Harry Nelson Pillsbury was an extraordinary chess talent, though a combination of bad timing and misfortune has left him largely forgotten. By all accounts he had an incredible memory and his dynamic style of play brought him many wins against some of the greatest players of his time. Pillsbury’s life was marked by poor health which likely kept him from achieving his full potential. Nonetheless, he was still one of the top American players of all time, and by far the greatest threat to Emanuel Lasker’s world-record breaking World Championship reign at the time.
Pillsbury began life in Somerville, Massachusetts, and displayed an aptitude for math and a remarkable memory throughout his grammar school days. He was hoping to attend Harvard, but his mother’s untimely passing in late 1888 during his second year of high school interrupted those plans. He was encouraged by his family to learn chess and he started playing in 1888 at the relatively late age of 16. Boston at that time was home to a very active chess scene that allowed Pillsbury greater opportunities for chess improvement. He began frequenting the Deschapelles Chess Club and quickly attracted the attention of local players.
Pillsbury’s first official tournament was the 4th Annual Massachusetts Chess Association Tournament in April 1890. Unfortunately, the final results of this event are not known but local newspaper coverage made note of his emerging talent and indicated that he had a solid performance. It’s worth noting that official tournaments in that day and age were difficult to come by and for the most part Pillsbury had to settle for rigorous study and occasional informal matches to satisfy his chess appetite.
One of his earliest known successes came in late 1890 at the Deschapelles Chess Club, when Pillsbury decisively defeated his teacher Henry Stone in a match by the score of 5-2. Soon after this match, the club disbanded, and he became a member of the nearby Boston Chess Club.
When Wilhelm Steinitz, the World Champion at the time, visited the club in April 1892, Pillsbury showed his tremendous potential. He not only defeated Steinitz in a simultaneous exhibition, but also won a three-game odds match with a score of 2-1. This visit, along with other successes in informal matches, left supporters of Pillsbury feeling hopeful prior to his first foray into the top level: the 1893 “Impromptu” tournament at the Manhattan Chess Club. Most notably, Emanuel Lasker won all 13 games in this strong event!
Though Pillsbury’s result at this tournament was a fairly average 7/13, his next tournament was a smashing success. In the 1893 “Manhattan Café” event, Pillsbury won the tournament outright, scoring 7/9 against a field of highly regarded masters. This result certainly helped trigger his move to New York City shortly thereafter in 1894, which gave him greater chances to seek his fortune in the world of top-level chess.
Pillsbury’s big break came when the Brooklyn Chess Club chose him as their representative for the 1895 Hastings International tournament and financed his trip abroad. His performance at the first edition in this event’s storied history was no less than amazing. He scored 16½/21 – a veritable marathon by today’s standards – against first-class opponents from a total of eight different countries. His victims included big names such as Steinitz, Tarrasch, Gunsberg, and Mieses, among others.
Having only learned the rules seven years prior, Pillsbury’s rise was akin to a blazing comet. This tournament win – his first event abroad – was especially weighty, as he came on the radar of several more foreign organizers. His time in the elite had begun. Such a swift ascent to the top has rarely been seen, before or since.
Pillsbury continued to gain respect among the chess world and indeed, his next major tournament was of great importance. St. Petersburg 1895-86 was a round robin tournament with six cycles (meaning all play all in six different games). This round robin was between the top four finishers in Hastings 1895 (not including Tarrasch, who elected not to play). In the first half of the tournament Pillsbury’s strength was on full display, with 6½ points from 9 rounds and a full point lead over Lasker.
In the second half of the tournament, however, Pillsbury fell apart completely with an abysmal 1.5/9 score, finishing next to last in the final standings. The cause of his epic crash-and-burn could be put down to various unfortunate circumstances. But most important of all is the fact that Pillsbury caught the flu and was unwell for the rest of the tournament. In addition, Pillsbury opted to not claim his deserved sickness postponements, unlike other players including Lasker and Chigorin. No wonder his level of play fell so dramatically!
Regardless of the reason, the importance of this tournament can hardly be underestimated. Pillsbury finished with a plus score against both Lasker and Chigorin but scored a dismal 1/6 versus Steinitz, leading to a third-place finish. Steinitz soon thereafter gained enough financial support to challenge Lasker to a rematch (which led to their 1896-97 match), no doubt at least partially due to his favorable placement at the Saint Petersburg round robin. If Pillsbury and Steinitz had switched places, the history of chess may have taken an entirely different course.
It was at the Nuremberg 1896 tournament when Pillsbury first showed symptoms of syphilis, the disease that eventually led to his demise. Despite this fact he achieved a 12/18 score, which just goes to show his great natural talent. Only a week after his return to New York, Pillsbury took on reigning U.S. Champion Jackson Showalter in a match. The top American players set out to determine who was the stronger of the two.
It was not a walk in the park for Pillsbury, who was already regarded as one of the top players in the world. After a hard-fought 9½-9½, Pillsbury pulled away with two straight wins to reach ten wins and secure the match. The gracious victor was quoted as saying, “even if I should win, I shall leave Showalter in possession of the (U.S. Championship) title” before the match (American Chess Magazine, June 1897). Even so, the chess public knew who was on top. In a match between the same players a year later Pillsbury asserted his dominance, winning with an 8-4 score.
Even by this time at the young age of 25, Pillsbury was a true chess professional, though perhaps not by modern day definitions. He made a living not through tournament winnings (which remained meager for most until a man named Bobby Fischer came along), but through simultaneous displays, often blindfolded. He played as many as 20 boards at a time blindfolded – an unheard-of feat at the time – and his memory was considered second to none. Another of Pillsbury’s side-hustles was operating the “chess automaton” machine Ajeeb, a knockoff of the famous Turk.
After his first match with Showalter, Pillsbury began an exhibition tour across the U.S. Like Fischer’s 1964 tour, Pillsbury gave blindfold simultaneous exhibitions in cities throughout the country. This surely helped raise the popularity of the game. In between displays, his final great triumph came at Vienna 1898. In this 19-player double round-robin, every top master of the day was in attendance, apart from Lasker. Only Tarrasch equaled his exceptional 27½/36 score, and though Pillsbury was toppled in a playoff match for first place, it could be claimed that in this event his top playing strength was achieved.
Participants in the Vienna 1898 Tournament – Pillsbury is in the front row, third from the left.
Unfortunately, at this point his promising career came screeching to an anticlimactic halt. In 1901, sponsorship emerged for an exhibition match between Pillsbury and World Champion Lasker. Had Pillsbury emerged victorious from this match, it could easily have led to a challenge for the World Championship. But sadly, the match was never to happen. The date of the match was set for May 27 and ostensibly agreed upon by both payers. However, for reasons that are not entirely clear, Lasker arrived five days early, and the faceoff never happened – another great match that could have been. With his health beginning to decline and Lasker seemingly unwilling to accept a match, the World Championship would never again be within his reach.
Despite his brief professional career, Pillsbury was a true pioneer. He helped popularize the very well-known Ruy Lopez for white and he had many fantastic victories in both tournament play and blindfold simuls. The following win against Tarrasch illustrates white’s general plans in this variation quite well even to this day:
It is also interesting to note that Pillsbury played the Berlin defense as black on more than one occasion. While almost every top GM trots it out today, the Berlin remained in relative disuse until Kramnik revived it against Kasparov. Pillsbury was truly ahead of his time in this respect.
Pillsbury was also one of the main proponents of the Queen’s Gambit in the late 19th and early 20th century. His wins considerably boosted the popularity of this opening. While it sometimes may seem that an opening has been around since the dawn of man, it is easy to forget that each one has its pioneers and innovators. Pillsbury assumed this role for the Queen’s Gambit. His impressive win against accomplished chess player and writer Georg Marco from the Paris 1900 tournament showcases his trademark attacking plan perfectly.
Additionally, Pillsbury came up with an innovative idea against his own weapon that bears his name to this day – the Pillsbury Attack. Over the course of time, defenses have been found to counter this attack in the Berlin, but the line hasn’t gone completely out of fashion. Even Lasker could not withstand the pressure!
This last game is not only a brilliant win over the soon-to-be World Champion Lasker, but it also is an excellent illustration of Pillsbury’s novel attacking ideas. In all three of these games, he broke on the kingside with f4-f5, leading to a decisive initiative. Pillsbury was not simply a one-sided attacking player (see the endgame he played against Lasker), but he did relish having the initiative.
Cambridge Springs 1904 was to be the last tournament Pillsbury would ever play and sadly it was not a great sendoff. He failed to achieve an even score, and it was clear that both Pillsbury’s chess game and health were suffering dramatically. One short year later he suffered a major stroke, leading to long-term hospitalization. Having only just regained his strength, in January 1906 another stroke hit him hard, and after six months of struggle he passed away on June 17, 1906, at the far too young age of 33.
It’s impossible to change history, but under different circumstances it’s not unthinkable to imagine Harry Nelson Pillsbury as world champion. He was an immensely talented player as well as an innovator and ambassador of the game who left this world much too early. Though his name remains obscure, Pillsbury’s games and ideas live on today.
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