Dawid Przepiórka (22 December 1880 – presumed April 1940) was a prominent Polish

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 ...

player of the early twentieth century.

Biography

Dawid Przepiórka was born 22 December 1880 in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

, Poland (then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

), to a family of wealthy landowners and entrepreneurs of Jewish extraction. His grandfather, Izrael Przepiórka, built a large house at the crossing of Warsaw's

Aleje Jerozolimskie Jerusalem Avenue ( pl, Aleje Jerozolimskie) is one of the principal streets of the capital city of Warsaw in Poland. It runs through the City Centre along the East-West axis, linking the western borough of Wola with the bridge on the Vistula ...

and Nowy Świat Streets, in the very heart of the city. Both the tenement house and the Gastronomia restaurant located there (one of the most popular restaurants in Warsaw between the wars) provided him with steady income. However, Przepiórka was more interested in mathematics and chess than doing business. He learned to play chess at the age of seven, on his own, as no one in his family knew the game. Declared a prodigy by the age of nine, soon afterward he managed to beat a well-known chess master

Jan Taubenhaus Jean (Jan) Taubenhaus (14 December 1850, in Warsaw – 14 September 1919, in Paris) was a Polish–born French chess master. Biography Taubenhaus was a foremost Warsaw chess player in late 1870s. In 1880, he settled in Paris. In the 4th internat ...

. Shortly before

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 left his family company for good and started traveling abroad, devoting himself to chess. Abroad he took part in numerous chess tournaments, winning many of them. His international chess career started in 1926. That year he became the first Polish Champion winning in

. The same year he also won a notable tournament in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

(+4 –0 =1) ahead of

Rudolf Spielmann Rudolf Spielmann (5 May 1883 – 20 August 1942) was a Jewish-Austrian chess player of the 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 ol ...

and

Efim Bogoljubov Efim Bogoljubow ( or ), also known as Ewfim Dimitrijewitsch Bogoljubow, ( (); also Romanized ''Bogoljubov'', ''Bogolyubov''; uk, Юхим Дмитрович Боголюбов, Yukhym Dmytrovych Boholiubov; April 14, 1889 – June 18, 1952) ...

. He placed second (behind

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 ...

) in the second and last World's Amateur Championship in 1928. Two years later he was part of the Polish team at the

3rd Chess Olympiad The 3rd Chess Olympiad (german: Die 3. Schacholympiade), organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between July 13 and July 27, 1930, in Hamburg ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

, where he won the gold medal in a team with

Akiba Rubinstein Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein (1 December 1880 – 14 March 1961) was a Polish chess player. He is considered to have been one of the greatest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Rubinstein was granted the title International Grandma ...

, Savielly Tartakower, Kazimierz Makarczyk and Paulin Frydman. The following year, the team won the silver medal at the

4th Chess Olympiad The 4th 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 Ch ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, being beaten by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

by one point. His successes abroad made him popular among the Polish chess community, and he became the deputy chairman of the

Polish Chess Federation The Polish Chess Federation (Polski Związek Szachowy, PZSzach) was created on 11 April 1926 in Warsaw. Józef Żabiński was the first chairman. The initial statute outlined the fundamental objectives of the association including amongst other ...

in the 1930s. Przepiórka took the major responsibility as a chairman of Organizing Committee for

6th Chess Olympiad The 6th Chess Olympiad ( pl, 6. Olimpiada szachowa), organized by the FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and (unofficial) women's tournament, a ...

at Warsaw 1935. During the 1939

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

, his apartment was destroyed and he moved to share an apartment with fellow chess player and his closest collaborator, Marian Wróbel. A Gestapo raid on the apartment in January 1940, during an informal meeting of Warsaw chess players, led to the arrest of all present. The non-Jewish participants were released a week later, Przepiórka and the other Jewish players (including

Stanisław Kohn Stanisław Kohn (1895–1940) was a Polish chess master. Kohn played for Poland in 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad at Paris 1924. In 1925, he won the Warsaw Championship. In 1926, he tied for 3rd-7th, behind Dawid Przepiórka and Paulin Frydman ...

and Moishe Lowtzky and Przepiórka's son-in-law Jakub Rabinowicz) were subsequently executed by the Germans in Palmiry. The exact date of his death is unknown; it is presumed to be April 1940.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Przepiorka, Dawid Jewish chess players Polish chess players Chess Olympiad competitors Extrajudicial killings in World War II Sportspeople from Warsaw 1880 births 1940 deaths 19th-century chess players 20th-century chess players Chess composers Deaths by firearm in Poland Polish people executed by Nazi Germany People executed by Nazi Germany by firing squad Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust Polish civilians killed in World War II

Biography

See also

References

External links