Herman Steiner

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Steiner in Groningen (1946)

Herman Steiner (born April 15, 1905 in Dunajská Streda , † November 25, 1955 in Los Angeles ) was a Hungarian - American chess player .

Life

In 1921, Herman Steiner emigrated with his parents to the USA, where he gradually developed his skill level in chess clubs in New York and achieved his first successes. In 1928 Steiner first took part in a chess Olympiad for the US team , he played on the second board at the 1928 Chess Olympiad in The Hague , where he also met his cousin Endre Steiner, who was in action for Hungary. The game ended in a draw , Hungary won the gold, Herman Steiner and the US team won the silver medal. Steiner played at three other Olympiads up to 1950 : 1930 in Hamburg, 1931 in Prague and most recently in Dubrovnik. In 1931 he won the gold medal with Isaac Kashdan , Frank James Marshall , Arthur Dake and Israel Albert Horowitz ahead of Poland and Czechoslovakia. He was second on the reserve board.

Steiner also won tournaments in several individual competitions, so he won the championships of the state of New York in 1929 together with Jacob Bernstein , the international tournament of Hastings in 1929 and in 1931 in Berlin in front of the German Fritz Sämisch and his cousin Lajos Steiner.

In 1932 Steiner moved to the west coast, settled in Los Angeles and wrote the chess column in the Los Angeles Times there until his death . In Los Angeles he also founded the Steiner Chess Club , later called the Hollywood Chess Group , which was also attended by film stars such as Humphrey Bogart , Lauren Bacall , Charles Boyer and José Ferrer .

Herman Steiner won the California championships three times and in 1948 the US championship ahead of Isaac Kashdan, who was one of the world's strongest players in the 1930s. Steiner's last victory on European soil was in London in 1946, ahead of Savielly Tartakower and Ossip Bernstein . In the historic radio competition between Moscow and New York (with players like Fine , Reshevsky , Denker and Kashdan) in 1945, Herman Steiner was the only one in the American team to achieve a positive result, defeating Igor Bondarewski with 1.5 in two games : 0.5.

In 1950 he was one of the first players to receive the title of International Master . His best historical rating was 2580 in January 1946, which put him in 49th place in the world rankings.

He was the cousin of the two Steiner brothers Lajos and Endre .

Herman Steiner died of a heart attack in 1955 during the California Championship.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MEN'S CHESS OLYMPIADS - Steiner, Herman (United States) on Olimpbase (English)
  2. ↑ 4th Chess Olympiad: Prague 1931 - United States (USA) on Olimpbase (English)
  3. ^ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 87.
personal data
SURNAME Steiner, Herman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian-American chess player
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Dunajská Streda
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1955
Place of death los Angeles