Ernst Grünfeld
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---- Ernst Franz Grünfeld (November 21, 1893 – April 3, 1962) was an Austrian
chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
player and writer, mainly on
opening Opening may refer to: Types of openings * Hole * A title sequence or opening credits * Grand opening of a business or other institution * Inauguration * Keynote * Opening sentence * Opening sequence * Opening statement, a beginning statemen ...
theory A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...
. He was among the inaugural recipients of the grandmaster title in 1950.


Life and career

Grünfeld was born in
Josefstadt Josefstadt (; ; "Joseph-Town") is the eighth district of Vienna (). It is near the center of Vienna and was established as a district in 1850, but borders changed later. Josefstadt is a heavily populated urban area with many workers and resi ...
, Vienna. He lost a leg in his early childhood,"Homo Neubau": An exhibition featuring Ernst Grünfeld
chessbase.com which was beset by poverty. However, he discovered chess, studied intensely, and quickly earned a reputation as a skilled player at the local
chess club A chess club is a club formed for the purpose of playing the board game of chess. Chess clubs often provide for both informal and tournament games and sometimes offer league play. Traditionally clubs play over the board and face to face chess a ...
, the Wiener Schach-Klub. The First World War (1914–1918) seriously affected Grünfeld's chances of playing the best in the world as few tournaments were played during this troubled period. He was reduced to playing correspondence matches and spent much of his spare time studying opening variations. He started a library of chess material which he kept in his small Viennese flat until his death at the age of 68 in 1962. He developed a reputation as an expert on openings during the 1920s and success over the board soon followed. He was 1st in Vienna (1920) with
Savielly Tartakower Savielly Tartakower (also known as ''Xavier'' or ''Ksawery'' ''Tartakower'', less often ''Tartacover'' or ''Tartakover''; 21 February 1887 – 4 February 1956) was a Polish chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (chess), Internatio ...
; 1st in
Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...
(1923); 1st in
Merano Merano (, ; ) or Meran () is a (municipality) in South Tyrol, Northern Italy. Generally best known for its Spa town, spa resorts, it is located within a Depression (geology), basin, surrounded by mountains standing up to Height above mean sea ...
(1924); 1st in
Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
(1926) with
Mario Monticelli Mario Monticelli (16 March 1902, Venice – 30 June 1995, Milan) was an Italian chess player. He was awarded the International Master (IM) title in 1950 and the Grandmaster title honoris causa (GME) in 1985. In 1922, he won in Rome (ITA-ch Uni ...
; 1st in Vienna (1927) and he shared first spot in the Vienna tournaments of 1928 and 1933 ( Trebitsch Memorial)—the former with
Sándor Takács Sándor Takács (10 February 1893 – 22 April 1932) was a Hungarian chess master, born Károly Sydlauer in Miskolc, Hungary. Career In 1922, Takács took 13th in Vienna (Akiba Rubinstein won). In 1924, he took 6th in Meran (Ernst Grünfeld wo ...
and the latter with Hans Müller; and finally he was 1st in the tournament at
Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...
of 1933. He also won in the 23rd
DSB Congress The '' Deutscher Schachbund'' (DSB) was founded in Leipzig on 18 July, 1877. When the next meeting took place in the Schützenhaus on 15 July 1879, sixty-two clubs had become member of the chess federation. Hofrat Rudolf von Gottschall became Ch ...
at Frankfurt 1923. During the Bad Pistyan (Piešťany) tournament of April 1922 Grünfeld introduced his most important contribution to opening theory—the
Grünfeld Defence The Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. d4 Nf6 :2. c4 g6 :3. Nc3 d5 Black offers White the possibility of 4.cxd5, which may be followed by 4...Nxd5 and 5.e4, giving White an imposing duo. If White does not ...
. He played the defence against
Friedrich Sämisch Friedrich Sämisch (20 September 1896 – 16 August 1975) was a German chess player and chess theorist. He was among the inaugural recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950. Background Sämisch was a bookbinder ...
in round 7,
drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...
in 22 moves, and later that year he used it successfully against
Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine. He disliked when Russians sometimes pronounced the of as , , which he regarded as a Yiddish distortion of his name, and insisted that the correct Russian pronunciation was . (March 24, 1946) was a Russian ...
in the Vienna tournament. However, he did not play the opening frequently. During the late 1920s and 1930s Grünfeld played top board for Austria in four
Chess Olympiads 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 ...
(1927, 1931, 1933, 1935), and his best year was in 1927 when he scored 9½/12. According to the
Chessmetrics Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo and Edo rating systems. Implementation Chessmetrics is a weighted average of past performance. The score considers a player's ...
website he would have been rated around 2715 at his peak (December 1924). In May 1943, he took 2nd, behind
Paul Keres Paul Keres (; 7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five ...
, in
Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...
, and won in December 1943 in Vienna. After the Second World War, he tied for 3rd-4th at Vienna 1951 ( Schlechter Memorial,
Moshe Czerniak Moshe Czerniak (born Moizes Czerniak, also knowns as Miguel Czerniak; ; 3 February 1910 – 31 August 1984) was a Polish-Israeli chess player. He was awarded the title of International Master (IM) by FIDE in 1952. Biography In 1930 Moshe Czern ...
won). Grünfeld was awarded the title
International Grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a Chess title, title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Chess Championship, World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is hel ...
by
FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...
in 1950. By the late 1950s he was playing very little chess and he mainly worked on his prodigious library which by now had completely filled the living room in his flat which he shared with his wife and daughter. His last tournament was Beverwijk ( Hoogovens Tournament) in 1961, where in a field with five more strong grandmasters, he finished with a score of 3/9 (with only one win, against
Jan Hein Donner Johannes Hendrikus (Hein) Donner (July 6, 1927 – November 27, 1988) was a Dutch chess grandmaster and writer. He was born in The Hague. His father Jan Donner was a prominent Dutch politician and judge. Donner won the Dutch Championship in 195 ...
). He died in the Wilhelminenspital in
Ottakring Ottakring () is the 16th Districts of Vienna, District in the city of Vienna, Austria (). It is located west of the central districts, north of Penzing (Vienna), Penzing and south of Hernals. Ottakring has some heavily populated urban areas with m ...
, Vienna on April 3, 1962.


Playing style

He reputedly modeled his style of play on
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 ...
's and only played
1.d4 The Queen's Pawn Game is any chess opening starting with the move: : b:Chess Opening Theory/1. d4, 1. d4 It is the second-most popular opening move after 1.e4 (King's Pawn Game). Terminology The term "Queen's Pawn Game" is usually used to des ...
, claiming that he did not make mistakes in the opening. However, his style of avoiding complex variations together with an essentially drawish nature was simply not good enough to trouble the world's best. He is best remembered for his eponymous defence, the
Grünfeld Defence The Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. d4 Nf6 :2. c4 g6 :3. Nc3 d5 Black offers White the possibility of 4.cxd5, which may be followed by 4...Nxd5 and 5.e4, giving White an imposing duo. If White does not ...
(1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5) and for his general expertise in the opening.


Writings

Ernst Grünfeld contributed many articles on openings to chess magazines around Europe. Indeed, before he had turned 20, he was already contributing articles on the
Ruy Lopez The Ruy Lopez (; ), also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bb5 The Ruy Lopez remains one of the most popular chess openings, featuring many variations. In ...
to ''
Wiener Schachzeitung ''Wiener Schachzeitung'' (or ''Wiener Schach-Zeitung'', "''Viennese Chess Bulletin''") was the name of several Austrian chess periodicals published in Vienna between 1855 and 1949. Original publications (1855 and 1887-1888) The original publicat ...
'', which was one of the most popular German-language chess publications of its day, and over the next 40 years or so he wrote many articles on opening theory for chess publications in Germany, Belgium, and the USSR. His favorite market was in Bulgaria, though, because they used to pay for his work in food rather than in money! He published several books which were generally well received and he contributed to a seminal account of the
Teplice Teplice (, until 1948 Teplice-Šanov; , ''Teplitz-Schönau'') is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 51,000 inhabitants. It is the most populous Czech spa town, followed by Karlovy Vary. The historic city cen ...
tournament of 1922. Other publications include ''The Queen's Pawn Game and the Queen's Gambit Declined'' (1924) and ''Taschenbuch der Eroffnungen im Schach'' (1953).


References

*


External links

* Kmoch, Hans (2004)
Grandmasters I Have Known: Ernst Grünfeld
Chesscafe.com. *
Grünfeld's profile
on chessmetrics.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Gruenfeld, Ernst Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Austrian male writers Austrian chess writers Chess theoreticians People from Josefstadt 1893 births 1962 deaths 20th-century Austrian chess players 20th-century Austrian sportsmen Austrian chess players