The Book

It is the story of a Jewish family from Galicia that came to Leipzig in the nineteenth century and built a life there as fur traders — and the story of their most gifted son. Jacques Mieses (1865–1954) grew up in Leipzig and lived through almost seven decades of German and European history: the Kaiserreich, two world wars, and emigration. His father called him a "lively scatterbrain"; the child grew into the last Romantic of chess.

Mieses competed at international level for over sixty years, longer than any other grandmaster before or since. He crossed swords with five world champions, from Steinitz to Euwe, won more brilliancy prizes than almost any contemporary, and organised the tournament where Capablanca made his breakthrough. He also wrote over seventy books and publications and edited the most successful German-language chess textbook for half a century.

Yet his story is far more than a chess career. In 1938, at over seventy, Mieses fled Nazi Germany for England — with fifteen Reichsmarks in his pocket and a walking disability that would never leave him. In London exile he began again from nothing; in 1945 the English chess world celebrated his eightieth birthday.

This biography tells his life in full for the first time — as chess history, as a story of family and emigration, and as a piece of Jewish and Leipzig history. It draws on previously unpublished letters to family and chess friends, on the Geppert family archive, and on extensive, hitherto unexamined findings from German and British archives, as well as the systematic study of historical chess periodicals from six countries. You need not play chess to follow it: the man, not the moves, stands at its centre.

From the Sources

„Am 27. Februar 1865 wurde uns das erste Kind, ein Sohn geboren: Jacques (Jakob). Er entwickelte sich gut und wurde ein sehr hübscher Knabe, ein lebhafter Windfang, es hielt schwer, ihn zu erziehen."

[On 27 February 1865 our first child was born, a son: Jacques (Jakob). He developed well and became a very handsome boy, a lively scatterbrain — it was hard to raise him.]

„Laskers Stil ist klares Wasser mit einem Tropfen Gift darin, der es opalisieren lässt. Capablancas Stil ist vielleicht noch klarer, aber es fehlt der Tropfen Gift."

[Lasker's style is clear water with a drop of poison that makes it opalescent. Capablanca's style is perhaps even clearer, but the drop of poison is missing.]

"This is a glorious milestone of my life. And I here solemnly pledge to give my remaining years to the furtherance of English chess."

About the Author

Johannes Ulrich Geppert is the great-great-grandson of Marie Coelestine Mieses, the youngest sister of Jacques Mieses. A family connection spanning five generations — and an unusual starting point for a chess biography. It was this link that first opened the door to private letters, unpublished photographs, and family memories that no previous researcher had access to.

The project brings together materials from the Geppert family archive, unpublished letters to family and chess friends, and public sources from six countries. The accompanying research website mieses.info has been documenting the grandmaster's life and work since 2005.

Background

How does a family connection turn into a book? The answer involves family letters, family papers from Leipzig, and a website that started as a late-nineties hobby before slowly becoming something larger.

The full story is told in a personal blog post at jgeppert.com.

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Key Facts

An English edition is in preparation.