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Charles Jaffe

American chess player

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ2918888 ↗
Source-derived summary

Charles Jaffé (Jaffe) (c. 1879 in Dubroŭna, Russian Empire – 12 July 1941 in Brooklyn, USA) was a chess master and chess author born in the Russian Empire.

Early life

Jaffé was born in the small town of Dubroŭna (now in Vitebsk Region, Belarus), Russian Empire. His precise date of birth is disputed. Different sources list his birthdate as being between 1876 and 1887. Jaffe emigrated to the United States in 1896 and settled in New York City. He worked as a silk mill merchant until he became a professional chess player in 1910.

Chess professional

In 1904, he took 7th place out of 10 players at the St. Louis (7th American Congress) with 5/11, as Frank James Marshall won. Jaffe defeated Jacques Mieses, a leading player, by 2–0 in a mini-match at New York 1907. In 1909, Jaffe took 3rd place out of 6 players with 3/5 in a small tournament at Bath Beach, Brooklyn NY (Herbert Rosenfeld won).

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Charles Jaffe” as american chess player. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1879, 1941, 1876, 1887—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1879-04-25. The account is most persuasive where Charles, Jaffe and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american chess player. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2918888. VIAF identifies the subject as 286397391. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1879, 1941, 1876 and 1887.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Charles Jaffe”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Charles Jaffe primary sources, Charles Jaffe archive and Charles research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Charles Jaffe”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Charles Jaffe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.