Rolando Illa (6 September 1880,

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 ...

– 3 May 1937,

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

) was a Cuban–Argentine

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 disti ...

master. Born in New York into a Cuban family, he moved to Argentina and was naturalized in 1904.Historia del Ajedrez en Argentina - Biografías
/ref> He was a co-founder of the ''Club Argentino de Ajedrez'' in Buenos Aires. In 1910, he won Club Argentino Championship, and again in the period 1912–1919 (''posteriormente'') or 1913–1921. He won a match against

Julio Lynch Julio is the Spanish equivalent of the month July and may refer to: *Julio (given name) *Julio (surname) *Júlio de Castilhos, a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * ''Julio'' (album), a 1983 compilation albu ...

(3.5 : 1.5), and lost a match to

Boris Kostić Borislav Kostić (24 February 1887 – 3 November 1963) was a Yugoslav chess grandmaster and a popularizer of the game. Life and chess Borislav Kostic was born in Vršac, Kingdom of Hungary, at the time part of Austria-Hungary. His father Di ...

(0 : 6), both in Buenos Aires in 1913. He shared 1st with C.M. Portela at Buenos Aires 1917, took 2nd, behind L. Carranza, at Buenos Aires 1920, tied for 2nd-4th at Montevideo (Carrasco) 1921/22 (

South American Championship A South American Championship is a top level international sports competition between South American athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. List of Championships * ATP Buenos Aires, a tennis ...

Roberto Grau Roberto Gabriel Grau (18 March 1900 – 12 April 1944) was an Argentine chess master. He was born and died in Buenos Aires. Chess career Grau played in many Argentine championships. In 1921/22, he tied for 3rd–4th (ARG-ch 1 Mayor; Damian ...

won), and took 5th at Buenos Aires 1922 (''Pentagonal'', Benito Villegas won). He thrice participated in the Argentine Championship: took 5th in 1921/22 (

Damian Reca Damián Miguel Reca (1894 – 4 May 1937 in Buenos Aires) was an Argentine chess master. He was Argentine Champion in 1921, 1923, 1924, and 1925. In 1921, he won at Buenos Aires (1st ARG-ch) and won a match for the title against Benito Ville ...

won), tied for 6-7th in 1923/24 and tied for 7-9th in 1924. Illa shared 2nd with Villegas, behind

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 Buenos Aires 1926.http://www.anders.thulin.name/SUBJECTS/CHESS/CTCIndex.pdf Name Index to Jeremy Gaige's ''Chess Tournament Crosstables'', An Electronic Edition, Anders Thulin, Malmö, 2004-09-01

References

External links

* 1880 births 1937 deaths American chess players Argentine chess players American sportspeople of Cuban descent American emigrants to Argentina American people of Cuban descent {{US-chess-bio-stub