Koltanowski George (17.09.1903 – 05.02.1999)

U.S. Honorary Grandmaster (1988), International Arbiter (1960), author and journalist. Koltanowski was born in Belgium and was Belgium’s leading player in the 1930’s. He won the Belgian Chess Federation championships in 1923, 1927, 1930 and 1936. He played on the Belgian Olympiad team in 1927 and 1928 and also played two games as a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in Helsinki, 1952 where he drew with Soviet Grandmaster Alexander Kotov and also with Hungarian International Master Tibor Florian.

Koltanowski’s record as a tournament player was not especially successful.  He showed up for the 1946 U.S. Open in Pittsburgh, but was eliminated in the preliminary section and did not qualify for the finals.  That was supposed to be his last tournament. After this failure, he never played chess tournaments again. At this time the U.S. Open was played in round-robin preliminary and final sections. In 1947, Koltanowski returned not as a player but as a director where he introduced the Swiss System. Koltanowski had his own organization, the Chess Friends of Northern California, which resisted the USCF rating system and dominated Northern California Chess through the mid-1960s. Then in 1974, he won election as the President of the United States Chess Federation. Koltanowski also wrote many books and his most famous work was

In 1947, Koltanowski returned not as a player but as a director where he introduced the Swiss System. Koltanowski had his own organization, the Chess Friends of Northern California, which resisted the USCF rating system and dominated Northern California Chess through the mid-1960s. Then in 1974, he won election as the President of the United States Chess Federation. Koltanowski also wrote many books and his most famous work was

Koltanowski wrote many books and his most famous work was Adventure of a Chess Master (1955).  In one of his books, he taught a system, which would enable even rank beginners to get out of the opening with a playable game. Koltanowski is best known as a journalist and blindfold chess expert.  He has made radio broadcasts and educational films on chess

Koltanowski was best known as a journalist and blindfold chess expert.  He has made radio broadcasts and educational films on chess have written more than a dozen books on the game and supervised many tournaments.  He is also regarded by many as one of the greatest entertainers of the chessboard and set a world record in 1937, which is still recognised to this day by the “Guinness Book of Records”, for playing 34 simultaneous boards blindfolded in Edinburgh, which took nearly 14½ hours for him to complete (24 wins & 10 draws).

He was also a prolific writer on the game with many books to his name and for 52 years Koltanowski wrote a daily chess column in the San Francisco Chronicle, thus establishing the longest-running daily chess column in history and it has been estimated by the newspaper to amount to over 19,000 columns.