Lawrence Kahn (born ) is an American

tiddlywinks Tiddlywinks is a game played on a flat felt mat with sets of small discs called winks, a pot, which is the target, and a collection of squidgers, which are also discs. Players use a squidger (nowadays made of plastic) to shoot a wink into fl ...

player. He has held numerous records in tiddlywinks over his playing career, and is the current player with the most championship wins.

Biography

Larry Kahn grew up in

North Miami Beach, Florida North Miami Beach (commonly referred to as NMB) is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The City of North Miami Beach is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. Originally named "Fulford-by-the-Sea" in 1926, after ...

. He attended

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT), where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in

ocean engineering Marine engineering is the engineering of boats, ships, submarines, and any other marine vessel. Here it is also taken to include the engineering of other ocean systems and structures – referred to in certain academic and professional circ ...

in 1975. He would later receive a master's degree in the same field in 1976. In 1984, he was an ocean engineer with Washington Analytical Services in

Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, and is part of the Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fourth ...

. As of 2016, he worked with the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

, advising them on IT acquisitions.

Tiddlywinks

Kahn first heard about the game

in 1971 from an MIT handbook sent to incoming students. By 1989, he was the vice president of the North American Tiddlywinks Association and additionally operated a tiddlywinks parlor in Maryland. In the game, he has gone by the nickname "Horsemeat" and "King". As of 2016, Kahn had won over 100 tiddlywinks championships and held the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

for most victories at the English National Championships (eight). As of 2013, he also held the Guinness World Records for "Most Tiddlywinks World Championships" with 21, and "Most Tiddlywinks World Championships (pairs)" with 16. Additionally, he was the only player to have held all six of the game's major titles simultaneously (in April 1995). He has won five international titles competing as a duo with Dave Lockwood. Lockwood and Kahn frequently compete against each other, with ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' once comparing their rivalry to that of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Since the mid-1990s, Kahn has had a World Championship rivalry with English player

Patrick Barrie Patrick Barrie is a British tiddlywinks player. He has won ten World Singles matches, most recently in April 2022. He was defeated by Matthew Rose in March 2023 making him the former World Singles champion. He has won eight World Pairs matches (m ...

, with the pair contesting 16 matches up to the end of 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahn, Larry 1950s births Living people People from North Miami Beach, Florida MIT School of Engineering alumni