Baron Ignatz von Kolisch (6 April 1837 – 30 April 1889), also Baron Ignaz von Kolisch (

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) or báró Kolisch Ignác ( Hungarian), was a

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and

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 ...

with Jewish roots. Kolisch was born into a Jewish family in Pressburg. Both in business and as a chess player he was eminently successful. In his early years he moved to Vienna, then spent a year in Italy. In 1859 he arrived in Paris and in 1860-62 mostly sojourned in London. In summer 1862 he accompanied the Russian Count Kushelev-Bezborodko to St. Petersburg, where he won a match against Ilya Shumov. Later he moved to

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and in 1869 to

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. He became involved in banking and became a millionaire and chess patron, organizing and sponsoring important chess tournaments in the 1870s and 1880s. He founded the ''Wiener Börse-Syndikatskasse'' in 1869, and in 1873 established a commission house in

; and by prudent management he acquired considerable wealth. In 1881 he received the title of baron from

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. As a chess player, Kolisch soon became known for his brilliant and aggressive style, but he was not a frequent participant in tournaments. In 1860 he won the first prize at the international tournament held at

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. In 1861 he lost a match to Adolf Anderssen, the strongest player of the day, by a score of 5–4. The same year, he drew a match with Louis Paulsen. In 1867 at the Paris tournament he secured first place, defeating both Szymon Winawer and Wilhelm Steinitz. Kolisch was the founder and editor-in-chief of the ''Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung'', to which, under the pseudonym "Ideka",Székely Dávid: Magyak irók álnevei a multban és jelenbe

p.18 (Budapest, 1904) he contributed many

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s. The protagonist in the short story "The chessbaron" (A sakkbáró) by Ferenc Móra is based on him. He died of kidney failure in 1889.

References

* E. T. Blanchard, ''Examples of Chess Master-Play'', 1st series (transl. from the German of Jean Dufresne), Index, New Barnet, 1893. * * F. Zavatarelli, ''Ignaz Kolisch. The Life and Chess Career'', McFarland, 2015.

External links

* Hungarian chess players Austrian chess players Jewish chess players Chess patrons Hungarian Jews Austrian Jews 1837 births 1889 deaths Deaths from kidney failure Sportspeople from Bratislava 19th-century philanthropists 19th-century chess players {{Slovakia-chess-bio-stub

See also

References

External links