Emanuel Schiffers

Emanuel Schiffers
Association	Russia
Born	May 4, 1850 Saint Petersburg
Died	December 12, 1904 Saint Petersburg
Best Elo rating	2672 (November 1896) ( historical rating )

Emanuel Schiffer Stepanovich ( Russian Эммануил Степанович Шифферс , scientific. Transliteration Emanuil Stepanovič Šiffers * April 22 ^jul. / 4. May  1850 ^greg. In Saint Petersburg , † November 29 ^jul. / 12. December  1904 ^greg. ) Was a Russian chess player .

Life

Schiffers was the son of German parents who immigrated to St. Petersburg . He attended high school in St. Petersburg from 1860 to 1867 and studied natural sciences here from 1867 to 1871. He then became a tutor.

He, a polyglot who spoke fluent Russian, German, French and English, soon gave up this livelihood for the game of chess , which he had already got to know as a 15-year-old. When he played with Mikhail Chigorin for the first time in 1873 , still under handicap , he was already the best chess master in Russia.

Schiffers was considered a disinterested person who liked to pass on his knowledge. He went down in history as one of the first chess teachers in Russia, in 1889 he was the first to give a public lecture on chess theory. He ran chess columns in various St. Petersburg newspapers and the Niwa magazine . From 1894 to 1898 he was editor and editor of the chess newspaper Schachmatny Schurnal . He published the Samoutschitiel schachmatnoj igry [The autodidact of the game of chess] in serial articles in his chess columns , which came out as a book after his death in St. Petersburg in 1907 and remained a popular guide until the Soviet era (again in 1926, edited by Nenarokow). who experienced many editions.

Schiffers won competitions against Andrei Chardin (1895), Friedrich Amelung (1877), J. Schmidt (1879), Simon Alapin (1879), N. Mitropolski (1890) and others.

In his pupil Michail Chigorin, Schiffers grew up to be an overpowering competitor. In 1878, in their first competition without a handicap, Schiffers lost 3: 7 (+3 = 0 −7), but he won the second competition (also in 1878) with 7.5: 6.5 (+7 = 1 −6) . The two Russian champions played four more competitions (1879, 1880, 1895 and 1897). Schiffers was always the inferior.

In 1896 Wilhelm Steinitz visited Russia and played a competition with Schiffers in Rostov-on-Don . Schiffers lost with the honorable result of 4.5: 6.5 (+4 = 1 −6).

Schiffers took part in a total of eight major international tournaments . He achieved his best result in St. Petersburg in 1879 (3rd place). He also achieved a noteworthy good result in Hastings 1895, where he was sixth. He also played in the first two All-Russian Championships, 1899 and 1900/1901, and was second behind Chigorin both times.

In the last years of his life, Schiffers, who suffered increasingly from depression , withdrew from chess and people. After sustaining serious injuries from a fall, he did not recover and died soon after.

Web links

Commons : Emanuel Schiffers  - Collection of Images

• Replayable chess games by Emanuel Schiffers on 365Chess.com (English)

Biographical summary (Russian, partly German)