Bruno Siegheim

    Bruno Edgar Siegheim (May 24, 1875 – November 5, 1952) was born in Berlin and in 1895 he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa. At that time, though he knew something of chess, but he was totally unacquainted with its deeper mysteries. He joined the Johannesburg Chess Club in January, 1898, but in April of the same year he moved to to Quebec in Canada, where he lived for nine months. 

    While in Quebec he met Professor Isaac L. Rice (1850-1915), who inoculated him with the Rice Gambit gambit. Rice was a German-born American businessman, investor, musicologist, author and chess patron. Evidently during the previous year developed into a fairly strong player otherwise Rice would not have taken the trouble to introduce him to Rice’s pet gambit. 

    Siegheim's next experience, which was with the powerful Manhattan Chess Club in New York where he managed to finish third in the Rice Gambit Tournament of 1903. After that Siegheim finished second in the club championship. 

    In October of 1904, Seigheim returned to Johannesburg and rejoined the chess club. At that time Dr. Max Blieden was acknowledged to be the strongest player in the South Africa. 

    A match with Blieden was arranged and in a tough encounter, Seigheim scored +6 -2 =2, but then Blieden roared back and scored four straight wins to even the score. Siegheim then scored two wins andm as the first to reach 9 points, was the winner. 

    Siegheim won the South African Championship twice, in 1906 and 1912. In 1910 he lost to Blieden in a challenge match, but won challenge matches against two other South African players in 1911 ab 1912. 

    In the 1920s he seems to have been in England as he is listed as participating in a number of tournaments there, including Hastings in 1923 where he tied for 2nd with Reti behind Rubinstein. 

    In April of 1929, the great Indian player, Mir Sultan Khan, arrived in England and was introduced at the National Liberal Club, and played four friendly games with Siegheim who was the captain of the club’s team. Khan scored +2 -0 =4. At some point he returned to South Africa, passing away in Johannesburg on November 5, 1952.
 

    The following game played in the 1912 South African Championship in Johannesburg has a nice tactical finish. His opponent, Dr. Max Blieden (1879-1964, 93 years old) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1894 and then moved to South Africa as a surgeon and later head of the E.P. Bauman Children's Hospital in Johannesburg. He was South African champion in 1926 and 1928. 

ChessBase

Max Blieden–Bruno Siegheim0–1A84South African Champ, JohannesburgJohannesburg10.1912Stockfidh 16

A84: Dutch Defense 1.d4 e6 2.c4 f5 Although never very popular, the fighting Dutch has given blacvk good practical results and few games are drawn. It's neen used by Morpgy, Alekhine, Larsen, Najdorf, and Nakamura, but its most notable use was in 1951, when both Botvinnik and his Bronstein played it in their World Championship match. 3.c3 White most often plays 3.g3, nut the text is also good. b4 This seldom seen move does not enjoy an especially high success rate. Better was 3...Nf6 4.e3 4.g4 This speculative move looks interesting. f6 5.gxf5 0-0 6.f3 d5 7.g1 h8 8.d3 c5 9.a3 xc3+ 10.bxc3 exf5 11.dxc5 c6 12.cxd5 xd5 13.xd5 xd5 14.c4 Brunello,S (2591)-Bellini,F (2492) Turin ITA 2012. White stands slightly better. 4...e7 The usual alternative is 4...Nf6 5.f3 xc3+ 6.bxc3 d6 7.a3 c5 8.d3 f6 9.c2 b6 10.e4 This move is quite natural, but it turns out that all it does is open lines for black. White's best strategy would have been to keep the tension up by playing 10.O-O followed by Nd2 and then centralizing his Rs. fxe4 11.xe4 xe4 12.xe4 b7 13.g4 0-0 14.g5 In the end white doesn't get any attack and he loses time retreating so his best strategy would have been to play 14.Nd2 giving the Q a line of retreat. f6 15.c1 d7 16.0-0 f8 Engines like 16...Rg6, but then things get pretty murky (for a human)! 16...g6 17.h4 h6 18.f4 Black's best is 18...cxd4 and 19...Rc8, but if hxg5 19.fxg5 f6 20.e2 e4 21.h5 xg5 22.xg5 xg5 Black is supposedly better, but in reality things are unclear. 17.f3 g6 18.f4 e5 19.e1 ...and loses...or should have! He should hve retreated to e3 e8 Not bad, but not the best. 19...e6 snags the N. 20.f7+ xf7 21.xf7 xf7 20.e3 h6 21.h3 Better would have been 21.Ne4, but it would hardly save the game. f7 Again, black misses the best move. 21...e6 22.f2 exd4 23.xe6+ exe6 24.f4 xe1+ 25.xe1 dxc3 Black is winning; the immediate threat is ...Bxf3 22.d5 22.f4 is a better defense. f6 23.d5 xd5 24.cxd5 22...c8 23.f2 f5 24.a4 d7 25.a2 h7 26.h1 f6 27.e2 d8 28.d1 ef8 29.a5 bxa5 30.a4 6f7 31.xa5 h4 32.a4 g4 33.d1 Here is where the game gets interesting. Siegheim finishes the game with several sledgehammer blows. xf3! Black is clearly winning. 34.g3 34.gxf3 xf3+ 34...xg3 35.xg4 xg4 36.ee2 f6 37.g2 xg2 38.xg2 e4 39.e3 h3 40.e1 Has white succeeded in defending himself? f1+ A nice finish. 41.g1 41.xf1 is met by g3+ 42.xg3 xf1+ 41...xg2+ Even nicer! White resigned 0–1

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