Karpova: Some information from an article called <Österr.-ungar. Celebritäten> on Zinkl:Zinkl belongs to the permanent staff of the 'Neuen Freien Presse' and thereby earned great merits as a chess writer, but he could have reached the highest level as a practical player also.
He has a fantastic memory for all branches of knowledge, especially numbers. This earned him the nickname <das lebende Konversationslexikon> (the living encyclopedia) already 20 years ago among his colleagues. This, together with his great imagination, enabled him to great perfromances in blindfold play early - examples are given: 6 games in the <Staatsbeamten-Casino> in Vienna in 1894 with a score of +4 -1 =1 and the same result in autumn 1897 in the Berlin Chess Society.
He has always been an aggressive player. Leopold Hoffer compared him to Cecil de Vere in the 1894 'Chess Monthly' and predicted an excellent showing already at his first event in Leipzig, but his profession in the Austrian Civil Service (<österreichisches Staatsbeamtentum>) forced him to give up tournament chess.
Adolf Julius Leopold Zinkl, born on June 10, 1871, in Neuhaus, Bohemia, came to Znaim in Morava in 1877 as his parents moved there. There, he graduated in the <Volksschule> and <Oberrealschule>. In 1892, he joined the <Staatspostdienst> (State Postal Service) and moved to Vienna. He is currently a <Postoffizial>.
He was a stranger to chess until he became 18 years old, the successes of Max Weiß in New York made him notice chess (May 30, 1889). He played with colleagues (<Realschülern>) first, but soon he didn't have equal opponents anylonger in Znaim, as he never had the opportunity to play against the director of the <Oberrealschule>, the composer and strong player Karl Seeberger (died in 1904).
So he played many correspondence games. He won 5th prize in the correspondence tournament of the 'Deutschen Wochenschachs' (1890-1891). In Vienna, he first played for months in the Cafe Scheuch (<III. Bezirk>) and was encouraged by S. R. Wolf to join the New Vienna Chess Club. At the same time he participated in the <Lokalturnier> (local tournament) of the Vienna Chess Society (Winter 1892-1893) and came in 4th among 12 participants (1st Marco, 2nd Eisenbach, 3rd Csank) and scored 1.5/2 against Eisenbach and Csank.
In spring 1893 he partcipated in the <Vierkampf> Marco-Schlechter-Thirring-Zinkl (Schlechter's 1st appearance) and came in 3rd with following results: +0 -1 =2 against Schlechter, +1 -1 =1 against Marco and +3 -0 =0 against Thirring. He received the Brilliancy Prize for his game against Marco.
Further results:
Winter tournament 1893/1894 of the New Vienna Chess Club: 5th Prize (1st J. Schwarz, 2nd Marco, 3rd-4th Schlechter and Artur Kaufmann).
Summer 1894: <Dreikampf> against Marco and Schlechter; +2 -5 =1 against Marco, +4 -4 =3 against Schlechter.
Autumn 1894: International tournament in Leipzig. No prize, but draws against Tarrasch (his only draw), Blackburne, Walbrodt, Mieses, Schiffers, Berger, Süchting and Schlechter, and a win over Dr. Seyffert.
Master tournament of the Vienna Chess Society 1894/1895: 5th Prize (1st Marco, 2nd Weiß, 3rd Schlechter, 4th Englisch), lost no game against the top four, scored 1.5-0.5 against Englisch.
Master tournament of the Vienna Chess Society 1895/1896: 8th place out of 12 participants (1st Weiß, 2nd Schlechter, 3rd Englisch, 4th Marco, 5th J. Schwarz, 6th A. Halprin, 7th M. Judd), one win over Weiß and Englisch each - a small sensation as Weiß hadn't lost a game since New Yok 1889 since then and was already considered unbeatable.
Master tournament of the New Vienna Chess Club, Winter 1896/1897: Shared 4th-5th place with Adolf Albin (1st Marco, 2nd Kaufmann, 3rd Fähndrich)
September 1896 to Summer 1897: Last secretary of the Vienna Chess Society.
Summer 1897, tournament in Berlin: No prize, but wins over Albin, Metger and Süchting, draws against Caro, W. Cohn and Teichmann. Brilliancy Prize against Metger.
Autumn 1897: Match against Siegfried Reginald Wolf +4 -2 =5.
1897/1898: Local Master tournament of the Vienna Chess Club: 6th Prize (1st Marco, 2nd Dr. Kaufmann, 3rd-4th Halprin and Brody, 5th Schlechter).
1897-1899: Anonymous correspondence tournamnet of the Vienna Chess Club: 1st prize without a loss, 11 participants (2nd A. Seidl, 3rd L. Löwy I.).
1899/1900: National Kolisch tournament: Shared 5th-7th prize with Marco and H. Wolf (1st Maroczy, 2nd-3rd Brody and Schlechter, 4th Alapin), lost only 1 game (against Maroczy).
Source: Pages 12-14 of the January 1911 'Wiener Schachzeitung'.
Kibitzing
