Herman Steiner
(April 15, 1905 – November 25, 1955) won the U.S. Championship in 1948 and
became International Master in 1950. Today he is mostly remembered for his
efforts in promoting chess in the U.S., particularly in California.
Steiner could be classed as a ‘Romantic’ and his games
are rife with tactics, sound and unsound.
Arnold Denker pointed out that Steiner could play solid positional chess
when he had to as attested to by the fact that when playing for the US team in
the Olympiads he was very careful not to lose and complied a very impressive
score. Steiner was a member of the Olympiad team in The Hague 1928, Hamburg
1930, Prague 1931 and Dubrovnik 1950. As reigning U.S. champion he captained
the 1950 team.
Steiner was born in Austria-Hungary and came to New York
City at a young age. For a time, he was 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 in the New York State
championship. The same year he was first
in the Premier Reserves at Hastings.
Steiner moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1932 and 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 his home. The Hollywood Chess
Group was visited by many movie stars including Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall,
Charles Boyer, and José Ferrer ans other Hollywood greats. According to Denker Steiner was known as a
lady’s man and they nicknamed him ‘Handsome Herman of Hollywood.’ Steiner organized the Pan-American International
Tournament in 1945 and the Second Pan-American Chess Congress in 1954.
Steiner played three challenge matches against Reuben
Fine but was unsuccessful; Fine won all three matches: by 5.5–4.5 at New York
1932, by 3.5–0.5 at Washington, D.C. 1944, and by 5–1 at Los Angeles 1947. The
total score was 14 – 6 in Fine’s favor.
One of Steiner’s major international wins was the 1946
London Victory Invitational, the first significant European tournament held
after the end of World War II. After that Steiner challenged Arnold Denker to a
match for the US Championship. The match
was played in Los Angeles and Denker won
by a score of 6–4. In 1948 Steiner won the US Championship ahead of Isaac
Kashdan. In the 1945 USA–USSR radio match Steiner was the only
U.S. player to achieve a plus score when he scored 1.5 – 0.5 against Igor
Bondarevsky.
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 he felt ill and his afternoon game was
postponed. About 2 hours later around 9:30 pm, Steiner died instantaneously of
a massive heart attack while being attended by a physician. By agreement of the
players, the 1955 California State Championship tournament was canceled.
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1929
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N.Y. State Championship
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1st–2nd
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1929
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Hastings Premier Reserves
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1st
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1931
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Berlin
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1st
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1931
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Brun
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2nd
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1932
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Pasadena International Tournament
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4th–6th
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1935
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Mexico City
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1st–3rd
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1942
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U.S. Open
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1st–2nd
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1945
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California State Championship
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1st–2nd
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1946
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U.S. Open
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1st
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1946
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London
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1st
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1948
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U.S. Championship
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1st
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1952
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Hollywood International Tournament
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3rd
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1952
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Stockholm Interzonal
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11-13th
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1953
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California State Championship
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1st
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1954
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California State Championship
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1st
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1954
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California Open
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1st
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1955
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California Open
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1st
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1955
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California State Championship
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tournament cancelled
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THE CALIFORNIA CHESS REPORTER (Vol. 5 No. 4)
December, 1955: HERMAN STEINER
It is with deepest regret that we record the death
on November 25, 1955, of international master Herman Steiner. Mr. Steiner had
played his fifth-round game in the California State Championship in the
afternoon and had postponed his evening game because he felt unwell. At about
nine-thirty, while being examined by his physician, he was stricken by a
massive coronary occlusion. Death was practically instantaneous.
Out of respect to Mr. Steiner's memory, and by
unanimous agreement of the contestants, the State Championship was cancelled. Mr.
Steiner was 50.
It the following pages the editors of THE REPORTER
have attempted to pay tribute to Mr. Steiner's memory and convey the sense of
loss which we all feel.
Herman Steiner was born on April 15, 1905 in Dunajaska
Freda, Czechoslavakia (then a part of Hungary). He came to New York at an early
age and at 16 acquired knowledge of chess as a member of the Hungarian Chess
Club and the Stuyvesant Chess Club. For a time, too, he was active as a boxer and
became proficient in the manly art of self defense.
Thanks to the opportunities offered in the
Metropolitan area of New York City, his skill at chess developed rapidly and he
was soon among those out front. During 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. A year later,
after serving with the American team at Hamburg and revisiting his native
Hungary, he was runner-up to Isaac I. Kashdan at Gjor. In 1931, following the
international congress at Prague, he finished second to Salo Flohr at Brun.
Leaving New York for the West, Steiner settled in
Los Angeles in 1932, became chess editor of the Los Angeles Times that year and
ever since has espoused the cause of chess in southern California. From that
point of vantage he was in a good position to father two Pan-American
tournaments - in 1945 and 1954 - both under the auspices of the Hollywood Chess
Group, the clubhouse of which adjoined the Steiner residence. He carried his
enthusiasm for the game to such and extent that, in spite of his many
promotional duties, entered himself in the arena which drew contestants of the
highest grade from far places.
Meanwhile Steiner had been a member of American
teams sent abroad by the United States Chess Federation to compete for the
international Hamilton-Russell trophy at The Hague, 1928, Hamburg, 1930,
Prague, 1931; and later, as United States Champion, was captain of the American
team of 1950 at Dubrovnic, Yugoslavia. He had achieved the goal of his ambition at South
Fallsburg, N.Y., in 1948, when he won the United States championship, ahead of
Isaac I. Kashdan.
Other highlights of achievement for Steiner
included a triple tie for first with Reuben Fine and Arthur W. Dake in Mexico
City, second to Fine, U.S. Open, Dallas, 1940; second (again to Fine), U.S.
Open, St. Louis, 1941; tie for first (with A. Yanofsky), U.S. Open, Dallas,
1942; third (with I.A. Horowitz), U.S. Championship, New York, 1944.
Memorable in the chess career of Herman Steiner was
the prominent part he played in the 1945 match between American and Russian
teams by radio (New York and Moscow). The Americans were badly beaten, at the
top boards in particular. Steiner alone turned in a plus score of 1.5-.5
against Salo Flohr. The following year, in Moscow, over the board, it was
Flohr's turn to win by 1.5-.5. Against the winning Soviet team in Moscow, 1955,
he failed in both games.
Completely enamored of chess, an optimist never so
content as when engaged in play, fearing no one as an opponent, and a
never-say-die fighter, Herman Steiner was a picturesque and friendly
personality in the realm of international chess. He will be missed in many
circles, but mostly in California, where his unrelenting efforts over the years
left a permanent mark.
(The biographical sketch above was written by
Hermann Helms, "dean of American chess" immediately upon receipt of
the news of Steiner's death. Mr. Helms, one of Steiner's oldest and closest friends,
was modest about his literary effort and asked that it merely be credited to
The THE CALIFORNIA CHESS REPORTER. In order to round out the biography, Herman's
California record follows.)
Herman Steiner's first California State tournament
was in the Pasadena, 1932, international tournament. The California player
having the highest score was the champion for the year. Harry Borochow won the
title, 5.5-5.5, while Steiner, 6-5, was not yet considered a Californian
(Alekhine won the tournament 8.5-2.5, followed by Kashdan, 7.5-3.5; Dake,
Reshevsky and Steiner were tied at 6.5). The next California championship was at Hollywood,
1939; the winner was P. Woliston, 7-1, with Steiner and Borochow next, 6-2.
After a wartime gap, the San Francisco, 1945, tournament saw a tie between
Steiner and A.J. Fink, 8-1. There was no play-off. Missing the 1948, 1949,
1950, 1951 and 1952 state championships, chiefly because of his travels,
Steiner took the 1953 championship, played at Hollywood, and the 1954 title, played
at San Francisco, by identical 7.5-1.5 scores. He had a 4-1 score in 1955 when
the tournament was cancelled.
In addition to numerous successes in local and
regional tournaments, Steiner took third place, behind Gligoric and Pomar, in
the Hollywood, 1952, international tournament. He also won the only two
California Opens he participated in (Santa Barbara, 1954, and Fresno, 1955).
One of the most important things Herman did for
chess in California was his support of and his playing in the North-South team
match. Playing against such players as Dake, Koltanowski, Konig and Tippin,
Steiner scored 9 wins and 5 draws out of 14 games played.
HERMAN IS GONE - by Irving Rivise
The sudden passing of our beloved Herman has
created a void in the chess world which will be impossible to fill. Herman Steiner, the chessmaster whose career
spanned more than three decades, has bequeathed to us a legacy of wondrous
brilliancies. Ever disdainful of taking the dull safe course, Herman was a
worthy successor to the American tradition of Morphy, Pillsbury and Marshall.
Indeed, had he wished to "play to the score" he would easily have
achieved a higher statistical rating, but his creative genius demanded that he
give to each and every game the best that was in him.
An extraordinary talent coupled with an intense
devotion to the game he loved so well enabled him to ascend to remarkable
heights. To cite but some of his more outstanding successes - N.Y. State Championship
1929 - 1st; Hastings Premier Reserves 1929 -1st; Gjor 1930 -2nd (behind
Kashdan); Brunn 1931 - 2nd (behind Flohr); Berlin 1931 - 1st; Mexico City 1935
- 1st (equal with Fine and Dake); U.S. Open 1942 - 1st (equal with Yanofsky);
London 1946 - 1st (ahead of O.S. Bernstein and Tartakower); U.S. Open 1946 -
1st. His crowning achievement was winning the coveted U.S. Championship in
1948. In the historic 1945 U.S.A.-U.S.S.R. radio match, Herman was the only
American player on a team that included Fine, Reshevsky, Denker, and Kashdan
(among others) to achieve a plus score against the Russians.
On the local scene, Herman won virtually every
tournament he elected to enter. His most recent successes were the winning of
the California State Championship in 1953 and 1954; the California Open
Championship in 1954 and 1955. He played in the annual North-South Match 14
times on either first or second board without ever having lost a game - a
remarkable average of 82%.
He died while busily engaged in defending his state
championship title. We feel sure he would not have wanted it to happen any
other way.
Unlike many other chess masters, his interests were
not confined to his over-the board play but expanded into many other phases of
chess activities. He was one of this country's leading chess
organizers, and it was mainly through his untiring efforts that the United
States entered into international team competition. Herman played on the
American team at The Hague 1928, Hamburg 1930, Prague 1931, and more recently
at Dubrovnik in 1950. In the United States he alone was instrumental in
organizing the 1945 Pan-American International Tournament and the Second
Pan-American Chess Congress of 1954.
Herman believed the future of American chess was in
the development of chess interest in the youth of this country. True to his
beliefs, he spent countless hours at tournaments for junior players,
instructing, encouraging, and in no small measure some of his bubbling
enthusiasm for chess is reflected in the spirit and style of play of many of
our young masters throughout the nation.
As a teacher he was extremely successful in
imparting his accumulative knowledge to others. Over the years he had developed
a system of instruction that was most effective. So much so that leading chess
periodicals had eagerly availed themselves of the opportunity to publish
portions of this text. Herman was busily engaged in arranging for publication
of a book incorporating his teaching methods at the time of his death.
His contagious laughter and infectious good humor
will be sorely missed. Yes, Herman is gone, but wherever chess is played
he will long be remembered. He will forever be in the hearts and minds of those
who were privileged to know him.
THE MAN AND THE PLAYER - by Imre Konig
My memories of Herman Steiner go back as far as
1931 when I first met him in Prague when our teams met in the Chess Olympics. A
young, attractive man, full of life and full of fight! I watched him playing
Pirc (Yugoslavia), who, in top form, defeated him. I was free that evening and
when I walked around I saw him in the adjoining room reserved for analysis
playing rapid chess. He was in buoyant spirits and if I had not seen him losing
an hour ago I would not have known it. Another member of the U.S. team whispered
to me: "This is the way he overcomes the effect of a loss."
My next meeting occurred 15 years later when he was
playing in the 1946 London tournament. This he won ahead of grandmasters Dr.
Bernstein and Dr. Tartakower, defeating the latter. It was quite a feat, for
which he could have claim the title of grandmaster. I was surprised to find him
rather placid, and only much later was I given an explanation of his failure to
act more elated, when I heard him telling someone how sorry he had been feeling
to have defeated Dr. Tartakower, who was such a nice man. Indeed, in our 25
years of friendship I have only seen him once to be angry with me - when in the
U.S. Open, 1955, he was paired against his pupil Larry Remlinger in one of the
last rounds and he had to defeat him. He thought that I, as referee, should not
have allowed local players to be paired together.
Herman called himself a professional chess player,
although everybody knew that he was losing money on chess. Perhaps he meant
that chess was his vocation. It is very seldom that chessmasters admit this,
and I know of only two chessmasters who were proud of their profession besides
Herman: William Steinitz, who in his International Chess Magazine claimed that
a chessmaster can be as proud of his profession as any other professional man;
and Alexander Alekhine, who when middle-aged became a doctor at law at the
Paris Sorbonne, yet remained true to himself as a chess player. Even Dr.
Lasker, the greatest figure in chess, was proud of his achievements in
philosophy and other fields, rather than of his prowess as a chess player.
In style Herman Steiner belonged to the romantic
school, of which in this century only Spielman and Mieses were left. He
recognized no laws over the chess board except those of the imagination. With a
wealth of ideas, full of fight, he achieved comparatively great successes even
when he was near 50 at Saltsjobaden, 1952; after a bad start he held his own
against the Russian grandmasters and still scored 50%. Imagine the odds of a
Robin Hood fighting with arrows against modern scientific weapons!
In the last years of his life he took part in every
California tournament. Some think it "easy meat" for a master to play
against amateurs; just think that when six or seven games are to be played one
draw more or less can decide the issue. Herman had everything to lose and
nothing to win. And he won. So the last romantic player and personality
disappears from the chess arena. But through his games his memory will be kept
alive and fresh in the history of chess.
