Lansing State Journal Lansing, Michigan Sunday, March 15, 1964 - Page 49
Status Via Chess
Master Analyzes Old Game
THE PERSONALITY OF CHESS, by L. A. Horowitz and P. L. Rothenberg, MacMillan.
Chess, one of the most ancient and widely played games in the world, has become a status symbol in the United States. As the authors of this far-ranging book point out, it awes nonplayers and it pops up in advertisements for products to which it is supposed to lend tone. “Al” Horowitz, founder and publisher of Chess Review, newspaper columnist and probably the first American actually to make a living from chess, has written other books on the game, but none as comprehensive as this. In fact I know none that covers so much territory. It touches on such subjects as the origin of chess. its psychiatric overtones, chess is literature and as an art form leading American chess personalities—including Horowitz himself and the controversial young genius Bobby Fischer—chess humor, chess compared with other games, and of course selected problems, (Rothenberg's specialty) and classic games. It tells, among other things, what makes a good chess master—and Horowitz should know, since he was three times U.S. champion and an international tournament player. (I had my own finest hour as a chess player when Horowitz told me he would have to tighten up or lose a game he played with me; of course he tightened up.) Here's Horowitz' recipe: A fierce will to win, good memory, power of visualization, alertness, calmness under fire and ability to gauge an opponent. Is status worth all this?
—JOE WING
