| Apr-19-04 | | Vischer: Is this the person who the Blumenfeld Gambit is named after? |
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| Oct-05-04 | | Jesuitic Calvinist: Don't know, Vischer, but my guess is "yes". Judging by some of the players he beat, he was clearly a good enough player to have his name attach to an opening. |
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Jul-30-08
 | | whiteshark: Bio: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjam...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjam...
<was one of the best players in Moscow between the First and Second World Wars.> ...but only one game in this database. |
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| Jan-24-10 | | Oliveira: Man, I've just read an article by Frank Mayer in which he discusses about "the Mistery of Benjamin Markowitch Blumenfeld" and states that further investigations on his life were unable to settle anything but confirm the facts already known. In fact, it's very weird that there aren't any photos of his or even featuring him in any of the numerous tournaments he took part. Besides, the reason why the so-called Blumenfed gambit has his name isn't clear at all since there isn't even one registered game of his in which it was played. But the weirdest thing is what comes next: Mayer transcribes a supposed conversation between two historians, whose names are probably fictitious, in which one of them affirms to know the secret of Blumenfeld. Actually of the Blumenfeld brothers! They would be twin brothers with only a slight difference and one was a king's pawn specialist and the other a queen's pawn one. And then in a tournament after his (or more suitable "their") adversary had made his first move, if it didn't match, the one who was engaged in the game would get up and go to the bathroom while his counterpart would take upon the game! And that would be the reason why they don't posed for photos. I don't know if this is truthfull, but it is really surreal! And indeed, as the German novelist Herr Gerhard Josten said, "chess is full of enigmas!" Here's the article (in Spanish): http://www.tabladeflandes.com/frank... You can read this article also in Portuguese here: http://www.torre21.com/modules/arti... |
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| Dec-21-10 | | Oliveira: *I meant there isn't a single known picture depicting him and no games registered where he employs the gambit named (probably) after him. Sorry my bad English. |
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May-24-11
 | | Domdaniel: There are certainly more Blumenfeld games out there. Chess365 has 18 of them, and Chessbase about 25, including some consultation games. Neither includes the dubious 1903 game with Nimzowitsch. He played a match with Alekhine in 1908, from which two games are on record. These are still low numbers, and almost all the games are pre-1920. Even Rusbase doesn't seem to have any other games from the 1st USSR championship in 1920. |
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May-24-11
| | Domdaniel: He must have done *something* to earn a reputation as an opening theorist and one of the strongest players in Moscow - there was serious competition on both fronts. For example, the 1931 USSR ch'ship, in which Blumenfeld did not play, had at least seven players who have important opening variations named after them: Iljin-Zhenevsky, Kan, Rauzer, Veresov, etc. |
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Aug-17-11
| | whiteshark: Antanas Gustaitis* became the Lithinian Chess Champion 1922 (<<Benjamin Blumenfeld> emigrated to Russia before a playoff match could be arranged>) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithua... * so far not in the chessgames.com database --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antana... |
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May-24-12
 | | brankat: <He later became a student of chess psychology. He received his doctorate for a thesis on the nature of blunders in chess..> I did study (extensively) the same subject matter. Not at a university level though.
Just OTB :-) |
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May-24-12
| | brankat: R.I.P. Mr.Blumenfeld. |
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Oct-03-12
 | | wordfunph: entertaining anecdote by D. Bjelica from his book Grandmaster in Profile.. <GM Lev Polugaevsky told us a story to Dimitri Bjelica from a Moscow tournament when master Blumenfeld's opponent persistently looked at his rival's notebook. Blemenfeld was
annoyed by this and so he wrote, "I am rather worried about the sacrifice of the queen of f7". Afterwards he went off for a walk. When he returned he saw that his opponent had played
exactly that move. Blumenfeld sat at the board and calmly wrote in the book: "As I suspected the sacrifice was incorrect."> rest in peace, master Blumenfeld.. |
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f6 2.c4 e6 3.
