English-resident strong chess players
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:11 am
I found a little snippet in a book I was reading recently about an English-resident strong chess player (i.e. those not born in the UK, but who were among the strongest in the country at various times), and was wondering if anyone has more information on him (the player in question here was Ernst Klein) or other players of similar background? Ideally, I'd like to end up with a list of strong players that emigrated here from other countries, along with an idea of their birth/death years, when they arrived here, when they were active, and their playing strength, and participation in British teams (if any) and other aspects of British chess (by which I mean England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland).
Not sure whether to include emigration or permanent or temporary residency from other Commonwealth countries, but have included those here as students and those born in non-Anglophone countries (e.g. Yanofsky was born in Poland, though his family moved to Canada when he was 8 months old). Would like to focus on ones from non-English-speaking countries, and the earlier ones rather than the more recent ones (which gets to be rather a large list once you drop below IM level, particularly after 1990, though including students may also threaten to make any such list unmanageable).
So far, I have:
Jacques Mieses (link)
Stefan Fazekas (link)
Cenek Kottnauer (link)
Imre Koenig (link)
Daniel Yanofsky (link)
Jana Malypetrova (link)
Raphael Persitz (link)
Ernst Klein (link)
The inclusion of Ernst Klein is because (as mentioned earlier) I read about him in a book I've been reading, where Tim Harding annotated his 1972 Oxfordshire-Essex county match loss to Jonathan Penrose in Why You Lose At Chess (1982), and stated:
"It was therefore somewhat surprising to encounter Penrose on board two in a county match. However, the Vienna-born Ernst Klein, British Champion in 1951, had briefly emerged from retirement and Penrose modestly conceded him top board."
I think Klein and Penrose were playing for Essex. I found a bit about Ernst Klein in this post (and the rest of that thread):
http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 7688#p7688
But presumably there were a lot of other strong county-level chess players around who had emigrated here from Europe, or were resident here. If you go back far enough, you get to Wilhelm Steinitz, born in Austria but resident in London (from 1862 to 1883, I think), though the year when he was considered to be 'world champion' (and hence where he was resident) is still not settled, apparently. Are there any other famous (or not-so-famous) names of strong chess players from non-Anglophone countries who became resident in Britain?
EDIT: Some other possible names. First three from the 19th century (could be a lot of these): Adolf Zytogorski, Leopold Hoffer, Bernhard Horwitz. I think Johannes Zukertort and Johann Löwenthal were also resident in London for many years. Then five from the first half of the 20th century: Georg Schories, Victor Buerger, Adrián GarcÃa Conde, Olga Menchik, Vera Menchik. Possibly Mir Sultan Khan and Miss Fatima should also be mentioned here. One name from more recent times is John Rety. Slightly earlier is Aaron Alexandre. Much earlier is Philipp Stamma.
Not sure whether to include emigration or permanent or temporary residency from other Commonwealth countries, but have included those here as students and those born in non-Anglophone countries (e.g. Yanofsky was born in Poland, though his family moved to Canada when he was 8 months old). Would like to focus on ones from non-English-speaking countries, and the earlier ones rather than the more recent ones (which gets to be rather a large list once you drop below IM level, particularly after 1990, though including students may also threaten to make any such list unmanageable).
So far, I have:
Jacques Mieses (link)
Stefan Fazekas (link)
Cenek Kottnauer (link)
Imre Koenig (link)
Daniel Yanofsky (link)
Jana Malypetrova (link)
Raphael Persitz (link)
Ernst Klein (link)
The inclusion of Ernst Klein is because (as mentioned earlier) I read about him in a book I've been reading, where Tim Harding annotated his 1972 Oxfordshire-Essex county match loss to Jonathan Penrose in Why You Lose At Chess (1982), and stated:
"It was therefore somewhat surprising to encounter Penrose on board two in a county match. However, the Vienna-born Ernst Klein, British Champion in 1951, had briefly emerged from retirement and Penrose modestly conceded him top board."
I think Klein and Penrose were playing for Essex. I found a bit about Ernst Klein in this post (and the rest of that thread):
http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 7688#p7688
But presumably there were a lot of other strong county-level chess players around who had emigrated here from Europe, or were resident here. If you go back far enough, you get to Wilhelm Steinitz, born in Austria but resident in London (from 1862 to 1883, I think), though the year when he was considered to be 'world champion' (and hence where he was resident) is still not settled, apparently. Are there any other famous (or not-so-famous) names of strong chess players from non-Anglophone countries who became resident in Britain?
EDIT: Some other possible names. First three from the 19th century (could be a lot of these): Adolf Zytogorski, Leopold Hoffer, Bernhard Horwitz. I think Johannes Zukertort and Johann Löwenthal were also resident in London for many years. Then five from the first half of the 20th century: Georg Schories, Victor Buerger, Adrián GarcÃa Conde, Olga Menchik, Vera Menchik. Possibly Mir Sultan Khan and Miss Fatima should also be mentioned here. One name from more recent times is John Rety. Slightly earlier is Aaron Alexandre. Much earlier is Philipp Stamma.