Rudolf Spielmann competed at the top level of chess for the first few decades of the 20th century, and wrote the famous book The Art of Sacrifice in Chess. Below, I explore his life and games.
Photo: http://www.audiovis.nac.gov.pl/obraz/185211/, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Table of contents:
Biography
Early life
Rudolf Spielmann was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1883. He learned to play chess quite early, around the age of four or five. The young player found himself in an ideal environment for his chess development, as Vienna was one of the world’s most important chess cities at the time.
Spielmann came to the attention of the chess world in 1904, when he drew a 13-game match against Nimzowitsch in Coburg, Germany. That same year, he also finished a respectable 4th at a tournament in Coburg, behind only Neumann, Vidmar and Duras. However, he finished ahead of Nimzowitsch. In 1905, Spielmann drew another 13-game match against Nimzowitsch, this time in Munich.
Learning from the best
1906 gave Spielmann the opportunity to compete with and learn from the best players in the world. He took part in the famous tournament in Ostend, where he finished 14th out of 36. Spielmann followed this up with 12th at Nuremberg in a very strong field, which included such famous names as Lasker, Maroczy, Janowski and Tarrasch. In 1907, Spielmann continued to improve his chess and gain experience at the highest level, finishing in shared 12th place at Ostend, and 13th at Karlsbad.
St Petersburg 1909
Spielmann won a one-sided match against Nimzowitsch in Munich in 1908 by the score of 4,5-1,5, which showed the progress he was making by regularly testing himself against the world elite. This was confirmed the following year, as Spielmann achieved a very impressive shared 3rd place with Duras at the St Petersburg tournament. Only World Champion Lasker and the famous Akiba Rubinstein finished ahead of him. The field was incredibly strong, and included Bernstein, Teichmann, Schlechter and Tartakower, among others. This result showed that Spielmann could compete successfully at the highest level.
An upward trend
In 1910, Spielmann won matches in Vienna against Réti (4,5-0,5) and Tartakower (3,5-2,5), further improving his reputation. His impressive results in recent years earned him an invitation to the famous tournament San Sebastian 1911, where Spielmann again clashed with a world class field. He performed well, sharing 8th place in a field of 15.
1912 was a very successful year for Spielmann. He demonstrated his tactical and attacking prowess by taking clear 1st at the King’s Gambit tournament in Abbazia, ahead of a field which included Duras, Cohn and Réti. He then shared 2nd with Nimzowitsch at San Sebastian, only half a point behind tournament winner Rubinstein. This result was made even more impressive by the fact that he finished ahead of leading players like Tarrasch, Marshall and Schlechter.
WWI
Spielmann then took another tournament victory at Beden-bei-Wien 1914, ahead of a field which included Tartakower, Schlechter, Breyer and Réti. His chess career was showing a clear upward trend, and the future seemed bright. However, the outbreak of WWI made his continued participation in international tournaments impossible. This was a difficult time for Spielmann, as he lost both his brother Edward and his mother during the war years. He was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army, but fortunately survived the conflict.
After the war
Spielmann’s return to chess after the war showed how difficult the previous years had been for him, as he shared last place with Réti, behind Bogoljubow and Selezniev, at Berlin 1919. However, he bounced back quickly, performing well at two tournaments in Stockholm, finishing 2nd behind Bogoljubow and then clear 1st, ahead of Rubinstein, Bogoljubow and Réti. Spielmann, like many other chess masters, spent time in the years directly after the war in Sweden, as it had not suffered the same level of economic damage as other European countries, and therefore became a hotspot for chess activity. Spielmann then travelled to Gothenburg, where he finished in shared 1st with Anton Olson at the Nordic Chess Congress.
Impressive results
Spielmann continued to perform well over the next few years. He won matches in Vienna against Réti (4,5-1,5) and Tartakower (3,5-2,5) in 1921. The following year, he shared 2nd place with Alekhine, behind only Bogoljubow, at Bad Pistyan. Also in 1922, Spielmann shared tournament victory with Réti at Teplitz-Schönau ahead of a very strong field which included Tartakower, Grünfeld and Rubinstein.
At the famous tournament Karlsbad 1923, Spielmann finished near the bottom of the field. However, his performance is remembered for another reason: of the 17 games he played, he didn’t record a single draw! He scored 5 wins and 12 losses, an extremely rare run of decisive games at the top level.
Semmering 1926
Perhaps Spielmann’s greatest ever tournament was Semmering 1926. The old master Ossip Bernstein organised an extremely strong event which attracted many of the world’s leading players. Famous names such as Alekhine, Vidmar, Nimzowitsch, Rubinstein, Tartakower, Tarrasch and Réti took part, among others. However, it was Spielmann who ultimately took clear 1st place, with an incredible 13/17 against many of the world elite. Finally, decades of hard work had culminated in a clear tournament victory at the highest level.
German Champion
In 1927, Spielmann was invited to compete in the famous tournament in New York, although he finished a disappointing 5th out of six players. However, he bounced back to win the 25th German Chess Federation Congress at Magdeburg with an incredible score of 11/13, ahead of a field which included Bogoljubow and Sӓmisch. This latest success earned him the prestigious title of German Champion.
The turn of the decade
Spielmann’s successful tournament performances continued towards the end of the decade. He finished 3rd at Berlin 1928, behind only Capablanca and Nimzowitsch, and shared 2nd with Capablanca, behind only Nimzowitsch, at Karlsbad 1929. Spielmann marked the beginning of the 1930s with match victories over Gideon Stahlberg in Stockholm (4,5-1,5) in 1930 and over Pirc in Rogaska Slatina and Maribor (6-4) in 1931. At the famous tournament Bled 1931, however, Spielmann finished on 12,5/26, far back in the field.
Spielmann was almost 50, and it became clear that he was past his peak as a player. Despite this, he continued to perform well at various events. In 1932, he won a match against Bogoljubow in Semmering (5,5-4,5) and lost a match to the future World Champion Euwe in Amsterdam (3-1). 1934 saw Spielmann win two small tournaments in Amsterdam and Bussum, the Netherlands.
Later years
Interestingly, in 1935, Spielmann may have played a secret training match against Euwe to help the Dutch master prepare for his upcoming World Championship Match against Alekhine. That same year, Spielmann’s book The Art of Sacrifice in Chess was published, a book which generations of players have learned from. He played a few tournaments in 1936, notably recording an impressive shared 3rd place at the Trebitsch Memorial tournament in Vienna.
The rise of the Nazis and the outbreak of WWII forced Spielmann to flee to Sweden in 1939. His later years were very difficult, as he struggled financially in a foreign country amidst antisemitism in a Europe at War. His brother Leopold died in a concentration camp in 1941. Rudolf himself died a year later in Stockholm, at the age of 59.
Legacy
Today Spielmann is remembered as one of the leading players of his generation, for his brilliant attacking play, and for his powerful performance at Semmering 1926. He was one of the only players to achieve an even score against Capablanca (+2 -2 =8), and his book, The Art of Sacrifice in Chess, is still loved today.
Game Analysis
Spielmann won an instructive game against Sämisch at Moscow 1925.
Lessons from this game:
- In the game, black takes the time to include as many pieces as possible in the kingside attack.
- Establishing a well-supported pawn on d5 is a common strategy to restrict a fianchettoed bishop on g2.
- To defend against a strong attack on the king, it is often necessary to exchange off the key attacking pieces. In this game, 22.Bxg4 is a good example, exchanging off the powerful g4 knight.
Puzzles
Lange – Spielmann, Coburg 1904
Swiderski – Spielmann, Ostend 1907
Spielmann – Tartakower, Munich 1909
Spielmann – L’Hermet, Magdeburg 1927
Solutions
Further Reading
To find more about Spielmann’s life and games, the following are useful sources:
Spielmann’s chessgames.com page,
his chess.com page,
this chessbase article by Johannes Fischer,
this record of Spielmann’s tournament and match results,
and the website chesshistory.com run by Edward Winter.
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