Carl Schlechter (2 March 1874 – 27 December 1918) was a leading
Austro-Hungarian
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 ...
chess master and theoretician at the turn of the 20th century. He is best known for
drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...
Schlechter was born into a Catholic family in Vienna. He is sometimes deemed to be Jewish, although others dispute this. He began playing chess at the age of 13. His first and only teacher was an Austria-Hungarian chess problemist, Dr.
Samuel Gold
Samuel Gold (July 2, 1835, Kővágóörs, Kővágó-Örs, Zala County (former), Zala, Hungary – November 9, 1920, New York City, United States) was a Hungarian physician, journalist and composer of chess problems.
Biography
He was born into a Je ...
.
From 1893 onwards he played in over 50 international chess tournaments. He won or shared first at Munich 1900 (the 12th DSB Congress), Coburg 1904 (the 14th DSB Congress), Ostend 1906,
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
Trebitsch Memorial Leopold Trebitsch Memorial Tournament was a chess competition organized by the family of Austrian silk manufacturer Leopold Trebitsch. Twenty tournaments were played in Vienna between 1907 and 1938.Georg Marco (+0 −0 =10) in 1893, drew with Marco and Adolf Zinkl both (+4 −4 =3) in 1894, drew with Dawid Janowski (+2 −2 =3) in 1896, drew with Simon Alapin (+1 −1 =4) in 1899, beat Janowski (+6 −1 =3) in 1902, drew with Richard Teichmann (+1 −1 =1) in 1904, and drew with Siegbert Tarrasch (+3 −3 =10) in 1911.
Lasker–Schlechter match
In 1910 Schlechter played a match against Emanuel Lasker for the World Chess Championship (in Vienna and Berlin). Schlechter was leading by one point going into the tenth and final game of the match. In the tenth game tragedy struck: after first achieving a won game, Schlechter blundered into a clearly drawn position, and then blundered again which led to his loss of the game. The match ended tied at 5–5 (+1 −1 =8) and Lasker retained his title. It is disputed as to whether Schlechter needed to score +2 to win the match and thus needed to win the tenth game. No contract for the match has ever been found and no evidence supporting this rumor has ever been produced. (For match details see World Chess Championship 1910.) Schlechter distinguished himself as the first player in 16 years to seriously challenge Lasker's world title.
Later life
Schlechter's final years were strugglesome as it was becoming increasingly difficult to make ends meet as a chess professional. During World War I, he thrice won
Trebitsch Memorial Leopold Trebitsch Memorial Tournament was a chess competition organized by the family of Austrian silk manufacturer Leopold Trebitsch. Twenty tournaments were played in Vienna between 1907 and 1938.Akiba Rubinstein (+1 −2 =3), took second place in Berlin (''Quadrangular'', Milan Vidmar won), tied for third place in Kaschau, and took third place in Berlin (''Quadrangular'', Emanuel Lasker won). Schlechter died of pneumonia and starvation on 27 December 1918, and was buried in Budapest on 31 December 1918.
Assessment
The Carl Schlechter–
Arthur Kaufmann
Arthur Kaufmann (4 April 1872 in Iași, Romania – 25 July 1938 in Vienna) was an Austrian attorney, philosopher and chess master.
Life
Kaufmann was the second son of a wealthy, Jewish merchant family in Iaşi, Romania. In early childhood, he m ...
–
Hugo Fähndrich
Hugo Fähndrich (3 July 1851 – 3 July 1930) was an Austrian–Hungarian chess master.
Born in Hungary, he moved to Vienna. In 19th/20th century, the Viennese chess school, founded by Max Weiss, was propagated by the Carl Schlechter–Arthur Kau ...
trio propagated the Viennese chess school, founded by Max Weiss in the 19th century.
Schlechter prepared the eighth and final edition of the famous ''
Handbuch des Schachspiels
''Handbuch des Schachspiels'' (''Handbook of Chess'', often simply called the ''Handbuch'') is a chess book, first published in 1843 by Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa. It was a comprehensive reference book on the game, and one of the most imp ...
International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
William Hartston
William Roland Hartston (born 12 August 1947) is an English journalist who wrote the Beachcomber column in the '' Daily Express''. He is also a chess player who played competitively from 1962 to 1987 and earned a highest Elo rating of 2485. He ...
called it "a superb work, perhaps the last to encase successfully the whole of chess knowledge within a single volume."
He was a typical example of a gentleman chess player of old, offering courteous draws to opponents who felt unwell. If his opponent arrived late for a game, Schlechter would inconspicuously subtract an equal amount of time from his own clock. He also mentored many of his rivals, including Oldřich Duras.
List of opening variations named after Schlechter
There are several "Schlechter Variations" in the
chess opening
A chess opening or simply an opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory; the other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences have standard names such as the "Sicilian Defens ...
s:
*Schlechter Gambit of the
Bird's Opening
Bird's Opening (or the Dutch Attack) is a chess opening characterised by the move:
:1. f4
Bird's is a standard flank opening. White's strategic ideas involve control of the e5-square, offering good attacking chances at the expense of slightly ...
1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 Nc6
*Schlechter Variation of the French Defence 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Bd3
*Schlechter Variation of the
Slav Defence
The Slav Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
:1. d4 d5
:2. c4 c6
The Slav is one of the primary defenses to the Queen's Gambit. Although it was analyzed as early as 1590, it was not until the 1920s that it started to be ...
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 g6 (or via a Grünfeld move-order, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.e3 c6)
*Schlechter Variation of the
Danish Gambit
The Danish Gambit, known as the ' in German and the ' in Dutch (both meaning Nordic Gambit), is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
:1. e4 e5
:2. d4 exd4
:3. c3
White will sacrifice one or two pawns for the sake of rapid and the at ...
Carl Haffner's Love of the Draw
''Carl Haffner's Love of the Draw'' (german: Carl Haffners Liebe zum Unentschieden) is a 1998 chess novel by Austrian writer Thomas Glavinic. It was Glavinic's first novel and is about a shy and withdrawn Viennese chess master who in 1910 challen ...
'' by
Thomas Glavinic
Thomas Glavinic (born 2 April 1972 in Graz) is an Austrian writer. With Kathrin Röggla and Daniel Kehlmann, he is among other contemporary Austrian authors being perceived as significantly shaping the literary discussion in Austria.
Life
The f ...
is closely based on Schlechter. The book presents a fictionalised account of his 1910 World Chess Championship match with Lasker.
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