The Essay: Cities on the Brink

Series in which BBC news correspondents present personal perspectives on the capital cities of the major European powers that, later in 1914, would face each other in the First World War. 4. BBC Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg finds a revealing connection between the St Petersburg of 1914 and its counterpart of today. Foreshadowing the conflict to come across the European continent, he tells the remarkable story of the Grand International Masters' Chess Tournament of 1914, with its starring cast of Russian, German, French, British and American competitors and its dramas of who won and who lost. But the tournament also demonstrated the Russian passion for chess that continues to this day and helps define its national identity as well as the fierce competition with other countries