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Carl Schlechter (2 March 1874 – 27 December 1918) was a leading Austro-Hungarian
chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...
master and theoretician at the turn of the 20th century. He is best known for
drawing Drawing is a visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface. The instruments used to make a drawing are pencils, crayons, pens with inks, brushes with paints, or combinations of these, and in more mod ...
a
World Chess Championship The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 matc ...
match with Emanuel Lasker.


Early life

Schlechter was born into a Catholic family in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
. 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. From 1893 onwards he played in over 50 international chess tournaments. He won or shared first at
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1900 (the 12th DSB Congress), Coburg 1904 (the 14th DSB Congress),
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1906, Stockholm 1906, Vienna 1908, Prague 1908, Hamburg 1910 (the 17th DSB Congress), and thrice in the
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 The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 matc ...
(in Vienna and
Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
). 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

During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, 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 Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
on 31 December 1918.


Assessment

The Carl Schlechter– Arthur KaufmannHugo Fähndrich 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'' openings treatise. Published in eleven parts between 1912 and 1916, it totaled 1,040 pages and included contributions by Rudolf Spielmann, Siegbert Tarrasch, and Richard Teichmann.
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 (chess), Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combinatio ...
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 openings: *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 The French Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e6 This is most commonly followed by 2.d4 d5, with Black intending ...c5 soon after, attacking White's and gaining on the . The French has a reputation for solidity ...
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Bd3 *Schlechter Variation of the Slav Defence 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 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4. Bc4 cxb2 5.Bxb2 d5


Notable games


Fried–Schlechter, Vienna 1894, From's Gambit (A02), 0–1
A breezy 14-move win by Schlechter, who sacrifices his queen and mates his opponent's king in the middle of the board.
Bernhard Fleissig–Schlechter, Vienna 1893 (friendly), Polish Opening: General (A00), 0–1
One of Schlechter's most famous games, Black sacrifices both his rooks and bishops.
Schlechter–Steinitz, Cologne 1898 Vienna Game (C28), 1–0
Schlechter routs the former World Champion in 24 moves.
Schlechter–Meitner, Vienna 1899, Italian Game: Classical Variation. Greco Gambit Moeller–Therkatz Attack (C54), 1–0
A combination in the endgame: White sacrifices his queen then makes a quiet move with his king, and Black is unable to prevent a mate in two moves.


In popular culture

The central character of the 1998 novel '' Carl Haffner's Love of the Draw'' by Thomas Glavinic is closely based on Schlechter. The book presents a fictionalised account of his 1910 World Chess Championship match with Lasker.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlechter, Carl 1874 births 1918 deaths Austrian chess players Chess theoreticians 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis 19th-century chess players Game players from Vienna Tuberculosis deaths in Hungary Deaths from pneumonia in Hungary Deaths by starvation