Samuel Rosenthal


Samuel Rosenthal was a Polish-born French chess master. Chess historian Edward Winter wrote, "He dedicated his life to chess-playing, touring, writing, teaching and analysing. Despite only occasional participation in first-class events, he scored victories over all the leading masters of the time. He also acquired world renown as an unassuming showman who gave large simultaneous displays and blindfold séances, invariably producing a cluster of glittering moves."
Rosenthal became a law student and moved from Warsaw to Paris, during the Polish revolution in 1864, after the failure of the January Uprising. He settled in Paris as a chess professional and writer. In 1864, he lost a match to Ignatz von Kolisch in Paris. Rosenthal won the Café de la Régence championship in 1865, 1866, and 1867 in Paris, and became the strongest French chess player. In 1867, he took 9th in the Paris tournament, and lost a match to Gustav Neumann in Paris. In 1869, he lost two matches to Neumann and. In July 1870, he tied for 8–9th in Baden-Baden. The event was won by Adolf Anderssen.
Because of the Franco Prussian War of 1870–71, Rosenthal went to London. In 1870/71, he won a match against John Wisker.
In July–August 1873, Rosenthal took 4th, behind Wilhelm Steinitz, Joseph Henry Blackburne, and Anderssen, in Vienna. In 1878, he tied for 7–8th in Paris. In 1880, he won in Paris the first unofficial French Chess Championship. In 1880, he lost a match against Zukertort in London. In 1883, he took 8th in London. In 1887, he tied for 5–7th in Frankfurt am Main.
His results were affected by his journalistic activities and bad health.
From 1885 to 1902, he edited a chess column for the Le Monde Illustré, and also wrote for La Strategie, La Vie Moderne, and other French newspapers. The American writers David Shenk and Joshua Wolf Shenk are descendants of Samuel Rosenthal.

Notable chess games

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