Bxg7 Nd2 39 b4 Kd7 40 Kg3 Ke6 41 Kh4 f4 42 Kxh5 f3 43 gxf3 Nxf3 44 Kg4 Nd2 45 h4 Nc4 46 h5 Nd6 47 h6 Kf7 48 Kf4 Ne8 49 Be5 Kg6 50 b5 Resigns.
Source: BCM, June 1893, pages 285-286.
Pages 306-307 of the July 1893 BCM reported that a subsequent game in the match (also with Walbrodt playing White) began 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5 Be7 5 Bxf6 Bxf6 6 e5 Be7 7 f4 c5 8 dxc5 Bxc5, after which:
‘…Walbrodt intended to continue with the Steinitz attack, 9 Qg4, but found that his king and queen had been transposed inadvertently in setting up the pieces, so that he could not make this move, for Mr Delmar insisted on the rules in Staunton’s Companion which govern this match being observed, one of which says that if more than four moves have been made before a misplacement is discovered, the position holds good. Walbrodt therefore played instead 9 Nge2, and eventually won the game.’
When selecting the above Philidor’s Defence game for publication we happened to note a discrepancy with an article on the Walbrodt v Delmar match by John S. Hilbert on pages 23-32 of issue 5 of Lasker & His Contemporaries (where a different score was given as the first match game). We have therefore raised the matter with John Hilbert, who responds as follows:
‘The error is mine, and I am not entirely sure how it came about. The correct game-score, the Philidor’s Defence game as given by you, was published in the New York Sun for 24 April 1893. Thank you for, literally, setting the score straight.
As you note, the third match-game between Walbrodt and Delmar was played under rather unusual circumstances. After eight moves it was discovered that Walbrodt had inadvertently reversed the position of his king and queen in setting up the board. Delmar insisted the game be played out with his opponent’s royalty remaining where they were. Despite this somewhat curious handicap, Walbrodt went on to win the game.
Apparently Delmar didn’t learn his lesson about how rigidly requiring rules to be enforced could boomerang. At the Buffalo tournament the following year his sixth-round opponent overslept and faced playing his first 25 moves in ten minutes. His opponent’s roommate, Walter Frere, had also overslept, and his opponent, Philadelphia’s John Welsh Young, was willing to give Frere his full time back if Delmar were prepared to do the same for his opponent. Delmar refused. His opponent, Hermann Helms, made the time-limit, and went on to win. See pages 72-73 and 76 of my book Buffalo 1901 and 1894 Chess Tournaments (Yorklyn, 1996).’
Eugene Delmar – Hermann Helms
Buffalo, August 1894
Queen’s Fianchetto Opening
1 b3 e5 2 Bb2 d5 3 Bxe5 Nc6 4 Bb2 Nf6 5 e3 Be7 6 Nf3 Be6 7 Be2 Qd7 8 d4 Ne4 9 O-O f5 10 Nbd2 Bf6 11 c4 O-O-O 12 Rc1 g5 13 cxd5 Bxd5 14 Bc4 h5 15 Bxd5 Qxd5 (It is hard to imagine what Delmar had in mind when playing his next move.) 16 Rc5 Nxc5 17 Nc4 Ne4 18 Qe2 h4 19 Ne1 g4 20 Nd3 Bg5 21 f3 gxf3 22 gxf3 Rdg8 23 Kh1 Ng3+ 24 hxg3 hxg3+ 25 Kg1 Rh2 26 Qe1 Rgh8 27 Qxg3 R2h3 28 Qg2 b5 29 e4 Qg8 30 Nf2 Rh2 31 Qg3 Bf4 32 Qxg8+ Rxg8+ 33 White resigns.
Source: Brooklyn Standard Union, 17 August 1894.
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C.A. Walbrodt faced 60 opponents in Berlin on 9 December 1900, scoring +49 –3 =8 (Deutsche Schachzeitung, February 1901, page 57). On 29 June 1911 Hans Fahrni played 100 games simultaneously in Munich (+ 55 –6 =39). A detailed report, under the heading ‘Ein Weltrekord im Schach’ was published, without any games, on pages 9-12 of Schachjahrbuch für 1911. I. Teil by L. Bachmann (Ansbach, 1912).
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See Large Simultaneous Displays.
Carl August Walbrodt (Chess Monthly, January 1893, page 129)
From page 135 of The Greatest Ever chess opening ideas by Christoph Scheerer (London, 2008):
We are aware of no ‘argument’ about the venue of the Walbrodt game, which was given in C.N. 1996 (see page 151 of Kings, Commoners and Knaves). He played the game in Havana on 18 or 19 February 1893 against four Cuban amateurs: Enrique Conill, Enrique Ostolaza, López and Herrera. In another encounter involving the same players Walbrodt was Black.
As shown below, the ‘Marshall’s Gambit’ game was published on pages 22-23 of the February 1893 issue of The Chess World (a magazine based in Washington, DC) and on pages 120-121 of Deutsches Wochenschach, 2 April 1893:
The Deutsche Schachzeitung (pages 110-111 of the April 1893 issue) gave only the game in which the Allies had the white pieces:
We believe that the German magazines’ spellings of the name Ostolaza were incorrect. See page 23 of Ajedrez en Cuba by Carlos A. Palacio (Havana, 1960).
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We offer further information on a game given on pages 108-109 of Kings, Commoners and Knaves.
‘A brilliant gem’ was Steinitz’s comment on page 24 of the New York Daily Tribune, 26 March 1893:
Celso Golmayo y Zúpide – Carl August Walbrodt
Havana, 6 March 1893
Scotch Game
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 d6 5 Bb5 Bd7 6 O-O Nf6 7 Nc3 Be7 8 f4 O-O 9 Nxc6 Bxc6 10 Bd3 Qd7 11 Kh1 Rae8 12 h3 d5 13 e5 d4 14 Kh2 dxc3 15 exf6 Bxf6 16 bxc3 Bxc3 17 Rb1 Qd5 18 Qg4 f5 19 Qg3 Rf6 20 Qf2
20...Be1 21 Rxe1 Rxe1 22 Rb4 Rxc1 23 Bc4 Rg6 24 Qd2
24...Rd1 25 Qxd1 Rxg2+ 26 Kh1 Rd2+ 27 Qf3 Qxc4 28 White resigns.
The game was quite widely published at the time (e.g. on page 124 of the London Chess Fortnightly, 30 March-14 April 1893, pages 136-138 of the May 1893 Deutsche Schachzeitung and pages 291-292 of the September-October 1893 American Chess Monthly). A few years later it was chosen for the performance in Berlin of a melodrama The Chess Contest at Alba Terra. From page 105 of the American Chess Magazine, July 1897:
The game-score was on pages 121-122 of the same issue.
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Addition on 29 November 2025:
A well-known game commonly misdated:
1 e4 e5 2 f4 d5 3 exd5 e4 4 d3 Qxd5 5 Qe2 f5 6 Nc3 Bb4 7 Bd2 Bxc3 8 Bxc3 Nf6 9 Bxf6 gxf6 10 Qh5+ Ke7 11 O-O-O Qf7 12 Qh6 Rg8 13 dxe4 fxe4
14 Nf3 exf3 15 Bc4 Qxc4 16 Qxh7+ Qf7 17 Rhe1+ Be6 18 Rxe6+ Kxe6 19 Qe4 mate.
Our source is page 114 of Walbrodt’s Internationales Schach-Journal, 15 September-1 November 1898:
Black’s identity is unclear. ‘Prof. Loew’ was given when the game appeared on page 82 of the March 1900 Deutsche Schachzeitung.
Addition on 30 November 2025:
From pages 5-6 of the first (15 April 1897) issue of the Internationales Schach-Journal:
Carl August Walbrodt – Wilhelm Cohn
Berlin tournament, 27 January 1897
Alekhine’s Defence (‘Irregular Opening’)
1 e4 Nf6 2 e5 Ng8 3 d4 d6 4 Nf3 Bg4 5 h3 Bh5 6 Bd3 dxe5 7 dxe5 Nc6 8 e6 Qd6 9 exf7+ Bxf7 10 O-O O-O-O 11 Ng5 Nh6 12 Nxf7 Nxf7 13 Qg4+ Kb8 14 Be4 Nfe5 15 Qe2 Nd4 16 Qe1 g5 17 Be3 g4 18 Bxd4 Qxd4 19 Nc3 Bg7 20 hxg4 Nxg4 21 Qe2 h5 22 Rad1 Qf6 23 Rxd8+ Rxd8
24 Qb5 c6 25 Qxh5 Ne5 26 Rd1 Rf8 27 Qe2 Rh8 28 g3 Qg5 29 Bg2 Ng4 30 Ne4 Qh5 31 c3 Rf8 32 Rd3 Bh6 33 b4 Qh2+ 34 Kf1 Qh5 35 a4 Qg6 36 Kg1 Ne5 37 Rd1 Bg7 38 f4 Ng4 39 Nc5 Re8 40 Be4 Qh5 41 Rd7 Kc8 42 Bxc6 Resigns.
The game appeared with brief notes.
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Copyright Edward Winter. All rights reserved.
