Ignatz Kolisch

Kolisch was born into a Jewish family in Pressburg (known today as Bratislava). Both in business and as a chess player he was eminently successful. In his early years he moved to Vienna, then spent a year in Italy. In 1859 he arrived in Paris and in 1860–62 mostly sojourned in London, where he edited the Chess Player's Chronicle with Adolf Zytogorski and Josef Kling.^[1] In summer 1862 he accompanied the Russian Count Kushelev-Bezborodko to St. Petersburg, where he won a match against Ilya Shumov. Later he moved to Paris and in 1869 to Vienna. He became involved in banking and became a millionaire and chess patron, organizing and sponsoring important chess tournaments in the 1870s and 1880s. He founded the Wiener Börse-Syndikatskasse in 1869, and in 1873 established a commission house in Paris; and by prudent management he acquired considerable wealth. In 1881 he received the title of baron from Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.

As a chess player, Kolisch soon became known for his brilliant and aggressive style, but he was not a frequent participant in tournaments. In 1860 he won the first prize at the international tournament held at Cambridge, England. In 1861 he lost a match to Adolf Anderssen, the strongest player of the day, by a score of 5–4.^[2] The same year, he drew a match with Louis Paulsen. In 1867 at the Paris tournament he secured first place, defeating both Szymon Winawer and Wilhelm Steinitz.

Kolisch was the founder and editor-in-chief of the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, to which, under the pseudonym "Ideka",^[3] he contributed many feuilletons. The protagonist in the short story "The chessbaron" (A sakkbáró) by Ferenc Móra is based on him. He died of kidney failure in 1889.

• List of Jewish chess players

•  "Колиш, Игнатий" . Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.
• E. T. Blanchard, Examples of Chess Master-Play, 1st series (transl. from the German of Jean Dufresne), Index, New Barnet, 1893.
• Singer, Isidore; Porter, A. (1901–1906), "Kolisch, Baron Ignaz Von", Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 7, p. 547
• F. Zavatarelli, Ignaz Kolisch. The Life and Chess Career, McFarland, 2015.