A Famous Loser Adolph Anderssen - Lionel Kieseritzky
A Famous Loser
Which game of chess is the most famous? Among the millions played and
recorded, which single game is so distinguished? Perhaps it is the short offhand game played in 1851 at Simpson's on the Strand, in London,
between Anderssen and Kieseritzky. Within 5 years of its conclusion this contest was known everywhere as the "Immortal" game (Unsterbliche in German).
Adolph Anderssen - Lionel
Kieseritzky London (June 21), 1851
This game quickly became famous thanks to Anderssen's brilliant style; the
cascade of sacrifices from the very beginning, and for the finish - a wonderful combination with a Queen sacrifice, clearing the way for White's remaining pieces to deliver a mate - in which the helpless Black forces could only observe the execution of their Monarch.
Anderssen's name is extremely well known to all chess aficionados, with many books and countless articles being written about him. Polish chess players in Wroclaw (Breslau) completely restored the German Master's tomb
some years ago.
But who was Lionel Kieseritzky, the loser of the most famous game of all
times? Only a handful of players can say more than a few words about this old
chess master with a Polish/Slavonic family name, and who was born in the 19th
century region of Livland (today Lettland and Estland).
A careful reader of the Soviet chess press can recall two short texts devoted to this player; both reprinted in 1981: Imants Blaus, "An Eminent Baltic Chess-Player of the XIX Century" in Shakhmaty (Riga) and "The Flash and Fall of Kieseritzky" in 64 (not signed). Over the years I kept those two articles in my small home archive, and in 1992 I decided that Kieseritzky must be remembered and re-introduced to the chess world. Notes in some chess encyclopedias, including the fundamental Russian Encyclopaedical Dictionary - Chess (Moscow 1991) convinced me that our hero was not only "the most famous loser" of all times in chess, but that his work was really heterogeneous and extensive, and that his biography, rich in events and dramatic turns, ought to be interesting for true fans of chess history. His Polish(?) family name, plus the constantly repeated assertion that "Lionel's father was Polish" or that "the Kieseritzky family came from Poland to Livland only 50 years before Lionel was born", was for me a kind of challenge.
I invited my club mate from "Polonia" Warszawa, International Master (now a strong GM) Bartlomiej Macieja, to be my collaborator and game analyst. I
reviewed many private collections of chess literature, and visited libraries in Warsaw, Gdansk and Amsterdam. The most important source was the collection of Prussian diplomat, chess player and author Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa, whose precious books are preserved in the library of the Polish Academy of Science, housed in a romantic gothic castle near the city of Poznan. I asked two professional historians, two eminent representatives of Polish chess composition, an ex-champion of Poland and a psychologist (Sc.D.) from the University of Lublin to be my critics. Their essays were to be included in a book, which crowned 3 long years of work. I cannot say whether the book (Note 1) is good or bad, but at least now Lionel Kieseritzky has a chance to recover his place in the Pantheon of Chess.
So, what do we know of Lionel Kieseritzky? Find out more...
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