Isidor Gunsberg
Isidor Arthur Gunsberg (November 2, 1854, in Budapest, Hungary – May 2, 1930, in London) began his career as the player operating the remote-controlled chess automaton Mephisto, but later became a chess professional.
He moved to Great Britain in 1876, later becoming a naturalized British citizen on May 12, 1908.
In the late 1880s and early 1890s Gunsberg was one of the top players in the world. He was the winner at the 4th German Chess Congress in Hamburg in May 1885. In match play, he defeated Joseph Henry Blackburne in 1887 and Henry Bird in 1889. In 1890 he drew a match with Mikhail Chigorin, a former and future challenger for the world chess championship. Later that year, Gunsberg himself challenged Wilhelm Steinitz for the world title. The match took place in New York City and Gunsberg lost with four wins, six losses, and nine draws.
In 1916 he sued the Evening News for libel when they said that his chess column contained "blunders". He won the suit after the British High Court accepted a submission that in chess matters, eight oversights did not make a "blunder".[1]
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[edit] Chess strength
Arpad Elo calculates that Gunsberg's best 5-year average Elo rating was 2560.[2] According to another assessment system, Chessmetrics, at his peak in July 1889 Gunsberg's play was equivalent to a rating of 2744, and he was ranked number 2 in the world, behind only Steinitz.[3][4] According to Chessmetrics, Gunsberg was number 1 in the world, albeit with a slightly lower rating, on their February 1889 rating list.[5] According to Chessmetrics, best single performance was his 1887 match against Joseph Henry Blackburne, where he scored 8 of 13 possible points (62%) against a 2744-rated opponent, for a performance rating of 2784.[6] However, it should be noted that in that year, 1889, Gunsberg played in three different international tournaments; Amsterdam, the German Chess Congress, and the US Chess Congress. At Amsterdam, he finished in 5th place out of 9 competitors with a -1 score, 4/9, behind Burn, a very young Emmanuel Lasker, Mason, and Van Vliet. [7] At the German Chess Congress, he finished tied for 4th-7th places out of 18 competitors, with a +3 score, 10/17, behind Tarrasch, Burn, and Mieses. [8] Finally, at the US Chess Congress, his best result, and the reason he was allowed to challenge Steinitz, he finished in lone 3rd place out of 20 competitors, with a +19 score, 28.5/38, behind Weiss and Chigorin. [9] While these are decent results for a chess master (except for Amsterdam), they certainly put the Chessmetrics list in doubt. Later on, Gunsberg's position among the foremost chess masters would slip. In the 1895 Hastings tournament, Gunsberg finished with a -3 score of 9/21, good for a share of 15th-16th place out of 22 competitors.[10]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Edward Winter's Chess Notes,[1]
- ^ Arpad E. Elo, The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present, Arco, 1978, p. 192. ISBN 0-668-04721-6.
- ^ Jeff Sonas, Chessmetrics Player Profile: Isidor Gunsberg. Retrieved on 2008-12-11.
- ^ Jeff Sonas, July 1889 rating list. Retrieved on 2008-12-11.
- ^ Jeff Sonas, July 1889 rating list.
- ^ Jeff Sonas, Blackburne-Gunsberg II (Bradford), 1887. Retrieved on 2008-12-11.
- ^ Amsterdam 1889 Tournament results, [2]
- ^ 1889 German Chess Congress results, [3]
- ^ 1889 USA Chess Congress results, [4]
- ^ 1895 Hastings results, [5]
[edit] References
- Harding, Tim (2007). "The Family Life of Grandmaster Gunsberg". ChessCafe.com. http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz136.pdf.
- Jacobs, Joseph; Porter, A. (1901–1906). "Gunsberg, Isidor". In Singer, Isidore. Jewish Encyclopedia. 6. p. 109. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=499&letter=G.
[edit] External links
- Isidor Gunsberg player profile at ChessGames.com
- Winter, Edward. "Chess Notes". http://www.chesshistory.com.
- "Chess in the Courts"
- CN 3824, July 2005, "Libel Suit"
- CN 5113, August 2007, "Isidor Gunsberg"
- CN 5136, September 2007, "An Interview with Gunsberg"
