According to Arnold Denker, if it had not been for the Great Depression Horowitz might have been one of those nearly forgotten masters of the 1930s.
At the time he was working as a trader on Wall Street, but by 1932 he could no longer make a living at it so he abandoned Wall Street and started hustling chess. As Horowitz put it, "I returned to chess on the theory that I could win a quarter a game and that a quarter could buy a meal."
In 1933, at the height of the Depression, Horowitz started a new business even though many businesses were going under. With Isaac Kashdan as a partner, he borrowed money from a friend, rented space in a building Queens and started publishing Chess Review, one of the world's best magazines.
Also, their postal tournaments were very, very popular. I played in many of them in the 1960s and on a couple of occasions met several over the board masters, including a one time US Championship competitor Arthur Feuerstein against whom I lost two games.
To keep the magazine afloat, he wrote about 20 chess books and traveled the whole country by car giving simultaneous exhibitions and hustling subscribers to the magazine.
The featured game was played in one of Horowitz' many exhibitions, this one in 1940. He and another master, Harld Morton , were returning form a tour out west when they were involved in a car accident in Iowa that killed Morton and left Horowitz with serious injuries. See my post about the accident HERE.
I. A. Horowitz–Amateur1–0C25Simultaneous, Los Angeles1940Stockfish 15
Vienna Game 1.e4 e5 2.c3 c6 3.c4 c5 3...f6 is normally seen here. 4.d3 a5 5.ge2
Black frequently plays 5...Nxc4, but he gets better results with 5...Be7 4.g4 Black must now play 4...g6 or 4...Nd5, or he could even get away with 4...
Kf8. Instead, his next move is a mistake. f6 5.d5 There is little doubt
that black saw this possibility, but assumed that his attack on f2 and the
subsequent position of white's K on d1 was sufficient reason to allow Nd5. xf2+ 6.d1 f8 6...d8 7.xg7 d6 8.f3 8.xh8 is too hasty. xg2
is only equal. 8...h3 9.d4 xg2 10.g5+ d7 11.f1 exd4 11...b6 12.e3 traps the Q 12.xf7+ ge7 13.xe7 g6 13...xe7 14.xe7+ mate
next move 14.f6+ c8 15.e6+ b8 16.d7+ c8 17.xh3 xf7 18.xc5+ b8 19.d7+ c8 20.de5+ b8 21.xf7 wins 7.h3 d4 After this black is
clearly lost. 7...h5 would have at least given him a fighting chance. 8.g5 8.xf2 hxg4 9.xg4 d6 10.ge3 xe3 and it's black who can claim a
slight advantage. 8...d4 9.d3 e7 10.f5 b5 11.xb5 d8 Black is
hanging on by the skin of his teeth. 8.d3 b6 Defending c7. 8...e7
Was better if for no other reason than it baits a trap. 9.xc7 d5 and it's
black who is winning because he wins the B on c4. 8...e7 White stays on
the winning path with 9.f1 f6 10.xf6 xf6 11.h5 d5 12.xd5 d8 13.g5 Black succumbs to the attack on f7. 9.f1 It's hard to believe, but this
was all played before, in 1931! f6 There was no saving the game. 9...d8 10.c3 c5 11.g5 h6 12.h4 d6 Black resigned because it's mate in 4.
Alekhine, A-Lugowski,S Belgrade 1931 13.e6+ xe6 14.e7+ g8 15.e8+ f8 16.e7# 10.xf6 Nice, but the follwup is even more amazing. d6 This
allows a spectacular mate in 5, but there wasn't really anything better. 11.xg7+ An incredible move especially considering the fact that Horowitz likely
spotted it in just a few seconds. xg7 12.h6+ g8 White can mate in 2 with
the humdrum 13.Ne7+ Nxe7 14.Bxf7# Or, he has a mate in 3 with 13.Rf3 clearing
the way for Nf6# But, why not sacrifice a R? 13.g6+ hxg6 14.f6#
According to the auto-analysis with Chessbase Horowitz' play was "flawless." 1–0
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