Georg Marco - the strongest player in the world

Georg Marco was born in what is today Cernauti, Ukraine in 1863, and was raised in Romania.  He was a medical student before he gave that up to become a journalist and professional chess player.

He moved to Vienna from Romanai in the 1890s and became the secretary of the Viennese Chess Association.

He won several tournaments in Vienna in the 1890s.  He came in 4th place in Dresen in 1892, 1st in Vienna in 1895, 3rd in the Vienna Gambit tournament in 1903 (ahead of Pillsbury and Maroczy), and 4th place at Cambridge Springs in 1904.  In match play, he drew with Carl Schlecter twice and defeated Adolf Albin.

Marco was a very big guy (over 300 pounds) and was jokingly called “the strongest chess player in the world” because of his physical strength.

From 1898 to 1916 he was the editor of the Wiener Schachzeitung (Vienna Chess News).  He was the author of many tournament books and considered one of the best chess analysts of all time.

He died at Vienna in 1923.  His historical Elo rating is 2520.