Izidor Gross (25 June 1860 – 1942) was a

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

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 and

hazzan A ''hazzan'' (; , lit. Hazan) or ''chazzan'' ( he, חַזָּן , plural ; Yiddish ''khazn''; Ladino ''Hasan'') is a Jewish musician or precentor trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer. In English, this pr ...

Background

Gross was born into a Jewish family in Kislőd,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

on 25 June 1860. In 1891 he settled in

Karlovac Karlovac () is a city in central Croatia. According to the 2011 census, its population was 55,705. Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County. The city is located on the Zagreb- Rijeka highway and railway line, south-west of Zagre ...

, Croatia where he served as a hazzan at Karlovac Synagogue. Apart from work at the Karlovac Jewish community, Gross was an avid chess master and notable writer about

chess problems A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by the composer using chess pieces on a chess board, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is to ...

and the game itself. He is one of the founders of the Karlovac chess club in 1908 and Croatian chess federation in 1912. Gross published articles about chess problems in various domestic - foreign magazines and newspapers. In 1909 he published a book Šahovska abeceda (''Chess alphabet''). He composed direct mates, with some incursions in helpmates. Gross organized in Karlovac, in 1912, first international chess tournament in the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

. As a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

Gross was arrested and deported to

Jasenovac concentration camp Jasenovac () was a concentration camp, concentration and extermination camps, extermination camp established in the Jasenovac, Sisak-Moslavina County, village of the same name by the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in I ...

where he was killed in 1942 during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, together with his son Herman and daughter in law Julia.

Works

* ''Rochade und Notation bei Ibn Esra'', Druck von T. Schatzky, Breslau (1900) * ''Povijest šaha'', Knjigotiskara M. Fogina, Karlovac (1912) * ''Problemi Karlovačkog medunarodnog šahovskog turnira'', Knjigotiskara Dragutina Hauptfelda, Karlovac (1913) * ''Šahovska abeceda'', Knjižara St. Kugli, Zagreb (1923) * ''150 izabranih problema'', Knjigotiskara M. Fogina, Karlovac (1936) * ''Humorističke crtice iz jevrejskog života'', Knjigotiskara M. Fogina, Karlovac (1938)

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gross, Izidor 1860 births 1942 deaths People from Veszprém County Jewish chess players Hungarian Jews Austro-Hungarian Jews Croatian Austro-Hungarians Croatian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Sportspeople from Karlovac Hazzans Croatian chess players Croatian civilians killed in World War II People who died in Jasenovac concentration camp Hungarian people executed in Nazi concentration camps Croatian people executed in Nazi concentration camps Croatian Jews who died in the Holocaust