Rudolf Spielmann: The Last of the Romantic Era

Rudolf Spielmann(1883-1942) was a Jewish-Austrian chess player who was one of the best of his time. He had a degree in law, but never became a lawyer. He was simply addicted to chess. He would play games that would leave people in awe with brilliant attack and sacrifices. He loved openings such as the King's Gambit, which was falling out of popularity at the time. Spielmann is known as the "Last Bard of the King's Gambit". Reti called him the last player of the Romantic Era, joining chess greats like Adolf Anderssen. John Napier, in fact, called Spielmann an educated cavemen due to how old his attacking style was!

As a child, Spielmann was a gifted chess player and mathmetician, but decided to pursue a profession in chess rather than mathematics. His first tournament was the Berlin City Championship 1903, and he tied for second! 

While Spielmann had many great attacking games, he would just as often lose in disastrous fashion. When he did win, he would play like a world champion. He are some of his tournament results from 1912-1914:

Abbazia 1912: 1st place (It was a King's Gambit themed tournament!)

Breslau 1912: 7th place 

Budapest 1913: 1st place

Stockholm 1912: 5th place

Vienna 1913: 1st place

Baden 1914: 1st place

Mannheim 1914: 3rd place

As you can see his results were a bit...everywhere. In some tournaments, he would get 1st place, but in others, he would get close to last. He was a great chess player, but no where near Alexander Alekhine, who would sometimes dominate entire tournaments! Spielmann was at the peak of his chess career. His mostly good results made him one of the best players of the time. However, this wouldn't last.

On Jun. 28, 1914, tensions in Europe exploded when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. Within a few days, Austria-Hungary had declared war on Serbia. In World War I, Spielmann would enlist in the Austrian army. In my research, I found some letters Spielmann wrote during the war.

This letter was received on May 31, 1915. The text roughly translates to:

After a 32 km long march fully geared, loaded with about 30 kg baggage, here I happily landed. I live in a quiet, idyllic location. In a wonderful forest with surrounding cliffs, which makes a somewhat gloomy impression with the continuous rain of the last days. Service is very simple, much less strenuous than a chess tournament. Have a lot of free time, which I would like to devote to chess study and the management of my columns. Unfortunately, however, I am completely cut off from the chess world. I would therefore be grateful to you for sending the latest issue of Wiener Schachzeitung. Best regards from yours R. Spielmann. P. S. Many greetings to the valued club members.

In another letter, Spielmann would compare World War I to a game between two chess masters, Austria-Hungary and Germany.

By the time World War I was over, it was 1918, and for the past 4 years, Spielmann had been isolated from the world of chess, and the soldiers in the Austrian Army proved to be weak competition. Thus, Spielmann was extremely rusty. The atrocities Spielmann saw during the war also affected him. Spielmann was never the same again. Spielmann would play in many tournaments at the top, but had fewer successes compared to his old days. He would still have many brilliancies, but many of his games ended in a disastrous fashion. His last major successes was first at the Semmering 1926 tournament, ahead of Alekhine and Nimzowitsch, third at Berlin 1928 and second, tied with Jose Raul Capablanca at the Carlsbad 1929 tournament. 

In 1935, Spielmann would publish a book called the Art of Sacrifice in Chess. This book provided many insights on how to attack by the legend, and also showed some of Spielmann's best games. This book further increased Spielmann's fame. However, good times don't last.

Final Years

As mentioned in the beginning, Spielmann was Jewish. In the 1933, the Nazi's rose to power in Germany headed by Adolf Hitler. Spielmann fled to Czechoslovakia, and lived stateless and broke. However, by the late 1930's, Germany was preparing to invade Czechoslovakia, and Spielmann was once again forced to flee, this time to Sweden. In Sweden, he was not treated well due to the fact he was Jewish. Spielmann began writing an autobiography, but it was never published, and there are many speculations to what happened to the manuscripts. By 1942, his entire family was either dead or in concentration camps, and Spielmann died soon after. The cause of death isn't fully clear, but most sources say it was "hypertonia and cardio-sclerosis". What a sad ending to such a brilliant players life.

Openings Named After Spielmann

Spielmann had two openings named after him. The Spielmann Indian and the Spielmann Gambit.

The Spielmann Indian occurs after 1.d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c5. The idea of the Spielmann Indian is to attempt to get an improved Benko gambit after 3. d5 b5. 

This opening is quite complex and there is very little information on the opening. The one book I found was on Chessable by a young FM. I quite like the book, as it provides a very good antidote to the London System, which can be very annoying.

The Spielmann Gambit occurs after 1.e4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. e5 Nfd7 4. e6!?. 

The idea of this gambit is to sacrifice a pawn in order to damage black's pawn structure and exploit the open h5-e8 diagonal on the king. This is an annoying opening for Alekhine's players, as they have to know some theory to stay afloat.

The Best Games of Rudolf Spielmann

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