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Curt von Bardeleben

Master · Germany · 1861–1924 · active c. 1881–1904

“The nobleman who walked out of Hastings”

His game against Steinitz at Hastings 1895 — and walking out rather than resigning

Born–died1861–1924

CountryGermany

Active erac. 1881–1904

TitleMaster

Curt Carl Alfred von Bardeleben (4 March 1861 – 31 January 1924) was a German chess master, journalist and member of the German nobility, born in Berlin into an old aristocratic family. He learned chess at ten and was reckoned the strongest player in Weimar while still at school.

In 1881, aged twenty, he won the 'Hauptturnier' of the German Chess Federation in Berlin and gained the master title. Over the following two decades he achieved a string of strong tournament results, sharing first place at Leipzig 1888, Kiel 1893 and Coburg 1904 (with Schlechter and Swiderski), and winning outright at Berlin in 1897.

He was also a chess writer, editing the Deutsche Schachzeitung from 1887 to 1891. But he is remembered today chiefly for a single game: his loss to the first World Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, at Hastings 1895.

Facing Steinitz's untouchable rook on e7 and a forced mate, von Bardeleben — rather than resign at the board — simply stood up and left the tournament room, never to return, losing the game on time. Steinitz then demonstrated the elegant forced mate to the assembled spectators.

Von Bardeleben's life ended tragically in 1924 when he fell from a window in Berlin; whether by his own hand or by accident was never settled. His life and death are widely thought to have inspired the character of Luzhin in Vladimir Nabokov's novel 'The Defense'.

Playing style

A strong and principled classical master and theoretician, sound in the openings of his day, though his temperament was famously fragile under pressure.