Siegbert Tarrasch was a German chess player, considered to have been among the strongest players and most influential theoreticians of the late 19th and early 20th century.
12 Facts About Siegbert Tarrasch
2.
Siegbert Tarrasch was Jewish, converted to Christianity in 1909, and was a patriotic German who lost a son in World War I, yet he faced antisemitism in the early stages of the Third Reich.
3.
Siegbert Tarrasch scored heavily against the ageing World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz in tournaments but refused an opportunity to challenge Steinitz for the world title in 1892 because of the demands of his medical practice.
4.
Siegbert Tarrasch won four major tournaments in succession: Breslau 1889, Manchester 1890, Dresden 1892, and Leipzig 1894.
5.
Still, Siegbert Tarrasch remained a powerful player, demolishing Frank Marshall in a match in 1905, and winning Ostend 1907 over Schlechter, Janowski, Marshall, Burn, and Chigorin.
6.
Siegbert Tarrasch continued to be one of the leading players in the world for a while.
7.
Siegbert Tarrasch finished fourth in the very strong St Petersburg 1914 chess tournament, behind only World Champion Lasker and future World Champions Jose Raul Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine, and ahead of Marshall, Ossip Bernstein, Rubinstein, Nimzowitsch, Blackburne, Janowski, and Gunsberg.
8.
Siegbert Tarrasch formulated a very important rule in rook endgames that is often called the Siegbert Tarrasch rule:.
9.
Siegbert Tarrasch released Die moderne Schachpartie in 1912, but it has not been translated yet.
10.
Siegbert Tarrasch wrote a famous book about the St Petersburg 1914 chess tournament, which was translated into English in 1993.
11.
Siegbert Tarrasch edited the magazine Deutsche Schachzeitung in 1897, and Tarrasch's Schachzeitung, for the last two years of his life.
12.
Siegbert Tarrasch was a target of the hypermodern school, led by Richard Reti, Aron Nimzowitsch, and Savielly Tartakower, all of whom criticized his ideas as dogmatic.