 Kmoch in 1935 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Johann Joseph Kmoch |
| Born | (1894-07-25)July 25, 1894 |
| Died | February 13, 1973(1973-02-13) (aged 78) |
| Chess career | |
| Country | Austria Netherlands (1930s) United States (1947–1973) |
| Title | International Master (1950) International Arbiter (1951) |
Johann "Hans"Joseph Kmoch (July 25, 1894 – February 13, 1973) was anAustrian-Dutch-AmericanchessInternational Master (1950),International Arbiter (1951), and a chess journalist and author, for which he is best known.
Kmoch had most of his best competitive results between 1925 and 1931. He won atDebrecen 1925 with 10/13 over a field which had 12 of the world's top 56 players;chessmetrics.com rates this as a 2696 performance. AtBudapest 1926, he shared 3rd–5th places with 9/15 behind winnersErnst Gruenfeld andMario Monticelli. Kmoch shared 2nd–3rd places atKecskemét 1927 with 6/9 behind the winner,World Chess ChampionAlexander Alekhine. AtVienna 1928, Kmoch placed 6th with 8/13 asRichard Reti won. Then at theTrebitsch Memorial, Vienna 1928, Kmoch shared 3rd–6th places with 6/10, half a point behind Gruenfeld andSandor Takacs. AtBrno 1928, Kmoch placed 3rd with 6/9, with Reti andFriedrich Saemisch winning. Kmoch won atEbensee 1930 with 6/7, ahead ofErich Eliskases.
Kmoch representedAustria three times in chessOlympiads. His detailed results, according to olimpbase.org: atLondon 1927, he played board three and scored 6½/12 (+4−3=5); atHamburg 1930, he was on board one, and scored 8/14 (+6−4=4), as Austria placed fourth; then atPrague 1931, Kmoch was on board three and scored 9/15 (+4−1=10). Overall, he scored 23½/41 (+14−8=19), for 57.3 percent.
His last good tournament result was 2nd atBaarn 1941 with 5½/7, behindMax Euwe. Kmoch stopped playing competitively after this tournament to focus on chess writing and management of chess events.
Kmoch had written for the magazineWiener Schachzeitung from the early 1920s. HisDie Kunst der Verteidigung (The Art of Defence) was the first chess book devoted to this subject. In 1930, Kmoch updated the Bilguier openings handbook, and wrote the tournament book for theCarlsbad 1929 event.
In 1929 and 1934, Kmoch served asAlexander Alekhine's second in his world championship matches againstEfim Bogoljubow. Kmoch and his Jewish wife Trudy lived in theNetherlands from 1932 to 1947. Kmoch also served as Alekhine's second in the 1935 title match againstMax Euwe, and he wrote a book on the match. In 1941, he wrote a book on the best games ofAkiba Rubinstein.
AfterWorld War II ended, Kmoch and his wife moved to the United States, settling inNew York City. Kmoch served as the Secretary and manager of theManhattan Chess Club, and directed tournaments. He also wrote forChess Review, then one of the leading American chess magazines.
In 1956, he wrote his most famous book,Pawn Power in Chess (German:Die Kunst der Bauernführung), which is notorious for its use ofneologisms ("ram", "lever", "sweeper", "sealer", "quartgrip", "monochromy", etc.).[1]
Severalopenings lines are named after Kmoch.[2]
Bibliography