London, England 1862 (3)




Results
 
Crosstable scores
Name   Edo    Dev.   Score  /  Games   
Anderssen, Adolf    2621 (38) 11.5 / 13 
Paulsen, Louis    2674 (38) 10 / 13 
Owen, John    2481 (48) 10 / 16 
MacDonnell, George    2475 (42) 7 / 11 
Dubois, Serafino    2602 (39) 7 / 11 
Steinitz, Wilhelm    2552 (39) 7.5 / 14 
Barnes, Thomas    2446 (52) 9 / 17 
Hannah, James    2355 (50) 4.5 / 11 
Blackburne, Joseph    2413 (40) 5 / 14 
Löwenthal, Johann    2538 (44) 3 /
Robey, James    2162 (83) 2 / 10 
Deacon, Frederic    2370 (49) 2.5 /
Mongrédien, Augustus (1)    2301 (52) 5 / 18 
Green, Valentine    2272 (35) 4 / 17 
 
 
Match scores
Name   Edo    Dev.   Score  /  Games 
Dubois, Serafino    2602 (39) 1 /
Steinitz, Wilhelm    2552 (39) 0 /
 

Event table notes

Event data
Name: British Chess Association Congress - Grand Tournament
Place: London, England
Start date: 14 June 1862
End date: 31 July 1862
 
Notes:
Draws played are included here, though not counted in official scores. Several games were not played. Discrepancies: Sergeant and Gaige are missing the draw for Mongredien against Anderssen (though it is indicated for Anderssen against Mongredien and the drawn game is known, so just a typgraphic error); Feenstra Kuiper and La Grande Storia degli Scacchi have Dubois winning against Macdonnell, while Sergeant, Gaige, Di Felice and Spinrad have Macdonnell winning by default (not played) against Dubois; Feenstra Kuiper and La Grande Storia degli Scacchi have Barnes-Macdonnell not played, while Sergeant, Gaige, Di Felice and Spinrad have Barnes winning against Macdonnell. I have followed Gaige. Tim Harding's research (see his detailed account of the tournament at ChessCafe, and in Steinitz in London) confirms these conclusions. Harding (in Steinitz in London) also finds evidence from Dubois' own memoirs, that he played a draw against Barnes before beating him. This draw is absent from other sources. Dates also vary between sources. Feenstra Kuiper gives 13-06-1862 to 5-07-1862 from Anderssen's book ('nach Buch Anderssen') as well as 16-06-1862 to 2-08-1862 from Steinitz's book ('nach Buch Steinitz'). Di Felice accepts the former. Gaige gives 16-06-1862 to 31-07-1862. The Illustrated London News of 21 June says that pairings were decided on 13 June for 'the approaching tournaments'. Löwenthal's tournament book (p.liii) says that although 16 June was the official starting date of the tournament, Mongredien and Barnes played their game on 14 Jun. 1862. The same information is given in the Era of 22 Jun. 1862 (p.5). I therefore take this as the start date from the point of view of games played. The Illustrated London News of July 26 says that the tournament 'concluded during the present week' so it seems to have finished before July 26, though it was not finished at the time the July 19 issue of the Illustrated London News was prepared. Also, there is some confusion because Staunton suggests in the July 26 issue that Dubois and Steinitz (and possibly Barnes) needed to play another round to decide 5th and 6th prizes, but Tim Harding suggests that no such play-offs took place. However, G.B. Fraser, in the Dundee Courier and Argus of 16 Aug. 1862, claims that there was a play-off between Steinitz and Dubois and that it was won by Dubois. I will tentatively accept Gaige's end date of July 31 (it is odd that both Gaige and Feenstra Kuiper cite Löwenthal's book of the congress as a source, yet they disagree on details). The Era of 4 Jan. 1863 says that the tournament began 30-06-1862 and lasted 6 days. This is contradicted by the above accounts. Harding's analysis in Steinitz in London of all the complications of this tournament should probably be considered definitive.
 
References
Books
   Di Felice, Chess Results, 1747-1900, page 35
   Féry d'Esclands, Congrès des Échecs 1867, page xlv
   Feenstra Kuiper, 100 Jahre Schachturniere, page 19, 202
   Gaige, Chess Tournament Crosstables I, page 6
   Harding, Eminent Victorian Chess Players, page 211
   Harding, Joseph Henry Blackburne, page 33
   Harding, Steinitz in London, page 38, 49
   Löwenthal and Medley, Chess Congress of 1862
   Reichhelm and Shipley, Chess in Philadelphia, page 142
   Sergeant, Century of British Chess, page 112, 312
Periodicals
   [CPC], vol. 4, no. 7, July 1862, page 196, 203
   [DCA], 16 Aug. 1862
   [Era], vol. 24, no. 1238, 15 June 1862, page 13
   [Era], vol. 24, no. 1239, 22 June 1862, page 5
   [Era], vol. 24, no. 1241, 6 July 1862, page 5, 5, 15
   [Era], vol. 24, no. 1242, 13 July 1862, page 5
   [Era], vol. 24, no. 1243, 20 July 1862, page 5
   [Era], vol. 25, no. 1267, 4 Jan. 1863, page 6
   [ILN], vol. 40, no. 1150, 21 June 1862, page 644
   [ILN], vol. 41, no. 1156, 26 July 1862, page 95
   [LiM], no. 4523, 9 Aug. 1862, page 8
   [NR], vol. 3, no. 6, June 1862, page 182
   [NR], vol. 3, no. 7, July 1862, page 216
   [Sis], vol. 6, 1862, page 247, 262, 329
   [SZ], vol. 17, no. 7, July 1862, page 206, 255
Web
   Harding, Tim.  [London 1862, As It Happened]
   Sericano, C.  [I campionati del mondo fino al 1885]
   Sericano, C.  [London 1862]
   Spinrad, Jeremy P.  [Collected results, 1836-1863]

Tournament information updated: 8 Jan. 2024