Emil Joseph (Josef) Diemer (15 May 1908, in Radolfzell – 10 October 1990, in Fussbach/

Gengenbach Gengenbach (; gsw, label=Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic, Gängäbach) is a town in the Ortenaukreis, district of Ortenau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and a popular tourist destination on the western edge of the Black Forest, with about 11,0 ...

) was a German

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.

Biography

Emil Joseph Diemer was born in 1908 in the German town Radolfzell, in Baden. In 1931, he was out of work and joined the German Nazi party, where he became an active member. He was present at all important international chess events, and became the "chess reporter of the Great German Reich". His articles often appeared in Nazi publications.Hans Ree. Dutch Treat: Emil Joseph Diemer. Chess Cafe Archives. URL: http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hans07.pdf . Accessed Oct 2012. In 1942-1943, he played correspondence and tournament games with

Klaus Junge Klaus Junge (1 January 1924 – 17 April 1945) was one of the youngest Chilean-German chess masters. In several tournaments during the 1940s he held his own among the world's leading players. An officer in the Wehrmacht, he died during the Batt ...

.Chessgames.com> Biography of Emil Joseph Diemer. URL: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=29926 . Accessed Oct 2012. After the war, he continued his chess journalism, sold chess books, and gave simuls, but the stigma of his Nazi past made it difficult to support himself in this way. As a middle-tier master, his successes in chess were few. In 1953, he was expelled from the German chess federation, whose officials he had accused, in a press campaign, of "homosexuality and corruption of innocent youth". It was not until 1956, in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, that Diemer finally enjoyed real success, winning the Reserves Group of the

Hoogovens Koninklijke Hoogovens known as Koninklijke Nederlandse Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken (KNHS) until 1996 or informally Hoogovens. was a Dutch steel producer founded in 1918. Since 2010, the plant is named Tata Steel IJmuiden. The IJmuiden steelwor ...

tournament and later the Open Championship of the Netherlands. He became less interested in chess, and increasingly interested in

Nostradamus Michel de Nostredame (December 1503 – July 1566), usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French astrologer, apothecary, physician, and reputed seer, who is best known for his book '' Les Prophéties'' (published in 1555), a collection ...

, the 16th century French

clairvoyant Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...

: he claimed to have cracked Nostradamus's secret code, and over 25 years, is said to have mailed over 10,000 letters on the subject. In 1965 he was committed to a psychiatric clinic in

. The clinic's director, believing that chess was excessively stressful for Diemer, banned him from playing the game. In 1971, however, this ban was rescinded, and Diemer's membership in the German chess federation was also reinstated. Diemer then played first board as member of a German chess club team. Still lacking financial independence, however, he continued to reside in Gengenbach as a semi-residential patient of the hospital until the end of his life. Diemer played many unorthodox openings, like the '' Diemer–Duhm Gambit'' (1.d4 d5 2.e4 e6 3.c4) and the '' Alapin–Diemer Gambit'' (1.d4 e6 2.e4 d5 3.Be3), but is most famous for his refinements to an old idea by Armand Edward Blackmar (1. d4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3. f3), commonly known as the Blackmar–Diemer Gambit (1. d4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. f3). Diemer died in Gengenbach in 1990 at the age of 82.

Literature

* Georg Studier, ''Emil Josef Diemer. Ein Leben für das Schach im Spiegel der Zeiten'', Manfred Maedler Verlag 1996 (Germany) * Dany Senechaud, ''Emil J. Diemer, missionnaire des échecs acrobatiques'', Poitiers 1997 (France), 2003 (3rd ed.)Misjonarz atakującej gry Emil Josef Diemer

References

External links

The games of Emil Diemer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diemer, Emil Joseph 1908 births 1990 deaths People from Radolfzell Sportspeople from Freiburg (region) People from the Grand Duchy of Baden German chess players Chess theoreticians 20th-century chess players