“The Keats of Chess”
Rudolf Charousek had been playing chess for only four years when he found himself facing this position against Jakob Wollner at Kaschau in 1893:
He found one of the most immortally pretty finishes in chess history — to discover it, read Kester Svendsen's 1947 short story "Last Round," which the game inspired.
Three years afterward, Charousek defeated Lasker at Nuremberg. "I shall have to play a championship match with this man someday," the master remarked, but it was not to be — the Hungarian died of tuberculosis in 1900, at only 26.
posted by Neil at 2:42 AM
0 comments
Chess entymology:
Called by the Hindus cheturanga (the four angas)âi.e. the four members of the armyâviz. elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers; called by the ancient Persians chetrang. The Arabs, who have neither c nor g, called it shetranj, which modern Persians corrupted into sacchi, whence the Italian scacchi, German schach, French echec, our chess.
