Loser's POV: Berthold Englisch (1880-1887)

I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and this weird purgatory before New Years isn't too disorienting.

Let's do some housekeeping before we get going. Gunsberg won the vote against Mackenzie (see here), however Santa has confirmed that the biography won't be coming until January, so I'm going to hold off on writing about that for a bit. Blackburne also won his previous vote (see here), meaning his Austrian antagonist deserves a look. Let's do that now.

Berthold Englisch was born on 9 July 1851 in Holtzenplotz, Austrian Silesia (modern day Osoblaha, Czech Republic). He moved to Vienna in 1870, probably for university, and joined the "Vienna Chess Society," the largest and most influential chess club in Vienna. By virtue of winning its tournament around 1875, Englisch became the main Austrian representative abroad, which is how we were introduced to him back in Leipzig 1877:

Despite a middling performance (5/11, =6th-8th), he remained the representative when Paris 1878 came around, which would be his first proper international tournament. As this biography will be rather light, I'll offer up a little photo challenge. Englisch is the bloke in the top-left (our left, his right); can you name everyone else?

Englisch's spot was at last cemented with victories at Leipzig 1879 (see here) and Wiesbaden 1880 (see here kinda). Although he wasn't able to pick up any major tournament victories after these, he was one of the five to finish =2nd at Hamburg 1885, along with the player who would eventually replace him as Austria's ace, Max Weiss. 

In their portrait of him in July 1890, The Chess-Monthly shared some interesting anecdotes about Englisch's speed: "He is the faster player living; in off-hand games he has many rivals, but in Match and Tournament play none... Whilst his opponent is pondering over his move, Englisch impatiently twirls his pencil between his fingers with the dexterity of an Irishman performing the same operation with a shillelagh; he starts with a rapid stride to pace the room, but suddenly turns upon his heel, and glancing furtively at the board, repeats the maneuvre over and over again. All the time he consumes a number of cigars, not, however, in the orthodox fashion of ordinary smokers by ignition, but by an original process of his own, which disposes of the weed as quickly as by lighting it. To an ordinary observer, his chief aim seems to be to transform that end of the cigar which he holds between his teeth into a good sized bathing sponge." 

His rapidity doubtlessly influenced his style, which was the prototypical "Vienna School" strategy of quick exchanges and solid endgame technique. He was the original Viennese Drawing Master, notably scoring 17 draws in his 33 games at Vienna 1882. As with his successor, Johann Berger, I've compiled all of his games which were drawn in at most 30 moves, just to sate my own curiosity:

This phenomenon was most present in the first half of the decade, it seems, as Englisch only drew three of his 17 games at Hamburg, and seven of his 20 at Frankfurt. What's also interesting is how many times the usually combative Mackenzie shows up; they drew six times at London, but I was surprised to see that four of them were so short. Perhaps I'll have to augment my bio about him.

Englisch quit international play after Frankfurt, making no appearances outside of Vienna for the next decade. While his technique would quickly become the norm of tournament strategy—take draws as needed to ensure you finish in the money—he just wasn't able to utilize it as effectively; at both Vienna and Frankfurt, he finished in seventh when the top six got prizes, while at London 1883, he finished =5th-7th to share the lowest prizes. It makes some sense that he left chess to focus on his job as a stock market agent, apparently landing on the payroll of Baron Rothschild (like Weiss, and to an extent, Ignatz von Kolisch). Zukertort, among others, believed that if Englisch had "devoted his undivided attention solely to the game, he would have been one of the greatest masters of [their] time." 

Looking ahead to the 90s, Englisch's biggest contribution to the game was doubtlessly introducing Carl Schlechter to the Vienna chess circles circa 1892, allowing the latter to be an internationally recognized player only two years later. His only international appearance was at his final tournament, Berlin 1897; he withdrew after 11 rounds, citing illness, and died less than a month later from brain paralysis at 46.

As far as Englisch's style is concerned, his games from Leipzig 1879 should serve as a good enough overview. He was incredibly efficient in calm positions, hence his love for rapid exchanges, and he often managed to effect ones where he was the one pressing. He wasn't quite as comfortable in sharp, dynamic positions, as the latter games against Blackburne showed, so Englisch often delayed said pressing until dynamic potential was reduced (hence why so many games were drawn, because this wasn't always feasible). But once he got rolling, defending was a Herculean ask that many just couldn't manage.

While this trend never really went away, the lower draw rate in the later part of the decade suggests a slight shift in Englisch's approach. He began to take more active stances in the center, meeting opponents head-on in a more traditional "classical" fashion, and delaying his usual trades for a bit longer than usual. He never quite got as comfortable in proper dynamic positions as his peers (again consult the last two games with Blackburne), but this seems to be evidence in favour of Zukertort's claim, as this represented a subtle evolution of his style. Had he kept working at this over the next couple of years, and had he actually played in Breslau at the end of the decade, he could've been a serious roadblock to Tarrasch's dominance.

I'd like to end this technical section by showing my favourite game of Englisch. As usual, I love it when these normally positional players go for some speculative sacrifices (as with Burn last time), especially if they're somewhat dubious. Pit that against one of my favourite players playing a rather eccentric opening, and you have quite the game. I hope you enjoy it (almost) as much as I do.

Good stuff.

Thank you all for humouring me through one more sequence break. I'll be away for the next little while, so ideally the next post will be the dedicated Mackenzie biography. If the book arrives even later than expected, we might have to start the final quarterfinal match early. It'll be good fun either way.

Cheers, and Happy New Year.