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Library / Games / Wilhelm Steinitz vs Curt von Bardeleben
Hastings International · Hastings · 17 August 1895 · ECO C54

Steinitz vs von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895

Wilhelm Steinitz 1–0 Curt von Bardeleben
Opening: Italian Game, Classical
Wilhelm Steinitz vs Curt von Bardeleben C54
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Hastings International, 17 August 1895

The Hastings 1895 tournament was the first major international chess event in England — a four-week round-robin featuring nearly every world-class player alive. The 12th round game between Wilhelm Steinitz (the former world champion, then 59) and Curt von Bardeleben (a leading German master) produced one of the most elegant combinations of the era. It ends with the white rook delivering a series of checks that von Bardeleben could not face — he simply stood up and left the playing hall rather than play the resigning move.

The opening is a classical Italian Game with 4.c3 and the central break 5.d4. Steinitz, who had spent twenty years promoting the principle that small structural advantages decide the game, here finds himself with a tactical position. After 22.Rxe7+ the rook is en prise to the queen, but capturing loses the queen to a discovered attack; the king must walk, and each step costs a tempo.

The mate-in-ten that follows from move 24 was published in Tarrasch’s opening manuals as a model finish. Von Bardeleben’s silent departure became chess folklore — Steinitz reportedly demonstrated the mating sequence to the tournament’s spectators using the abandoned board.

The mating combination

22.Rxe7+! Kf8 23.Rf7+ Kg8 24.Rg7+ Kh8 25.Rxh7+ — with Black to move. The follow-up mate runs 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 combination was calculated entirely at the board; the engines have since confirmed every move.

Hastings 1895 was won by Harry Nelson Pillsbury — an American on his international debut — with Lasker second and Steinitz half a point behind. The Steinitz–Bardeleben game has outlived all the other results of the tournament in chess memory.

Game record

This game between Wilhelm Steinitz and Curt von Bardeleben was played at the Hastings International in Hastings in 1895. The opening was the Italian Game, Classical (ECO C54). The game lasted 25 moves, ending with White winning. It is part of the nineteenth-century chess record.