Jacques Mieses

Lousy, 1900
Surname	Jacques Jakob Mieses
Association	German Empire United Kingdom
Born	February 27, 1865 Leipzig , Germany
Died	23 February 1954 London
title	Grand Master (1950)
Best Elo rating	2660 (August 1907; historical )

Jacques Jakob Mieses (born February 27, 1865 in Leipzig , † February 23, 1954 in London ) was a German - British chess player and above all a chess writer.

Origin and family

Jacques Mieses was the offspring of a Jewish merchant family from Brody (then Austria-Hungary , now Ukraine ). He also had a cousin Viktor Mieses (lawyer in Leipzig, 1861-1939), who stood out as a writer of chess compositions . His uncle Samuel Mieses (spa doctor in Landeck and Bad Ems , 1841–1884) was a strong chess player. Uncle Fabius Mieses (1824–1898) lived as a poet, philosopher and biographer in Breslau and Leipzig. His daughter, Jacques' cousin Selma (1884–1930), shaped the Israelite Charity Association of Leipzig as an inspector.

Life

Mieses attended the St. Thomas School in Leipzig . After graduating from high school in 1885, he studied natural sciences at the University of Leipzig and at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Berlin, where he became a member of the Berlin Chess Society . In 1888 he celebrated his first major chess success at the Leipzig tournament with third place. At first he - like his cousin - still composed chess problems, but gave this up in favor of tournament chess. Until his emigration he lived in the Waldstrasse district in Leipzig. In 1937 Mieses broke both legs in an accident during the tournament in Kemeri (Latvia) in a bus, which left him cuffed to the bed for nine months. As Jews were increasingly persecuted, Mieses left Germany in 1938. He emigrated to England and took British citizenship in the late 1940s.

Mieses led a number of international tournaments as a referee and was also active as a journalist . He wrote chess columns and tournament reports for newspapers across Europe. Like many grandmasters, he also gave blind and simultaneous performances . He also appeared as an organizer of tournaments, for example in 1911 in San Sebastián , where he first asserted that the master players did not have to pay for travel and accommodation themselves.

In addition, Mieses was also an important author and theoretician, among other things, he was the successor of Jean Dufresne and published the renowned little textbook on the game of chess over several editions .

1906 succeeded Mieses in Ostend , Michael Chigorin to checkmate in 16 moves.

In 1950 he was among the first 27 players to be awarded the title of International Grand Master (IGM) by the World Chess Federation FIDE . That is why he is also considered the first British grandmaster . The first British-born grandmaster was Tony Miles, who died in 2001 .

From 1888 to 1948 Jacques Mieses took part in master class chess tournaments. Overall, he played their 60 in the course of his career. He took first place in Vienna in 1907 and in Liverpool in 1923 . In 1927 he took part in the Chess Olympiad in London. He also played 20 tackles.

It remained surprisingly fresh into old age. He did his calisthenics every day, went swimming every day at the age of 86 and did push-ups in Hyde Park . At the age of 88 he took part in the London Blitz Championship and was keenly interested in everything that was going on in the world. He died shortly before his 89th birthday.

Aftermath

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

The lousy gambit

Lousy best historical Elo number was 2660. He reached this in August 1907. At times he was number 9 in the world rankings. After him are the Mieses opening , the Mieses variant in the Scottish game and the Mieses gambit in the Scandinavian Defense (1. e2 – e4 d7 – d5 2. e4xd5 Qd8xd5 3. Nb1 – c3 Qd5 – a5 4. b2– b4 ) named. His catalog in the Deutsche Bücherei lists over 40 titles on chess, including some textbooks and handbooks on chess , some of which were newly published in the 1950s and translated into other languages.

Chess composition

A few two- and three-moveers are known of Mieses, including two miniatures .

Jacques Mieses German chess newspaper February 1883   a b c d e f G H   8th 8th 7th 7th 6th 6th 5 5 4th 4th 3 3 2 2 1 1   a b c d e f G H   Checkmate in three moves

Solution: 1. Bc5! 1.… Kd5 2. Ne7 + Kc4 (2.… any 3. Qf5 mate) 3. Qc2 mate 1.… any 2. Ne3 Ke4 (2.… any 3. Qc2 mate) 3. Qf5 mate There are two mate doubles : 1.… Kd5 2. Ne7 + Ke4 3. Qe3 mate 1.… Kb3 2. Ne3 Ka4 3. Qa2 mate

literature

• Helmut Wieteck:  Lousy, Jacques. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 482 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Jacques Mieses in the catalog of the German National Library
• mieses.info Website about Jacques Mieses
• Michael Ehn , Ernst Strouhal : Duel with blindfolded eyes . Brief reminder of the first blind competition. In: KARL , 2/2005
• Compositions by Jacques Mieses on the Schwalbe's PDB server
• Compositions by Jacques Mieses on the Schwalbe's PDB server
• Replayable chess games by Jacques Mieses on chessgames.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alfred Diel : Jacques Mieses and his relatives . In: Kaissiber , 6, April – June 1998, pp. 52–53.
2. ↑ mieses.info
3. ↑ Richard Sachse, Karl Ramshorn, Reinhart Herz: The teachers of the Thomasschule in Leipzig 1832-1912. The high school graduates of the Thomas School in Leipzig 1845–1912. BG Teubner Verlag, Leipzig 1912, p. 73.
4. ^ FC Görschen: Relatives in chess . In: Schach-Echo 1978, No. 1, pp. 14-15.
5. ↑ Wiener Schachzeitung , No. 11-12 / 1937, p. 186.
6. ↑ German chess sheets , No. 10/1949 ( mieses.info )
7. ↑ Jacques Mieses' results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)