Julius Finn (28 April 1871 – 6 December 1931) was an American

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 into a Jewish family in Władysławow,

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

(then

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), he came to

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 ...

in 1887. From a humble start as a street peddler on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

, Finn swiftly rose to become New York's champion chess master and one of the country's best blindfold chess entertainers. Finn's first tournament in America was a Handicap Tournament played in New York's Café Boulevard in 1895 where he was ranked as a 2nd class player at the beginning of the competition. As it happened, he took home the 1st prize ahead of

William Ewart Napier William Ewart Napier (17 January 1881, in East Dulwich, Surrey – 6 September 1952, in Washington, D.C.) was an American chess master of English birth. Life William Napier's parents emigrated to the United States when he was five years old. ...

, Hermann Helms, and many other well-known players from the local American scene. In July 1897, Finn led a consultation team to victory against the veteran Wilhelm Steinitz in the rooms of the Metropolitan Chess Club. He won thrice the New York State Championship (1901, 1907, 1908), and won the Rice Gambit tournament at 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 ...

in 1903. Finn did engage in two interesting cable games. One with a Cuban team led by

José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play. Capablanc ...

in 1903 and the other was the New York – Berlin Cable Match from 1905 where he played on the third board for New York, drawing his game with Emil Schallopp. Mr. Finn acted as referee at the

World Chess Championship 1921 The 1921 World Chess Championship was played between José Raúl Capablanca and Emanuel Lasker. It was played in Capablanca's native Havana from March 18 to April 28. Capablanca won the match by a score of 9-5 (4 wins, 0 losses, 10 draws) to become ...

which was played between Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca in Havana. He was one of the organizers of the New York 1924 chess tournament and the president of the 1927 New York Tournament. He also served as adjudicator for the college chess league with which Columbia, Harvard, Yale and Princeton were affiliated. He had been a member of the Manhattan Chess Club and Rutgers Club for many years.http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles254.pdf

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Finn, Julius Jewish chess players Polish chess players American chess players Lithuanian Jews American people of Polish-Jewish descent Polish emigrants to the United States 1871 births 1931 deaths People from Kudirkos Naumiestis