Dawid Markelowicz Janowski (1868-1927)
Dawid Markelowicz Janowski (pronounced yanofsky) was born in
Wolkowysk, Poland on June 7, 1868. He moved to Paris in 1890.
In 1894 at age 26, he beame a professional chess player.
Janowski was playing in Mannheim in 1914 when World War I
broke out. After a short internment he was allowed to travel
to Geneva, Switzerland. The Russian consul issued him a
passport, and in December 1915 he went to the USA. He stayed
in New York for nine years before returning to Paris.
In December 1926 he travelled to Hyeres, France to play in
a chess tournament, but died of tuberculosis on January 15, 1927.
A fund was raised to meet his funeral expenses. He died in
pverty.
Janowski may have peaked to an ELO rating of 2600 in 1905 and
has an ELO historical rating of 2570.
Janowski was an addicted gambler. At a tournament in Monte Carlo,
he gave all his money to a friend and made him promise not to
return the money until after the chess tournament. However, the
lure of gambling was too much and he asked his friend to return
his money to go gambling. His friend refused. Janowski later
sued his friend over the incident.
Janowski had a chess patron, the Dutch painter Leo Nardus,
who supported him in chess for many years. One day Nardus
suggested an alternate move during a postmortem of one of
Janowski's games. Janowski called Nardus an idiot in front
of a crowd of people. Nardus never gave Janowski any
financial support after that.
tournaments: Place wins draws losses
Vienna 1898 3rd 22 07 07
London 1899 2nd 15 04 07
Monte Carlo 1901 1st 10 03 02
Vienna 1902 1st
Monte Carlo 1902 3rd 14 04 04
Hanover 1902 1st 11 05 01 (German champion)
Cambridge Springs 1904 2nd 10 02 03
Ostend 1905 2nd 15 06 05
Barmen 1905 1st 09 03 03
Mannheim 1914
matches:
Em Lasker May 1909 drew 02 00 02
Em Lasker Oct 1909 lost 01 02 07
Em Lasker 1910 lost 00 03 08 (World Ch Match, Berlin)