Wolfgang Heidenfeld (; 29 May 1911 – 3 August 1981) 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 ...

player 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 retrogr ...

. Heidenfeld was born in Berlin. He was forced to move from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in the 1930s because he was a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

. There, he won the

South African Chess Championship The South African Chess Championship was first organised in 1892 by the Cape Town Chess Club. It is now organised by Chess South Africa (CHESSA), the governing body of chess in South Africa. The tournament is normally held every two years. It is ...

eight times, and he represented South Africa in the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

in 1958. Besides playing chess, he was also a writer, door-to-door salesman, journalist, and designer of

crossword A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answ ...

puzzles. His hobbies were

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

and collecting stamps as well as playing chess. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he used his fluency in German to help decode German messages for the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

. In 1955, he beat former

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. He served as ...

. He also won games against

Miguel Najdorf Miguel Najdorf (born Mojsze Mendel Najdorf) (15 April 1910 – 4 July 1997) was a Polish–Argentinian chess grandmaster. Originally from Poland, he was in Argentina when World War II began in 1939, and he stayed and settled there. He was a ...

, Joaquim Durao and Ludek Pachman. He never became an

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 (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

—he did eventually attain the required qualifications but declined to accept the award from

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

. He wrote several chess books, including ''Chess Springbok'' (1955), ''My Book of Fun and Games'' (1958), ''Grosse Remispartien'' (1968; in German; an English edition entitled ''Draw!'', edited by

John Nunn John Denis Martin Nunn (born 25 April 1955) is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and was former ...

, was published in 1982), and ''Lacking the Master Touch'' (1970). In 1957, after visiting Ireland, he moved to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. In 1979, the family moved back to

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

, where he died two years later. Heidenfeld was Irish Champion in 1958, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1968, and 1972. He won the

Leinster Chess Championship The Leinster Chess Championship is an annual chess competition in Ireland, which was first played in 1912. It is run by the Leinster Chess Union and the winner is declared Leinster Champion. In recent years the competition has been in conjunction w ...

in 1965, 1969 (shared), and 1972. He was in the Olympiad team in 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1974; and in the European Championships team in 1967. His son

Mark Heidenfeld Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

is an

, has also played chess for Ireland, and won the

Irish Chess Championship The Irish Chess Championship is the national Championship of Ireland, currently run by the Irish Chess Union ( ICU), the FIDE-recognised governing body for the game. Below is the list of champions. The first champion was J.A. Porterfield Rynd, wh ...

in 2000 and 2021. The

Heidenfeld Trophy The Heidenfeld Trophy is chess league competition in Leinster, Ireland, it is the second division of the Leinster Chess Union. Founded in 1971 with the restructuring of the division one Armstrong Cup it was named after the famous German born chess p ...

, the second division, of the

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

chess league, is named in his honour.Heidenfeld Trophy
– Leinster Chess Union Results website.

References

External links

Irish Championships – Irish Chess Union website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heidenfeld, Wolfgang 1911 births 1981 deaths German chess players South African chess players Irish chess players Jewish chess players Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to South Africa German emigrants to Ireland South African writers Irish writers German chess writers Chess Olympiad competitors German male non-fiction writers Sportspeople from Berlin 20th-century chess players Chess composers

See also

References

External links