Alexander Kevitz
Encyclopedia
Alexander Kevitz was an American chess
master, of at least International Master strength at his peak, although he was never awarded this title. Kevitz also played correspondence chess
, and was a creative chess analyst and theoretician. He was a pharmacist
by profession.
, New York. He graduated from Cornell University
in 1923. He later earned degrees in law
and pharmacy
from Brooklyn College of Pharmacy
.
in a simultaneous display at New York
1924, and defeated former world champion Emanuel Lasker
in a 1928 simultaneous, also in New York. He won the Manhattan Chess Club
Championship six times: in 1929, 1936, 1946, 1955, 1974, and 1977 (according to other sources: in 1929, 1936, 1946, and 1947, and also in 1927, 1932, 1934, 1955, 1975, and 1977). From the 1920s through the 1950s, the top section of Manhattan C.C. Championship was usually at the level of a strong International tournament. Kevitz also represented the Manhattan Club in the "Metropolitan Chess League".
Kevitz made his international debut at Bradley Beach 1929, with 4/9 for 8th place; world champion Alexander Alekhine
won. Kevitz scored 7/11 at New York
1931 for 3rd place, as Capablanca won. In the 16th Marshall Chess Club
Championship 1932, Kevitz scored 9/13 for 2nd place, behind Reuben Fine
. In the 17th Marshall Chess Club Championship 1933-34, Kevitz scored 8/11, tied 2nd-3rd, again behind Fine. In the United States Chess Championship, New York 1936, Kevitz scored 7.5/15 for 8th place, as Samuel Reshevsky
won. In the team match, USA vs USSR at Moscow 1946, Kevitz made the best American result with 1.5/2 against Igor Bondarevsky
. He drew both of his games against Borislav Milic
in a 1950 radio match with Yugoslavia
. He placed 13th at the U.S. Open
at Milwaukee 1953. Kevitz lost to Paul Keres
in a USA vs USSR team match at New York 1954, and he lost both his games against Alexander Kotov
in a USA vs USSR team match at Moscow 1955. In the Manhattan Chess Club
Championship, 1955–56, Kevitz scored 8.5/15 for 6-7th place, and defeated his student, Arthur Bisguier
, a future Grandmaster, who was then U.S. champion.
His peak chessmetrics
.com rating of 2578 was in November 1931, good for a tied 29th in the world. This is a strong International Master level, although he was never formally granted that title. On the first official United States Chess Federation
rating list, July 31, 1950, Kevitz ranked third at 2610, behind only Reuben Fine
and Samuel Reshevsky
.
In his later years, Kevitz was active in correspondence chess
, often playing under the pseudonym 'Palmer Phar' (he worked at Palmer Pharmacy).
, he developed the line 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4. The variation of the Symmetrical English Opening
(A31) arising after 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d5 is often referred to as the Kevitz Gambit. In the English Opening
, Flohr-Mikenas variation (A18), the line 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 Nc6 is known as the Kevitz Variation. The variation 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 is sometimes called the Kevitz-Trajkovic Defence, alternatively the Black Knights' Tango
or Mexican Defence. In the Nimzowitsch Defence, 1.e4 Nc6, the Kevitz Variation continues 2.d4 e5. In the 1940s, Kevitz analyzed a new idea in the Ruy Lopez
, Marshall Attack, after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.Bxd5 cxd5 13.d4 Bd6 14.Re3, which prepares 15.h3 in the event of 14...Qh4.
Kevitz was respected by his chess rivals as an original player, thinker, and analyst. He was active in tournament play until age 78 in 1980, the year before his death.
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
master, of at least International Master strength at his peak, although he was never awarded this title. Kevitz also played correspondence chess
Correspondence chess
Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...
, and was a creative chess analyst and theoretician. He was a pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...
by profession.
Early life
Kevitz was born in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York. He graduated from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in 1923. He later earned degrees in law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
from Brooklyn College of Pharmacy
Long Island University
Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...
.
Major chess results
Kevitz defeated world champion José Raúl CapablancaJosé Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. One of the greatest players of all time, he was renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play...
in a simultaneous display at New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
1924, and defeated former world champion Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years...
in a 1928 simultaneous, also in New York. He won the Manhattan Chess Club
Manhattan Chess Club
The Manhattan Chess Club in Manhattan was the second-oldest chess club in the United States . The club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen players; membership later reached into the hundreds before the club ended its existence in 2002...
Championship six times: in 1929, 1936, 1946, 1955, 1974, and 1977 (according to other sources: in 1929, 1936, 1946, and 1947, and also in 1927, 1932, 1934, 1955, 1975, and 1977). From the 1920s through the 1950s, the top section of Manhattan C.C. Championship was usually at the level of a strong International tournament. Kevitz also represented the Manhattan Club in the "Metropolitan Chess League".
Kevitz made his international debut at Bradley Beach 1929, with 4/9 for 8th place; world champion Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion. He is often considered one of the greatest chess players ever.By the age of twenty-two, he was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played...
won. Kevitz scored 7/11 at New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
1931 for 3rd place, as Capablanca won. In the 16th Marshall Chess Club
Marshall Chess Club
The Marshall Chess Club in New York City is one of the oldest chess clubs in the United States, located in Greenwich Village. The club was formed in 1915 by a group of players led by Frank Marshall. It is a non-profit organization.-History:...
Championship 1932, Kevitz scored 9/13 for 2nd place, behind Reuben Fine
Reuben Fine
Reuben Fine was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the early 1930s through the 1940s, an International Grandmaster, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology.Fine won five medals in three chess Olympiads. Fine won the U.S...
. In the 17th Marshall Chess Club Championship 1933-34, Kevitz scored 8/11, tied 2nd-3rd, again behind Fine. In the United States Chess Championship, New York 1936, Kevitz scored 7.5/15 for 8th place, as Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
won. In the team match, USA vs USSR at Moscow 1946, Kevitz made the best American result with 1.5/2 against Igor Bondarevsky
Igor Bondarevsky
Igor Zakharovich Bondarevsky was a Soviet Russian chess Grandmaster in both over-the-board and correspondence chess, an International Arbiter, trainer, and chess author...
. He drew both of his games against Borislav Milic
Borislav Milic
Borislav Milic was a Yugoslav Grandmaster of chess, and a chess writer, organizer, promoter, and administrator.-Introduction:...
in a 1950 radio match with Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
. He placed 13th at the U.S. Open
U.S. Open Chess Championship
The U.S. Open Championship is an open national chess championship that has been held in the United States annually since 1900.-History:Through 1938, the tournaments were organized by the Western Chess Association and its successor, the American Chess Federation .The United States Chess Federation ...
at Milwaukee 1953. Kevitz lost to Paul Keres
Paul Keres
Paul Keres , was an Estonian chess grandmaster, and a renowned chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s....
in a USA vs USSR team match at New York 1954, and he lost both his games against Alexander Kotov
Alexander Kotov
Alexander Alexandrovich Kotov was a Soviet chess grandmaster and author. He was a Soviet champion, a two-time world title Candidate, and a prolific chess author. Kotov served in high posts in the Soviet Chess Federation and most of his books were written during the period of Cold War between the...
in a USA vs USSR team match at Moscow 1955. In the Manhattan Chess Club
Manhattan Chess Club
The Manhattan Chess Club in Manhattan was the second-oldest chess club in the United States . The club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen players; membership later reached into the hundreds before the club ended its existence in 2002...
Championship, 1955–56, Kevitz scored 8.5/15 for 6-7th place, and defeated his student, Arthur Bisguier
Arthur Bisguier
Arthur Bernard Bisguier is an American chess Grandmaster, chess promoter, and writer. Bisguier won two U.S. Junior Championships , three U.S. Open Chess Championship titles , and the 1954 United States Chess Championship title. He played for the United States in five chess Olympiads...
, a future Grandmaster, who was then U.S. champion.
His peak chessmetrics
Chessmetrics
Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system.-Implementation:...
.com rating of 2578 was in November 1931, good for a tied 29th in the world. This is a strong International Master level, although he was never formally granted that title. On the first official United States Chess Federation
United States Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...
rating list, July 31, 1950, Kevitz ranked third at 2610, behind only Reuben Fine
Reuben Fine
Reuben Fine was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the early 1930s through the 1940s, an International Grandmaster, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology.Fine won five medals in three chess Olympiads. Fine won the U.S...
and Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
.
In his later years, Kevitz was active in correspondence chess
Correspondence chess
Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...
, often playing under the pseudonym 'Palmer Phar' (he worked at Palmer Pharmacy).
Theoretical contributions
Kevitz made important contributions to several chess openings. In the Reti OpeningRéti Opening
The Réti Opening is a hypermodern chess opening whose traditional or classic method begins with the moves:White plans to bring the d5-pawn under attack from the flank, or entice it to advance to d4 and undermine it later...
, he developed the line 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4. The variation of the Symmetrical English Opening
English Opening
In chess, the English Opening is the opening where White begins:A flank opening, it is the fourth most popular and, according to various databases, anywhere from one of the two most successful to the fourth most successful of White's twenty possible first moves. White begins the fight for the...
(A31) arising after 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d5 is often referred to as the Kevitz Gambit. In the English Opening
English Opening
In chess, the English Opening is the opening where White begins:A flank opening, it is the fourth most popular and, according to various databases, anywhere from one of the two most successful to the fourth most successful of White's twenty possible first moves. White begins the fight for the...
, Flohr-Mikenas variation (A18), the line 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 Nc6 is known as the Kevitz Variation. The variation 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 is sometimes called the Kevitz-Trajkovic Defence, alternatively the Black Knights' Tango
Black Knights' Tango
This ambitious move is playable but rarely seen. Black normally responds with 3...Ne5. Then after 4.e4 , Black struck back in the center with 4...Ng6 5.f4 e5 in the seminal game Sämisch-Torre, Moscow 1925. However, Orlov considers both Torre's fourth and fifth moves inferior...
or Mexican Defence. In the Nimzowitsch Defence, 1.e4 Nc6, the Kevitz Variation continues 2.d4 e5. In the 1940s, Kevitz analyzed a new idea in the Ruy Lopez
Ruy Lopez
The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, who made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del...
, Marshall Attack, after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.Bxd5 cxd5 13.d4 Bd6 14.Re3, which prepares 15.h3 in the event of 14...Qh4.
Kevitz was respected by his chess rivals as an original player, thinker, and analyst. He was active in tournament play until age 78 in 1980, the year before his death.