Rudolf Charousek

This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

Rudolf Charousek (Hungarian: Charousek Rezső (Rezső Charousek), Hebrew: רוּדוֹלף שׁאַרושׁק (חאַרושׁק)‎, born September 19, 1873, Prague – April 18, 1900, Budapest) was a Hungarian chess player. A brilliant player, he had a tragically short career, dying at the age of 27 from tuberculosis. Reuben Fine described him as the John Keats of chess.

He was 12^th out of 19 players at Nuremberg 1896, ahead of Marco, Albin, Winawer and defeating the tournament winner Emanuel Lasker, Janowski and Blackburne. In the same year he was equal second at Budapest with Mikhail Chigorin. He won at Berlin 1897 ahead of 19 masters and the following year he was second at Köln, ahead of Steinitz, Schlechter and other 12 masters.

Charousek had a nervous temper and did not sustain well the psychological strain of match play. He was defeated in 1896 at Budapest by Maroczy and Chigorin.

He was one of a few players who had a plus record against Emanuel Lasker, having defeated the world champion at Nuremberg 1896. Lasker was so impressed that he said "I shall have to play a championship match with this man some day". Here is the game:

King's gambit 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 d5 4.Bxd5 Qh4+ 5.Kf1 g5 6.Nf3 Qh5 7.h4 Bg7 8.Nc3 c6 9.Bc4 Bg4 10.d4 Nd7 11.Kf2 Bxf3 12.gxf3 O-O-O 13.hxg5 Qxg5 14.Ne2 Qe7 15.c3 Ne5 16.Qa4 Nxc4 17.Qxc4 Nf6 18.Bxf4 Nd7 19.Qa4 a6 20.Qa5 Nf8 21.Ng3 Ne6 22.Nf5 Qf8 23.Bg3 Rd7 24.Nxg7 Qxg7 25.Qe5 Qxe5 26.Bxe5 f6 27.Bxf6 Rf8 28.Rh6 Nf4 29.Ke3 Ng2+ 30.Kd2 Rdf7 31.e5 Nf4 32.Rah1 Rg8 33.c4 Ne6 34.Ke3 Nf8 35.d5 Rd7 36.e6 1-0    See the game online

Charousek - Wollner

Position after 16. ...Nc6

Another of Charousek's games, which Grandmaster Andrew Soltis described as "one of the prettiest ever", was the basis for the story Last Round by Kester Svendsen,^[1] which Soltis called "perhaps the finest chess short story".^[2] Here is the game with punctuation marks by Soltis:

Charousek—Wollner, Kaschau 1893

Danish gambit 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bc5 6.Nxc3 d6 7.0-0 0-0 8.Ng5 h6 9.Nxf7! Rxf7 10.e5 Ng4!? 11.e6 Qh4! 12.exf7+ Kf8 13.Bf4 Nxf2 14.Qe2 Ng4+ 15.Kh1 Bd7 16.Rae1 Nc6    (see diagram at left) 17.Qe8+!! Rxe8 18.fxe8(Q)+ Bxe8 19.Bxd6 mate.

See the game online.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Last Round by Kester Svendsen
2. ^ Andrew Soltis, "From Russia with Love," Chess Life, October 1993, p. 16.

[edit] External links

• Rudolf Charousek player profile at ChessGames.com