Talk:Andria Dadiani

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1)Prince Dadian of Mingrelia was NOT a Russian candidate for the Bulgarian crown in 1887. That honor was given to his brother, Prince Nikolai of Mingrelia.

2) It distorts things to say that Dadian payed Chigorin not to play. It would be more accurate to say that Dadian refused to remain part of the tournament, physically and financially, if Chigorin had been allowed to participate. Chigorin, who had traveled to Monte Carlo in good faith, was expediently removed from the list. Dadian payed him the $1500 in compensation.

3) "He had played at Paris, Rome, Kiev and Tbilisi tournaments before he won the Saint Petersburg amateur chess tournament in 1881-1882." This is inaccurate. Before the 1881 and the 1882 tournaments in St. Petersburg, Dadain had played Barnes in Homberg, then Kolisch in Homberg and Paris around 1967 ; probably, but not likely any serious games, at Heidelberg where he was a student around 1872; But in 1873 in Paris, he played "Prince de Villafranca in a match seven games to two and one draw, defeated Count Casabianca, M. de Vaufrelan, Jean Preti, and Ferry d'Esclande." In 1874 he played in St. Peterburg against "W. Liselle in a match five games to one and one draw; of Schoumoff he won the only game they played; he beat Polner one game and a draw out of two games."

After the 1881 and 1882 tournaments, both of which Dadian won without a single loss in spite of strong competition, he won a 5 point match against M. de Marcovan +4=2.

Besides that "At a banquet given to the players after the Vienna Tournament, 1882, at the Kahlenberg by Baron Kolisch, the Prince, however, did play blindfold, and with such precision and skill that the masters present complimented him highly."

In 1880 he played even against Serafina Dubois. During an 1882 visit to Paris, he beat M. Goudjou and Count Pernes, and won a series of five games of M.A. Clerc.

"In 1888, at Tiflis, he beat M.A. de Smitten in a set match of seven games up, by 7 to 2 and 3 draws, as well as a large majority of off-hand games."

4) "He was the president of the 1903-1904 Monte Carlo international tournaments and according to the common, though unreliable beliefs, invited the Russian chess master Mikhail Chigorin to play but later paid him 1,500 francs (greater than 3rd prize money) not to play because Chigorin had published analysis of one of the Prince's games, pointing out he had made gross errors. A valuable art object was to go to the winner of a short match between the 1st and 2nd place finishers (Tarrasch and Maroczy). The players wanted a play for money also. This annoyed the Prince who gave the art object to the 3rd place finisher (Pillsbury). According to more accurate accounts, Dadiani refused to remain part of the tournament, physically and financially, if Chigorin had been allowed to participate. Chigorin, who had traveled to Monte Carlo in good faith, was expediently removed from the list. Dadiani paid him the $1500 in compensation."

This entire passage is terribly misleading. Dadian helped sponsor Monte Carlo 1901, 1902 and 1903 for certain. I'm not sure about 1904. Leopold Hoffer wrote:

        As to the Tchigorin incident, the facts are: H.S.H. Prince Dadian of
        Mingrelia (president) did not threaten nor intimate "to withdraw his
        handsome prize." The Prince had reason to be seriously offended in
        consequence of disparaging and libelous statements made by Tchigorin
        in the Russian press about the Prince not only as a chess player. In
        these circumstances the Prince did not desire to meet M. Tchigorin,
        and tendered his resignation as president of the tournament. Now
        there was the dilemma ! The Prince had taken a deal of trouble about
        the success of the tournament, and journeyed from Russia to Monte
        Carlo to witness the play. But Tchigorin also journeyed from
        St. Petersburg to play in the tournament, and had a right to play,
        or to receive compensation. The Prince, therefore, offered to
        compensate him both for the prize which he might have won, and
        for expenses incurred. He gave 1500 francs, and as the second prize
        at Monte Carlo amounted to a little over 1100 francs, Tchigorin was
        amply compensated, and said so in the receipt which he gave when
        the money was handed over to him. Since then several statements
        have been made that the administration and not the Prince had paid
        the above amount to Tchigorin ; this is not correct. The administration
        was not even cognizant of the incident—it was entirely a matter
        between Tchigorin, the Committee, and the Prince.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Batgirl (talk • contribs) 17:09, 24 October 2010 (UTC)