Benjamin Blumenfeld
Benjamin Blumenfeld (24 May 1884, Vilkaviškis – 5 March 1947, Moscow) was a Russian chess master.
Benjamin Blumenfeld | |
|---|---|
Бениамин Мордхелевич Блюменфельд | |
| Born | May 24, 1884 Vilkaviškis, Russian Empire |
| Died | March 5, 1947 (aged 62) Moscow, USSR |
| Citizenship | USSR |
| Occupation | chess player |
| Known for | Blumenfeld Gambit |
He was born in Vilkaviškis, in the Suwałki Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Lithuania). In 1905/06 he tied for second/third with Akiba Rubinstein, behind Gersz Salwe, in St. Petersburg (the fourth Russian championship). In 1907 he tied for second/third with Georg Marco, behind Mikhail Chigorin, in Moscow.
In 1920 he took eighth in Moscow (Russian Chess Olympiad, 1st URS-ch). The event was won by Alexander Alekhine. In 1925 he tied for second/third with Boris Verlinsky, behind Aleksandr Sergeyev, in the Moscow championship.
He invented the Blumenfeld Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nf3 b5).
In 1945 Blumenfeld defended PhD thesis on psychology, based on cognition in chess. At the time, it was one of the very first attempts to do research into chess psychology.