A Charousek Gem

Rudolf Rezso Charousek (1873-1900), was a Hungarian-Jewish chess player. He learns to play chess in his early teenage years, and his international debut comes at the Nuremberg Tournament of 1896. He doesn't win any prize but he defeats Emanuel Lasker in their individual encounter. Later that year he ties for first place with Mikhail Tchigorin in Budapest and then takes clear first place in the Berlin tournament of 1897.

Lasker is so impressed by this young player's ches skills that he says, "I shall have to play a championship match with this man someday." This never happens because Charousek's brilliant chess career is cut short when he dies from Tuberculosis at the age of twenty-six.

Below is a small sample of Charousek's impressive chess ability.