Karl August Mörtzsch

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Karl August Mörtzsch (born October 31, 1831 in Deuben , † October 14, 1907 in Leipzig ) was a German chess composer . He is regarded as the first representative of problem chess from the working class .

Family and work

Mörtzsch was the fifth child of Johann Gottfried Mörtzsch and his wife Anna Elisabeth Mörtzsch (née Menzelin). He learned the profession of cigar maker , which he practiced at home. Mörtzsch lived in Leipzig-Lindenau, but moved to Leipzig-Schleußig in the last years of his life. Mörtzsch had eight children. He probably stayed in New York from 1903 to 1904, where one of his sons also lived.

Since 1890 Mörtzsch suffered from neuralgic facial pain, which only temporarily disappeared after five operations.

chess

Mörtzsch probably taught himself to play chess. He probably made his unusual chess pieces himself from cigar wrapping shapes and painted them with oil paint. Although he was later given a chess board with ivory pieces from an admirer of his chess puzzles, probably the Count von Pongracz , Mörtzsch continued to use his pieces. Mörtzsch's attempt to inspire his children to play chess failed.

At a young age Mörtzsch was often a guest at the Café National in Leipzig . Two of the players there visited Mörtzsch in Lindenau, including Wenk, who was one of the strongest chess players in the Leipzig chess society Augustea . Whether Mörtzsch was also a member of Augustea, however, is controversial.

The number of chess problems composed by Mörtzsch is not exactly known. From 1859 to 1900 at least 49 were published. Since Mörtzsch made no records and thus did not retain any duplicates of his tasks, any unpublished tasks were lost. The tasks known today were mainly compiled from newspapers and magazines by Oskar Korschelt and Willy Roscher . Korschelt initially found 45 tasks that he published in the German workers' chess newspaper in August 1911. In October 1931, in an article in the Arbeiter-Schachzeitung , Roscher saw the collection as complete after finding four more problems and correcting five incorrect ones.

In his duties Mörtzsch, mainly focused on solver close effects how long ladies trains, queen sacrifice and Into Drawing victims . In their four-part article, Burzlaff and Zucker in Schach in 1977 and 1978 emphasized the adverse circumstances against which the working class had to fight in the 19th century, which should be taken into account for the historical classification of Mörtzsch's work.

Web link

Individual references and sources

  1. ↑ Hans Burzlaff and Manfred Zucker: Karl A. Mörtzsch - the cigar maker . In: Schach 11/1977, p. 518
  2. ↑ Hans Burzlaff and Manfred Zucker: Karl A. Mörtzsch - the cigar maker (2) . In: Schach 12/1977, p. 566
  3. ^ A b Hans Burzlaff and Manfred Zucker: Karl A. Mörtzsch - the cigar maker (4) . In: Schach 02/1978, p. 86
  4. ↑ Hans Burzlaff and Manfred Zucker: Karl A. Mörtzsch - the cigar maker (3) . In: Schach 01/1978, p. 38
personal data
SURNAME Mörtzsch, Karl August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chess composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Deuben (Bennewitz)
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1907
Place of death Leipzig