Fritz Englund

Stockholm, 1906. Fritz Englund (a destra)

(born Feb-22-1871, died Jan-14-1933) Sweden

Fritz Carl Anton Englund entered the Stockholm chess circles as a young man, and soon became a friend of Ludvig Collijn, and publisher of Collijn's books. Englund was also a noted problemist, and an editor of Tidskrift för Schack and its problem column. After 30 years of promoting chess, in 1927 he became the 4th honorary member of the Swedish Chess Federation.

He played in most of the main Scandinavian events: Stockholm 1897 (11th), Copenhagen 1899 (9th), Gothenburg 1901 (4th), Hannover 1902 (22nd), Oslo 1903 (5th), Stockholm 1905 (5th), Barmen "Main" A 1905 (8th=), Stockholm 1906 (8th=), Copenhagen B 1907 (1st=), Stockholm 1912 (7th=), Scheveningen 1913 (9th=), Stockholm 1913 (8th=), Stockholm 1916 (5th=) and Stockholm 1917 (5th=). His peak as a player was around 1906.

He is remembered today primarily for the Englund Gambit (1.d4 e5?!). The gambit had been played long before, e.g. by the Australian Henry Charlick (1845-1916), who preferred 1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 d6. The Latvian Karl Behting (1867-1943, best known for the Latvian Gambit), published his analysis Königsbauer gegen Damenbauer of the opening in Deutsche Schachzeitung 1930. Two years later Englund sponsored a thematic tournament held at Stockholm in late 1932 and 1933. Every game had to begin with Behting's main line (1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 Qe7 4.Qd5). Perhaps because Behting's article had already been forgotten, or because Englund died shortly afterwards, when chess magazines reported his death they rarely failed to mention "Englund's Gambit Tournament" (which was won by Gosta Stoltz). So the name stuck, and Englund, though not the opening's inventor, got the glory!

 http://www.chessgames.com/player/fritz_englund.html

Paul Saladin Leonhardt    --    Fritz Englund
Izt   Stockholm (Sweden)
1908     0-1     C57

1.e4 e5 2.Cf3 Cc6 3.Ac4 Cf6 4.Cg5 d5 5.exd5 Cd4 6.c3 b5 7.Af1 Cxd5 8.cxd4 Dxg5 9.Axb5+ Rd8 10.Df3 Ab7 11.O-O Tb8 12.d3 Dg6 13.Dg3 exd4 14.Ca3 Axa3 15.bxa3 Cc3 16.Dxg6 hxg6 17.Ac4 Ce2+ 18.Rh1 Re7 0-1