The life and games of Emil Josef Diemer: The Madman of chess! [Part 2]

Welcome to my second blog post on the life and games of Emil Josef Diemer. If you haven't already, make sure to check out Part 1 which explores Diemer's  involvement with the NSDAP and some of his early chess successes, including wins against Efim Bogoljubov and Alexander Alekhine in their prime.

This blog will look at more of his games and checkmates. 

A video exploring some of his best chess games.

Shooting an Elephant (Gambit)

One thing that was interesting about Diemer's games was that on the black side he liked playing the Elephant gambit. Of the 19 times he played the Elephant Gambit on the database, he scored an impressive +9=3-7. Considering the reputation of the gambit being a little bit dubious, that is a very impressive record!: 

In the fifties, Diemer would have some of his best tournament results. However, due to being banned by the German Chess Federation, his successes would have to come from outside of his home country. In the Netherlands, Diemer would score his finest tournament results. He would win the reserves group of the Hoogovens tournament and later, the Open championship of the Netherlands. Additionally, that same year, Diemer would also come joint second in  the Swiss Championship where he would end up becoming a member of a Swiss chess club:

Diemer: the Tournament fighter

These next couple of games are more illustrative in attempting to show that Diemer was not all quick checkmates and beautiful miniatures. To be a great Tournament player, you need to have a lot of resilience and be able to play all kinds of positions:

However, these initial tournament successes would not be repeated... 

Another Blackmar-Diemer Crush

Eventually the gambit that would end up being named after him began to slowly consume his life. It is reported by his biographer that Diemer would send hundreds of letters to the strongest chess players at the time, with reams of his gambit analyses. By playing this gambit almost exclusively in his career, he had become the leading expert in the lines and was able to produce some amazing games with it: 

This concludes Part 2 of the life and games of Elim Josef Diemer. In Part 3 we will see the conclusion to the eccentric life of Diemer.