According to an English chess forum post in 2001, Israel, known as Harry, was described as a heavy smoker, lifelong member of London’s Hampstead Chess club. According to the poster who remembered him he was tall, but looked unhealthy, was well dressed.
Israel won the British Correspondence Championship after the World War II and he represented England on board 3 in the Olympiad. In the individual British Championship he tied for second in 1949/50, finished 5th in 1950/51 and 7th= in 1951/52.
The poster noted that Israel preferred to play in the evening and he was a London League regular weekend tournament player.
The poster noted that Israel possibly never reached his full potential because in the 1952 British Championship (otb) he tied for second place with five other players with a 7-4 score. He was called “a very strong player”, but not a Masterm who probably chose a business career over chess.
The following amazing game was Israel’s only win in the 1970 Middlesex County Championship, but what a game it was!
Harold Israel–David J Mabbs1–0B22Middlesex County Championship4London ENG15.05.1970Stockfish 15
C02: French: Advance Variation 1.e4 c5 It's going to transpose. 2.f3 c6 3.c3 f5 4.e5 d5 5.d4 e6 6.d3 b6 The idea is to increase the pressure on
d4 and eventually undermine the white center. The Q also attacks b2 so white's
dark-square B cannot easily defend the d4-Pawn without losing the b2-pawn. 7.0-0 d7 7...cxd4 and black cannot take the d-Pawn. 8.cxd4 xd4 9.xd4 xd4 10.b5+ 8.dxc5 xc5 9.bd2 9.b4 is a good alternative. e7 9...f8 10.a3 a6 11.c4 xb4 12.cxd5 xd5 White has enough play for his P.
Annaberdiev,M (2498)-Alper,M (1996) Mersin TUR 10.a4 c7 11.e1 h6 12.a3 f7 13.xf5 exf5 14.e6 xe6 15.xe6 White is slightly better. Maggiolo,E
(2101)-Burijovich,L (2204) Villa Martelli 2006 9...h6 His intention is to
put pressure on the e-Pawn. 10.b3 10.b4 was still an option. f7
Preserving the B with 10...Be7 was a better option. 11.xc5 11.xf5
is sharper and leads to lively play, but it's not necessarily better. e7
This conservative move is black's best reply. 11...exf5 12.xd5 Black's
best continuation is 12.e6 favors black. xe6 13.xc5 xc5 14.e1 12...xf2+ 13.xf2 e7 14.d4 White has a dixtinct, probably decisive, advantage.
12.c2 0-0-0 12...fxe5 is met by 13.xe5 xe5 14.e3 c7 15.f4 g6 16.f5 with a strong attack.. 13.e1 White is better. 11...xc5 12.e3 e7 13.d4 g5 Sharp. It's interesting to note that considering white's bad
dark-squared B and the aggressive looing appearance of black's position that
the engines are suggesting that white is very slightly better. 14.e1 g8
Black over preapres the ...g4 which he should have played at once. 14...g4 15.d2 xd4 16.cxd4 g5 with equal chances. 15.d2 For the last couple
of moves white could have played b4 and Bc5 g4 16.b3 16.b4 was still
playable, but things could get very crazy. xd4 17.cxd4 xb4 18.b1 xd4 19.b3 f4 20.c5 xe5 21.xb7 f3+ 22.f1 xh2+ 23.e2 e5+ 24.d2 f4+ 25.e2 g3 26.c1 xc1 27.xc1 c8 28.f3 e5 16...h4 17.g3 h5 18.h4 He wants to prevent ...Ng5. f4 Black has a promising attack going,
but white's defensive resources are sufficient. 19.e2 19.gxf4 would be
really bad. xh4 20.d2 g3 21.f3 g2 22.c5 0-0-0 and white is fighting a
losing battle. Just one sample line... 23.a6 bxa6 24.d3 b8 25.xa6 h1+ 26.f2 h2 27.g1 xf4 28.xb8 xb8 29.a6 d2+ 30.e2 xe2+ 31.xe2 b5+ 32.e3 and black is clearly winning. 19...0-0-0 This move gets slapped
with a question mark. In the pevious variation castling Q-side was the right
devision, but here it's not because his K is too exposed on the Q-side. 19...c8 20.ac1 h6 21.c4 g5 22.cxd5 22.hxg5 leads to disaster after f3 23.d2 hxg5 with a decisive advantage. 22...f3+ 23.f1 h2+ and white can
repeat moves or he can go for a really wild situation with 24.g2 f3+ 25.xh2 fxe2 26.dxc6 xc6 27.xa7 White is just short of having enough
compensation for his Q, but the position is still very complicated. 19...h6 This is best as black's K is safer in the center than on the Q-side. 20.c5 g5 Black has a strong initiative and ...Nf3+ will leave him with a strong
attack. White clearly cannot take the N because after 21.hxg5 f3 22.f1 hxg5 he has no hope of saving the game. 20.c5 After this black's K comes
under attack. g5 Unfortunately for black, in this position this
is a losing move. 20...df8 This edges his K a little closer to safety.
The best line is now 21.xd7 xd7 Both sides will have to navigate through
enormous complications! 22.b5 fd8 23.c5 f5 24.c4 d4 25.xd4 c8 26.ad1 fxg3 27.fxg3 f3 28.g2 xd4 29.xd4 gf8 30.d2 f7 Both sides have
their chances. 31.ed1 21.a6 Alertly played, this wins the
game. cxe5 21...bxa6 22.xa6+ mates next move. 22.xb7+ Pressing
home the attack. 22.hxg5 loses. f3+ 23.xf3 gxf3 24.xb7 fxg3 25.fxg3 h3 26.xd8+ xd8 27.f6+ c7 28.f2 g2+ 29.e3 e5 and white can only
wait for the end. 22...b8 23.a6 Intending Rxe5 and mate. Wrong is 23.hxg5? f3+ 24.xf3 gxf3 25.xd7+ xd7-+ 23.xd7+ xd7 24.a6 24.hxg5? f3+ 25.xf3 gxf3-+ 24...f3+ 25.f1 h2+ 26.g1 f3+ 27.f1 h2+ 28.g1 f3+= 23...f3+ 24.h1 xd4 25.cxd4 Threatening mate with
Bxd5! g6 He defends against that threat. 26.e5 Renewing the
threat. 26.xd5 xd5+ 27.h2 c6 and black wins. 26...h6 27.xd5
White mates in 7. c8 28.b5+ c7 29.c6+ b8 30.a8+ c7 31.xa7+ d6 32.e4# A very pleasing game! 1–0
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