Karel Traxler

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

In addition to his work as a Catholic clergyman, Traxler was considered a strong amateur chessman who made an important contribution to opening theory at the end of the 19th century : In 1890, in a game against J. Reinisch, he played the move 4 for the first time ... Bf8 – c5 in a double knight and won brilliantly with queen sacrifice in only 17 moves. The variant is named after him as the Traxler counterattack .

Karel Traxler used the pseudonyms Anonymus z Tábora , Karel Kaplan , Vis Maior and Karel Zboněk . From 1896 to 1899 he partly edited the magazine České listy šachové .

Chess composer

Traxler was one of the many representatives of the Bohemian School from the Josef Pospišils generation. He composed over 900 assignments, mainly two, three and four-trainers, but also multi-trainers, rarely self-mats . Together with his brother-in-law Jan Kotrč , he edited a selection of 247 of his assignments composed up to 1910.

Karel Traxler
Illustrirte Zeitung , Leipzig, 1906

	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

Mate in 3 moves

Solution:

1. Qf8! Kxe4
second Kf6 Kxf4
3. Db4 Ideal Matte

2. ... Kd4
3. Db4 pattern Matt

1. ... Kd4
2. Qe8 Kc4
3. Da4 pattern Matt

literature

Jan Kotrč, Karel Traxler: Chess problems from the years 1884–1910 . Vienna 1910.

Web links

Reinisch-Traxler game to replay (Java applet)

Compositions by Karel Traxler on the Schwalbe's PDB server

Individual evidence

↑ Anders Thulin: CHESS PSEUDONYMS AND SIGNATURES. An Electronic Edition, Malmö, preliminary January 2, 2011 ( Memento from January 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 299 kB)

personal data
SURNAME	Traxler, Karel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Czech chess player and chess composer
DATE OF BIRTH	January 17, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vlachovo Březí
DATE OF DEATH	May 15, 1936
Place of death	Volyně

[1] Anders Thulin: CHESS PSEUDONYMS AND SIGNATURES. An Electronic Edition, Malmö, preliminary January 2, 2011 ( Memento from January 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 299 kB)