Adolf Albin

Adolf Albin ( born September 14, 1848 in Bucharest, † February 1, 1920 in Vienna) was a chess master and theorist from Romania.

In the strong field tournament in 1893 in New York, he finished second behind Emanuel Lasker. Also at the famous tournament in 1895 in Hastings, he took part. Albin played several competitions, including 1894 in New York against Jackson Whipps Showalter (7-10 in 9 draws ), 1900 in Vienna against Simon Alapin (1-1 with four draws ), 1901 in Vienna against Georg Marco (2-4 in 4 sheds ) and in Vienna in 1918 against Richard Réti ( 1-1). His historical highest Elo rating was 2643 in August 1895. At the time he was ranked 15 in the world rankings.

The chess theory he enriched by the study of a Abspiels from the Queen's Gambit, which has received the name " Albin counter-gambit " (1 d2 -d4 d7 -d5 2 c4 c2 e7 - e5). It was introduced by him in 1893 against Lasker in the tournament practice and later also used by Alexander Alekhine occasionally. In addition, Albin 1890 in Vienna was a first which later known as Alekhine - Chatard Attack become variant against the French defense.

His 1872 work published Amiculu Jocului de chess was the first chess book in the Romanian language.