Carl Schlechter

Carl Schlechter (2 March 1874 – 27 December 1918) was a leading Austro-Hungarian chess master and theoretician at the turn of the 20th century. He is best known for drawing a World Chess Championship match with Emanuel Lasker.
Early life.
Schlechter was born into a Catholic family in Vienna. He is sometimes deemed to be Jewish, although others dispute this. He began playing chess at the age of 13. His first and only teacher was an Austria-Hungarian chess problemist, Dr. [[Samuel Gold]].
From 1893 onwards he played in over 50 international chess tournaments. He won or shared first at [[Munich]] 1900 (the 12th [[DSB Congress]]), [[Coburg]] 1904 (the 14th DSB Congress), [[Ostend]] 1906, [[Stockholm]] 1906, [[Vienna 1908 chess tournament|Vienna 1908]], [[Prague 1908 chess tournament|Prague 1908]], [[Hamburg 1910 chess tournament|Hamburg 1910]] (the 17th DSB Congress), and thrice in the [[Trebitsch Memorial]] in Vienna (1911, 1912, 1913).
Schlechter played several matches. He drew with [[Georg Marco]] (+0 −0 =10) in 1893, drew with Marco and [[Adolf Zinkl]] both (+4 −4 =3) in 1894, drew with [[Dawid Janowski]] (+2 −2 =3) in 1896, drew with [[Simon Alapin]] (+1 −1 =4) in 1899, beat Janowski (+6 −1 =3) in 1902, drew with [[Richard Teichmann]] (+1 −1 =1) in 1904, and drew with [[Siegbert Tarrasch]] (+3 −3 =10) in 1911.
Lasker–Schlechter match.
In 1910 Schlechter played a match against [[Emanuel Lasker]] for the [[World Chess Championship]] (in Vienna and [[Berlin]]). Schlechter was leading by one point going into the tenth and final game of the match. In the tenth game tragedy struck: after first achieving a won game, Schlechter blundered into a clearly drawn position, and then blundered again which led to his loss of the game. The match ended tied at 5–5 (+1 −1 =8) and Lasker retained his title. It is disputed as to whether Schlechter needed to score +2 to win the match and thus needed to win the tenth game. No contract for the match has ever been found and no evidence supporting this rumor has ever been produced. (For match details see [[World Chess Championship 1910 (Lasker–Schlechter)|World Chess Championship 1910]].) Schlechter distinguished himself as the first player in 16 years to seriously challenge Lasker's world title.
Later life.
During [[World War I]], he thrice won [[Trebitsch Memorial]] in Vienna. In the last year of his life, he took third in Vienna, lost a match to [[Akiba Rubinstein]] (+1 −2 =3), took second place in Berlin ("Quadrangular", [[Milan Vidmar]] won), tied for third place in Kaschau, and took third place in Berlin ("Quadrangular", [[Emanuel Lasker]] won). Schlechter died of pneumonia and starvation on 27 December 1918, and was buried in [[Budapest]] on 31 December 1918.
Assessment.
The Carl Schlechter–[[Arthur Kaufmann]]–[[Hugo Fähndrich]] trio propagated the Viennese chess school, founded by [[Max Weiss]] in the 19th century.
Schlechter prepared the eighth and final edition of the famous "[[Handbuch des Schachspiels]]" [[chess opening|openings]] [[treatise]]. Published in eleven parts between 1912 and 1916, it totaled 1,040 pages and included contributions by [[Rudolf Spielmann]], [[Siegbert Tarrasch]], and [[Richard Teichmann]]. [[International Master]] [[William Hartston]] called it "a superb work, perhaps the last to encase successfully the whole of chess knowledge within a single volume."
He was a typical example of a gentleman chess player of old, [[draw by agreement|offering courteous draws]] to opponents who felt unwell. If his opponent arrived late for a game, Schlechter would inconspicuously subtract an equal amount of time from his own clock. He also mentored many of his rivals, including [[Oldřich Duras]].
List of opening variations named after Schlechter.
There are several "Schlechter Variations" in the [[chess opening]]s:
In popular culture.
The central character of the 1998 novel "[[Carl Haffner's Love of the Draw]]" by [[Thomas Glavinic]] is closely based on Schlechter. The book presents a fictionalised account of his 1910 World Chess Championship match with Lasker.
External links.
[[Category:1874 births]]
[[Category:1918 deaths]]
[[Category:Austrian chess players]]
[[Category:Chess theoreticians]]
[[Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:19th-century chess players]]
[[Category:Game players from Vienna]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Hungary]]