Carl August Walbrodt was a German chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 master.

His German parents moved from Wesel

Wesel

Wesel is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wesel district.-Division of the town:Suburbs of Wesel include Lackhausen, Obrighoven, Ginderich, Feldmark,Fusternberg, Büderich, Flüren and Blumenkamp.-History:...

, Rhine Province

Rhine Province

The Rhine Province , also known as Rhenish Prussia or synonymous to the Rhineland , was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822-1946. It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg...

, to Amsterdam, with Walbrodt's older brother, shortly before Carl August was born. They seem to have moved back, to the Berlin area, before he was 10 years old. At that age his father taught him to play chess. When they moved to Amsterdam, Walbrodt's parents appear to have been very poor but by 1881 they had acquired enough money to pay for his schooling. By the mid-1890s Walbrodt and his brother owned a small factory making pantograph

Pantograph

A pantograph is a mechanical linkage connected in a special manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen...

s.

In 1890 he took 5th in Berlin (Horatio Caro

Horatio Caro

Horatio Caro was an English chess master.Caro was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, but spent most of his chess career in Berlin, Germany. He played several matches. In 1892, he drew with Curt von Bardeleben , lost to Szymon Winawer . In 1897, he lost to Jacques Mieses . In 1903, he drew...

 won). In 1890/91, he took 2nd= (3rd after a play-off) in Berlin (Richard Teichmann

Richard Teichmann

Richard Teichmann was a German chess master.He was known as "Richard the Fifth" because he often finished in fifth place in tournaments. But in Karlsbad 1911, he scored a convincing win, crushing Akiba Rubinstein and Carl Schlechter with the same line of the Ruy Lopez...

 won). In 1892 he tied for 4-5th in Dresden (the 7th DSB Congress

DSB Congress

The Deutschen Schachbund had been founded in Leipzig on 18 July 1877. When the next meeting took place in the Schützenhaus on 15 July 1879, sixty-two clubs had become member of the chess federation. Hofrat Rudolf von Gottschall became Chairman and Hermann Zwanziger the General Secretary...

, Siegbert Tarrasch

Siegbert Tarrasch

Siegbert Tarrasch was one of the strongest chess players and most influential chess teachers of the late 19th century and early 20th century....

 won). He tied for 1st with Curt von Bardeleben

Curt von Bardeleben

Curt von Bardeleben was a Count and a German chess master who committed suicide by jumping out of a window in 1924. His life and death were the basis for that of the main character in the novel The Defense by Vladimir Nabokov, which was made into the movie The Luzhin Defence...

 at Kiel 1893 (the 8th DSB Congress). In 1894, he tied for 4-5th in Leipzig (the 9th DSB Congress, Tarrasch won). He took 11th at Hastings 1895

Hastings 1895 chess tournament

The Hastings 1895 chess tournament was a round-robin tournament of chess conducted in Hastings, England from August 5 to September 2, 1895.Hastings 1895 was arguably the strongest tournament in history at the time it occurred. All of the strongest players of the generation competed...

.

In 1896, he took 2nd, behind von Bardeleben, and ahead of Jacques Mieses

Jacques Mieses

----Jacques Mieses was a German-born Jewish chess Grandmaster and writer. He became a naturalized British citizen after World War II.p258-Chess career:...

, in Berlin (Triangular), tied for 7-8th in Nuremberg (Emanuel Lasker

Emanuel Lasker

Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years...

 won), and tied for 6-7th in Budapest (Rudolf Charousek and Mikhail Chigorin

Mikhail Chigorin

Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin also was a leading Russian chess player...

 won). In 1897, he took 2nd, behind Charousek, in Berlin, and took 5th in Berlin (Bardeleben won). He took 15th in the Vienna 1898 chess tournament

Vienna 1898 chess tournament

The tournament celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria's accession to the throne of Austria-Hungary. Main organiser was Baron Albert Freiherr von Rothschild who also financed the Vienna tournaments of 1873, 1882, 1903, and 1908. The players visited his Heugasse...

 (Pillsbury and Tarrasch won).

Walbrodt played 15 matches from 1890 to 1898. The result of his first match, against Karl Holländer

Karl Holländer

Karl Holländer was a German chess master.He lived in Berlin where played in local tournaments...

 (1890), is unknown. He won against Emil Schallopp

Emil Schallopp

Emil Schallopp was a German chess player and author. He became head of the shorthand department of the Reichstag. He wrote many books, including one on the Steinitz–Zukertort 1886 World Championship match...

 at Berlin 1891, Hermann Keidanski

Hermann Keidanski

Hermann Keidanski, later: Keidanz, Kaidanz was a Jewish Polish-German chess master....

 at Berlin 1891, von Bardeleben at Berlin 1892, Eugene Delmar

Eugene Delmar

Eugene Delmar , was one of the leading US chess masters of 19th century and the four-time New York State champion in 1890, 1891, 1895 and 1897. He won a match against Robert Henry Barnes with only a single draw .-External links:...

 at New York 1893, Alfred Ettlinger at New York 1893, Andrés Clemente Vázquez at Havana 1893, Wilhelm Cohn

Wilhelm Cohn

Wilhelm Cohn was a German chess master.He participated in some strong tournaments. In 1897, he tied for 13-14th in Berlin . In 1898, he tied for 2nd-4th in Cologne . In 1899, he tied for 10-11th in London...

 at Berlin 1894, Kuerschner at Nuremberg 1898, Haeusler, drew with Theodor von Scheve

Theodor von Scheve

Theodor von Scheve was a German chess master and writer.Scheve was born in Cosel in the Prussian Province of Silesia....

 at Berlin 1891, Mieses at Berlin 1894, and lost to Pillsbury (+0 –2 =1) at Boston 1893, Tarrasch (+0 –7 =1) at Nuremberg 1894, and Dawid Janowski

Dawid Janowski

Dawid Markelowicz Janowski was a leading Polish chess master and subsequent French citizen....

 (+2 –4 =2) at Berlin 1897.

He was very active in giving simultaneous displays, teaching chess, attending chess events and he founded 2 chess clubs. He also wrote a chess column in the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger from about September 1899 until about February 1902.

According to the Oxford Companion to Chess

The Oxford Companion to Chess

The Oxford Companion to Chess is a reference book on chess written by David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld. The book is written in an encyclopedia format. The book belongs to the Oxford Companions series.-Details:...

, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

in the early 1890s. He died from that disease at the age of 30.