The Official Deans of American Chess: 4 Legends Worth Honoring This Independence Day
INTRODUCTION
Throughout history, many prominent figures have helped shape the course of American chess. Among the most honored of these many heroes are those who have been formally recognized by the United States Chess Federation (USCF) as the "Dean of American Chess." This rare title is considered the highest honor that the USCF can give and has only been awarded four times in history to four incredibly influential American masters who made remarkable contributions to American chess.
Despite having received the highest honor in all of American chess, these four players remain rather unknown and underappreciated by the modern chess world. In this blog, I share the stories of the four official "Deans of American Chess" to celebrate them as we celebrate America on this Independence Day.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hermann Helms was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1870, but spent much of his childhood living in Hamburg, Germany, and Halifax, Canada. He learned to play chess from a schoolmate in Halifax and wanted to take it to the next level.
When he was seventeen, he moved back to Brooklyn, and his chess career began. He competed on the Brooklyn Chess Club team, playing alongside leading American master Harry Nelson Pillsbury. As an individual, Hermann reached national master (NM) strength. His notable playing achievements include winning the New York State Championship twice, in 1906 and 1925, and defeating American greats Pillsbury and Frank Marshall. He also represented the US in five separate cable matches against Great Britain, totaling two wins, two losses, and a draw.
His most famous game was a brilliant miniature played in Manhattan in 1915:
Along with his numerous playing career achievements, Hermann is perhaps even more well-known for his contributions to chess writing and tournament organizing. He served as a chess reporter for several New York newspapers, including both the New York Times and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for over fifty years, along with the New York World and the New York Post. In his book written with Larry Parr entitled The Bobby Fischer I Knew and Other Stories, Arnold Denker (more on him later 
) wrote a significant amount of content on Hermann's life. There, he labeled Hermann as "the most important journalist in the history of American chess."
It's no secret, though, that Hermann's favorite activity was organizing tournaments. He helped to organize the very important New York international tournaments in 1924 and 1927, and also organized national chess tours for several legends, including Alexander Alekhine, José Raul Capablanca, Emanuel Lasker, Geza Maroczy, and Frank Marshall. Hermann even greatly helped to bring Bobby Fischer, the most legendary American player of all time, onto the organized chess scene when he responded to a letter from Bobby's mother Regina, who was seeking opponents for young Bobby in the Brooklyn area in 1951.
Hermann was beloved in the chess community, and his countless works were formally recognized in 1943 when, at a celebratory dinner, he became the first player to receive the official title "Dean of American Chess" from the USCF.
in October 1943 after he was honored
Hermann remained a big piece of the chess world up until he passed away peacefully in 1963 at the age of ninety-three. He was inducted into the United States Chess Hall of Fame in 1988.
George Koltanowski was born in 1903 in Antwerp, Belgium. George learned to play chess from watching his father and brother play, and took up the game seriously at age fourteen.
George spent the first few decades of his life in Belgium, representing the country in his early tournaments. He participated in a total of at least twenty-five international tournaments. He took shared first place in the international tournament in Antwerp in 1932 and in Barcelona in 1935. He won the Belgian Chess Championship four times, in 1923, 1927, 1930, and 1936. He also played for Team Belgium in the Olympiad three times.
In round three of the 1936 Belgian Championship, which he went on to win, George had one of the most memorable games of his career, playing two brilliant bishop sacrifices:
In my previous post, I went into detail on two tournaments that were interrupted by the World Wars and numerous players whose lives were affected, though I merely scratched the surface of the subject. There were many chess players whose lives were altered in the wars, and one of them was George Koltanowski. He and his family were Jewish, and he tragically lost many family members in the Holocaust. He himself was able to survive because he happened to be on a chess tour in South America when the war broke out. The United States Consul saw him touring and decided to grant him a US visa.
George settled in San Francisco, California, in 1944 and immediately dedicated himself to growing chess in the US. He went on countless tours in the country, which he became well-known for, along with his unbelievable blindfold chess abilities. He would hold blindfold chess exhibitions, amazingly playing many blindfold games simultaneously. Back in 1937, George staged a simul in Scotland, where he set a then-record of playing thirty-four games of blindfold chess at once. Later on, in the year 1960 in San Francisco, George played fifty-six consecutive games blindfolded in front of over 2,500 spectators, with only ten seconds per move. He went undefeated, winning fifty and drawing six of the games, a ridiculous feat.
Like Hermann Helms, George was also very influential in both writing and tournament directing (a common theme among these "Deans"). George wrote many books, with his best-known work being Adventures of a Chess Master, which released in 1955 and details his times giving blindfold chess exhibitions. He also became the chess columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, which carried his column every day for the 52 years leading up to his passing.
George directed every US Open Championship from 1947 to the late 1970s, helping greatly mold the major American tournament into what it has become today. Thus, he was elected President of the USCF in 1974, and around the same time was given the prestigious official title of "Dean of American Chess" by the USCF, the second to receive the honor.
In 1986, George became one of the original inductees into the US Chess Hall of Fame. In 1988, George was given the title of honorary Grandmaster by FIDE. In 2000, at the age of ninety-six, George passed away from congestive heart failure in San Francisco.
Arnold Denker was born in New York City in 1914. He learned chess at a young age by watching his older brothers play, but truly became fascinated by the game in his freshman year of high school. He took up boxing in his youth, but his true passion was chess.
Arnold's first key chess victory was winning the New York City individual interscholastic championship at age 15. He soon became one of the strongest players in both New York and the US. He competed in multiple international tournaments in the next decade. In 1944, he proved he was among the best in America when he became US Champion with a resounding record of fourteen wins, three draws, and zero losses, the best performance at a US Championship until Bobby Fischer's famous 11-0 two decades later. In 1946, he retained his US Champion title by defeating Herman Steiner in a challenge match. Arnold became an International Master in 1950, the year the title was first given by FIDE.
Arnold called his round seven win over American great Reuben Fine in the 1944 US Championship "the game of his life":
Arnold wrote many chess articles and two well-known books, If You Must Play Chess, which was an autobiographical game collection, and the aforementioned The Bobby Fischer I Knew and Other Stories, co-authored by Larry Parr. He was also an important tournament organizer, serving on the boards of the USCF, the American Chess Foundation, and the US Chess Trust. In 1984, he started the annual tournament of US high school state champions, which is named in his honor to this day.
In 1981, FIDE awarded Arnold the honorary grandmaster title, and in 1992, Arnold was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame. In 2004, he was the third person to be proclaimed "Dean of American Chess" by the USCF. One year later, Arnold passed away from brain cancer at the age of ninety.
Arthur Bisguier was born in New York City in 1929. His father taught him chess when he was just four years old. He ascended rapidly and was considered one of the strongest American players in the world in the 1940s to 1950s.
In 1948, Arthur won the US Junior Championship and participated in the 1948-49 New York City international tournament. In 1949, he defended his US Junior Champion title and also won that year's Manhattan Chess Club Championship. In 1950, he took first place in the US Open and earned the title of International Master later that year.
Arthur's promising chess career was put on pause for three years when he went to serve in the US Army, and he returned to competitive chess in 1954 with a vengeance, winning the 1954 US Championship in New York. Two years later, he won the US Open Championship in Oklahoma City. In 1957, he achieved the Grandmaster title. Arthur represented the US in five Olympiads from the 1950s to the '70s.
In 1956, Arthur defeated Bobby Fischer in their first encounter, playing a nasty queen sacrifice at the end:
Arthur commonly wrote columns in Chess Life magazine. He also wrote two books, The Art of Bisguier, which chronicled selected games from his career in 1945-1960, and a sequel called The Art of Bisguier: Selected Games 1961-2003.
Arthur was hired to go on many exhibition tours and popularize chess and the USCF in the US, similar to what George Koltanowski was well-known for. The USCF also chose Arthur to serve as a traveling representative, often sending him to different states to hold simuls at hospitals, schools, or prisons, giving people all over America the chance to try their hand at playing a Grandmaster and former US champ.
In 1994, Arthur was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame. Following the passing of Arnold Denker in 2005, the USCF declared Arthur his replacement as the official "Dean of American Chess", the fourth and most recent to be gifted the rare title.
meet in 2003, with another legend Susan Polgar in the middle
Arthur stayed on the professional chess scene all the way up until 2014, even once being the world's oldest active Grandmaster. He passed away in 2017 due to respiratory failure.
These four extraordinary men contributed so much to the growth and shaping of chess in the United States. Without their historical services, chess in America would not be what it is now. It's only right that they received the highest honor in American chess, and that we continue to honor them today.
With the latest "Dean of American Chess," Arthur Bisguier, being recently deceased, it does beg the question: will there be a new "Dean" honored in the near future? There have been so many other legendary contributors to chess in America, and I for one would love to see a fifth get recognized.
As always, your thoughts are much appreciated in the comments, and I will reply. For now, I bid farewell and wish you a festive Independence Day! 🇺🇸
I hope you enjoyed this blog. Cya next time! 
