Edward (Eduard) Issakovich Gerstenfeld (January 1915 in

Lemberg Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

– December 1943 (?) in

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don ( rus, Ростов-на-Дону, r=Rostov-na-Donu, p=rɐˈstof nə dɐˈnu) is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East ...

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

) was a Polish

chess master A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pre ...

. Born into a Jewish family in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukra ...

, Galicia (then

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

), he came 3rd, behind

Henryk Friedman Henryk Friedman (Friedmann) (1903–1942) was a Polish chess master. He lived in Lviv (Lwów, Lemberg). In 1926–1934, Friedman won seven times in succession the Championship of Lviv but 1930, when he took 2nd place behind Stepan Popel. Friedman ...

and Izaak Schächter, in the Lviv City championships in 1933. He came 3rd at Lviv 1933 (LKSz, Oskar Piotrowski won), 7th in the Lviv City-ch, and came first in the Lviv City-ch in 1935. In the period between 1935 and 1939, he lived in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

. In 1935, Gerstenfeld shared 4th with

Jakub Kolski Jakub (Josek) Kolski (1899, Łódź – 1941, Warsaw) was a Polish chess master. In the period 1920-1930s, Kolski was one of the strongest Łódź chess players. In 1922, he won ahead of Dawid Daniuszewski in Łódź. In 1924, he took 2nd, behin ...

, behind

Izaak Appel Izaak (Isaak) Appel (1905–1941) was a Polish chess master. Biography In 1926, he took 12th place in the Warsaw (1st POL-ch) competition, which was won by Dawid Przepiórka. In 1929, he took 2nd place, behind Teodor Regedziński, in the C ...

and Achilles Frydman, in Łódź (''quadrangular''). He tied for 2nd-5th with A. Frydman, Schächter and

Abram Szpiro Abram (Abraham) Szpiro (1912 in Stringenau, Russian Empire – 16 February 1943, in Auschwitz) was a Polish chess master. Born in Russian Empire (now Poland), he moved with his family to Łódź. He tied for 7-8th (1930), shared 4th (1931), and ...

in Łódź (pre-Olympic tournament, Friedman won), and took 15th in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...

(the 3rd

Polish Chess Championship Individual Polish Chess Championship is the most important Polish chess tournament, aiming at selecting the best chess players in Poland. Based on the results of the tournament (mainly), the Polish Chess Federation selects the national and subsequ ...

Savielly Tartakower Savielly Tartakower (also known as ''Xavier'' or ''Ksawery'' ''Tartakower'', less often ''Tartacover'' or ''Tartakover''; 21 February 1887 – 4 February 1956) was a Polish and French chess player. He was awarded the title of International Grand ...

won). In 1936, he played a match against Szpiro in Łódź, shared 2nd with Schächter, behind Szpiro, at Częstochowa (POL-ch elim.), and tied for 2nd with Appel, behind A. Frydman, in Łódź (ŁTZGSz). In 1936/37, he shared 1st with Paulin Frydman and Appel in Łódź. In 1937, he took 5th in the Łódź City-ch, and tied for 9-10th in

Jurata Jurata is a settlement and seaside resort in northern Poland, located on the Hel Peninsula in a forested area between the towns of Jastarnia and Hel in Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, on the coast of the Baltic Sea. History Jurata was estab ...

(the 4th POL-ch; Tartakower won). In 1938, he took 6th in Łódź (

Vasja Pirc Vasja Pirc () (December 19, 1907 – June 2, 1980) was a Slovenian chess player. He is best known in competitive chess circles as a strong exponent of the hypermodern defense now generally known as the Pirc Defense. Pirc was champion of Yug ...

won). In summer 1939, before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

broke out, he returned to Lviv. According to the secret agreement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany ( Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact), Lviv was captured by the Soviets, and then incorporated to the Ukrainian SSR in Autumn 1939 (the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation). In March 1940, he took 4th in Lviv (Western Ukrainian championship,

Abram Khavin Abram Leonidovich Khavin (1914 – January 19, 1974, Kiev) was a Ukrainian chess master. In 1937, he took 6th in Kiev (9th UKR-ch, Fedor Bogatyrchuk won). In 1938, he tied for 4-6th in Kiev (10th UKR-ch, Isaac Boleslavsky won). During World War I ...

won). In 1940, he tied for 16-17th in Kiev (the 12th

Ukrainian Chess Championship This is a list of all the winners of the Ukrainian Chess Championship, including those held when Ukraine was a Soviet republic and those held after Ukraine became independent. Players' names listed in parentheses indicate that the player won the to ...

Isaac Boleslavsky Isaac Yefremovich Boleslavsky ( uk, Ісаак Єфремович Болеславський, russian: Исаак Ефремович Болеславский; 9 June 1919 – 15 February 1977) was a Soviet chess player and writer. Early caree ...

won). In August 1940, he won in Lviv, followed by Appel, Friedman and Schächter. In 1940, he shared 1st with

Mark Stolberg Mark Moiseevich Stolberg (1922 in Rostov-on-Don – 16 May 1942 in Novorossiysk) was a Russian chess master. Stolberg won the Rostov-on-Don City championship in 1938. The next year he finished in second place in a Soviet master candidates tourna ...

in Kiev (USSR-ch semi-final). In September–October 1940, Gerstenfeld took 17th in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

(the 12th

USSR Chess Championship The USSR Chess Championship was played from 1921 to 1991. Organized by the USSR Chess Federation, it was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winner ...

). The event was won by

Andor Lilienthal Andor (André, Andre, Andrei) Arnoldovich Lilienthal Reuben Fine, ''The World's Great Chess Games'', Dover Publications, 1983, p. 216. . (5 May 1911 – 8 May 2010) was a Hungarian and Soviet chess player. In his long career, he played against te ...

and

Igor Bondarevsky Igor Zakharovich Bondarevsky (russian: Игорь Захарович Бондаревский; May 12, 1913 – June 14, 1979) was a Soviet Russian chess player, trainer, and chess author. He held the title of Grandmaster in both over-the-board ...

. In January/February 1941, he won ahead of Appel, Friedman, Emanuel Rubinstein and Schächter, in the Lviv City championships. In June 1941, he was at 3rd place in Rostov-on-Don (the 13th USSR-ch semi-final), when ''Operation Barbarossa'', the German attack on the Soviet Union, interrupted the event. The exact cause of his death remained unclear. According to one source, he became a victim of

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

atrocities in Autumn 1942 (the

Lemberg Ghetto Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

or the

Belzec extermination camp Belzec (English: or , Polish: ) was a Nazi German extermination camp built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major part of the "Final Solution" which in total ...

), but to others, he was shot by Nazis during the mass killing of Jewish people in

, Russia, in December 1943.Chessmetrics Player Profile :: Eduard Gerstenfeld
/ref> Rostov-on-Don was liberated by the Soviet Army on 14 February 1943.

References

External links

Chessgames.com ::Eduard Issakovich Gerstenfeld365Chess.com :: Eduard Issakovich Gerstenfeld
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerstenfeld, Edward 1915 births 1943 deaths Sportspeople from Lviv People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Ukrainian Jews Lwów Ghetto inmates Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Polish chess players Jewish chess players Polish people executed by Nazi Germany 20th-century chess players