Hartwig Cassel (November 2, 1850 in Konitz,

West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 177 ...

(now

Chojnice Chojnice (; , or ''Chòjnice''; german: Konitz or ''Conitz'') is a town in northern Poland with 39,423 inhabitants as of December 2021, near the Tuchola Forest. It is the capital of the Chojnice County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. History Pias ...

, Poland) – 1929) was a chess

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

and promoter in Great Britain and the United States of America. Cassel was born at Konitz, where his father, Dr. Aaron Cassel, was rabbi, and was educated at the Real-Gymnasium in Landsberg an der Warthe (now

Gorzów Wielkopolski Gorzów Wielkopolski (; german: Landsberg an der Warthe) often abbreviated to Gorzów Wlkp. or simply Gorzów, is a city in western Poland, on the Warta river. It is the second largest city in the Lubusz Voivodeship with 120,087 inhabitants (Decemb ...

, Poland). In 1879 he went to Britain. He lived in Scotland, where he was a member of the Glasgow Chess Club, and later moved to

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, where he began his journalistic career as the chess editor of the ''Observer-Budget''. He wrote chess articles for the metropolitan and provincial English papers, organized the Yorkshire County Chess Club, arranged the

Joseph Henry Blackburne Joseph Henry Blackburne (10 December 1841 – 1 September 1924) was a British chess player. Nicknamed "The Black Death", he dominated the British scene during the latter part of the 19th century. Blackburne learned the game at the relatively late ...

Isidor Gunsberg Isidore ( ; also spelled Isador, Isadore and Isidor) is an English and French masculine given name. The name is derived from the Greek name ''Isídōros'' (Ἰσίδωρος) and can literally be translated to "gift of Isis." The name has survived ...

match at Bradford (1887) and the International Chess Masters' Tournament in 1888 at the same city. Cassel left England in 1889 and went to Havana for an English and New York newspaper syndicate to report the Mikhail Tchigorin-Gunsberg match. In 1890 he went to the United States and was offered a job at the ''New Yorker Staatszeitung''. He wrote about chess not only in that paper, but also in the ''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...

'' and wrote a special chess column nearly every Sunday for ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

''. He was instrumental in establishing the ''Staats-Zeitung'' and Rice trophies, and arranged, among other important contests, the first cable match between the

Manhattan Chess Club The Manhattan Chess Club in Manhattan was the second-oldest chess club in the United States (next to the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco) before it closed. The club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen men, eventually ...

and the

British Chess Club British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

in 1895, the forerunner of the Anglo-American series. He was the inventor of a chess cable code. In 1904 he and

Hermann Helms Hermann Helms (1870, New York USA – 1963, Brooklyn) was an American chess player, writer, and promoter. He is a member of the United States Chess Hall of Fame, organized as part of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Biography Chess competition Hel ...

published the first issue of the ''

American Chess Bulletin The ''American Chess Bulletin'' was a chess periodical that was published monthly (November-April) and bi-monthly (May-October) from 1904 to 1962. It was published from New York City. The editor was Hermann Helms (1870–1963), who founded the mag ...

''. That issue included all 120 games from the 1904 Cambridge Springs tournament.

References

* *, McFarland & Co., 2002.
The 1904 Cambridge Springs International Chess Conference

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cassel, Hartwig 1850 births 1929 deaths German chess players British chess players American chess players American chess writers American male non-fiction writers Jewish chess players 19th-century German Jews German emigrants to the United Kingdom People from the Province of Prussia People from West Prussia People from Chojnice