This is the first of two posts on games where a player deliberately runs down his clock in a position which he knows is lost. This post is based on online research and I am indebted in particular to the chess historian Edward Winter.
Count Curt Carl Alfred von Bardeleben (1861–1924) was a German nobleman and one of the foremost German chess players of his day. He led an interesting life. He gave up his law studies to become a professional player and came first or equal first in a number of tournaments in the 1890s and 1900s. in 1908 he lost a match to Alekhine, who described him as a “charming old chap” who lacked the will to win. The chess player and author Edward Lasker commented on his shabby vintage suit and his propensity to escape his numerous debts by marrying and divorcing rich women who wanted to buy into his title. He died in 1924 when he fell out of a window – whether intentionally or not is unclear.
His most famous game was in the international tournament at Hastings in 1895. A very strong event, featuring all the top players of the day, it was won by the American Harry Nelson Pillsbury with 16.5/21. In round 10, von Bardeleben was Black against the former World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz. This is how the game proceeded (C54, Italian Game):
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3
A typical 19th century Romantic opening. Now theory recommends 7…Nxe4 8.0-0 Bxc3 9.d5 Bf6 10.Re1 Ne7 11.Rxe4 d6 12.Bg5 Bxg5 13.Nxg5 h6 14.Qe2 hxg5 15.Re1 Be6 16.dxe6 f6 and White does not have enough for the pawn.
7…d5 8.exd5 Nxd5 9.O-O Be6 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Bxd5 Bxd5 12.Nxd5 Qxd5 13.Bxe7 Nxe7 14.Re1 f6 15.Qe2 Qd7 16.Rac1 c6
Black’s king is stuck in the centre. White sacrifices the d-pawn to bring his knight into the attack. Play now becomes concrete (modern GM-speak for forcing and tactical).
17.d5 cxd5 18.Nd4 Kf7 19.Ne6 Rhc8 20.Qg4 g6 21.Ng5+ Ke8 22.Rxe7+
Steinitz has initiated a beautiful forcing sequence. Black cannot take the rook.
22…Kf8 23.Rf7+ Kg8 24.Rg7+ Kh8 25.Rxh7+
At this point, von Bardeleben got up and silently left the room. Tournament officials were unable to persuade him to return. 50 minutes later, his flag fell, and Steinitz claimed a win on time. He then immediately demonstrated a beautiful mate in 10 moves, which Black can avoid only by giving up his queen:
25…Kg8 26.Rg7+ Kh8 27.Qh4+ Kxg7 28.Qh7+ Kf8 29.Qh8+ Ke7 30.Qg7+ Ke8 31.Qg8+ Ke7 32.Qf7+ Kd8 33.Qf8+ Qe8 34.Nf7+ Kd7 35.Qd6#
The crowd responded with loud and prolonged applause. Steinitz was awarded the brilliancy prize for the best game of the tournament.
Von Bardeleben was roundly criticised for his decision to lose on time in this way. In the Frankfurt General Anzeiger in November 1895, Dr Siegbert Tarrasch commented as follows (translated):
“To our regret, we have to say that Herr von Bardeleben provoked the indignation of all participants in the tourney by the singular way in which he used to surrender lost games. As soon as he became conscious of having a losing position, he followed the advice given in a well-known humouristic chess couplet –
‘Whenever your game is bad and sore, Then sneak out and return no more.’
He simply vanished and left it to the committee to declare the game lost by time-limit. Thereby Herr von Bardeleben has at least acquired the merit of adding one more to the many analogies between chess and war – the flight before the enemy.”
A commentator in the Yorks O. Budget noted:
“Bardeleben was almost as notorious a drawing master as Schlechter, and he introduced a method of resigning a lost game by the simple device of walking silently and without explanation from the board and allowing his time to run, which added a new verb “to bardeleben” to the vocabulary of his chess contemporaries.”
And from the British chess player and author Gerald Abrahams, in Teach Yourself Chess (1948), which introduced me to the Steinitz–von Bardeleben game, here is a quotation which has stayed with me down the many years since I read the book as a teenager:
“At this point Von Bardeleben is reported to have made no comment but to have put on his hat and quietly walked home, leaving his opponent to win by effluxion of time. That was a Teutonic way of showing that he knew what was coming.”
And yet, von Bardeleben has been pilloried unfairly. Edward Winter draws attention to the annotation of the final move of the game by a fellow-competitor, W H K Pollock, in La Strategie, from 15 October 1895:
“La partie a été terminée ici, M. de Bardeleben s’est retiré sans abandonner et la partie a été adjugée à M. Steinitz à l’expiration du temps limité. M. de Bardeleben a dit à son adversaire que sa conduite était pour protester contre les applaudissements souvent trop prolongés dont les visiteurs saluaient les victorieux et c’est à la suite de cet incident que le Comité du tournoi a défendu toute démonstration.”
As Winter points out, von Bardeleben made his silent exit “because of the disturbance caused by spectators applauding winners of games, and he informed Steinitz personally of this.” The tournament organisers responded promptly with a notice asking spectators to refrain from applause at the end of the game on the basis that foreign players would be unused to it and in any case the players found it annoying. However, von Bardeleben’s reputation seems not to have recovered (in so far as it matters to anyone apart from chess historians).