Kolisch Ignatz Von Baron (26.04.1837 – 30.04.1889)

Austro-Hungarian chess player, born in Pressburg.

Kolisch was one of the strongest players of the 1860’s and he achieved a number of victories, some of which included: a win against Bernhard Horwitz +3-1=0 in Manchester, 1860; a crushing victory against Thomas Barnes +10-1 in London, 1860 and a draw in an endless match with Louis Paulsen +6-7=18 by agreement in London, 1861 despite the fact that he was losing on score after 31 games.

Kolisch went on to play Adolf Anderssen twice, first in Paris, 1860 +5-5=1 and then in London, 1861 +3-4=2.  This match is known to be the first chess event played with a set number of moves within a time limit. In this case, the time limit was 24 moves in two hours.

In the 1860’s, Kolisch became a leading player in Paris.  In 1860 he won in Cambridge (British Chess Association) and also won the matches against Horwitz and Barnes.  In 1861 he achieved an excellent win at the Bristol Tournament.  In 1862 he visited St. Petersburg, which was the first visit to Russia by a great chess player, where he played two matches with Ilya Shumov 6:2 and Sergey Urusov 2:2.   In the Russian magazine Shakhmatny Listok in 1862, it was written about Kolisch “that he could show quite fundamental knowledge of the openings, alive and brave fantasy and absolutely original ability to use the opponent’s mistakes”.   In 1864, Kolisch won two matches versus Philipp Hirschfeld +4-4=0 and Samuel Rosenthal +7-1=0.  His victory in Paris, 1867 was his best sporting and creative achievement where he won 20 points out of 24.

In 1868 Kolisch retired from active chess to become a banker under the patronage of Baron Albert Rothschild.  He occasionally took part in the organization of big tournaments in Baden-Baden 1870, Vienna 1882 and others, which he supported with his own finances.