Herman Steiner
Herman Steiner (
April 15 1905 â€"
November 25 1955) was a
U.S. chess player, organizer, and columnist.He won the
U.S. Chess Championship in 1948 and became
International Master in 1950.Even more important than his playing career were his efforts promoting chess in the U.S., particularly on the
West Coast.An exemplar of the
Romantic School of chess, Steiner was a successor to the American chess tradition of
Morphy,
Pillsbury, and
Marshall.
Born in
Dunajská Streda,
Slovakia (then part of
Hungary), Steiner came to
New York City at a young age.For a time, he was active as a
boxer.At age 16 he was a member of the Hungarian Chess Club and the Stuyvesant Chess Club.With the experience he gained in the active New York City chess scene, Steiner rapidly developed his chess skill and in 1929 he tied for first place (with J. Bernstein) in the
New York State championship tournament at
Buffalo.The same year he was first in the Premier Reserves at
Hastings, England.
Steiner left New York for the
West, settling in
Los Angeles in 1932.He became chess editor of the
Los Angeles Times that year, writing a
chess column until his death.He formed the Steiner Chess Club, later called the Hollywood Chess Group, headquartered in a clubhouse next to the Steiner residence.The Hollywood Chess Group was visited by many movie stars including
Humphrey Bogart,
Lauren Bacall,
Charles Boyer, and
José Ferrer.Steiner and the Hollywood Chess Group organized the Pan-American International Tournament in 1945 and the Second Pan-American Chess Congress in 1954.
In 1948 Steiner won the
United States Chess Championship at
South Fallsburg, New York, ahead of
Isaac Kashdan.
Steiner was a member of the
United States Chess Federation's teams sent abroad to the
Chess Olympiads in
The Hague 1928,
Hamburg 1930,
Prague 1931 and
Dubrovnik (
Yugoslavia, now
Croatia) 1950. As reigning U.S. champion he captained the 1950 team.
In the historic 1945 New Yorkâ€"
Moscow radio match between teams from the USA and the
USSR, Steiner was the only U.S. player to achieve a plus score.Although the American team including
Fine,
Reshevsky,
Denker, and Kashdan, was badly beaten, Steiner scored 1.5â€"0.5 against
Salo Flohr.
Steiner was very active as a player in West Coast tournaments, winning the only two California Open tournaments he entered in 1954 and 1955, and winning the California State Championship in 1953 and 1954.He was defending his State Championship in Los Angeles in 1955, when after finishing his fifth round game (a 62-move
draw against
William Addison) he felt unwell and his afternoon game was postponed.About 2 hours later around 9:30 pm, Steiner died practically instantaneously of a massive
coronary occlusion while being attended by a physician.By agreement of the players, the 1955 California State Championship tournament was cancelled.
| Tournament | Date | Score | Result | | N.Y. State Championship | 1929 | | 1stâ€"2nd (tied with J. Bernstein) |
| Hastings Premier Reserves | 1929 | | 1st |
| Berlin | 1931 | | 1st (ahead of Sämisch and L. Steiner) |
| Brun | 1931 | | 2nd (behind Flohr) |
| Pasadena International Tournament | 1932 | 6â€"5 | 4thâ€"6th (tied with Dake and Reshevsky, behind Alekhine and Kashdan)| Mexico City | 1935 | | 1stâ€"3rd (tied with Fine and Dake) | | U.S. Open | 1942 | | 1stâ€"2nd (tied with Yanofsky) | | California State Championship | 1945 | 8–1 | 1stâ€"2nd (tied with A.J. Fink) | | U.S. Open | 1946 | | 1st | | London | 1946 | | 1st (ahead of Tartakover and O.S. Bernstein) | | U.S. Championship | 1948 | | 1st | | Hollywood International Tournament | 1952 | | 3rd (behind Gligoric and Pomar) | | California State Championship | 1953 | 7.5â€"1.5 | 1st | | California State Championship | 1954 | 7.5â€"1.5 | 1st | | California Open | 1954 | | 1st | | California Open | 1955 | | 1st | | California State Championship | 1955 | 4â€"1 | tournament cancelled | |
