Josef Kling (19 March 1811 – 1 December 1876), also found in English-language sources as Joseph Kling, was a German

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 pres ...

and

chess composer A chess composer is a person who creates endgame studies or chess problems. Chess composers usually specialize in a particular genre, e.g. endgame studies, twomovers, threemovers, moremovers, helpmates, selfmates, fairy problems, or retro ...

. He has been called "a pioneer of the modern style of chess." Although Kling was an expert on endgames and

problems A problem is a difficulty which may be resolved by problem solving. Problem(s) or The Problem may also refer to: People * Problem (rapper), (born 1985) American rapper Books * ''Problems'' (Aristotle), an Aristotelian (or pseudo-Aristotelian) co ...

, he rarely played competitively. Kling wrote several studies of the game. He co-edited the problem book ''Chess Studies'' (1851) with Bernhard Horwitz. From January 1851 to December 1853, the pair also co-edited the weekly journal ''The Chess Player,'' also known as ''The New Chess Player''. As co-authors, they made notable contributions to endgame theory, and are thought to have originated the term "

cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (profession), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * C ...

" in reference to "an unsound chess problem having two solutions." Kling began as a teacher of instrumental music, but in the early 1850s found himself with few students. He emigrated from

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

, Germany, to England, where in 1852 he opened a

coffee house A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, Caffè americano, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually ...

with chess rooms, located at 454 New Oxford Street in London. He occasionally employed Horwitz as a resident professional player there. From 1859 to 1862, Kling revived the '' Chess Player's Chronicle'' with Adolf Zytogorski and Ignatz Kolisch, which had been discontinued by Robert Barnett Brien in 1856. The Kling and Horwitz Defensive Technique enables Black to force a draw with Black to move against perfect play in the diagram shown to the right. For a detailed analysis of this position, se
here

References

External links

Josef Kling
at Chessgames.com 1811 births 1876 deaths Chess composers Chess theoreticians German chess writers German male non-fiction writers 19th-century German chess players 19th-century German sportsmen {{Germany-chess-bio-stub