The Saint Paul Globe Saint Paul, Minnesota Thursday, January 12, 1899 - Page 7 “Pillsbury Is Here” — The Greatest Chess Player In America Now Visiting St. Paul — Will Play Here Today — Some of the Notable Matches in Which He Has Been a Contestant—Has Beaten Some of the Greatest Players in the World—Defeated Showalter Past Two Seasons for U.S. Championship.
This afternoon, beginning at 2 p. m., and evening, beginning at 7:30 p. m., at the rooms of the St. Paul Chess and Whist club, will appear Harry N. Pillsbury, the undisputed chess champion of the United States. He will give an exhibition in the afternoon of blindfold play, and in the evening will play simultaneously with the strongest players in the city.
Since the days when Charles Mohle traveled around and payed the Twins a visit as operator of Ageeb, the inscrutable Turk, there has been no chess stimulant in the Northwest. But lo a greater—a much greater—than Mohle, or, in fact, any operator of the Turk, is here.
While not a Morphy, for men of peculiar and transcendent genius such as his are meteoric in every class, he is a chess expert and genius of the highest order. Lasker, the present champion of the world, has had to succumb to this young American giant, and that notable victory of his at Nuremberg, in 1896, over Lasker, stands today as one of the most brilliant in the annals of chess.
He was born in Somerville, Mass., Dec. 5, 1872, where, by the by, Barker, the checker champion, was also born.
The following shows his record to date:
1893—New York, impromptu, unplaced; Lasker first.
1893—New York, Masters' tourney, first prize; Hodges second.
1894—New York, Masters' tourney, unplaced; Steinitz first.
1896—Hastings, international, first prize; Tschigorin second.
1895-6—St. Petersburg, Quadrangular, third prize; Lasker first.
1896—Nuremberg, international, third prize with Tarrasch; Lasker first.
1896—Budapest, international, third prize; Tschigorin first.
1898—Vienna, international, second prize; Tarrasch first, after a tie.
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1892—Boston, vs. H. N. Stone; won by 5 to 1.
1692—Boston vs. J. H. Barry; won by 5 to 4.
1896—Vienna. vs. B. Englisch; drawn (five drawn games).
1897—Brooklyn, vs. J. W. Showalter; won by 18 to 8 (United States championship).
1898—New York, vs. J. W. Showalter; won by 7 to 3 (United States championship).
He is a combination of the two schools, a master of theory and tactics and a natural genius in strategic coups. He is cool, quiet, steady in his play, never allowing nervousness or irritability to overcome him at any time, which, perhaps, is a potent factor in his tournament triumphs.
As a blindfold player he has few equals, and is nearly as good as Blackburne, the erst English champion, in his palmiest days, and fully his peer now, having played as many as twelve simultaneously with success, and his complete mastery over the various positions and his ability to make several brilliant coups and combinations at one time is a remarkable feature of his powers of concentration.
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