Paul Saladin Leonhardt was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 master.

He was born in Posen

Poznan

Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...

, Province of Posen

Province of Posen

The Province of Posen was a province of Prussia from 1848–1918 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The area was about 29,000 km2....

, Poland (then German Empire), and died of a heart attack in Königsberg

Königsberg

Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...

 (East Prussia) during a game of chess.

A player with a low profile and not many tournament wins, Leonhardt has been largely forgotten by the history books. However, at his best, he was able to defeat most of the elite players of the period. Tarrasch

Siegbert Tarrasch

Siegbert Tarrasch was one of the strongest chess players and most influential chess teachers of the late 19th century and early 20th century....

, Tartakower

Savielly Tartakower

Ksawery Tartakower was a leading Polish and French chess Grandmaster. He was also a leading chess journalist of the 1920s and 30s...

, Nimzowitsch

Aron Nimzowitsch

Aron Nimzowitsch was a Russian-born Danish unofficial chess grandmaster and a very influential chess writer...

, Maróczy

Géza Maróczy

Géza Maróczy was a leading Hungarian chess Grandmaster, one of the best players in the world in his time. He was also a practicing engineer.-Early career:...

 and Réti

Richard Réti

Réti composed one of the most famous chess studies, shown in this diagram. It was published in Ostrauer Morgenzeitung 4 December 1921. It seems impossible for the white king to catch the advanced black pawn, while the white pawn can be easily stopped by the black king...

 all succumbed to his fierce, attacking style between 1903 and 1920 and he won several brilliancy prizes.

In major tournaments he was first at Hilversum

Hilversum

is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called "'t Gooi", it is the largest town in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller villages...

 1903, Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 1905, and Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 1907 (ahead of Maróczy and Schlechter

Carl Schlechter

Carl Schlechter was a leading Austrian chess master and theoretician at the turn of the 20th century. He is best known for drawing a World Chess Championship match with Emanuel Lasker.-Early life:...

), making him Nordic Champion

Nordic Chess Championship

The first Nordic Chess Championship took place in Stockholm in 1897.-Winners:The winners in the Nordic Championship in 1934 and 1936, Aron Nimzowitsch and Erik Lundin, got the Nordiske kongresmestre title, as the champion 1930, Erik Andersen, defended his title with 3-3 against Gideon Ståhlberg at...

; third, behind Rubinstein

Akiba Rubinstein

Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein was a famous Polish chess Grandmaster at the beginning of the 20th century. He was scheduled to play a match with Emanuel Lasker for the world championship in 1914, but it was cancelled because of the outbreak of World War I...

 and Maróczy, at Carlsbad

Carlsbad 1907 chess tournament

The first international chess tournament in Carlsbad was held in the magnificent Kaiserbad . Twenty one great masters, under the direction of Viktor Tietz, played in the Kurhaus Hotel Imperial from August 20 to September 17, 1907.The results and standings:...

 1907; second, behind Milan Vidmar

Milan Vidmar

Milan Vidmar was a Slovene electrical engineer, chess player, chess theorist, philosopher, and writer. He was a specialist in power transformers and transmission of electric current.- Biography :...

, at Göteborg 1909 (7th Nordic-ch), second, behind Rudolf Spielmann

Rudolf Spielmann

Rudolf Spielmann was an Austrian-Jewish chess player of the romantic school, and chess writer.-Career:He was a lawyer but never worked as one....

, at Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 1909, and second, behind Carl Ahues

Carl Ahues

Carl Oscar Ahues was a German chess International Master.He was Berlin champion in 1910. He was German Champion in 1929 winning the 26th DSB Congress in Duisburg. In 1930, he took 6th in San Remo , tied for 4-5th in Scarborough , and tied for 3-5th in Liege...

, at Duisburg

Duisburg

- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...

 (DSB Congress

DSB Congress

The Deutschen Schachbund had been founded in Leipzig on 18 July 1877. When the next meeting took place in the Schützenhaus on 15 July 1879, sixty-two clubs had become member of the chess federation. Hofrat Rudolf von Gottschall became Chairman and Hermann Zwanziger the General Secretary...

) 1929.

In matches he drew with Rudolf Loman

Rudolf Loman

Rudolf Loman was a Dutch chess master.Loman had been living in London for a number of years. He played chess for money against rich Englishmen, like his Dutch pupil Jacques Davidson, though he had another profession, organ player...

 (+4 –4 =2), won against James Mortimer

James Mortimer

James Mortimer was an American chess player, journalist, and playwright who spent the last 40 years of his life in Britain.-Life:...

 (+5 –0 =3), defeated Samuel Passmore (6 : 2), and drew with Georg Schories

Georg Schories

Georg Schories was a German chess master.Born in Berlin, he travelled first to Paris, then England, where for many years he, as George Shories, made his home...

 (2 : 2) at London 1904, defeated Hector William Shoosmith (+5 –0 =1) at London 1905, lost to Jacques Mieses

Jacques Mieses

----Jacques Mieses was a German-born Jewish chess Grandmaster and writer. He became a naturalized British citizen after World War II.p258-Chess career:...

 (+1 –5 =1) at London 1905, lost to Spielmann at Munich 1906 (+4 –6 =5), lost to Frank Marshall (+1 –2 =4) at Hamburg 1911, defeated Nimzowitsch (+4 –0 =1) at Hamburg 1911, lost to Hugo Süchting

Hugo Süchting

Hugo Süchting was a German chess player.He won at Kiel 1893 took 13th at Leipzig 1894 , shared 2nd with Ignatz von Popiel, behind Robert Henry Barnes, at Eisenach 1896 , and took 15th at Berlin 1897 Hugo Süchting (Suechting) (8 October 1874, Brackrade - 27 December 1916, Valluhn) was a German...

 (1.5 : 2.5) at Hamburg 1911 and drew with him (2 : 2) at Hamburg 1912, won against Moishe Lowtzky

Moishe Lowtzky

-Biography:He was born into a Jewish family in Ukraine. In 1903, Lowtzky tied for 6-7th with Eugene Znosko-Borovsky in Kiev . The event was won by Mikhail Chigorin. In 1903, he took 4th in Dresden . In 1904, he tied for 2nd-3rd in Coburg . In 1910, he tied for 1st with Thoenes in Hamburg...

 (+5 –1 =1) at Leipzig 1913, drew with Hans Fahrni

Hans Fahrni

Hans Fahrni was a Swiss chess master.In 1892 he was joint Swiss chess champion ....

 (1 : 1), won against Jeno Szekely (2.5 : 1.5), both at Munich 1914, and drew with Curt von Bardeleben

Curt von Bardeleben

Curt von Bardeleben was a Count and a German chess master who committed suicide by jumping out of a window in 1924. His life and death were the basis for that of the main character in the novel The Defense by Vladimir Nabokov, which was made into the movie The Luzhin Defence...

 (2 : 2) at Berlin 1921.

As an expert analyst of the opening

Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...

s, he wrote a monograph on the Ruy Lopez

Ruy Lopez

The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, who made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del...

 (Zur Spanische Partie - 1913). Opening variations have been attributed to him in the Lopez, Sicilian Defence

Sicilian Defence

The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4...

, Ponziani Opening

Ponziani Opening

The Ponziani Opening is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The opening is now considered inferior to 3.Bb5, the Ruy Lopez, and 3.Bc4, the Italian Game, and is accordingly rarely seen today at any level of play. Black's main responses are 3...Nf6, leading to quiet play, and 3...d5, leading...

, Evans Gambit

Evans Gambit

The Evans Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the moves:The gambit is named after the Welsh sea Captain William Davies Evans, the first player known to have employed it. The first game with the opening is considered to be Evans - McDonnell, London 1827, although in that game a slightly...

, and the Scandinavian Defense

Scandinavian Defense

The Scandinavian Defense is a chess opening characterized by the moves:The Center Counter Defense is one of the oldest recorded openings, first recorded as being played between Francesco di Castellvi and Narciso Vinyoles in Valencia in 1475 in what may be the first recorded game of modern chess,...

.

External links

• 487 games of Paul Saladin Leonhardt, 365chess.com