Norman Lessing (June 24, 1911 – October 22, 2001) was an American television screenwriter and producer, playwright,

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, and chess writer.

Biography

Lessing grew up in New York City, and played a great deal of chess as a youth, reaching national master strength. He was

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

co-champion at age 19 in 1930 at Utica with 6½/8. He often played at the Stuyvesant Chess Club, on the lower east side of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He won the 1967

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...

Chess Club championship, and the 1967 United States Senior Open, at which time he had a rating of 2207. He was the Senior champion at the American and National Opens several times in the 1960s. Lessing wrote actively for television from its pioneering days in 1950 in New York, and moved to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to continue his career until 1979. Shows he wrote screenplays for include ''

Hawaii Five-O Hawaii Five-O or Hawaii Five-0 may refer to: * ''Hawaii Five-0'' (2010 TV series), an American action police procedural television series * ''Hawaii Five-O'' (1968 TV series), an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productio ...

'', '' The Fugitive'', ''

Lost in Space ''Lost in Space'' is an American science fiction television series, created and produced by Irwin Allen, which originally aired between 1965 and 1968 on CBS. The series was inspired by the 1812 novel ''The Swiss Family Robinson.'' The series fo ...

'', '' Bonanza'', '' The Nurses'', ''

The F.B.I. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

'', ''

Baretta ''Baretta'' is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a revised and milder version of a 1973–1974 ABC series, '' Toma'', starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey pol ...

'', ''

Cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

'', '' Dragnet'', ''

Eight is Enough ''Eight Is Enough'' is an American television comedy-drama series that ran on ABC from March 15, 1977, until May 23, 1981. The show was modeled on the life of syndicated newspaper columnist Tom Braden, a real-life parent with eight children, who ...

'', ''

Shirley Temple's Storybook ''Shirley Temple's Storybook'' is a 1958-1961 American children's anthology series hosted and narrated by actress Shirley Temple. The series features adaptations of fairy tales like Mother Goose and other family-oriented stories performed by well ...

'', ''

The Adventures of Ellery Queen ''The Adventures of Ellery Queen'' is the title of a radio series and four separate television series made from the 1950s through the 1970s. They were based on the fictional detective and pseudonymous writer Ellery Queen and the cases he solved wi ...

'', and ''

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...

''. He also wrote the play ''36'', which was performed all over the United States. Lessing, along with International Master

Anthony Saidy Anthony Saidy (born May 16, 1937) is an International Master of chess, a retired physician and author. He competed eight times in the U.S. Chess Championship, with his highest placement being 4th. He won the 1960 Canadian Open Chess Championsh ...

, wrote the book ''The World of Chess'', published in 1974 by Random House. This book, which has been called among the best coffee-table chess books, features many photos of top chess players throughout history, photos of many exotic chess sets, plenty of lore and stories, and chapters from each writer about their chess experiences. He died at age 90, of congestive heart failure and complications from Parkinson's disease. At the time of his death, Lessing was working on a book about his chess experiences, to be titled ''The Stuyvesant Chess Club''. He was remembered thus in the

United States Chess Federation The United States Chess Federation (also known as US Chess or USCF) is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, the World Chess Federation. US Chess administers the official national rating ...

's news summary: "Norman Lessing was the last link to the Golden Age of Coffeehouse Chess."http://www.uschess.org/org/govern .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lessing, Norman 1911 births 2001 deaths Deaths from Parkinson's disease Neurological disease deaths in California Writers from New York City Writers from Los Angeles American chess players American chess writers 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male screenwriters American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Screenwriters from New York (state) Screenwriters from California 20th-century chess players 20th-century American screenwriters