Adolf Christian Bayersdorfer

Adolf Christian Bayersdorfer ( * 07.06.1842 - † 21.12.1901) German chess composer

Adolf Christian Bayersdorfer (* 7 June 1842 in Erlenbach am Main; † 21 December 1901 in Munich; also Adolph Bayersdorfer) was a German art historian and chess composer.

Art historian
After graduating from the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich, Bayersdorfer studied philosophy and art history from 1862.

Bayersdorfer was a renowned art historian from the 1870s to the 1890s, who was involved in the congress on the famous Dresden Holbein controversy in 1871, among other things. He was a curator at the Alte Pinakothek and administrator of the State Picture Galleries in Munich. He corresponded with the important painters of his era and was close friends with Arnold Böcklin.

In 1897 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig.

Chess composition
In his free time, Bayersdorfer composed chess problems. He ran the chess column in the Münchner Neuesten Nachrichten from 1888 until his death. As a chess composer, he particularly loved economy, effective key moves and pure checkmate patterns. He also worked on a systematization of checkmate patterns and gave his name to two compositional themes. A year after Bayersdorfer's death, Johannes Kohtz and Carl Kockelkorn published a book about Bayersdorfer's chess problems.

"In 1902 J. Kohtz and C. Kockelkorn wrote "Zur Kenntniss des Schachproblems : Kritiken und ausgewählte Aufgaben" about Bayersdorfer's chess problems. Adolf Bayersdorfer also edited the chess section of the "Münchner Neuesten Nachrichten" from 1888 until his death."

Privately
Bayersdorfer was married to Jenny Pauly since 1880 and they had three children. He died of a heart condition at the age of 59.

Source: chesscomposers.blogspot.com and wikipedia.org