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Carl Schlechter | |
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| Country | Austria-Hungary |
| Born | (1874-03-02)2 March 1874 Vienna,Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 27 December 1918(1918-12-27) (aged 44) Budapest,Hungary |
Carl Schlechter (2 March 1874 – 27 December 1918) was a leadingAustro-Hungarianchess master and theoretician at the turn of the 20th century. He is best known fordrawing aWorld Chess Championship match withEmanuel Lasker.
Schlechter was born into a Catholic family inVienna. He is sometimes deemed to be Jewish,[1][2][3][4] although others dispute this.[5] He began playing chess at the age of 13. His first and only teacher was an Austria-Hungarian chess problemist, Dr.Samuel Gold.[6]
From 1893 onwards, he played in over 50 international chess tournaments. He won or shared first atMunich 1900 (the 12thDSB Congress),Coburg 1904 (the 14th DSB Congress),Ostend 1906,Stockholm 1906,Vienna 1908,Prague 1908,Hamburg 1910 (the 17th DSB Congress), and thrice in theTrebitsch Memorial in Vienna (1911, 1912, 1913).
Schlechter played several matches. He drew withGeorg Marco (+0−0=10) in 1893, drew with Marco andAdolf Zinkl both (+4−4=3) in 1894, drew withDawid Janowski (+2−2=3) in 1896, drew withSimon Alapin (+1−1=4) in 1899, beat Janowski (+6−1=3) in 1902, drew withRichard Teichmann (+1−1=1) in 1904, and drew withSiegbert Tarrasch (+3−3=10) in 1911.
In 1910, Schlechter played a match againstEmanuel Lasker for theWorld Chess Championship (in Vienna andBerlin). Schlechter was leading by one point going into the tenth and final game of the match. In the tenth game tragedy struck: after first achieving a won game, Schlechter blundered into a clearly drawn position and then blundered again which led to his loss of the game. The match ended tied at 5–5 (+1 −1 =8) and Lasker retained his title. It is disputed as to whether Schlechter needed to score +2 to win the match and thus needed to win the tenth game. No contract for the match has ever been found and no evidence supporting this rumor has ever been produced. (For match details seeWorld Chess Championship 1910.) Schlechter distinguished himself as the first player in 16 years to seriously challenge Lasker's world title.
Schlechter's final years were strugglesome as it was becoming increasingly difficult to make ends meet as a chess professional. DuringWorld War I, he thrice wonTrebitsch Memorial in Vienna. In the last year of his life, he took third in Vienna, lost a match toAkiba Rubinstein (+1−2=3), took second place in Berlin (Quadrangular,Milan Vidmar won), tied for third place in Kaschau, and took third place in Berlin (Quadrangular,Emanuel Lasker won). Schlechter died of pneumonia and starvation on 27 December 1918 and was buried inBudapest on 31 December 1918.[7]
The Carl Schlechter–Arthur Kaufmann–Hugo Fähndrich trio propagated the Viennese chess school, founded byMax Weiss in the 19th century.
Schlechter prepared the eighth and final edition of the famousHandbuch des Schachspielsopeningstreatise. Published in eleven parts between 1912 and 1916, it totaled 1,040 pages and included contributions byRudolf Spielmann,Siegbert Tarrasch, andRichard Teichmann.International MasterWilliam Hartston called it "a superb work, perhaps the last to encase successfully the whole of chess knowledge within a single volume."[8]
He was a typical example of a gentleman chess player of old,offering courteous draws to opponents who felt unwell. If his opponent arrived late for a game, Schlechter would inconspicuously subtract an equal amount of time from his own clock. He also mentored many of his rivals, includingOldřich Duras.
There are several "Schlechter Variations" in thechess openings:[9]
The central character of the 1998 novelCarl Haffner's Love of the Draw byThomas Glavinic is closely based on Schlechter. The book presents a fictionalised account of his 1910 World Chess Championship match with Lasker.
