Arthur Kaufmann: A Chess Biography, 1872-1938

This book explores the life and chess career of Arthur Kaufmann, a Romanian-born grandmaster-level player of the 1900s and 1910s. A contemporary of luminaries such as Capablanca, Schlechter, Tartakower, Reti, R. Spielmann and M. Vidmar, Kaufmann remained an enigma despite his high-level play. Through an analysis of primary sources, including private correspondence, diaries and other archival material, this text reconstructs Kaufmann's chess career in detail. His tournament and match play games in early 1890s and 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 war-time Vienna. The book also offers an unprecedented and extensive 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 70 Kaufmann games with detailed annotations and diagrams.]