Heinrich Fraenkel

[John Saunders]

John, regarding the "thrilling encounter", the name "Dr. H. Fraenkel" must contain an error because Dr. H.L. Fraenkel had a middle initial (L), and Assiac was not a doctor!

I would suggest the answer lies in the sentence, "He played with distinction in the premier reserve tournament in the recent Kent Congress."

Surely, Margate is being referred to, and Assiac's performance there. Therefore, I suggest that the "Dr." part of "Dr. H. Fraenkel" needs to be deleted.

Yes, that is what I was hinting at.

Since writing the above post, I've been browsing Assiac's Adventure in Chess and found an almost identical score on page 68 (Turnstile Press 1951 edition) with Assiac's comment: "Here, to show that sacrificial orgies are by no means restricted to master practice, is a little game won by a player, who wishes to remain nameless, against an equally obscure opponent." I think we can assume he was the winner of the game. I give the book's version of the score as a variation:

[Event "On The Continent"] [White "Fraenkel, Heinrich"] [Black "NN"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D55"] [PlyCount "41"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 (5. Nf3 O-O 6. e3 b6 7. Bd3 Bb7 8. Bxf6 Bxf6 9. h4 Nd7 10. Bxh7+ Kxh7 11. Ng5+ Kg6 12. Qd3+ Kh5 13. Qh7+ Kg4 14. f3+ Kg3 15. Ne2+ Kxg2 16. Nf4+ Kxh1 17. Kf2+ Kh2 18. Rh1+ Kxh1 19. Qb1+ Kh2 20. Qg1# {Source: Adventure in Chess by Assiac (Turnstile Press, 1951), p68}) 5... O-O 6. Bd3 b6 7. Bxf6 Bxf6 8. cxd5 exd5 9. Nf3 Bb7 10. h4 Nd7 11. Bxh7+ Kxh7 12. Ng5+ Kg6 13. Qc2+ Kh5 14. Qh7+ Kg4 15. f3+ Kg3 16. Ne2+ Kxg2 17. Nf4+ Kxh1 18. Kf2+ Kh2 19. Rh1+ Kxh1 20. Qb1+ Kh2 21. Qg1# {Source: Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 21 May 1935} 1-0

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Heinrich Fraenkel was from Germany.

Well he seems to have been born in Lissa (Leszno), which was indeed in Prussia when he was born in 1897, but became part of Poland after WWI

[John Townsend]

I was just about to make a similar comment to Jon's about his birth in Lissa, since that is the place given in the information on Assiac's birth certificate in Edward Winter's C.N. 10360.

However, if The Observer gave White's name as "Dr. Hersch Lazar Fraenkel", there's no uncertainty.

[John Saunders]

The inevitable confusion between the two H Fraenkels was not confined to EGW, Gaige and me. BH Wood published the following match result...

1952-03-11-birmingham-post-london-v-birmingham.png

... in the Birmingham Daily Post of 11 March 1952, some four years after Dr. H L Fraenkel had died.

[James Pratt]

I saw Assiac at a book launch at Pergamon's Headington Hill Hall in probably 1978. I think Tony Miles had succeeded him as NEWSTATEMAN columnist by then. Nunn and Speelman gave simuls and Robert Maxwell appeared and said - he was good at this - that he should be elsewhere adding, as if we cared, that he'd met Brezhnev and also Karpov on a recent Moscow visit. He had a girl, presumably hired, pulling at his sleeve the whole while, seemingly tearful. Later I spotted Assiac on my return train a drop of whisky in hand.

[Kevin Thurlow]

The inevitable confusion between the two H Fraenkels was not confined to EGW, Gaige and me. BH Wood published the following match result...
1952-03-11-birmingham-post-london-v-birmingham.png

I'm feeling old - I've played six of the London team...

[John Clarke]

Re that London v Birmingham match result: P H Clarke (no relation, btw) at Board 9 in a "poor team"?? Only 18-19 at the time of course, but still makes peculiar reading.

[John Clarke]

One of Heinrich Fraenkel's sons has been very successful in his field:
https://www.eng.ed.ac.uk/about/news/201 ... d-scottish

A highly important field too! Thanks for drawing our attention to this, Jon. I've been saying for years that Britain needs to make more of its natural geographical advantages in this way.