Chess is 99% Tactics

Richard Teichmann (24 December 1868 – 15 June 1925) was a strong German chess player, easily of grandmaster strength! In 1890 he was a student of modern languages (becoming fluent in several of them) and studied in Berlin where he also improved his chess. He moved to England in 1892 as a language teacher and resided there for a number of years.

His chess career began with a 3rd placing at Leipzig 1894 but at London 1899 he had to withdraw after 4 rounds because of an eye problem. He lost the use of his right eye and from then on wore an eye patch. He returned to tournament play in 1902 and won so many fifth prizes up to 1910 that he earned the nickname "Richard the Fifth". In 1911 at Carlsbad he had his greatest moment, finishing 1st in a strong 25 player field (+13, =10, -2). There he scored a convincing win, crushing Akiba Rubinstein and Carl Schlechter with the same line in the Ruy Lopez!

Even though he was an excellent tactician he understood positional play very well. Also he was a good analyst and brilliant composer.

A chronic kidney and heart complaint overcame him in the Virchow Hospital in Berlin in 1925 where he passed away.

Today we will see why chess is 99% tactics!