Rudolph Pokorny is not to be confused with Amos Pokorny (March, 1890 – August 18, 1949), a well known Czech master. Rudolph (or Rudolf) Pokorny was born in 1880 in Tischnowitz (now Tisnov), Moravia, an historical region in the east of the Czech Republic. Nobody knows when or where he died.
Supposedly after moving to the United States he was a manager of the hair-dressing parlors of Rudolph Pokorny and Company. Louis Uedemann, a master from Chicago and twice US Open Champion, reported that Pokorny had been a resident of that city some years prior to 1909 and was well known to area players.
At some point Pokorny ended up in Mexico. In July 1909, it was reported that before Capablanca sailed for Havana he announced that he had received a challenge from Pokorny, the new chess champion of Mexico, who wanted to play a match in Brooklyn in October consisting of 15 games for a purse of $500.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported an incredulous story on July 16, 1909 that Pokorny had acquired the title of Mexican Champion by winning a recent tournament in which he scored 52 wins and 4 losses!!! The article added that, “This is a record which marks him as a player with ability far above average.”
The August 27th edition added that a letter had been received from Pokorny in which “the Mexican Champion” stated that he was prepared to play under the conditions of the Capa-Marshall match and that he would not insist on the novel condition that drawn games would count as a win for black. Also, in about a week he would be able to name the exact time he would be in New York for the match.
The September 5, 1909 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that the previous day Capa had sailed from Havana for New York to play the match and the general consensus was that it was going to be a “walkover” for Capa. After that the Daily Eagle made no further mention of Pokorny.
Pokorny never showed up for the match. The American Chess Bulletin reported that according to Pokorny he had been in an accident and the magazine also admitted that, “... it seems the title of (Mexican) Champion has been applied to him erroneously.”
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Pokorny explained why he couldn't play: “Prior to my accident, which occurred of late, I had different intentions to those acquired since. Contemplating and analyzing carefully the careers of great champions of the noble game, I arrive at an absurd conclusion, which has as a result an astonishing resolution. It is the abandoning of the game for good. Morphy retired from it for similar motives to mine, with the difference only that he did so too late, whereas I am doing so not too early.”
The American Chess Bulletin called Pokorny “a genuine maniac, who often said something and then took back his words...” They also admitted that in none of the letters they received from him did he ever refer to himself as the Mexican champion.
Chess Weekly referred to Capa’s proposed opponent as “some great Mexican player named Pokorny” who was unknown to them, but so many things were happening that based on The American Chess Bulletin, they took it for granted that Pokorny was "a great player."
In a later article Chess Weekly again bashed the American Chess Bulletin by pointing out that the title of Mexican Champion was “...gratuitously bestowed on Mr. Pokorny by the American Chess Bulletin (and) was purely an effort on the part of the editors to give fictitious value to an insignificant news item. This faking of news has naturally called forth an indignant protest from members of the Mexican club at which Pokorny played, and has compelled the Bulletin to the humiliating admission that Pokorny had never in any way made claim to the title of Chess Champion of Mexico, but that the editors themselves had constructed the title out of their imagination...”
Chess Weekly concluded the affair looked like a “barefaced swindle on the American chess public.” For complete details see Edward Winter’s article on the fiasco HERE.
Apparently Pokorny ended up back in the United States because he took part in two Manhattan Chess Club Championships: 1920 (6th place) and 1921 (11th place). Here’s a game he lost to Roy T. Black.
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