Vincent Grimm
Vincenz Grimm ( * 1800 in Vienna, † 15 or January 16, 1872 in Pest; Hungarian Grimm Vince ) was an Austro- Hungarian art dealer, lithographer, cartographer, artist and chess player. As birth year is partly deviating 1810 specified. The first name is sometimes rendered in the sources with Vincent or Vincze, the English inscription reads Vincent.
During the Revolution of 1848/49 Grimm took a lead role in the Hungarian Banknote Printing. When the independence of the country was put down by force, he had to flee and then lived in exile in Turkey.
Art dealers and lithographer
Vincenz Grimm, a native of Vienna, led an eventful and remarkable life, the details of which, however, are known only in outline. In the literature can be found about him incomplete and partially contradictory.
What kind of training he learned is unclear, as is its precise origin. From Vienna Grimm moved at any rate in 1823 to Pest, where he first worked as an educator. Later he was employed as a clerk in the Danube - Tisza Canal Company. Grimm opened in 1831, a thriving arts and music shop. On February 3, 1839 Grimm was one of the founders of Pest Art Association. Versatile artistically gifted, used Grimm, who also was mentioned as a pianist, in addition to the art market and the painting. His pictures are traded up to the present on the international art market. Of his works also can be found in the collection of the Hungarian National Gallery.
In 1843 he founded a printing press or a lithographic printing house and sold his art in return for action ( an also existing music publishing Grimm led on). His interest was now primarily the colored lithographic printing, which at that time, however, was still in the technical development. Ultimately, Grimm have lost a considerable fortune in the course of this risky investment.
In this phase, Grimm was important chess activity. He was next to József SZEN and Johann Lowenthal, a member of the often called " triumvirate " which won two correspondence games against a team of leading Parisian chess master to Pierre Saint -Amant for the Pest Chess Club 1843-1845. The Pest chess club had late 1840s headquartered in a building called the " Wurmhof " in a private apartment, which was located on the same floor as the apartment of lawyer and later revolutionary leader Louis Kossuth.
Hungarian Revolution
Kossuth was in August 1848 finance ministers of the first Hungarian government ( soon after Prime Minister ). He was in personal contact with members of the chess club and pulled Grimm in government circles. During the subsequent upheavals of the Hungarian revolution, Grimm served as head of the lithography of the state banknote printing. He designed especially " the clichés to the famous Kossuth Notes", which printed the State Printing soon in masses. With the invasion of Austrian troops and the proclamation of independence in April 1849, the events came to a head dangerous. For Grimm so was the personal existence at stake.
As head of banknote printing he had been obliged to dodge and his printing presses with the Hungarian government to Debrecen. In August 1849, the revolutionaries had to Kossuth, who most recently held the position of the parent " Regent ", add in the military defeat. Prime Minister Bertalan Szemere decided the winners of the entrained on the run Hungarian regalia, including the crown of St. Stephen withhold. They were buried near the (now located in Romania) border town Orşova. Grimm was chosen according to the report Szemere as a draftsman to record the geographical location of the place, and one of the few witnesses of this historic episode. This proves that Grimm was the leadership of the independence uprising in a relationship of trust. The insignia were discovered only after a prolonged search in 1853 by the Austrian authorities again.
For political participation Grimms there is another document. In a 1849 plague anonymously published pamphlet in verse, he commented bitterly the suppression of the revolution in Hungary and the role that it took the Austrian general and Ban of Croatia, Joseph Jelacic. The " heroic poem in four cantos " was released the following year in Leipzig in an expanded 72-page version. The subsequently attached "fifth song " ends with the lines: This is the song of Jellachich ... Only thing missing is the descent into hell, which remains the hero been saving up once the song ended.
Exile in Turkey and return
After the failure of the revolution Grimm escaped with a number of refugees, including Kossuth, across the border in the Ottoman Empire. The government in Constantinople Opel offered asylum and refused to extradite the emigrants to Austria. Many of them, including Kossuth and Szemere, soon moved on to other host countries. Grimm, however, decided to build a new life in exile in Turkey after his rescue. Here he benefited from his oft-mentioned linguistic talent.
In Turkey, Grimm suggested initially by playing chess. Later, he is supposed to be converted to Islam and adopted the name of Mustapha Bey. Soon Ottoman positions were aware of his skills as a draftsman. For almost two decades, he worked as a senior officer in the first Cartographic Office of the Ottoman General Staff in Aleppo in Syria today. Apparently, it allowed him to his duties at the end of some years, to transfer his residence in the capital of Constantine Opel. Here he was engaged at cards and wallet Archives of the Turkish army. Maybe he was also consulted on the basis of his special knowledge for the production of Ottoman banknotes. He lived in a hotel room in the European quarter of Pera, where he also worked as a private tutor.
Grimm did not return until 1868 after the Austro- Hungarian Compromise back to Pest. Whether he could actually see each other again until that date Hungary or whether friends had to persuade " proscribed " only to obtain an official permission from the government - even to go about the details apart. Upon his arrival he was appointed shortly honorary chairman of the Pest chess clubs and participated in the dinner, which celebrated the triumph Ignaz Kolisch at the international Paris tournament of 1867 solemnly.
After his return home, Grimm lived in the King's Road with his sister Paula, a famous actress. Grimm died on 15 or January 16, 1872 of heart failure and is on the Kerepesi cemetery buried (of the faith reported conversion to Islam can be found in this context, no information ). That deviate from this version reports, Grimm was returned instead of plague in Turkey and died there, not to take.
Importance for chess
The memory of Grimm is preserved primarily in the history of chess. The reason for this is mainly its participation in the competition against Paris, the " triumvirate " and the Hungarian Chess earned the Pest a great prestige success. The Revolution of 1848/49 then brought about an end to this short flowering time. In addition to Grimm emigrated also Lowenthal, who eventually in London found a new workplace after a detour through America and was able to live off the bay.
As for Grimm's chess performance, again only a few messages are secured. His skill level was remarkable, as a master, he handed but according to Lowenthal's information does not quite match his associates approach: " The strength ratio Grimms to SZEN was something like 3:7 to Lowenthal as 4:6. " Are After Bachmann and Hajtun - apart from the participation in the remote parts - only three games narrated by him, including two against Tassilo von der Lasa Heydebrand and who played a series of games with Grimm in Vienna in 1846.
The äußereren circumstances prevented Grimm in particular because in 1851 along with SZEN and Lowenthal in the first international chess tournament, which took place on the edge of the Great Exhibition in London to take part. The rejection letter Grimm, dated February 27, 1851, was reprinted in the book edited by Howard Staunton tournament book. In it, he writes that his role during the Hungarian Revolution had almost cost him his head.
The letter was accompanied by an article on chess in Aleppo, which appeared in the chess magazine Chess Player's Chronicle. Stimulated had him, the fact that Aleppo was the hometown of the Syrian chess champion Philipp Stamma in the 18th century. However, Grimm found out that the memory of Stamma had faded, and his quest for Arab chess manuscripts remained unsuccessful. In 1865, Grimm published another essay on the subject in the Berlin newspaper chess. Based on games that he had played in Damascus and Aleppo, Grimm described the Arab rules that differed from the usual in Europe in several respects. Farmers could draw only one field from the initial position, the transformation could happen only in already beaten figures, and castling was either unknown or has been carried out by different local rules. He emphasized the rapid pace of the game and described that the players in the opening several times could pull one behind the other, until both sides had completed their deployment. The games were also held mostly under lively sympathy of viewers.
In his Turkish exile him a worthy opponent were available. Therefore, Grimm was limited to acting as a chess teacher. In addition, he devoted himself to chess composition and could with tasks that were published in chess journals, keep in touch with the European chess friends.
After Vincenz Grimm, a variant of the King Bishop Gambit is eventually named after the trains 1.e2 e5 -e4 e7 - 2.f2 - f4 - c4 e5xf4 3.Lf1 Qd8 - h4 4.Ke1 -f1 g7- g5 5.Sb1 - c3 lf8 - g7 6.d2 -d4 d7 - d6 7.e4 e5 is created.