Karel Traxler (* 17 January 1866 in Vlachovo Březí; † 15 May 1936 in Volyně) was a Czech chess player and chess composer.

In addition to his work as a Catholic priest, Traxler was considered a strong chess amateur who made an important contribution to opening theory at the end of the 19th century: in a game against J. Reinisch in 1890, he played the move 4. ... Bf8-c5 in the two-knight game for the first time and won brilliantly with a queen sacrifice in just 17 moves.

The variation is named after him as the Traxler Counterattack.

The Traxler Variation was first shown in the following game against Reinisch, played in Hostouň in 1890:

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 Bc5!? 5.Nxf7?! (modern theory suggests that 5.Bxf7+! is better) Bxf2+! 6.Ke2 (Traxler recommends 6.Kf1! Qe7 7.Nxh8 d5 8.exd5 Nd4, where Black has a strong attack but White may nonetheless hold) 6...Nd4+ 7.Kd3? b5! 8.Bb3 Nxe4!! 9.Nxd8 Nc5+ 10.Kc3 Ne2+! 11.Qxe2 Bd4+ 12.Kb4 a5+ 13.Kxb5 Ba6+ 14.Kxa5 Bd3+ 15.Kb4 Na6+ 16.Ka4 Nb4+ 17.Kxb4 c5#

Karel Traxler used the pseudonym anonymus z Tábora, Karel Kaplan, Vis Maior and Karel Zboněk.Between 1896 and 1899 he edited the journal České listy šachové.

Chess composing

Traxler was one of the many representatives of the Bohemian School from Josef Pospišil's generation. He composed over 900 chess problems, mainly two-, three- and four-mover pieces, but also moremover -pieces and, more rarely, self-mates. Together with his brother-in-law Jan Kotrč, he published a selection of 247 chess problems he had composed up to 1910.

References
 "The Traxler Counter Attack". ChessBase. 2004-06-13. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
 "J Reinisch vs. Karel Traxler, Hostoun 1890". Chessgames.com.
 Anders Thulin: Chess Pseudonyms and Signatures. An Electronic Edition, Malmö, preliminary 22. June 2008 (PDF; 307 kB)
 Jan Kotrč and Karel Traxler, Schachprobleme aus den Jahren 1884–1910 [Chess problems from the years 1884-1910] (Vienna, Austria: (self-published), 1910).

Source: Germain Wikipedia