A Postal Brilliancy By Lasker's Feared Foe - Best of the pre-1900s - Konyovits vs. Charousek, 1893

Rudolf Charousek is one of the great and tragic figures of early chess. A romantic player, he won many beautiful tactical victories. His best games flow freely with tactics and are a joy to witness. In Nuremburg in 1896, he even beat the reigning world champion, Lasker with the King's Gambit. To my knowledge, this is only time any reigning world chess champion has lost to the King's Gambit in a classical game.

After Charousek's fine tournament victory in Berlin in 1897, Lasker is reported to have said, "I shall have to play a championship match with this man someday." Sadly, that day never came. Charousek suffered from tuberculosis, a common malady of the time, and he died at the incredibly young age of 26 in 1900. His health and chess suffered as well before he died so the period in which he was competing in top-level chess events was incredibly short, from about 1895-98, not even a half decade.

Today's game is one of Charousek's lesser-known gems, and while it is by no means a perfect game, it contains rich and joyful attacking play and ideas with sophisticated positional foundations. Charousek's monstrous knight on d4 and ultimately an attacking queen and knight combo prove difficult to combat, but there were some incredible resources available to his opponent to beat back the attack and even gain some advantage.

This game comes from the Pesti Hirlap correspondence event, a notable tournament won mutually by Geza Maroczy and Charousek. Correspondence games often lasted years, and thus, it is conceivable here that Charousek began this game in 1893 as a relatively nameless chess master and concluded it a couple of years later as a renowned champion. I personally feel that his level of play in the opening phase and year of play is markedly weaker than his play in the ending phase likely taking place around 1895.

Top 10 Games from before 1900

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• #14: Konyovits vs. Charousek, 1893
• #15: Weiss vs. Pollock, 1889

See also: Top 10 of the 1900s, Top 10 of the 1910s, Top 10 of the 1920s, Top 10 of the 1930s, Top 10 of the 1940s, Top 10 of the 1950s, Top 10 of the 1960s, Top 10 of the 1970s, Top 10 of the 1980s, Top 10 of the 1990s, Top 10 of the 2000s, and Top 10 of the 2010s

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