Israel Albert Horowitz

Israel Albert Horowitz (often known as I. A. Horowitz or Al Horowitz) (November 15, 1907 – January 18, 1973) was an American International Master of chess. He is most remembered today for the books he wrote about chess. In 1989, he was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame.

Chess career Horowitz was the chess columnist for The New York Times, writing three columns a week for ten years. He was the owner and editor of Chess Review magazine from 1933 until it was bought out and taken over by the United States Chess Federation in 1969 and merged into Chess Life. Chess Review magazine was founded in 1933 as a partnership between Horowitz and Isaac Kashdan; 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. He had been partners with chess masters Maurice Shapiro, Mickey Pauley, Albert Pinkus and Maurice Wertheim. 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 for the U.S. Chess Championship. He played on the U.S. Team in four Chess Olympiads, in 1931, 1935, 1937, and 1950; the first three of which were won by the U.S. In the famous US 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

Notable games

Books authored All About Chess, Collier Books, 1971 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), 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 (US), 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.