Alan McGowan: The brief personal details refer to an opening line named after him; 'The Kieninger Trap' in the Budapest Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.Bf4 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bb4+ 6.Nbd2 Qe7 7.a3 Ngxe5! 8.axb4?? Nd3#). CG links to the source for this information (Wikipedia), which in turn gives Borik's 1986 English language book on the Budapest Gambit (p24) as its source. After 7...Ngxe5! Borik says: 'The famous "Kieninger Trap". The late German master Georg Kieninger once used it in an offhand game against Godai at Vienna 1925. There followed 8ab?? Nd3 mate."
Borik possibly took this reference from Josef Staker's 1982 book 'The Budapest Defence And The Tennison Gambit' where, on page 12, after 7...Ngxe5(!), Staker says: A hoary trap and the sole playable move, 7...Ngxe5 was uncovered by the former West German champion Georg Kieninger following an informal game with Godai, in Vienna 1925."
Neither Borik nor Staker gave an earlier source, so it reasonable to ask how Kieninger's name became associated with the 'trap'.
There seems to be nothing in the periodicals of the day showing Kieninger in Vienna in 1925. However, it is known that he was there in 1926, in a 10-player event organised by <Verein Wiener Schachfreunde>, an event from which he withdrew in an unsportsmanlike manner after his first loss. The results were given on p220 of the 1926 Wiener Schachzeitung, though Kieninger's score was omitted. (This report was previously referred to by <Karpova> in 2013.)
What is additionally interesting, however, is an article by Hans Müller on the Budapest Defence on pp200-201 of the 1926 Wiener Schachzeitung. On page 201 Müller refers to the tournament organised by the Wiener Schachfreunde and mentions the game Godai-Kieninger, which commenced: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.Bf4 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bb4+. He then comments on White's choice of Dr Bernstein's 6.Nbd2, aiming for a positional advantage.
The game continued 6...Qe7 7.a3 Bxd2+ 8.Qxd2 Ngxe5 9.Nxe5 Nxe5, when Müller looked at the possible continuation 10.Qc3, followed by g3, Bg2. However, he points out that the game actually continued 10.e3 (In der Partie geschah 10.e3 usw.).
Müller immediately thereafter refers to a stronger continuation for Black's 7th move (Dem Nachziehenden stehen jedoch bedeutend schärfere Waffen zur Verfügung) and gives 7...Ngxe5! 8.Nxe5 (8.axb? Nd3++) Nxe5 9.e3 Bxd2+ 10.Qxd2 0-0.
So, no original sources from Borik and Staker re an offhand game in Vienna 1925. And if Kieninger had played 7...Ngxe5 in 1925, why did he not play it in 1926?
Is this how Kieninger's name came to be associated - perhaps wrongly - with the line?
Kibitzing
