Israel Albert Horowitz (often known as I. A. Horowitz or Al Horowitz) (November 15, 1907 – January 18, 1973) was an American

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 ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

. He is most remembered today for the books he wrote about chess. In 1989, he was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame.

Chess career

Horowitz was the chess columnist for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', writing three columns a week for ten years. He was the owner and editor of ''

Chess Review ''Chess Review'' was an 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 l ...

'' magazine from 1933 until it was bought out and taken over by 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 (FIDE). USCF administers the official national Chess ...

in 1969 and merged into ''

Chess Life The monthly ''Chess Life'' and bi-monthly ''Chess Life Kids'' (formerly ''School Mates'' and ''Chess Life for Kids'') are the official magazines published by the United States Chess Federation (US Chess). ''Chess Life'' is advertised as the "m ...

''. ''Chess Review'' magazine was founded in 1933 as a partnership between Horowitz and

Isaac Kashdan Isaac Kashdan (November 19, 1905, in New York City – February 20, 1985, in Los Angeles) was an American chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was twice U.S. Open champion (1938, 1947). He played five times for the United States in chess Oly ...

; however, Kashdan dropped out after just a few issues and Horowitz became sole owner. Before that, Horowitz had been a securities trader on

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

. He had been partners with chess masters Maurice Shapiro, Mickey Pauley, Albert Pinkus and

Maurice Wertheim Maurice Wertheim (February 16, 1886 – May 27, 1950) was an American investment banker, chess player and patron, art collector, environmentalist, and philanthropist. In 1927 he founded Wertheim & Co. Life Born to a Jewish family, the son of ...

. Horowitz dropped out and devoted himself to chess, while the others stayed on Wall Street. Horowitz was a leading player in the U.S. during the 1930s and 1940s. He was U.S. Open Champion in 1936, 1938, and 1943. In 1941, he lost a match (+0−3=13) with

Samuel Reshevsky Samuel Herman Reshevsky (born Szmul Rzeszewski; November 26, 1911 – April 4, 1992) was a Polish chess prodigy and later a leading American chess grandmaster. He was a contender for the World Chess Championship from the mid 1930s to the late 1 ...

for the U.S. Chess Championship. He played on the U.S. Team in four

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

s, in

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Feb ...

, and

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

; the first three of which were won by the U.S. In the famous

US vs. USSR radio chess match 1945 US or Us most often refers to: * ''Us'' (pronoun), the objective case of the English first-person plural pronoun ''we'' * US, an abbreviation for the United States US, U.S., Us, us, or u.s. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Albums * ...

, Horowitz scored one of the only two wins for the U.S. by defeating GM

Salo Flohr Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr (November 21, 1908 – July 18, 1983) was a Czechoslovak and Soviet chess player and writer. He was among the first recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950. Flohr dominated many tournam ...

. He split his "mini-match" of two games against Flohr, and in the 1946 edition of the same event, split his mini-match against

Isaac Boleslavsky Isaac Yefremovich Boleslavsky (, ; 9 June 1919 – 15 February 1977) was a Soviet chess grandmaster and writer. Early career Born in Zolotonosha in Ukraine to Jewish parents, Boleslavsky taught himself chess at age nine. In 1933, he became sch ...

Horowitz Defense

In his book ''Modern Ideas In The Chess Openings'', Horowitz proposed a defense against the

Danish Gambit The Danish Gambit, known as the ' in German and the ' in Dutch (both meaning Nordic Gambit), is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. d4 exd4 :3. c3 White will sacrifice one or two pawns for the sake of rapid and the att ...

(1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Bc4 cxb2 5.Bxb2). Rather than play the usual 5...d5, Horowitz suggested keeping both pawns and playing 5...c6. This would be followed up by ...d6, ...Nd7, ...Nc5, and ...Be6. Although infrequently played, the defense has not been refuted. Horowitz is credited as the inventor of the defense; it is called ''Horowitz Defense'' by GM Nigel Davies in the Foxy Openings DVD ''Dashing Danish''.

Notable games

Horowitz vs. Salo Flohr, US vs. USSR radio chess match 1945:
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ gxf6 6. Ne2 Bf5 7. Ng3 Bg6 8. h4 h6 9. h5 Bh7 10. c3 Qb6 11. Bc4 Nd7 12. a4 a5 13. Qf3 e6 14. 0-0 Bc2 15. Bf4 Bb3 16. Bd3 e5 17. Be3 Bd5 18. Be4 Qb3 19. dxe5 fxe5 20. Rad1 Bxe4 21. Qxe4 Qe6 22. Rd2 Nf6 23. Qf3 Rg8 24. Rfd1 Rg4 25. Nf5 e4 (''diagram'') Black appears to be winning , since White's attacked queen has no move that continues to defend the knight on f5. 26. Bb6 A powerful shot, leaving Black with no effective way to stop the threatened mate on d8, e.g. 26...Nd5 27.Qxg4; 26...Be7 27.Qxg4! Nxg4 28.Ng7+ Kf8 29.Nxe6+; or 26...Qc8 27.Nd6+ Bxd6 28.Qxf6 Be7 29.Qh8+ Bf8 30.Rd8+ Qxd8 31.Rxd8+ Rxd8 32.Bxd8 Kxd8 33.Qxf8+. 26... Rxg2+ 27. Qxg2 Qxf5 28. Rd8+ Rxd8 29. Rxd8+ Ke7 30. Qg3 Nd7 31. Bc7 Qd5 32. c4 Qg5 33. Qxg5+ hxg5 34. Ra8 Ke6 35. Bxa5 f5 36. Bc3 f4 37. a5 g4 38. b4 f3 39. Bd2 Kf7 40. Ra7 g3 41. Rxb7

Books authored

* ''All About Chess'', Collier Books, 1971Author:Israel Horowitz Subject: chess

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

. Retrieved on 2009-02-02. * ''The Best In Chess'' (with Jack Straley Battell), E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1965. LCCN 65-19965 * ''Chess for Beginners'', Fireside Books, 1950, * ''Chess: Games to Remember'', David McKay, 1972. OCLC 309191. * ''Chess Openings: Theory and Practice'', Fireside Books, 1964 (hardback) and (paperback) * ''Chess Opening Traps'', Coles Publishing Company Limited, 1979 * ''Chess Self-Teacher'', Harper & Row, 1961, * ''Chess Traps, Pitfalls, and Swindles'' (with Reinfeld), Simon and Schuster, 1954. OCLC 2731999. * ''The Complete Book of Chess'' (with P. L. Rothenberg) Collier-McMillan, 1969. OCLC 59804206. * ''First Book of Chess'' (with

Fred Reinfeld Fred Reinfeld (January 27, 1910 – May 29, 1964) was an American writer on chess and many other subjects. He was also a strong chess master, often among the top ten American players from the early 1930s to the early 1940s, as well as a colleg ...

), Harper & Row, New York, 1952. . * ''The Golden Treasury of Chess'', * ''How to Think Ahead in Chess'' (with Reinfeld), Simon and Schuster, 1951. . * ''How to Win At Chess (A complete course with 891 diagrams)'' * ''How to Win in the Chess Openings'', * ''Learn Chess Quickly'', Doubleday, 1973. OCLC 9653926. * ''The Macmillan Handbook of Chess'' (with Reinfeld), Macmillan, 1956. OCLC 1237807. * ''New Traps in the Chess Opening'', Arco Publishing Company, Inc., 1964. , LCCN 64-17715. * ''The World Chess Championship; a History'', Macmillan (US), 1973. OCLC 604994. ** Also published as ''From Morphy to Fischer'', Batsford (UK), 1973. * ''The New York Times Guide to Good Chess'', Golden Press, 1969. LCCN 75-85392.

References

External links