Johann Nepomuk Berger (* 11 April 1845 in Graz; † 17 October 1933 in Graz) was an Austrian chess theorist, chess composer and university teacher.

Chessplayer
Berger learnt to play chess at the age of 16. Between 1880 and 1908, he took part in a large number of chess tournaments, but was unable to win a single one, placing mostly in the middle of the field. He therefore announced his withdrawal from the tournament arena on several occasions, but always relapsed.

Professional

From 1899, he was director of the Graz Commercial Academy and professor at the Technical University. He taught commercial law and accounting there. In 1905 he became a government councillor, and in 1933 he was awarded the title of Hofrat.

Berger was also active in other areas of chess. In correspondence chess, he won the tournament organised by the magazine Monde Illustré between 1889 and 1892. He wrote chess books on several topics. He also developed a scoring system known as the Sonneborn-Berger system, which is still used today in chess tournaments to determine the ranking of players with equal points.

Editor

From 1898 to 1911, he was editor of the prestigious Deutsche Schachzeitung. He also published a number of opening analyses there, particularly on the Spanish Game. He gave a complete overview of his chess activities in his book Probleme, Studien und Partien 1862 bis 1912 (Problems, Studies and Games 1862 to 1912), published in 1914. Berger was an honorary member of the German Chess Federation from 1910.

Endgame theorist

He had an excellent reputation as an endgame theorist. His main work Theory and Practice of Endgames was first published in 1890 and in a second, enlarged edition in 1922. According to his own statement, he worked on this book for seven years. Shortly before his death, a booklet of supplements was published in 1933. He summarised the entire knowledge of endgames at the time and introduced several new terms, such as Berger's square, a method for simplifying the calculation of pawn endgames. His book was regarded as the standard work until André Chéron published the four-volume Lehr- und Handbuch der Endspiele in 1955.