Dión M. Martínez (26 June 1837 – 11 March 1928) was a Cuban–born American

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

master. He was regarded as one of the strongest chess players in Philadelphia. There he played several matches against James Mason (4 : 5 in 1874 and 3 : 1 in 1875),

Wilhelm Steinitz William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was an Austrian and, later, American chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first official World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and c ...

(0 : 7 in November 1882, 2.5 : 4.5 in December 1882, and 1 : 10 in 1883), and

Johannes Zukertort Johannes Hermann Zukertort (Polish: ''Jan Hermann Cukiertort''; 7 September 1842 – 20 June 1888) was a Polish chess master. He was one of the leading world players for most of the 1870s and 1880s, but lost to Wilhelm Steinitz in the World Che ...

(3.5 : 9.5 in 1884). He took 9th at Philadelphia 1876 (Fourth

American Chess Congress The American Chess Congress was a series of chess tournaments held in the United States, a predecessor to the current U.S. Chess Championship. It had nine editions, the first played in October 1857 and the last in August 1923. First American Ches ...

, Mason won), and tied for 17-18th at New York 1889 (Sixth American CC,

Max Weiss Miksa (Max) Weisz (21 July 1857 – 14 March 1927) was an Austrian chess player born in the Kingdom of Hungary. Weiss was born in Sereď. Moving to Vienna, he studied mathematics and physics at the university, and later taught those subjects. We ...

and

Mikhail Chigorin Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (also ''Tchigorin''; russian: Михаи́л Ива́нович Чиго́рин; – ) was a Russian chess player. He played two World Championship matches against Wilhelm Steinitz, losing both times. The last great ...

won). The ''New York Times'' of 16 June 1889 describes him as "Dion Martinez of Philadelphia is rather an elderly gentleman, tall and dignified. He was regarded as one of the strongest chessplayers in Philadelphia, but has not practiced much for two years past, and financial adversities have tended to detract his mind from the game.".

References

1837 births 1928 deaths People from Spanish Cuba Immigrants to the United States Cuban chess players American chess players {{US-chess-bio-stub