Eric Schiller (March 20, 1955 – November 3, 2018) was an

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, p ...

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 ...

player, trainer, arbiter and one of the most prolific authors of books on chess in the 20th century.

Early life and education

Schiller was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He attended Guggenheim Elementary, Sousa Jr. High School and later Paul D. Schreiber High School. He graduated from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

1976, later teaching both there and at

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...

. In 1991, he earned his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

from the University of Chicago. After his undergraduate years, Schiller turned to music performance and founded a music group called the "Long Island Sound Ensemble" and studied conducting in Vienna, Salzburg and

Hancock, Maine Hancock is a town in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,466 at the 2020 census. Located on the mainland at the head of Frenchman Bay, Hancock has commanding views of Mount Desert Island. History It was first settled ...

. He was a frequent attendant at NY Philharmonic rehearsals until 1981.

Chess career

In 1974, Schiller was the Illinois Junior Champion. Schiller played for the University of Chicago team several times at the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. Schiller was the Hawaii action and blitz champion for 1988/89. He was an organizer of the Hawaii International chess festivals 1994–98, including 1998 US Open California Champion 1995. Later that year, he appeared as a chess advisor for the music group

Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman, and keyboardist Page McConnell, all of whom perform vocals, with Anastasio being the ...

on some of the stops for their "Chess Tour" where they played an ongoing game of two chess moves per tour stop and some "band vs. audience" partial games as part of their stage performance. Schiller was an arbiter at several notable games and championships including the

FIDE World Chess Championship 2000 The FIDE World Chess Championship 2000 was held in New Delhi, India, and Tehran, Iran. The first six rounds were played in New Delhi between 27 November and 15 December 2000, and the final match in Tehran started on 20 December and ended on 24 D ...

. While

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...

and

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

opted not to participate in the event, they had both endorsed Schiller for this sensitive role during the planning stages. Schiller was an

International Arbiter In chess tournaments, an arbiter is an official who oversees matches and ensures that the rules of chess are followed. International Arbiter ''International Arbiter'' is a title awarded by FIDE to individuals deemed capable of acting as arbiter ...

and International Trainer. Schiller organized several

chess tournaments A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition amo ...

. He was often a news reporter, reporting on

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 and

World Chess Championship The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...

matches. Schiller was the arbiter for the Staunton Memorial tournament in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 2005, 2007 and 2008,Schiller's daily news reports posted a
Chessgames.com's Gibtelecom 2006 Tournament Page
/ref> and the 2006 Gibtelecom International Chess Festival in

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

. As of July 2017, Schiller's

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

for chess at standard time controls was 1989. At his peak, his rating was 2370.

Chess author

Schiller wrote over 100 chess books, more than any other author of the genre in the 20th century except

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 ...

and

Raymond Keene Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an English chess grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author. He won the British Chess Championship in 1971 and was the first player from England t ...

. John L. Watson, who co-wrote three books with Schiller, considers some of Schiller's output to be well suited to its amateur audience. Watson wrote of ''Complete Defense to King Pawn Openings'' and ''Complete Defense to Queen Pawn Openings'' that "these books are explicitly aimed at the developing student, not the advanced player, and I think they both do a particularly good job of gently guiding an inexperienced player through a new opening. ... While Schiller probably deserves some of the criticism he gets, a consequence of writing too many books too quickly, he should also get credit when he does a good job."

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 ...

Jeremy Silman Jeremy Silman (August 28, 1954 – September 21, 2023) was an American chess player and writer. He obtained the title of International Master (IM). Early life Silman was born in Del Rio, Texas, on August 28, 1954. His father was in the military ...

wrote of Watson and Schiller's ''The Big Book of Busts'', "I am forced to swallow my bigoted view of Schiller's work (or does this just validate my opinion of Watson?) and admit that this is a great book". Schiller also worked as chess developer mainly developing teaching tools, like all the tutorials for computer

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

Kasparov's Gambit ''Kasparov's Gambit'', or simply ''Gambit'', is a chess playing computer program created by Heuristic Software and published by Electronic Arts in 1993 based on Socrates II, the only winner of the North American Computer Chess Championship runni ...

'', chapters of the reference manual of the same game and developing teaching tools included in

Chessmaster 5000 ''Chessmaster 5000'' is a 1996 chess video game developed and published by Mindscape for Windows. It is part of the ''Chessmaster'' series. An upgraded version, ''Chessmaster 5500'', was released in 1997. An online game, ''Chessmaster Live'', w ...

. Amongst Schiller's large output, some of his books have received poor reviews. Chess

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

Edward Winter has criticized many of Schiller's earlier books for large numbers of spelling, factual and typographical errors, and even claimed plagiarism. Schiller's ''Unorthodox Chess Openings'' received a noted two-word review from

Tony Miles Anthony John Miles (23 April 1955 – 12 November 2001) was an English chess player and the first Englishman to earn the International Grandmaster, Grandmaster title. Early and personal life Miles was born on 23 April 1955 in Edgbaston, a sub ...

in ''Kingpin'': "Utter crap." Carsten Hansen wrote of Schiller's book on the Frankenstein–Dracula Variation of the

Vienna Game The Vienna Game is an opening in chess that begins with the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nc3 White's second move is less common than 2.Nf3, and is also more recent. The original idea behind the Vienna Game was to play a delayed King's Gambit with f ...

that it was "by far the worst book that I have ever seen."

Career in linguistics

Schiller's PhD thesis was entitled "An autolexical account of subordinating serial verb phrase constructions". He was a published author in

, specializing in

Mon-Khmer languages The Austroasiatic languages ( ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia, and by minority popu ...

. Schiller was a co-founder of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society and was an officer of the Chicago Linguistic Society. He maintained a web page with a lengthy list of his linguistic publications a
this URL
Books by Schiller on linguistics include: * ''Autolexical Theory: Ideas and Methods'', Eric Schiller, Elisa Steinberg & Barbara Need (eds.), Mouton de Gruyter, 1995. . * ''The Best of CLS: A selection of out of print papers from 1968 to 1975'', Eric Schiller, et al. (eds.), Chicago Linguistic Society, 1988. .

Personal life

Since 2008, Schiller experienced some health setbacks, including having his right hand and foot amputated due to complications from diabetes. Nonetheless, he remained active and ambulatory with the aid of a walker and taught chess at several elementary schools in and near

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the population was 82,376 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Mountain V ...

, in affiliation wit
Bay Area Chess
where he lived in the last years of his life. He offered chess tutoring over the Internet via

videoconferencing Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...

. He died on November 3, 2018, from complications of cardiovascular disease.

Books on chess

* ''100 Awesome Chess Moves'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2001. . * ''639 Essential Endgames'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1999. . * ''The Aggressive Nimzowitsch Sicilian'', Eric Schiller, Chess Digest, 1994. . * ''The Alekhine for the Tournament Player'', Lev Alburt & Eric Schiller, Batsford, 1985. . * ''The Alekhine for the Tournament Player (2nd ed.)'',

Lev Alburt Lev Osipovich Alburt (born August 21, 1945) is an American chess Grandmaster, writer and coach. He was born in Orenburg, Russia, and became three-time Ukrainian Champion. After defecting to the United States in 1979, he became three-time U.S ...

& Eric Schiller, Batsford, 1991. . * ''Attacking the Castled King'', Eric Schiller, The Chess Player, 1986. , . * ''Batsford Chess Openings 2'',

and Raymond D. Keene, Henry Holt, 1989. . * ''The Big Book of Busts'', John L. Watson & Eric Schiller, Hypermodern Press, 1995. . * ''The Big Book of Chess'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza Publishing, 2006. . * ''The Big Book of Combinations'', Eric Schiller, Hypermodern Press, 1995. . * ''Black to Play Classical Defenses and Win'', Eric Schiller, Chess Digest, 1993. . * ''Blackmar-Diemer Gambit'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1985. , . * ''Blackmar-Diemer Gambit: Bogoljubow Variation'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1995. , . * ''Cambridge Springs Defense'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1984. . * ''Cambridge Springs Defense: Expanded and Updated Edition'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1994. . * ''Caro Kann: 4...Nd7'', Leonid Shamkovich & Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1987. . * ''Catalan'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1983. . * ''Catalan (Revised Edition)'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1988. . * ''Checkmate in One Move'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2005. . * ''The Chessplayer's Laboratory Volume 1'', Eric Schiller, Hays, 1992. . * ''The Classical Caro-Kann Rejuvenated'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1994. . * ''Complete Defense to King Pawn Openings'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2003. . * ''Complete Defense to Queen Pawn Openings'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1998. . * ''Development of a Chess Master'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2000. . * ''The Encyclopedia of Chess Wisdom'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1998. . * ''The Encyclopedia of Chess Wisdom'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2003. . * ''Fianchetto Against the West Indians'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1988. . * ''First Chess Openings'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2005. . * ''First Chess Tactics'', Eric Schiller, Ishi Press, 2012, . * ''Frankenstein-Dracula Variation'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1999. , . * ''French Winawer Poisoned Pawn'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1988. . * ''Gambit Chess Openings'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2002. . * ''Gambit Opening Repertoire for Black'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1998. . * ''Gambit Opening Repertoire for White'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1998. . * ''Gruenfeld Defense: Russian Variations'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1985. . * ''Gruenfeld Defense: Russian Variations'' (Revised Edition), Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1988, . * ''Handbook of Tricky Opening Strategies'', John Watson & Eric Schiller, Hardinge-Simpole, 2004. . * ''How to Play Black against the Staunton Gambit'', Eric Schiller & Billy Colias, Chess Digest, 1993. . * ''How to Play the Albin Countergambit'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1991. . * ''How to Play the Belgrade Gambit'', Eric Schiller, Chess Digest, 1997. . * ''How to Play the Chigorin Defense in the Queen's Gambit Declined'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1991. . * ''How to Play the Dilworth Attack'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1995. , . * ''How to play the Fischer Attack in the Najdorf Sicilian'', Ali Mortazavi & Eric Schiller, Chess Digest, 1995. , . * ''How to Play the From Gambit'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1992. , . * ''How to Play the Goering Gambit'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1995. . * ''How to Play the King's Indian Attack'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1989. . * ''How to Play the Queen's Indian'', Eric Schiller &

Jonathan Goldman Jonathan Goldman is an American author, musician and spiritual teacher in the fields of Harmonics and Sound Healing. He is based in Boulder, Colorado. Career Goldman began as a guitarist in the Boston punk scene in the late 1970s. Goldman began to ...

, Chess Enterprises, 1995. . * ''How to Play the Reti'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1987. . * ''How to Play the Scotch Gambit'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1992. . * ''How to Play the Torre Attack'', Eric Schiller, Chess Digest, 1991. . * ''How to Play the Torre Attack (Revised)'', Eric Schiller, Chess Digest, 1995. , . * ''How to Play the Winawer Countergambit'', Eric Schiller, Chess Digest, 1995. . * ''How To Win With Hypermodern Chess Strategy'',

& Eric Schiller, Hardinge-Simpole, 2003. . * ''Hunting the Castled King'', Eric Schiller, Ishi Press, 2012, . * ''Hypermodern Opening Repertoire for White'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1999. . * ''Improve Your Endgame'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1995. . * ''Janowski Indian'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1988. , . * ''Janowski Indian eBook'', Eric Schiller, ChessCentral 2004. * ''Joel Benjamin: Selected Games of the United States Champion'', Bill Haines & Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1998. . * ''Kasparov's Opening Repertoire'', Leonid Shamkovich & Eric Schiller, Batsford, 1995. , . * ''Killer Chess Tactics'', Raymond Keene, Leonid Shamkovich & Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2003. . * ''Learn from Bobby Fischer's Greatest Games'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2004. . * ''Learn from Garry Kasparov's Greatest Games'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2005. . * ''Learn to Attack with Rudolph Spielmann'', Eric Schiller, Ishi Press . * ''Modern Defense: Averbakh Lines'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1991. . * ''Modern Stonewall Dutch'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1989. , . * ''New Ideas in the RAT'', Eric Schiller & Bill Maddex, Chess Enterprises, 1989. . * ''The Official Rules of Chess'', Eric Schiller & Richard Peterson, Cardoza, 2001. . * ''The Official Rules of Chess'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2003. . * ''Orthodox Variation Queen's Gambit Declined'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1984. , . * ''Panov Attack: Volume 1'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1994. , . * ''Panov Attack: Volume 2'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1995. , . * ''Panov Attack: Volume 3 (Fianchetto Var.)'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1998, . * ''Play the Tarrasch'', Leonid Shamkovich & Eric Schiller, Pergamon, 1984. . * ''Queens Gambit Accepted Smyslov Variation'',

Ishi Press Richard Bozulich (born 1936) is an American author, publisher of Go (board game), Go books in English and college math instructor. He co-founded the Ishi Press. He has worked with several Japanese Go professional, professional players. He had ...

, . * ''The Pterodactyl Defense'', Eric Schiller, . * ''The Ryder Gambit Accepted'', Eric Schiller, Ishi Press . * ''The Rubinstein Attack'', Eric Schiller, Universal, 2005. . * ''Saving Lost Positions'', Leonid Shamkovich & Eric Schiller, Batsford, 1987. . * ''Saving Lost Positions'' revised 2011, Leonid Shamkovich & Eric Schiller, Ishi Press. . * ''The Schliemann Defense Volume 1: Tartakower Variation'', Leonid Shamkovich & Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1993. , . * ''The Schliemann Defense Volume 2: Classical Variations'', Leonid Shamkovich & Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1996. , . * ''Secrets of the King's Indian Defense'', Eduard Gufeld & Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1999. . * ''Secrets of the Sicilian Dragon'',

Eduard Gufeld Eduard Yefimovich Gufeld (; 19 March 1936 – 23 September 2002) was a Soviet/American International Grandmaster of chess, and a chess author. Chess career Gufeld began participating in chess tournaments in 1953 and won the junior championship ...

& Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1998. . * ''Sicilian Classical Richter Rauzer'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1987. . * ''Sicilian Defence: Yugoslav Attack with 9 Bc4'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1987. . * ''The Sicilian Dragon: Yugoslav Attack II'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1989. . * ''Sicilian Modern Richter Rauzer Systems'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1986. . * ''Sicilian Richter Rauzer: Systems with 7...a6'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1987. . * ''Spanish Gambits'', Leonid Shamkovich, Batsford, 1987. . * ''Spanish Gambits updated in 2011'', Eric Schiller and Leonid Shamkovich, . * ''Spanish Inquisition I: Zaitsev Variation'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1989. . * ''Spanish: Schliemann (Jaenisch)'', Leonid Shamkovich & Eric Schiller, Batsford, 1983. , . * ''Standard Chess Openings'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1997. . * ''Standard Chess Openings'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza 2002. . * ''Strategy for Advanced Players'', Eric Schiller, Chess Digest, 1992. . * ''Strategy for Advanced Players'', Eric Schiller, Ishi Press, 2011. . * ''Survive and Beat Annoying Chess Openings Vol. 1 (Open Games)'', Eric Schiller & John Watson, Cardoza, 2003. . * ''Tarrasch French: Guimard Variation'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1990. , . * ''The Ultimate Tarrasch'', Eric Schiller, Chess Central, 2001. . * ''Unorthodox Chess Openings'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1997. . * ''Unorthodox Chess Openings'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2002. . * ''Unorthodox Openings'',

Joel Benjamin Joel Lawrence Benjamin (born March 11, 1964) is an American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). In 1998, he was voted "Grandmaster of the Year" by the U.S. Chess Federation. Life and career Benjamin is a native of Bro ...

& Eric Schiller, Batsford, 1987. . * ''U.S.S.R. versus Rest of World'', Eric Schiller, The Chess Player, 1984. . * ''Von Hennig-Schara Gambit'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1992. . * ''White to Play 1.e4 and Win'', Eric Schiller, Chess Digest, 1992. . * ''Whiz Kids Teach Chess'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1998. . * ''Who's Afraid of the King's Gambit'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1989. . * ''Who's Afraid of the King's Gambit (2nd Edition)'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1998. , . * ''Wie spielt man Damenindisch'', Eric Schiller, Walter Rau, 1987. . * ''Wie spielt man die Reti-Eröffnung'', Eric Schiller, Walter Rau, 1988. . * ''Wie spielt man Katalanisch'', Eric Schiller, Walter Rau, 1986. . * ''Win with the Djin!'', Eric Schiller, Chess Enterprises, 1994. . * ''Win with the Djin'', Eric Schiller, Hardinge-Simpole, 2005. . * ''Winning with the Hypermodern'', Raymond D. Keene & Eric Schiller, Batsford, 1994. . * ''World Champion Combinations'', Raymond D. Keene & Eric Schiller, Cardoza 1998. . * ''World Champion Openings'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1996. . * ''World Champion Openings'', Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 2002. . * ''World Champion Tactics'', Leonid Shamkovich & Eric Schiller, Cardoza, 1998. .

References

External links

* * * * * *
Cardoza books profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schiller, Eric 1955 births 2018 deaths Writers from New York City University of Chicago faculty University of Chicago alumni American chess writers American male non-fiction writers Chess arbiters Chess FIDE Masters Wayne State University faculty 20th-century American linguists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American linguists 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers American amputees Linguists of Austroasiatic languages 20th-century American chess players