Johann Baptist Allgaier

New theoretical and practical instructions for playing chess - title page of the original edition (1795)

Johann Baptist Allgaier (born June 19, 1763 in Schussenried , † January 2 or 3, 1823 in Vienna ) was the first important German and Austrian chess player . He was also the author of the first independent chess textbook in German.

Life

Johann Baptist Allgaier was born as the son of poor parents in the free Reichsstift Schussenried , which came to Württemberg in 1806 . His father Georg Allgaier was employed as court master of the monastery. The young Allgaier studied Catholic theology , but as a young man “secretly emigrated to Poland, where he learned to play chess from a Polish Jew”. The private reasons for the early break in his biography are unclear.

Generally only a few details are known of Allgaier's life. At the end of the 1780s he won a competition for 1500 guilders in Vienna and has since been considered the best chess player in the imperial city. Now he was given access to aristocratic circles. For some time he was entrusted with chess lessons from several Austrian archdukes . In 1798 Allgaier entered Austrian military service. This did not happen continuously, but with a series of interruptions in line with the course of the coalition wars with Austria's participation. He was later employed for a short time as the accounting officer at the garrison hospital in Prague .

Allgaier had to resign from service in 1816 because he was ill; the pension he received from then on was meager. He moved back to Vienna. There he was forced to gain additional income by playing chess. Around the year 1820, many strong chess players met in Vienna in the coffee house "Zur golden Krone" on Graben . The civil servant Anton Witthalm and Count Johann Somssich were among Allgaier's strongest opponents. Despite his fame and some support he received, Allgaier spent his late years in poor circumstances.

The chess master, of whom no portrait has survived, was described as having a modest character and a "tall, strong man with pleasant, but not very witty facial features". At the end of December 1822 Allgaier, who had suffered from chronic asthma for many years , had to be admitted to a public hospital, the garrison hospital. There he died of dropsy in the chest a few days later . After his death, his widow received a one-off small grant.

Games played by Allgaier have not been preserved, although he had extensive practice in Vienna. It is generally believed that he to some time Chess Turk has served - including a game of who the alleged Schachautomat 1809 Schonbrunn Palace against Emperor Napoleon I should have played. However, the traditional game is not considered historical.

Chess author

In 1795, Allgaier's textbook New Theoretical-Practical Instructions for Chess was published in Vienna . The work contains an overview of the game beginnings known at the time ; Finally, finals are dealt with. As early as 1796, the instruction for the chess game of the second part followed, a representation of various chess variants such as the king game and the war game. The game of chess has been cultivated at the imperial court for centuries. It followed a Spanish tradition. Allgaier's books were dedicated to the young archdukes Anton , Johann , Rainer , Ludwig and Rudolph "by their most submissive and obedient servant".

It is largely thanks to Allgaier that chess also found its way into the Austrian people. His new theoretical-practical instruction on the game of chess was the first noteworthy contribution in the German language to chess theory.

Allgaier knew the chess literature of his time very well. He referred to the ideas of Philidor and the opening systems of the Modena chess school around Lolli , Ponziani and del Rio . The influence of the French master remained decisive for Allgaier, who was also called the "German Philidor". His new theoretical-practical instruction on the game of chess was finally well received in the whole of the German-speaking area and was subject to four editions during Allgaier's lifetime, which included revisions and additions. That was a considerable success for the time. Even after his death, the book continued to be published into the 1840s (the seventh and final edition appeared in 1841). It was only at this point in time that newer works, especially the Handbuch des Schachspiels , had displaced the importance of the Allgaier book.

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

Allgaier Gambit: Position in front of the figure sacrifice (6.Ng5xf7)

For half a century, the “chess laws” formulated by Allgaier were the authoritative body of rules in Germany. In Vienna they were in use until the chess society was founded in 1857.

Allgaier's textbook contributed significantly to increasing the playing strength of German and Austrian chess players. However, the plant was unable to exert a noticeable international influence. In England and France, where at that time the focus was on the development of the game of chess, the "instruction", written in German and in algebraic notation , which was still uncommon at the time , could not be used. The tabular arrangement of the openings, which Allgaier first made in the third edition of the book (1811), was groundbreaking.

A variant of the King's Gambit is named after him, the sharp Allgaier Gambit , which is considered to be very risky . It arises according to the following moves: 1. e2 – e4 e7 – e5 2. f2 – f4 e5xf4 3. Ng1 – f3 g7 – g5 4. h2 – h4 g5 – g4 5. Nf3 – g5 (as an alternative to 5. Nf3– e5, the Kieseritzky Gambit ). After 5.… h7 – h6 the piece sacrifice 6. Ng5xf7 is forced. An analysis of this gambit is contained in the fourth edition of the instruction (1819).

Works

• New theoretical and practical instructions for playing chess. Rötzl, Vienna 1795 ( digitized version ).
• Two parts of the instruction for playing chess. Rötzl, Vienna 1796 ( digitized version ).
• New theoretical-practical instruction for playing chess. 3. Edition. Rötzl and Kaulfuß, Vienna 1811 ( digitized version ).
• New theoretical and practical instructions for playing chess. 5th edition. Haas, Vienna and Prague 1823 ( digitized ).

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Allgaier, Johann . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 22nd part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1870, p. 461 ( digitized version ).
• without author (= Anton Baron Reisner?): Allgaier , in: Neue Berliner Schachzeitung , July – August 1870, pp. 193–197. (Reprint from the chess supplement of the "Wiener Spielzeitung")
• Paul Beck : A famous but forgotten Swabian. The chess artist Johann Allgaier from Schussenried (1763–1823) . In: Schwäbisches Archiv , 26th year 1908, pp. 177–183.

Web links

Wikisource: Johann Baptist Allgaier  - Sources and full texts

• Game of the Chess Turk (allegedly Allgaier) against Emperor Napoleon (1809) (PDF file; 557 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reference to different information in the files received from Reisner.
2. ^ ^{A b c} Anton Baron Reisner, in: Schachzeitung
3. ↑ Dedication in the first edition.
4. ↑ See u. a. according to Anton Baron Reisner, in: Schachzeitung , January 1866, p. 12.