Rudolf Charousek

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Rudolf Charousek.jpg
Rudolf Charousek
Association Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary Austria-Hungary
Born September 19, 1873
Prague , Austria-Hungary
Died April 18, 1900
Budapest
Best Elo rating 2734 (March 1900) ( historical rating )

Rudolf Charousek ( Hungarian : Rezső Charousek , born September 19, 1873 in Prague , † April 18, 1900 in Budapest ) was a Czech chess master .

As a high school student, Charousek turned to the game of chess. This moved him so much under his spell, he recorded a 1893 study of jurisprudence broke off to live henceforth as a professional chess player. He made friends with the Hungarian chess master Géza Maróczy , with whom he played many free games.

He was so poor that he copied large parts of the Bilguer because he could not afford the book. He starved a lot and got tuberculosis early .

Initially, from 1893 onwards, he participated in the first remote tournament that was held in Hungary. He shared first place with Maróczy. After the first local successes in Budapest, invitations to international tournaments followed. Charousek caused a stir with a victory over the reigning world champion Emanuel Lasker at the Nuremberg chess tournament in 1896, which he finished 12th out of 19 participants. In the autumn of the same year he reached the playoff for first place at the tournament organized by the Pest Chess Club to mark the millennium of Hungary, which he lost to Mikhail Chigorin . In 1897 the Berlin Chess Society organized an anniversary tournament on the occasion of its 70th anniversary. This was won by Charousek and received a price of 2000 marks. In 1898 he took 2nd to 4th place at the 11th DSB Congress in Cologne behind Amos Burn together with Wilhelm Cohn and Michail Tschigorin . Finally, he won a tournament with four chess masters in Budapest ahead of Maróczy.

Because of these successes, Charousek was seen as a candidate for a challenge from Lasker, but it never came back: Charousek died of tuberculosis at the age of 26.

From May 1899 to April 1900 he was in 6th place in the world rankings.

Charousek was considered a master of the king's bishop gambit , which he also used in the aforementioned success against Lasker.

After Charousek's death, the writer Gustav Meyrink created a literary monument in the novel The Golem : one of the three main characters in the novel is the medical student and chess player Innocent Charousek .

Web links

Commons : Rudolf Charousek  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The International Tournament Cologne 1898 (11th DSB Congress) on TeleSchach (cross table and games)
  2. ↑ Charousek on chessmetrics.com (English)
personal data
SURNAME Charousek, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Charousek, Rezső
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian chess player
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH April 18, 1900
Place of death Budapest