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, 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 ...

. He is most remembered today for the books he wrote about chess. In 1989 he was inducted into the

World Chess Hall of Fame The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) is a nonprofit, collecting institution situated in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It features chess exhibits, engages in educational outreach, and maintains a list of ...

Chess career

Horowitz was the chess columnist for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

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

Chess Review ''Chess Review'' was a 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 lat ...

'' 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. US Chess administers the official national rating s ...

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 "most ...

''. ''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 Olymp ...

; 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 an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

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

Albert Pinkus Albert Sidney Pinkus (20 March 1903 in New York City – 4 February 1984 in New York) was an American chess master and writer. In 1943 and 1944, he published an analysis of the Two Knights Defense in ''Chess Review''. His main career was as an explo ...

and

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

. 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 mid-1960 ...

for the

U.S. Chess Championship The U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational tournament held to determine the United States chess champion. Begun as a challenge match in 1845, the U.S. Championship has been decided by tournament play for most of its long history. Since 1936, i ...

. He played on the U.S. Team in four Chess Olympiads, 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 Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * ...

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 Fe ...

, 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 cr ...

; the first three of which were won by the U.S. In a famous USA vs. USSR radio chess match 1945, Horowitz scored one of the only two wins for the U.S. by defeating GM Salo Flohr. 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.

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 at ...

(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, USA 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 OCL ...

. 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 college ...

), 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 (USA), 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