Karel Traxler

Karel Traxler ( born January 17, 1866 in Vlachovo Březí; † May 15th, 1936 Volyně ) was a Czech chess player and chess composer.

Besides being a Catholic priest Traxler was considered a strong chess amateur who made ​​an important contribution to opening theory end of the 19th century: He played in 1890 in a match against J. Reinisch first time the train 4 ... Bf8 - c5 in the Two Knights in Nachzuge and won brilliantly among women victims in just 17 moves. The variant is named after him as Traxler counterattack.

Karel Traxler led the pseudonyms Anonymous z Tábora, Karel Kaplan, Vis Maior and Karel Zboněk. In the years 1896-1899 he edited some of the magazine České listy šachové.

Chess Composer

Traxler was one of the numerous representatives of the Bohemian school from the generation Josef Pospišils. He composed over 900 tasks, mainly two-, three - and four- Züger, but also more Züger, rare selfmates. Together with his brother- January Kotrč he published a selection of 247 of his composed to 1910 tasks.

Solution: 1 DF8! Kxe4 2 Kf6 Kxf4 3 Db4 Ideal Matt 2 ... Kd4 3 Db4 pattern Matt 1 ... Kd4 2 Qe8 KC4 3 Da4 pattern Matt