Rudolf Charousek, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Rudolf Charousek

Hungarian chess player

Date of Birth: 19-Sep-1873

Place of Birth: Prague, Czech Republic

Date of Death: 19-Apr-1900

Profession: chess player

Nationality: Hungary

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Rudolf Charousek (Hungarian: Charousek Rezso; September 19, 1873 in Klein Lometz, Bohemia – April 18, 1900 in Budapest) was a Czech born Hungarian chess player.
One of the top ten players in the world during the 1890s, he had a short career, dying at the age of 26 from tuberculosis.
Reuben Fine wrote of him "Playing over his early games is like reading Keats's poetry: you cannot help feeling a grievous, oppressive sense of loss, of promise unfulfilled".Charousek was born in Klein Lometz (modern Lomecek) near Prague, Bohemia.
At the age of five weeks, his family moved to Debrecen, Hungary, where he became a naturalized Hungarian.
They later moved to Miskolc where, at the age of 16, he learned to play chess.
Studying law in Kassa, he is said to have copied out the voluminous Handbuch des Schachspiels by hand, unable to afford his own copy.
Despite the lack of competition in Kassa, he soon became a strong player, and also qualified as a lawyer.
In 1893 he entered a correspondence tournament organised by the Budapest newspaper Pesti Hirlap, in which he eventually shared first place with another up and coming Hungarian master, Geza Maroczy.
He joined the Budapest chess club, where he frequently played with Maroczy and Gyula Makovetz, and convincingly defeated Gyozo Exner in a match.