Carl August Walbrodt

Carl August Walbrodt ( born November 28, 1871 in Amsterdam, † 3 October 1902 in Berlin) was a German chess master.

Journey

Carl August Walbrodt was born as the son of German parents in Amsterdam. He spent his youth in the then independent town near Berlin Köpenick. For the merchant class brought up, he was co-owner of a factory. Walbrodt, which is described as small in stature, focused on the game of chess, for which he showed a great talent. His health was impaired at an early stage by a lung disease.

In the obituary of the New York Times on Walbrodt it was said that its enormous talent was in 1890 in a Berlin café by Richard Buz, a leading member of the Manhattan Chess Club discovered. As Buz learned that Walbrodt had no contact with a chess club, the latter had introduced him personally in the Berlin Chess Club.

According to Siegbert Tarrasch Walbrodt was "surfaced in 1891 in the Berlin chess circles and had gained a great name in the world of chess quickly through an unbroken chain of match and tournament successes ". In 1893 reached Walbrodt his best historical Elo rating 2706th Thus, he was number five of the subsequently calculated world rankings.

Aside from the tournament and chess competition (for details see below) Walbrodt was editor of the Berlin newspaper chess ( in the first years of existence thereof), and founded thereon the International Chess Journal, but which could not sustain for long. He also directed several chess columns, most recently in Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger. Walbrodt founded, inter alia, the Chess Club North Star and belonged to several clubs as honorary member. 1897/98 was now living in Kreuzberg Businessman Chairman of the chess club Centrum.

The tournament was no longer possible for him long before his death due to his ill health, although this improved temporarily in the summer of 1902. So he took simuls true. On August 30, 1902, he gave a simul on 22 boards in the chess club Springer, but this was replaced by H. Wolf and Curt of Bardeleben that the games played alternately to the end ( 20, -1, = 1). A month later Walbrodt died of tuberculosis.

To him, the Chess Club North Star renamed in chess club Walbrodt honor. The club had its domicile in the Wedding Müllerstraße.

Tournaments

At the age of 21 years, he received in 1892 at the Congress of the German Chess Federation in Dresden 4/5 Place and lost not a single game ( 4 = 12). The following year he shared with Curt von Bardeleben in Kiel the first place, which was equivalent to the German championship. At the Congress in Leipzig in 1894, he reached a split 4./5.Preis again.

When major international tournament of Hastings in 1895, he landed in the middle on the eleventh place among a total of 22 participants. In 1896 he participated in two other major international tournaments, in Nuremberg he shared with Carl Schlechter the 7/8 Price and in Budapest, he reached the 6/7 Price. At the tournament of the Berlin Chess Club in 1897, he finished in second place. In the first round Walbrodt had beaten eventual champions Rudolf Charousek, on the other ranks followed Joseph Henry Blackburne, Janowski and David Amos Burn. By " the first prize went Charousek nearly dispute ", he achieved his greatest success as a master, in the judgment of the German chess magazine. Earlier this year Walbrodt had been less successful. In a small master tournament chess club Centrum, he was behind by Bardeleben, Charousek, William Cohn and Jacques Lousy only fifth ahead Arved Heinrichsen and Franz Gutmayer. In Vienna in 1898 fell at a special price.

Duels

His first major competition won Walbrodt 1891 in Berlin against Emil Schallopp 5-3 ( 5, -3, = 1). The match began Walbrodt extremely unfavorable: Schallopp went 3-0 lead, only the second game could Walbrodt hold a draw. But then lost the renowned masterpieces Schallopp five games in succession against his young opponent.

The sensational comeback Walbrodts made ​​in the chess world much debate and also Walbrodt itself has been called courageous and called Theodor von Scheve out. The battle began on 14 October 1891, after an obstinate dispute ended the first game is drawn. Winner should be who wins first five games - the first three drawn games should not count. It was played on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons in the garden Schiller, Bellevuestr. 20 in Berlin. The race was canceled after ten games in a draw after each player had won four games and two matches ended in a draw.

Before the match against von Scheve Walbrodt had late August 1891 also Hermann Keidanski defeated 5-1 ( 5, -1). In June 1892, he finally struck by Curt Bardeleben superior 4-0 ( 4 -0 = 4). For the ninth game of Bardeleben appeared no more, after he had already no longer included the interrupted eighth game and therefore lost. The winner was supposed to apply, who had to have first six winning games. The application for the competition were 300 marks on each side.

In 1893 Walbrodt won on a trip to America, which had been made ​​possible for him by the club in Havana, against a number of weaker opponents ( Vasquez, Ettlinger and Eugene Delmar ), but lost in Boston against Pillsbury. In 1894 he defeated in Berlin Wilhelm Cohn 5-0 and made a competition with Jacques undecided Lousy.

According to his previous successes Walbrodt 1894 Siegbert Tarrasch challenged to a contest. Originally the match was to take place in Berlin and was scheduled for ten winning plays. Finally, the race was moved to Nuremberg and discharged to seven games. The use amounted to 800 marks in this case. Tarrasch scored an overwhelming victory 7-0, just one game ended in a draw. The interest was clear unusually large, a final simultaneous match against 51 opponents Walbrodts ( 42, -5, = 4) are said to have attended 800 people. A proposed by Walbrodt rematch the following year did not materialize.

On November 3, 1897 Walbrodt began - alternately on the premises of the Berlin Chess Club and the Chess Club Centrum - a contest over six games against David Janowski. The use was 1000 marks. Walbrodt won the second and fourth game, thus leading 3-1, so that only lacked a draw for the match victory. However Janowski equalized by two wins to 3:3. In the event an extension to three games had previously been agreed. Janowski won the next two games and thus decided to fight Walbrodt ( 2, -4, = 2).

Chess composition

Walbrodt composed the following thumbnails.

Solution: 1 De1 -c1 Kd4xe5 2 Dc1 -e3 KE5 -f matt ( d) 6 3 De3 - e7 1 ... Sb2 -d3 2 Se5xd3 Kd4 -e4 - f4 3 Dc1 matt 1 ... Sb2 - c4 2 Ne5 - d7 S arbitrary 3 - D c1 c5 matt