Background
Heidenfeld was born in Berlin.
chess player non-fiction writer
Heidenfeld was born in Berlin.
He was forced to move from Germany to South Africa because he was a Jew. Besides chess-playing he was also a writer, door to door salesman, journalist, and designer of crossword puzzles. His hobbies were poker, bridge and collecting stamps as well as playing chess.
During World World War II he helped decode German messages for the Allies.
He wrote several chess books including Chess Springbok, My Book of Fun and Games, Grosse Remispartien (in German. An English edition entitled Draw!, edited by John Nunn, was published in 1982), and Lacking the Master Touch (1970).
In 1957, after visiting Ireland, he moved to Dublin. In 1979 the family moved back to Ulm where he died two years later.
He was in the Olympiad team in 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1974.
And in the European Championships team in 1967. The Heidenfeld Trophy, the second division, of the Leinster chess league, is named in his honour.