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'{{short description|Austrian chess player}} {{Infobox chess biography | name = Rudolf Spielmann | image = RudolfSpielmann.jpg | caption = | birthname = Rudolf Spielmann | country = Austro-Hungarian Empire → Austria | birth_date = {{Birth date|1883|5|05|df=yes}} | birth_place = [[Vienna]], [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|1942|8|20|1883|5|05|df=yes}} | death_place = [[Stockholm]], [[Sweden]] | title = | worldchampion = | rating = | peakrating = | ranking = | peakranking = }} '''Rudolf Spielmann''' (5 May 1883 – 20 August 1942) was a [[Jewish Austrians|Jewish-Austrian]]<ref>[http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/jews.html ''Chess and Jews'' by Edward Winter] at www.chesshistory.com</ref> [[chess]] player of the [[Romantic chess|romantic school]], and chess writer. ==Career== Spielmann was born in 1883, third child of Moritz and Cecilia Spielmann, and had a younger brother Edgar, an older brother, Leopold, and three sisters, Melanie, Jenni, and Irma. Moritz Spielmann was a newspaper editor in [[Vienna]], and enjoyed playing chess in his spare time. He introduced Leopold and Rudolf to the game, and the latter quickly began to develop an aptitude for it. Spielmann was devoted to his nieces and nephews, although he never married or had children of his own. American Grandmaster [[Reuben Fine]] said in his 1945 book ''Chess Marches On'' (p.173), "In appearance and personal habits Spielmann was the mildest-mannered individual alive. Beer and chess were the great passions of his life; in his later years, at least, he cared for little else. Perhaps his chess became so vigorous as compensation for an otherwise uneventful life." He was known as "The Master of Attack" and "The Last Knight of the King's Gambit". His daredevil play was full of [[sacrifice (chess)|sacrifices]], brilliancies, and beautiful ideas. This was exemplified, for example, in the [[Carlsbad 1923 chess tournament|1923 Carlsbad tournament]], where he did not have a single [[draw (chess)|draw]] (with five wins and twelve losses). Spielmann was inordinately fond of the [[King's Gambit]] as well as the [[Vienna Game]] and continued using these openings after most elite players had abandoned them; he was also the last master to make any serious use of the [[Center Game]]. By the late 1920s, his opening repertoire increasingly focused on 1.d4 openings as contemporary chess fashion dictated. Despite the strong opposition at that time, with players like [[Alexander Alekhine]], [[José Raúl Capablanca]], [[Emanuel Lasker]], [[Siegbert Tarrasch]], [[Akiba Rubinstein]], [[Aron Nimzowitsch]], and [[Savielly Tartakower]], Spielmann managed to score well in numerous tournaments. He won 33 of the roughly 120 in which he played, including [[Abbazia]] 1912 (an event devoted to the King's Gambit), [[Stockholm]] 1919; Bad Pistyan 1922; and [[Semmering, Austria|Semmering]] 1926. He is also remembered as the author of the classic book ''The Art of Sacrifice in Chess'' . Like many of his contemporaries, including Lasker, Tarrasch, Rubinstein, and Alekhine, Spielmann suffered greatly thanks to the turmoil that afflicted Europe starting in 1914. His post-WWI tournament performances were more inconsistent than in the prewar period; although he continued to win brilliant victories, he also lost many games in disastrous fashion. In 1934, Spielmann fled Vienna due to rising pro-Nazi sympathies in the city and moved to the [[Netherlands]]. In 1938, he went to [[Prague]] to be with his brother Leopold, but the German army occupied [[Czechoslovakia]] only a few months later. Leopold Spielmann was arrested and died in a concentration camp a few years later. One of their sisters also perished in a camp; the other survived the war, but never recovered mentally from the ordeal of it and ended up committing suicide. Spielmann managed to flee to [[Sweden]] with the help of a friend. He hoped to eventually reach [[England]] or the [[United States]], and toiled hard to earn money for the overseas passage by playing exhibition matches, writing chess columns, and a book titled "Memories of a Chess Master". However, WWII was raging and some members of the Swedish Chess Federation held Nazi sympathies and disliked the Jewish Spielmann. "Memories of a Chess Master" was repeatedly delayed and never reached the press. Spielmann became steadily more withdrawn and depressed, and one day in August 1942, he locked himself in his [[Stockholm]] apartment and did not emerge for a week. On August 20, neighbors summoned police to check on him. They entered the apartment and found Spielmann dead. The official cause of death was ischemic heart disease, but it has been claimed that he intentionally starved himself. He was buried in Stockholm, his tombstone reading "Rastlös flykting, hårt slagen av ödet" ("A fugitive without rest, struck hard by fate"). ==Legacy== Some openings are named after Spielmann. E.g. the Spielmann-Indian: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5! ==Results versus Capablanca== {{AN chess|pos=secright}} Spielmann was one of few players to have an even score (+2−2=8) against Capablanca, one of an even fewer number to win more than one game against him, and the only player to fulfill both of those. Both of Spielmann's wins came shortly after Alekhine dethroned Capablanca as [[World chess championship|World Champion]] in 1927: at [[Bad Kissingen]] 1928 and [[Karlovy Vary|Karlsbad]] 1929. The latter tournament is generally regarded as his best tournament result, as he scored 14½ out of 21, tied for second with Capablanca, a half point behind [[Aron Nimzowitsch]]. Here is one of Spielmann's wins: {{Chess diagram small |tright | | | | | | | |kd| |pd| | | | |pd| |pd |bd| | |qd| |bd|pd| | | | |pd|nl| | | |pl|pd| | | | | | | |pl| |nl|pl| | |pl | | | | | |pl|pl| |ql| | | | | |kl| |Position after 29...Ba6 }} :Capablanca vs. Spielmann, Bad Kissingen 1928 <br />1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.e3 b5 6.a4 b4 7.Na2 e6 8.Bxc4 Be7 9.0-0 0-0 10.b3 c5 11.Bb2 Bb7 12.Nc1 Nc6 13.dxc5 Na5 14.Ne5 Nxc4 15.Nxc4 Bxc5 16.Nd3 Qd5 17.Nf4 Qg5 18.Bxf6 Qxf6 19.Rc1 Rfd8 20.Qh5 Rac8 21.Rfd1 g6 22.Rxd8+ Qxd8 23.Qe5 Be7 24.h3 Rc5 25.Qa1 Bf6 26.Rd1 Rd5 27.Rxd5 exd5 28.Ne5 Qd6 29.Nfd3 Ba6 (''diagram'') 30.Qe1 Bxe5 31.Nxe5 Qxe5 32.Qxb4 Bd3 33.Qc5 Qb8 34.b4 Qb7 35.b5 h5 36.Qc3 Bc4 37.e4 Qe7 38.exd5 Bxd5 39.a5 Qe4 {{chessAN|0–1}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1004125 |title=Capablanca vs. Spielmann, Bad Kissingen 1928 |website=[[Chessgames.com]] |access-date=17 June 2018 }}</ref> == Quotes == * According to [[Richard Réti]], Spielmann demonstrated "unusual resourcefulness in complicated situations, in which he felt perfectly at home." * Spielmann himself believed "A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and confused." * "We cannot resist the fascination of sacrifice, since a passion for sacrifices is part of a chess player’s nature." ==See also== * [[List of Jewish chess players]] ==References== {{reflist}} == Further reading == * Rudolf Spielmann, ''The Art of Sacrifice in Chess''. New York: Dover, 1995, {{ISBN|0-486-28449-2}} (unabridged and unaltered republication of the 1972 print. of the rev. ed. of the work, New York, McKay, 1951) * ''The Masters: Rudolf Spielmann Master of Invention'', [[Neil McDonald (chess player)|Neil McDonald]], Everyman Chess, {{ISBN|1-85744-406-X}}. == External links == * {{chessgames player|id=10264}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Spielmann, Rudolf}} [[Category:1883 births]] [[Category:1942 deaths]] [[Category:Austrian chess players]] [[Category:Jewish chess players]] [[Category:Chess writers]] [[Category:Chess Olympiad competitors]] [[Category:Austrian Jews]] [[Category:Austrian refugees]] [[Category:Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss]] [[Category:Game players from Vienna]] [[Category:Austrian emigrants to Sweden]] [[Category:Deaths from coronary artery disease]]'