Rudolf Spielmann "The Last Romantic!" - Top 10 Chess Sacrifices of all time!

♚COURSES https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses 📚 https://kingscrusher.tv/chessopenings 📚 https://kingscrusher.tv/chesstactics || https://kingscrusher.tv/londonsystem ♚ Play turn style chess at http://bit.ly/chessworld 🎥 Immortal Must See Chess Games: http://bit.ly/2KiWGhP Who is Rudolf Spielmann ? Rudolf Spielmann (5 May 1883 – 20 August 1942) was an Austrian-Jewish[1] chess player of the romantic school, and chess writer. Career Spielmann was a lawyer but never worked as one. He was born in 1883, the second child of Moritz and Cecilia Spielmann, and had an older brother, Leopold, and two sisters, Jenni and Irma. Moritz Spielmann was a newspaper editor in Vienna, and enjoyed playing chess in his spare time. He introduced Leopold and Rudolf to the game, and the latter quickly began to develop an aptitude for it. Spielmann was devoted to his nieces and nephews, although he never married or had children of his own. American Grandmaster Reuben Fine said in his 1945 book Chess Marches On (p.173), "In appearance and personal habits Spielmann was the mildest-mannered individual alive. He was known as "The Master of Attack" and "The Last Knight of the King's Gambit". His daredevil play was full of sacrifices, brilliancies, and beautiful ideas. This was exemplified, for example, in the 1923 Carlsbad tournament, where he did not have a single draw (with five wins and twelve losses). Spielmann was inordinately fond of the King's Gambit and continued using this opening after most elite players had abandoned it; he was also the last master to make any serious use of the Center Game. By the late 1920s, his opening repertoire increasingly focused on 1.d4 openings as contemporary chess fashion dictated. Despite the strong opposition at that time, with players like Alexander Alekhine, José Raúl Capablanca, Emanuel Lasker, Siegbert Tarrasch, Akiba Rubinstein, Aron Nimzowitsch, and Savielly Tartakower, Spielmann managed to score well in numerous tournaments. He won 33 of the roughly 120 in which he played, including Abbazia 1912 (an event devoted to the King's Gambit), Stockholm 1919; Bad Pistyan 1922; and Semmering 1926. He is also remembered as the author of the classic book The Art of Sacrifice in Chess . Like many of his contemporaries, including Lasker, Tarrasch, Rubinstein, and Alekhine, Spielmann suffered greatly thanks to the turmoil that afflicted Europe starting in 1914. His post-WWI tournament performances were more inconsistent than in the prewar period; although he continued to win brilliant victories, he also lost many games in disastrous fashion. In 1934, Spielmann fled Vienna due to rising pro-Nazi sympathies in the city and moved to the Netherlands. In 1938, he went to Prague to be with his brother Leopold, but the German army occupied Czechoslovakia only a few months later. Leopold Spielmann was arrested and died in a concentration camp a few years later. One of their sisters also perished in a camp, the other survived the war, but never recovered mentally from the ordeal of it and ended up committing suicide. Spielmann managed to flee to Sweden with the help of a friend. He hoped to eventually reach England or the United States, and toiled hard to earn money for the overseas passage by playing exhibition matches, writing chess columns, and a book titled "Memories of a Chess Master". However, WWII was raging and some members of the Swedish Chess Federation held Nazi sympathies and disliked the Jewish Spielmann. "Memories of a Chess Master" was repeatedly delayed and never reached the press. Spielmann became steadily more withdrawn and depressed, and one day in August 1942, he locked himself in his Stockholm apartment and did not emerge for a week. On August 20, neighbors summoned police to check on him. They entered the apartment and found Spielmann dead. The official cause of death was ischemic heart disease, but it has been claimed that he intentionally starved himself. He was buried in Stockholm, his tombstone reading "Rastlos flykting, hart slagen av odet" ("A fugitive without rest, struck hard by fate"). Results versus Capablanca This section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves. Spielmann was one of few players to have an even score (+2−2=8) against Capablanca, one of an even fewer number to win more than one game against him, and the only player to fulfill both of those. Both of Spielmann's wins came shortly after Alekhine dethroned Capablanca as World Champion in 1927: at Bad Kissingen 1928 and Karlsbad 1929. The latter tournament is generally regarded as his best tournament result, as he scored 14½ out of 21, tied for second with Capablanca, a half point behind Aron Nimzowitsch. ... Quotes Spielmann himself believed "A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and confused." "Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a magician, and the endgame like a machine." – Spielmann ♚COURSES https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses