Born in
Innsbruck,
Austro-Hungarian Empire, he learned chess at the age of twelve and quickly displayed an aptitude for the game, winning the Schlechter chess club championship in his first year at the club, aged just fourteen. At fifteen, he was the Tyrolean Champion and at sixteen, joint winner of the
Austrian Championship. His college education in Innsbruck and
Vienna centred on business studies; it was chess, though, that captured his imagination and he had exceptional results representing Austria at the
Olympiads of 1930, 1933 and 1935. After the
Anschluss of March 1938, he won the
German national championship at
Bad Oeynhausen in 1938 and 1939. Other early successes included outright or joint first place at Budapest 1934 (the
Hungarian Championship),
Linz 1934,
Zürich 1935,
Milan 1937; and match wins against
Rudolf Spielmann (in 1932, 1936 and 1937). He acted as a to
Alexander Alekhine during Alekhine's successful
world championship rematch against
Max Euwe in 1937. His best two years were 1938 and 1939. In June 1938 he won a tournament in
Noordwijk ahead of
Paul Keres (who later that year would win the great
AVRO 1938 chess tournament) and previous world champion
Max Euwe. His victory in Noordwijk was his best career result, and began a streak of eight consecutive tournaments in which he was undefeated: six in 1938 and 1939, possibly the only person to do so. He had even scores against Euwe (3–3), Capablanca (2–2) and Fischer (1–1). ==Notable games==