Isaac Kashdan

The Little Capablanca

Isaac Kashdan's chess playing skill and organizational achievements made him a major player on the United States chess scene from the 1920s to the 1980s.

Kashdan was born in New York City on November 19, 1905. He attended New York public schools and the City College of New York. At a chess problem solving contest held at the New York 1924 tournament, young Kashdan finished first ahead of Alexander Alekhine and other chess stars. "Kash" would become the first world-class grandmaster to develop in the United States after Frank Marshall.

Grandmaster Kashdan is one of those players in chess history's "what might have been" category. In the early 1930s Kashdan was known as the top U.S. player and a likely World Champion challenger. However, Kashdan gave up serious chess due to financial considerations. He turned to earn a living as an insurance agent and administrator in order to support his family.

Kashdan maintained his ties to chess by organizing and directing tournaments, and editing the chess column for the prestigious Los Angeles Times from 1955 until 1982. Some of the events organized/directed by Kashdan included the 1961 Fischer v. Reshevsky match, the two famous Piatgiorsky Cup tournaments, the 1978 U.S. Championship and two U.S. Opens.

Kashdan also organized and directed an innovative series of eleven Lone Pine tournaments, in the tiny Sierra mountain town that was the home of the sponsor, millionaire inventor and postal chess enthusiast Louis Statham. As the series grew in fame, the entry requirements had to be raised every year. Many of the world's best players made the trek to the tiny California hamlet of Lone Pine, where they tested themselves against the best young American players. This historic series had great international significance, as it showed that it was practical for the world's top grandmasters to participate in Swiss System tournaments, and served as models for many of the big money events of today.

In 1933, Kashdan had also founded Chess Review magazine and wrote a book on that year's Folkestone Olympiad. Kashdan was justifiably proud of his participation on the U.S. Chess Olympic teams in 1928, 1930, 1931, 1933, and 1937. Kashdan was a key contributor to the U.S. teams that dominated the world's best.

FIDE awarded the International Master title to Kashdan in 1950, International Grandmaster title in 1954, and International Arbiter title in 1960. In 1982 Kashdan suffered a stroke. Despite failing eyesight and confinement to a wheelchair, he continued to follow news of the chess world. After a long illness, Kashdan passed away at his West Los Angeles home on February 20, 1985 at the age of 79. Kashdan was survived by his wife Helen and a son Richard. In 1986, Kashdan was deservingly named an Inaugural Member of the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

Other Views of Kashdan

The United States deserved their win (at the 1931 Prague Olympics.) It was a great advantage having a player at Board 1 who could hold his own with anyone. Kashdan will henceforth be reckoned among the world's greatest masters.

--The British Chess Magazine, September, 1931

 

It has never been a disgrace to lose to Kashdan.

--IGM Arnold Denker, If You Must Play Chess, 1947

 

There was no question in anybody's mind that had he played a match with Marshall in 1931 or 1932 Kash would have won the title of U.S. Champion; but those were depression years and it could not be arranged. Kashdan's superiority, however, was recognized in that he was placed on first board in the team tournaments.

--IGM Reuben Fine, The World's Great Chess Games, 1951

 

Kashdan was always a cautious player and he was considered the leading American expert on the ending.

--IGM Reuben Fine, A Passion For Chess, 1958

 

Kashdan was a gifted positional player who had a notorious fondness for gaining the two bishops. Kashdan's ability to extract victories from seemingly even positions earned him, in Europe, the nickname der kleine Capablanca (the little Capablanca.)

--Fred Wilson, A Picture History of Chess, 1981

 

Kashdan was a giant of the chess world, a man with important accomplishments in every phase of the game. He was a kind and considerate man, always well-mannered, who commanded respect.

--IM Jack Peters, Los Angeles Times, 1985

 

During the international tournament at Hastings 1931, Sir Umar Hayat Kahn hosted a banquet for the visiting masters. During the festivities, the patron of the famous Indian master Sultan Kahn offered to buy Kashdan's wife, Helen, for his harem. A struggling chess master doubtless could have used the money, but Kashdan declined.

--NM Macon Shibut, The U.S. Chess Hall of Fame

 

Around the early 1930s Alekhine remarked that Kashdan might be the next world champion.

--Hooper and Whyld, The Oxford Companion to Chess, 1992

 

Kashdan once appeared on Groucho Marx's "You Bet Your Life" and Groucho called him "Mr. Ash Can" throughout the show. ... In the 1930s the Mexican government offered all foreign chess masters appointments as chess instructors in the Army ... Reuben Fine and Kashdan were made Lieutenants. The First Interzonal tournament was held in Saltsjobanden, Sweden in 1948, but Kashdan felt the $1,000 that the USCF raised would not cover his expenses.

--Bill Wall

On behalf of all lovers of American chess, I thank the generous anonymous fan of Isaac Kashdan who contributed most of the material in this section.