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 ...1
Preface ...3
A Note to the Reader ...5

PART I--The Life (1872-1938) and Chess Career ...7
1. 1872-1900: A Student in Vienna ...9
2. 1901-1910: Intermission ...26
3. 1911-1914: Back to Chess ...41
4. 1915-1916: Chess in a "Gigantic Hospital" ...57
5. June 1917: Breakdown ...65
6. 1918-1919: Out of Vienna to Mariazell and Kiev ...76
7. 1919-1920: Taking On Einstein ...90
8. 1920-1922: Altaussee ...100
9. 1923-1938: An Inscrutable Endgame ...114

PART II--The Chess Games  ...143

PART III--Appendices, Sources and Indexes ...215
Appendix A: Kaufmann and Chess Theory ...217
Appendix B: Tournament Crosstables ...222
Appendix C: Kaufmann’s Tournament and Match Record ...225
Appendix D: Kaufmann’s Results Against Leading Masters ...226
Appendix E: Two More Kaufmann Games? ...227
Appendix F: An Encounter with Alekhine? ...229
Appendix G: A Kaufmann Imaginary Letter ...234
Appendix H: The Unpictured Kaufmann ...238
Appendix I: Brief Biographies of Notable Players ...242
Sources and Bibliography ...253
Index of Openings ...257
Index of Opponents ...258
Index of Illustrations ...259
Index of Other Games ...260
General Index ...261