Julius Mendheim (c. 1788 – 25 August 1836) 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 disti ...

master and problemist. Not much is known about Mendheim's life. By profession, he was probably a merchant. He was the first famous

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

chess master and a member of the ''Berliner Schachgesellschaft'' (founded 1827). Earlier, he was a regular guest at the ''Old Club'' of Berlin (which existed from 1803 to 1847), but not a regular member there, despite having the reputation of being the best Berlin player. The young

Ludwig Bledow Dr Ludwig Erdmann Bledow (27 July 1795, Berlin – 6 August 1846, Berlin) was a German chess master and chess organizer (co-founder of the Berlin Pleiades). In 1846 he founded the first German chess magazine, ''Schachzeitung der Berliner Schachges ...

, forthcoming co-founder of the

Berlin Pleiades The Berlin Pleiades was a group of seven masters of German chess in the 19th century. They are named after the star constellation the Pleiades. The members of the Berlin Pleiades were: * Paul Rudolf von Bilguer, Army Lieutenant and author of the ...

, lost the majority of the games he played with his older mentor. Mendheim seemingly inspired Bledow and the forming of the Pleiades, but he died before the group was firmly established. Mendheim's strength can be seen from the fact that he single-handedly conducted the correspondence games that Berlin played against other cities (Breslau 1829-1833, Hamburg 1833-1836). He was an author of ''Taschenbuch für Schachfreunde'' (Berlin, published by Alexander Mosar, 1814) and ''Aufgaben für Schachspieler'' (Berlin, published by Traugott Trautwein, 1832). He gets some mention in the ''

Handbuch des Schachspiels ''Handbuch des Schachspiels'' (''Handbook of Chess'', often simply called the ''Handbuch'') is a chess book, first published in 1843 by Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa. It was a comprehensive reference book on the game, and one of the most imp ...

'' section on problem composers.

References

External links

Mendheim at Chessgames.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendheim, Julius 1788 births 1836 deaths 18th-century German Jews German chess players Jewish chess players Chess composers