1927 Imperial Chess Club Masters, 7?-21 November, 62 Brooke St, London

1927 British Empire Club Masters		Draw No.	Nat'y	1	2	3	4	5	6	Total
1	Aron Nimzowitsch	4	DEN	&;	1 ½	1 1	1 ½	½ 1	1 1	8½
2	Fred Dewhirst Yates	1	ENG	0 ½	&;	1 0	½ ½	1 1	1 1	6½
3	Victor Buerger	6	ENG	0 0	0 1	&;	0 1	1 ½	1 1	5½
4	William Winter	5	ENG	0 ½	½ ½	1 0	&;	1 1	0 1	5½
5	Maurice Edward Goldstein	2	ENG	½ 0	0 0	0 ½	0 0	&;	1 ½	2½
6	John Harold Morrison	3	ENG	0 0	0 0	0 0	1 0	0 ½	&;	1½

Sources for this tournament are scant. BCM barely mentions it other than giving players' scores (January 1928, p5) and gives no game scores. The Times gives us individual results but no detailed reports, dates or game scores. (Their columnist may have been fully occupied with coverage of the Capablanca-Alekhine match.) Results for the tournament were given in the Times editions of 10th (rounds 1 and 2), 14th (rounds 3 and 4), 21st (rounds 5-9) and 24th November (round 10). The Manchester Guardian provides some round reports and game scores. Nimzowitsch's book Chess Praxis provides some game scores as does Ray Keene's book Aron Nimzowitsch - A Reappraisal. I'm not at all sure of the tournament start and end dates. The dates given are tentative, based on when reports of results appeared in the press. It is probable that there was no play on either intervening Sunday (9 and 16 November) and perhaps one other day was set aside to clear up adjournments. Any help with dating appreciated. JS

Round by round scores (n.b. colours and exact dates not known for all - where colours and round are known, given in bold). However, Skakbladet gives the crosstable in what appears to be draw order. I have tried to deduce pairings and colours in accordance with standard Berger pairings, and am fairly confident that these are correct.

Round	Date	Pairing 1	Pairing 2	Pairing 3
Round 1		Yates (1) beat Buerger (6)	Goldstein (2) lost to Winter (5)	Morrison (3) lost to Nimzowitsch (4)
Round 2		Buerger (6) lost to Nimzowitsch (4)	Winter (5) lost to Morrison (3)	Yates (1) beat Goldstein (2)
Round 3		Goldstein (2) lost Buerger (6)	Morrison (3) 0-1 Yates (1)	Nimzowitsch (4) beat Winter (5)
Round 4		Buerger (6) 0-1 Winter (5)	Yates (1) 0-1 Nimzowitsch (4)	Goldstein (2) beat Morrison (3)
Round 5		Morrison (3) lost to Buerger (6)	Nimzowitsch (4) ½-½ Goldstein (2)	Winter (5) drew Yates (1)
Round 6		Buerger (6) beat Yates (1)	Winter (5) beat Goldstein (2)	Nimzowitsch (4) beat Morrison (3)
Round 7		Nimzowitsch (4) beat Buerger (6)	Morrison (3) lost to Winter (5)	Goldstein (2) lost to Yates (1)
Round 8	18? November	Buerger (6) drew Goldstein (2)	Yates (1) 1-0 Morrison (3)	Winter (5) drew Nimzowitsch (4)
Round 9	20 November	Winter (5) 0-1 Buerger (6)	Nimzowitsch (4) ½-½ Yates (1)	Morrison (3) drew Goldstein (2)
Round 10	21 November	Buerger (6) beat Morrison (3)	Goldstein (2) 0-1 Nimzowitsch (4)	Yates (1) drew Winter (5)

Given that this was a double-cycle events, this gives two awkward colour sequences for no.s 1 and 4 in the draw in the middle rounds - the same colour in three consecutive games in rounds 5-7 for both of them. I believe these days it is usual to switch the last two rounds to avoid this in double-cycle events, but this didn't happen here.

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Nimzowitsch v Romih, November 1927

After this tournament, Nimzowitsch appears to have stayed on in London for a few days, during which time he played two games with Massimiliano Romi, or Max Romih as he was then known. Nimzowitsch won the first one of the two – of which the game score is available – and the second was drawn. Sources are scant but evidence suggests this was a formal match. The game score of Nimzowitch's win is appended to the file.

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File Updated

Date	Notes
7 July 2022	First upload. Eight of the 30 games plus a crosstable. I've also appended the score of the game Nimzowitsch 1-0 Romi which was played a week or so after the tournament.
8 July 2022	Ulrich Tamm has helped greatly with providing sources indicating draw and round numbers which I think now make sense. Also, he has pointed me to another partial score, of Winter 1-0 Goldstein, rd 6. Many thanks to Ulrich.