David (Dawid) Markelowicz Janowski was born in 1868 in Wolkowysk, Poland, and circa 1890 he relocated to France. His chess career began in Paris when he won the city championship, and in the late 1890s he started receiving a steady stream of invitations to international events. Janowski finished in third place in the Vienna tournament of 1898 and second at London the following year. In 1905, he was equal second with Tarrasch behind Maroczy at the huge master tournament Ostend (1905).
In 1902, Janowski succeeded S. Rosenthal as chess editor of 'Le Monde Illustre' after the latter's death.
For the next twenty years he was a consistent participant in major tournaments, and, backed by Leo Nardus (with support from friend and past challenger Frank Marshall to the champion) in 1909, he played a ten-game training match with World Champion Emanuel Lasker. Janowski had drawn a shorter exhibition match with Lasker just months before, but in the ten-game match (see Lasker - Janowski (1909) for further details of those two matches) he lost by the score of +1 =2 -7. He managed to secure enough financial backing for a Lasker - Janowski World Championship Match (1910) less than two years later, but lost this one also.
Janowski was invited as a leading player to the elite "Grandmaster" event St. Petersburg (1914). He did badly, however, being knocked out in the preliminary cycle (+2 -5 =3) sharing 9-10th place with the veteran Blackburne.
After being interned as a Russian subject by the German authorities at 19th DSB Congress, Mannheim (1914), Janowski managed to make his way to Lausanne, Switzerland in September 1914. Seeing no future in war-torn Europe, he was able to secure papers and a passage to New York disembarking on 11th January 1916. He almost immediately played (17th January 1916) in the Rice Memorial (1916).
He had to rebuild his career which he did with energy also supplementing his income with Bridge. On the 25th February 1916, he began a match with Jaffe at Marshall's Chess Divan which he narrowly won by 7 to 6 - Jaffe - Janowski (1916). He also wrote to Capablanca offering him to name his terms for a match. Nothing came of this.
He was defeated by 5.5 to 2.5 in Janowski - Marshall, 5th Match (1916) June 1-15 1916 at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York City
He defeated Showalter in a match Janowski - Showalter, 4th Match (1916) in December 1916 and then drew up a challenge, addressed to F.J.Marshall, the United States champion, for a match of twenty games, draws not counting, for a purse of not less than $500.
The match did not come to fruition. Instead in January 1917, Janowski once again took on Jaffe - Jaffe - Janowski (1917/18). Janowski, agreed to concede his opponent odds of four games up in a match of ten but still overwhelmed Jaffe by 10 to 4 wins.
Janowski unexpectedly lost a match to Oscar Chajes, March-May 1918 - (Chajes, 7; Janowski, 5; drawn, 10) - Chajes - Janowski (1918). Janowski underrating his opponent, played his openings carelessly and was far from being in his best form
He participated in New York (1918), but came a disappointing fifth of seven. He did considerably better at the eighth American Chess Congress (Atlantic City, 1921) which he won.
His form was patchy, however, he divided the bottom prize with Jacob Bernstein, Horace Bigelow, and a ten-year-old Samuel Reshevsky (to whom he lost - Janowski vs Reshevsky, 1922) at Chess Club International in New York City in October 1922. Yet, at the strong 9th American Chess Congress (1923) (Lake Hopatcong, August 1923), he came a very close third a mere half point behind Marshall and Kupchik.
In his final international tournaments his results were poor. He was last at New York (1924) (+3 -13 =4) ; 14th out of 16 at Marienbad (1925) (+3 -7 =5); 7th out of 10 at Hastings (1925/26) (+1 -4 =4) and 10th out of 18 at Semmering (1926) (+7 -7 =3).
Janowski died in a nursing home in Hyeres, France of tuberculosis.
The Janowski Indian opening is: 1. d4 ♘f6 2. c4 d6 3. ♘c3 ♗f5.
Wikipedia article: Dawid Janowski
Kibitzing
