A Chess Biography, 1872-1938
by Olimpiu G. Urcan and Peter Michael Braunwarth, 274pp. (McFarland, 2011)

This biography explores the life and chess career of Arthur Kaufmann, an early 20th century Romanian-born grandmaster-level player. A contemporary of luminaries such as Capablanca, Reti, Schlechter, Spielmann, and Tartakower, Kaufmann remained an enigma despite his high level play.

Through an analysis of primary sources, including correspondence, diaries and other archival material, Kaufmann’s chess career is reconstructed in detail. His tournament and match play games from the early 1890s to the 1910s are explored, as are his little known matches against some of the top players of his time and his participation in the Trebitsch memorials in wartime Vienna.

The book also offers an unprecedented account of Kaufmann’s close relationship with Arthur Schnitzler, the famed Austrian dramatist, whose diary offers important clues to Kaufmann’s life and work as a philosopher. There is a collection of 71 Kaufmann games with detailed annotations and diagrams.

Award-winning journalist Olimpiu G. Urcan is a frequent contributor to New in Chess and pens a monthly chess history column at ChessCafe.com. He lives in Singapore, where he works as an education consultant. Peter Michael Braunwarth is a scholar and professor in Vienna, Austria.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword by Mihail Marin

Preface

A Note to the Reader

PART I The Life (1872-1938) and Chess Career

1. 1872-1900: A Student in Vienna

2. 1901-1910: Intermission

3. 1911-1914: Back to Chess

4. 1915-1916: Chess in a "Gigantic Hospital"ť

5. June 1917: Breakdown

6. 1918-1919: Out of Vienna to Mariazell and Kiev

7. 1919-1920: Taking On Einstein

8. 1920-1922: Altaussee

9. 1923-1938: An Inscrutable Endgame

PART II The Chess Games

PART III Appendices, Sources and Indexes

Appendix A: Kaufmann and Chess Theory

Appendix B: Tournament Crosstables

Appendix C: Kaufmann's Tournament and Match Record

Appendix D: Kaufmann's Results Against Leading Masters

Appendix E: Two More Kaufmann Games?

Appendix F: An Encounter with Alekhine?

Appendix G: A Kaufmann Imaginary Letter

Appendix H: The Unpictured Kaufmann

Appendix I: Brief Biographies of Notable Players

Sources and Bibliography

Index of Openings

Index of Opponents

Index of Illustrations

Index of Other Games

General Index