Great Players: Ignatz von Kolisch

I first referenced this video in the piece about Alexander Petrov, but it bears another look:

You will notice that Paul Morphy was dominant throughout his entire competitive career, but his reign as world #1 was interrupted briefly by a player called Kolisch, who then almost immediately disappears from the scene. So this piqued my interest: who was this mysterious Kolisch, and why is his name so much less familiar than those of his contemporaries?

Well, the answer, on looking at his Wikipedia article, seems to be that he just had a very short playing career, and did not play much against the big names of his day. This is backed up by his chessgames page, which shows nearly all his games coming in the years 1857-1867. This did, however, include two triumphs in international tournaments. One was the relatively weak Cambridge 1860 event, but the other was the rather stronger Paris 1867 event, which would also star future world champion Steinitz.

This tournament effectively marked Kolisch's retirement as a player, but he clearly maintained a love of the game, and his success in the world of banking allowed him to become a sponsor of chess tournaments instead; one such being Vienna 1873.

In terms of playing style, Kolisch was, like many players of his era, in the Romantic tradition, favouring sharp attacking play with both colours; it's not clear whether, had he carried on playing, he would have changed his style in line with how Steinitz was developing the game.