Gersz (Georg, George, Gersh) Rotlewi (Rotlevi, Rotlevy) (1889 – 1920) was a Polish

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

master.

Biography

In 1906, Rotlewi tied for 5-6th in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

(

Akiba Rubinstein Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein (1 December 1880 – 14 March 1961) was a Polish chess player. He is considered to have been one of the greatest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Rubinstein was granted the title International Grandma ...

won). In 1907, he took 3rd, behind Rubinstein and Dawid Daniuszewski, in Lodz (''Quadrangular''), took 2nd, behind Heilmann, in

Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...

(main class I section), and took 6th in Lodz (the 5th

Russian Chess Championship The Russian Chess Championship has taken various forms. Winners by year (men) Imperial Russia In 1874, Emanuel Schiffers defeated Andrey Chardin in a match held in St. Petersburg with five wins and four losses. Schiffers was considered the first R ...

; the event was won by Rubinstein). He took 4th in the Prague 1908 chess tournament (''Hauptturnier'', preliminary), tied for 1st with Daniuszewski at Lodz 1909, and took 2nd, behind

Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine. He disliked when Russians sometimes pronounced the of as , , which he regarded as a Yiddish distortion of his name, and insisted that the correct Russian pronunciation was . (March 24, 1946) was a Russian ...

, at

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

1909 (the All-Russian Amateur tournament). Rotlewi played two matches against Gersz Salwe, losing in 1909 (+5 –8 =5) and winning in 1910 (+3 –1 =6). In 1910, he tied for 1st with Rubinstein in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

and won in the Hamburg 1910 chess tournament (the 17th DSB Congress, ''Hauptturnier A''), which earned him the Master Title and the right to compete at the Carlsbad 1911 chess tournament.Best All-Time Games
In 1911, he took 4th in Carlsbad (

Richard Teichmann Richard Teichmann (24 December 1868 – 15 June 1925) was a German chess master and a chess composer. He was known as "Richard the Fifth" because he often finished in fifth place in tournaments. But in 1911 he scored a convincing win in Karl ...

won). This was the greatest result of Rotlewi's short career. He finished ahead of such prominent players as Frank Marshall,

Aron Nimzowitsch Aron Nimzowitsch (; , ''Aron Isayevich Nimtsovich''; 7 November 1886 – 16 March 1935) was a Latvian-born Danish chess player and writer. In the late 1920s, Nimzowitsch was one of the best chess players in the world. He was the foremost f ...

Milan Vidmar Milan Vidmar (; 22 June 1885 – 9 October 1962) was a Slovenian electrical engineer, chess player, chess theorist, and writer. He was among the top dozen chess players in the world from 1910 to 1930 and in 1950, was among the inaugural recip ...

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 chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (chess), Internatio ...

, and Rudolf Spielmann. In the same year, he tied for 2nd-4th in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

(

Moishe Lowtzky Moishe (Mojżesz) Lowtzky (Łowcki) (1881–1940) was a Ukrainian–Polish chess master. Biography He was born into a Jewish family in Ukraine. In 1903, Lowtzky tied for 6-7th with Eugene Znosko-Borovsky in Kyiv (3rd RUS-ch). The event was won ...

won) and took 2nd in Munich ( Simon Alapin won). After this, a

nervous disorder Anxiety disorders are a group of mental disorders characterized by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social, occupational, and personal functions are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause phys ...

forced him to give up serious chess. He died in 1920 at the age of 31.

Notable chess games

Grigory Helbach vs Gersz Rotlewi, Sankt Petersburg 1909, All Russian Amateur, Scandinavian Defense, Mieses Variation, B01, 0-1Gersz Salwe vs Gersz Rotlewi, Carlsbad 1911, French Defense, Rubinstein Variation, Blackburne Defense, C10, 0-1Gersz Rotlewi vs Frank James Marshall, Carlsbad 1911, Queen's Gambit Declined, Cambridge Springs Variation, D52, 1-0

Notes

External links

Chessgames
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotlewi, Gersz 1889 births 1920 deaths 20th-century Polish sportsmen 20th-century Polish Jews Polish chess players Jewish chess players Place of birth missing Chess players from the Russian Empire

Biography

Notable chess games

See also

Notes

External links