Richard Teichmann


Richard Teichmann was a German chess master. He was known as "Richard the Fifth" because he often finished in fifth place in tournaments. But in Karlsbad 1911, he scored a convincing win, crushing Akiba Rubinstein and Carl Schlechter with the same line of the Ruy Lopez. Edward Lasker recounted the witty way in which Teichmann demonstrated the Schlechter win in his book Chess Secrets I learned from the Masters, and generally admired Teichmann's mastery.
Throughout his chess career Teichmann was handicapped by chronic eye trouble. He had only one eye, and eye trouble caused him to withdraw from the 1899 London Tournament after only four rounds.

Game record

Teichmann had a plus score against Alexander Alekhine, drawing a match in 1921 when Alekhine was regarded as a world title challenger to José Raúl Capablanca. He even won as Black against Alekhine at Berlin 1921:
Teichmann's records against Emanuel Lasker and Capablanca were poor ; however, he scored wins against all the other leading players of his day, e.g. Carl Schlechter, Frank Marshall, Aron Nimzowitsch, Siegbert Tarrasch, Akiba Rubinstein, Géza Maróczy and David Janowski.