An Overlooked and Unappreciated Champion

     Very few, if any, players know that shortly after Morphy retired another player was standing by to replace him, a player who was also known for his brilliant and aggressive play. 

     In Paris, in 1859, he beat Daniel Harrwitz, the resident master of the Cafe de la Regence, by a score of 2-0. A short time later he was in England where he absolutely crushed Thomas Barnes, 12-1. 

     He only played in tournaments infrequently, but in the international tournament held at Cambridge, England in 1860 he finished first. 

     The Cambridge tournament was an eight-player, three-round knockout event. He swept away the opposition which included the former US Champion Charles Stanley in the finals, 3-0. 

     The following year he lost a match to Adolf Anderssen, who was generally considered to be Morphy’s successor, by the closest of margins, 4-5. Also, in 1861, he drew a match with Louis Paulsen. And, he won the great Paris tournament of 1867, defeating Wilhelm Steinitz in the process. He also defeated Bernhard Horwitz, 3-1 and drew John Owen, 4-4. 

     In1861, he played a rematch against Anderssen, but this time Anderssen won 5-4. In the Bristol Congress of 1861, Paulsen eliminated him in the first round by a 2-1 score. 

     In 1863, a retired Paul Morphy returned to Europe to ten to a family matter and a challenge to a match was issuedm but Morphy turned it down. 

     The following year, 1864, Samuel Rosenthal got crushed in a match by a score of 7-1. The virtually unknown Philip Hirschfeld fared better; he drew a match 4-4.

     In 1867, Paris held a strong tournament as host of the World Fair. It was a 13 player, double round event. Our subject won it, scoring +18 -2 =2. 

     That was the end of Ignatz Kolisch’s playing career as he retired from active competition and went into banking. By 1880 he had become a millionaire. 

     Even though no longer competing, he became a chess patron and organized and funded some famous tournaments such as the 1867 and 1870 Baden-Baden tournaments and the Vienna events of 1873 and 1882. 

     Baron Ignatz von Kolisch (April 6, 1837 - April 30, 1889) was born into a Jewish family in Pressburg (known today as Bratislava). In his early years he moved to Vienna, and later had souhourns in Italy, Paris and London. In 1881 he received the title of Baron from Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. He died of kidney failure in 1889. 

     Chessmetrics estimates Kolisch’s highest rating to have been 2755 on the August 1867 rating list, placing him at #1 in world. 

     With so many brilliant games to choose from it was hard to make a selection, but the following game with its dashing attack is typical of Kolisch’s play. 

 

[Event "Match, London"] [Site "London ENG"] [Date "1861.10.02"] [Round "2"] [White "Ignatz von Kolisch"] [Black "Louis Paulsen"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C50"] [Annotator "Stockfish 16"] [PlyCount "47"] [EventDate "1861.09.30"] {C51: Evans Gambit} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O (4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Be7 {This is Lasker's Defense...one of the safest ways to meet the Evans.}) 4... Nf6 5. b4 {The first analysis of the Evans Gambit was published in 1832 and it became very popular. It fell our of favor after Emanuel Lasker discovered a defense to it.} Bxb4 6. c3 Be7 {As per Lasker.} 7. d4 exd4 {Best. Less satisfactory are 7...Nxe4 and 7...d6} 8. cxd4 (8. e5 {was worth considering.} Ne4 (8... dxc3 {would lose.} 9. exf6 Bxf6 10. Re1+ Ne7 11. Bg5 Bxg5 12. Nxg5 O-O 13. Qh5 h6 14. Nxf7 Rxf7 15. Qxf7+ Kh8 16. Rxe7 {1-0 Moeller,J (1809) -Stulken,D (1266) Frankfurt 2008}) 9. cxd4 d5 10. exd6 Nxd6 11. Bb3 Bf5 12. Nc3 O-O 13. Be3 Kh8 14. Rc1 Na5 15. Nd5 {Black is better, but thye players agreed to a draw in Lupi,P (2067)-Plazaola,S Buenos Aires 2002}) 8... Nxe4 9. d5 Na5 10. Bd3 Nc5 11. Ba3 Nxd3 12. Qxd3 {In reality white has no compensation for his two Ps minus.} O-O {Not bad, but it would have been better to have first prevented white's next move with 12...d6} 13. d6 cxd6 {This is the best way to capture.} (13... Bxd6 14. Bxd6 cxd6 {Here white should develop his N on b1, but he must not play...} 15. Qxd6 b6 16. Nc3 Bb7 17. Rad1 Bxf3 18. gxf3 Nb7 19. Qxd7 Qxd7 20. Rxd7 Nc5 {and black is clearly better.}) 14. Nc3 b6 15. Nd5 { Kolisch correctly keeps as many pieces on the board as possible because exchanges favor black. See the note to move 13.} Nb7 {The idea is to reposition the N to the K-side, but 15...Nc6 would have been better.} 16. Bb2 { Logical since the B aims at black;s K, but there was a better move.} (16. Rae1 Bf6 17. Qe4 {White well centralized pieces and black's lack of maneuvering space confers a nice advantage on white.}) 16... Nc5 17. Qe3 Ne6 {Mission accomplished. Black now has adequate defensive resources plus 3 Ps. Even so, his position remains cramped while white's pieces have plenty of activity and so the chances must be considered about equal.} 18. Nd4 Bf6 {Again, this is not really an error, but it allows white to increase the activity of his pieces even more. A better move would have been 18...Bg5} {This nice tactical shot very nearly equalizes for whiet.} 19. Nc6 dxc6 20. Nxf6+ gxf6 {[%mdl 8192] Black does not realize the danger he is in and this move fatally weakening his K-side and loses almost at once. Black is a N + 3Ps up, but that is a meaningless factor!} (20... Kh8 {keeps a slim advantage.} 21. Qe4 {White must press on with his attack or he will certainly face defeat.} Ng5 22. Qxc6 Ba6 23. Rfd1 Rc8 {holds on.} (23... gxf6 24. Rxd6 {is at least equal.})) 21. Qh6 { White is now in complete control of the game.} d5 {Hoping to play 22...d4 shutting out white's B.} 22. Bxf6 {The game is over!} Qd6 23. f4 {The idea is to make a R lift abd quickly finish off his opponent. If he plays 23...Qc5+ Stockfish informs us there is a mate in 10.} Re8 {This allows a mate in 8, but saving the game was hardly possible.} 24. Rf3 {Black surrendered} (24. Rf3 Qc5+ 25. Kh1 Qc2 26. f5 {Black can only delay mate for a couple of moves.} Qxg2+ 27. Kxg2 Nf4+ 28. Rxf4 Re2+ 29. Kh1 Re1+ 30. Rxe1 {and mate next move.}) 1-0