Louis Paulsen

Louis Paulsen in the 1850s or 1860s
Association	German Empire
Born	January 15, 1833 Gut Nassengrund near Blomberg
Died	August 18, 1891 Gut Nassengrund near Blomberg , Principality of Lippe
Best Elo rating	2710 (October 1862) ( Historic Elo rating )

Hermann Louis (Ludwig) Paulsen (born January 15, 1833 in Gut Nassengrund near Blomberg , Principality of Lippe ; † August 18, 1891 there ) was one of the strongest chess players of the 19th century from Germany .

Scion of a chess family

He came from a chess-loving landowning family (his father Dr. Carl Paulsen was a farmer and potato breeder). His older brother Wilfried Paulsen (1828–1901) was also a chess master. However, he only appeared occasionally at tournaments and concentrated on continuing his father's agriculture.

The middle brother Ernst played much weaker, he emigrated to the USA in 1854 . The older sister Amalie (later Amalie Lellmann) (1831–1869) learned the game of chess and brought it to an above-average skill level, but limited herself to encouraging Louis and thus promoting his career.

Chess career

Louis Paulsen and Paul Morphy in New York in 1857

Paulsen himself went to the USA in 1854 and soon achieved a high reputation as a chess player. In large part, he owed this to his ability to play blindly . After six years he returned to Europe, where he successfully fought against the most famous players. In the New York tournament of 1857 Louis Paulsen only had to admit defeat to the best player in the world at the time, Paul Morphy . In the years 1871, 1878 and 1880 he won the championship of the West German Chess Federation. In 1877 in Leipzig he was first ahead of Adolf Anderssen and Johannes Hermann Zukertort at the Congress of the Central German Chess Federation. He took second place behind Berthold Englisch at the 1st Congress of the German Chess Federation in Leipzig in 1879.

Because of his unspectacular style of play, which was rather defensive in contrast to many other players of his time, Paulsen was not as well known as Adolf Anderssen , although he had a positive record against him. He contested three competitions against his famous compatriot, one of which ( London 1862) ended in a draw 4: 4 (+3 = 2 −3), but two (both in Leipzig ) Paulsen won: 5.5: 4.5 (+5 = 1 −4) 1876 and 5.5: 3.5 (+5 = 1 −3) 1877. According to the historical Elo number , Louis Paulsen was number one in the world for a total of 39 months between 1862 and 1878.

Paulsen died of diabetes in 1891 .

Aftermath

Ludwig Rellstab tried to assess the importance of Paulsen in chess history with reference to the judgment of the first world chess champion. Steinitz had praised how much he owed Paulsen and in 1890 wrote: “Anderssen and Paulsen were my actual teachers for a considerable time.” At the London tournament in 1862 Steinitz met Anderssen and Kolisch personally and later recalled: “When I did them first met, I expressed myself very negatively about Paulsen's playing style. However, these two masters defended Paulsen against my general criticism, and that made me think. ”Steinitz described Louis Paulsen as an outstanding pioneer of the modern chess school:“ Paulsen first drew attention to the fact that two bishops were superior to bishop and knight or two knights are."

The Paulsen variant in the Sicilian Defense is named after him - or originally after his older brother Wilfried .

The city ​​of Detmold's chess club is named in his honor "Schachgemeinschaft Detmold DSK 62 / SC Paulsen 1900 eV". The association member Horst Paulussen, as Paulsen’s biographer, has taken on the task of looking after his memory and his estate. He wrote the book Louis Paulsen 1833-1891 and the chess game in Lippe 1900-1981, a contribution to the history of the German chess game (Detmold 1982, published by the Lippischen Heimatbund , Verlag Topp und Möller).

literature

• Horst Paulussen: Louis Paulsen 1833 - 1891 and the game of chess in Lippe 1900 - 1981 . Topp and Möller publishing house, Detmold 1982.
• Helmut Wieteck:  Paulsen, Louis. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 127 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Hans Renette: Louis Paulsen. A Chess Biography with 719 Games . McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson (North-Carolina) 2019. ISBN 9781476671956 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ The international tournament Leipzig 1877 (MDSB congress) on TeleSchach (cross table and all games)
2. ^ The International Tournament Leipzig 1879 (1st DSB Congress) on TeleSchach (cross table and games)
3. ↑ Louis Paulsen's historical Elo numbers at chessmetrics.com (English)

Web links

• Obituary for Louis Paulsen (English) published in the New York Times
• Replayable chess games by Louis Paulsen on chessgames.com (English)