Johann "Hans" Joseph Kmoch (July 25, 1894,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

– February 13, 1973,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 ...

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(1950), International Arbiter (1951), and a chess journalist and author, for which he is best known.

Playing career

Kmoch had most of his best competitive results between 1925 and 1931. He won at

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and ...

1925 with 10/13 over a field which had 12 of the world's top 56 players;

chessmetrics Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system. Implementation Chessmetrics is a weighted average of past performance. The score considers a player's win percen ...

.com rates this as a 2696 performance. At

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

1926, he shared 3rd-5th places with 9/15 behind winners Ernst Gruenfeld and

Mario Monticelli Mario Monticelli (16 March 1902, Venice – 30 June 1995, Milan) was an Italian chess player. He was awarded the International Master (IM) title in 1950 and the Grandmaster title honoris causa (GME) in 1985. In 1922, he won in Rome (ITA-ch Uni ...

. Kmoch shared 2nd-3rd places at Kecskemet 1927 with 6/9 behind the winner,

world chess champion The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 matc ...

Alexander Alekhine Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine, ''Aleksándr Aleksándrovich Alékhin''; (March 24, 1946) was a Russian and French chess player and the fourth World Chess Champion, a title he held for two reigns. By the age of 22, Alekhine was already a ...

. At

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

1928, Kmoch placed 6th with 8/13 as

Richard Reti Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

won. Then at the

Trebitsch Trebitsch is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Abraham Trebitsch (c. 1760–?), Austrian scholar *Arthur Trebitsch (1880–1927) Austrian writer and racial theorist * Gyula Trebitsch (1914–2005), German film producer *Ignaz Tr ...

Memorial, Vienna 1928, Kmoch shared 3rd-6th places with 6/10, half a point behind Gruenfeld and Sandor Takacs. At

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

1928, Kmoch placed 3rd with 6/9, with Reti and Friedrich Saemisch winning. Kmoch won at

Ebensee Ebensee am Traunsee (Central Bavarian: ''Emsee'') is a market town in the Traunviertel region of the Austrian state of Upper Austria, located within the Salzkammergut Mountains at the southern end of the Traunsee. The regional capital Linz lies ...

1930 with 6/7, ahead of Erich Eliskases. Kmoch represented

three times in chess

Olympiad An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not unti ...

s. Here are his detailed results, according to olimpbase.org. At

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

1927, he played board three and scored 6.5/12 (+4 =5 -3). At

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

1930, he was on board one, and scored 8/14 (+6 =4 -4), as Austria placed fourth. Then at

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

1931, Kmoch was on board three and scored 9/15 (+4 =10 -1); overall, he scored 23.5/41 (+14 =19 -8), for 57.3 per cent. His last good tournament result was 2nd at

Baarn Baarn () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, near Hilversum in the province of Utrecht. The municipality of Baarn The municipality of Baarn consists of the following towns: Baarn, Eembrugge, Lage Vuursche. The town of Baarn ...

1941 with 5.5/7, behind

Max Euwe Machgielis "Max" Euwe (; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. He served as ...

, and he stopped playing competitively after this.

Writing career

Kmoch had written for the magazine ''Wiener Schachzeitung'' from the early 1920s. His ''Die Kunst der Verteidigung'' (The Art of Defence) was the first chess book devoted to this subject. In 1930, Kmoch updated the Bilguier openings handbook, and wrote the tournament book for the Carlsbad 1929 event. In 1929 and 1934, Kmoch served as

's second in his world championship matches against

Efim Bogoljubow Efim Bogoljubow ( or ), also known as Ewfim Dimitrijewitsch Bogoljubow, ( (); also Romanized ''Bogoljubov'', ''Bogolyubov''; uk, Юхим Дмитрович Боголюбов, Yukhym Dmytrovych Boholiubov; April 14, 1889 – June 18, 1952) ...

. Kmoch and his Jewish wife Trudy lived in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

from 1932 to 1947. Kmoch also served as Alekhine's second in the 1935 title match against

, and he wrote a book on the match. In 1941, he wrote a book on the best games of

Akiba Rubinstein Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein (1 December 1880 – 14 March 1961) was a Polish chess player. He is considered to have been one of the greatest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Rubinstein was granted the title International Grandma ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

ended, Kmoch and his wife moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, settling in

. Kmoch served as the Secretary and manager of the Manhattan Chess Club, and directed tournaments. He also wrote for ''

Chess Review ''Chess Review'' was a U.S. chess magazine published from January 1933 to October 1969 (Volume 37 Number 10). Until April 1941 it was called ''The Chess Review''. Published in New York, it began on a schedule of at least ten issues a year but lat ...

'', then one of the leading

chess

magazines A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...

. In 1956, he wrote his most famous book, ''Pawn Power in Chess'' (German: ''Die Kunst der Bauernführung''), which is notorious for its use of

neologism A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...

s ("ram," "lever," "sweeper," "sealer," "quartgrip," "monochromy," etc.).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kmoch, Hans Austrian chess players Dutch chess players American chess players Jewish chess players Austrian non-fiction writers Dutch non-fiction writers American non-fiction writers Chess writers American chess writers Chess arbiters Chess International Masters Chess Olympiad competitors Game players from Vienna Writers from Vienna American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Dutch Jews Dutch emigrants to the United States 1894 births 1973 deaths Austrian emigrants to the Netherlands