Lionel Kieseritzky

Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky (January 1, 1806 – May 18, 1853) was a 19th century chess master, famous primarily for a game he lost against Adolf Anderssen, which was so brilliant it was named "The Immortal Game" .

Early life

Kieseritzky was born in Dorpat (Tartu), Livonia into a Baltic German family. From 1825 to 1829 he studied at Dorpat University, and then worked as a mathematics teacher like Anderssen. From 1838 to 1839, Kieseritzky played a correspondence match against Carl Jaenisch - unfinished, because he had to leave for Paris. In Paris he became a chess professional, giving lessons or playing games for five francs an hour, and editing a chess magazine.

Chess career

He became one of the four leading French masters of the time, alongside Louis de la Bourdonnais, Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant and Boncourt, and for the few years before his death was among the top two players in the world along with Howard Staunton. His knowledge of the game was significant and he made contributions to chess theory of his own, but his career was somewhat blighted by misfortune and a passion for the unsound. In 1842 he draw a match with Ignazio Calvi (+7 =1 -7). In 1846 he won matches against the German masters: Bernhard Horwitz (+7 -4 =1), and Daniel Harrwitz (+11 -5 =2). He enjoyed a number of other magnificent victories across his career, but his nerve was lacking when it came to tournament play.

In 1851 he was invited to play in the first international chess tournament in London where he was defeated 0.5-2.5 in the first round by the eventual winner Adolf Anderssen. One of the games was finished in a mere 20 minutes after a horrific blunder Staunton described as having been "never equalled even among beginners of the game"; the other loss was equally one-sided. During his time in London however, Kieseritzky also played an off-hand game against Anderssen which has so thrilled generations of chess players that it has been dubbed "The Immortal Game". Despite losing, it was in fact Kieseritzky who recorded and published the game during his period as editor of "La Regence".

Kieseritzky was never a popular man owing to his narcissistic character—considering himself the "Chess Messiah"—and on May 18, 1853 he died in Paris, France following a bout of mental illness. He was buried in a pauper's grave, mostly unmourned and forgotten.

Example game

The following game, played in Paris in 1844 against Schulten, represents probably his finest combination, and bears a similarity to the famous "Immortal Game" he was to lose seven years later:

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Bc4 Qh4+ 4.Kf1 b5 5.Bxb5 Nf6 6.Nc3 Ng4 7.Nh3 Nc6 8.Nd5 Nd4 9.Nxc7+ Kd8 10.Nxa8 f3! 11.d3 f6 12.Bc4 d5 13.Bxd5 Bd6 14.Qe1? (14.e5! seems to be in white's favor. Instead he is delivered a beautiful forced mate.) 14...fxg2+ 15.Kxg2 Qxh3+!! 16.Kxh3 Ne3+ 17.Kh4 Nf3+ 18.Kh5 Bg4# 0-1

References

*cite book | author=Hooper, David and Kenneth Whyld | title=The Oxford Companion to Chess | publisher=Oxford University | year=1996 | id=ISBN 0-19-280049-3 | pages=p. 200
*G.H. Diggle (Nov. 1976) "Chess Characters: Reminiscences of a Badmaster". "British Chess Federation"
* "Zagadka Kieseritzky'ego" by Tomasz Lissowski and Bartlomiej Macieja, Warsaw 1996

External links

*chessgames player|id=15970