Rudolf Charousek

Rudolf Charousek (Hungarian: Charousek Rezső; September 19, 1873 in Prague – April 18, 1900 in Budapest) was a Hungarian chess player. A brilliant player, he had a short career, dying at the age of 26 from tuberculosis. Reuben Fine described him as the John Keats of chess.

Rudolf Charousek was born in Prague on September 19, 1873. His father Karel Charousek and his mother Maria, born as Uher, were also Czech by birth. His father worked as a telegraph operator in Debrecen. Two days after Rudolf's birth Maria took her baby to her parents in the German estate Lomecek near Kutna-Hora, where her father was a forester. When the father joined his family again the child was baptised in the nearest catholic church in Trebonin. On the birth certificate the name Rudolf was written in honor of the father's elder brother, but with a wrong birthplace—Klein-Lometz. The Hungarian form of his prename is Rezso. Charousek learned how to play chess around age 14, receiving a chess set as a Hanukkah gift. Charousek's first chess teacher and partner was Dezso Pap. He soon became one of the strongest players in Miskolc. Charousek was so poor that he could not afford a copy of Bilguer's voluminous collection of openings, so he copied it by hand in the public library. After high school, he studied law at the Academy of Laws in Kassa and was the strongest chess player in that city.

In 1893 he went to Budapest and played chess at the Budapest Chess Club for the first time. Right from the start, Charousek defeated many of the strongest players at the club. He drew his first match with Géza Maróczy, then defeated Hungary's strongest player, Gyula Makovetz.

In July and August 1896, in the surroundings of a Bavarian exposition, a grand chess tournament was planned in Nuremberg, the hometown of Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch. All the strongest players in the world were invited, but Charousek was not invited by the organizers, despite the pleading of Maróczy. However, when the Englishman Henry Edward Bird could not participate, Charousek was officially invited to play in the tournament.

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