Bernhard Horwitz

Bernhard Horwitz (* 10 May 1807 in Neustrelitz as Benjamin Horwitz; † 29 August 1885 in London) was a German-British chess master and significant endgame study composer.

Horwitz was of Jewish descent. He later changed his first name from Benjamin to Bernhard. He studied painting at the Academy of Art in Berlin from 1836 to 1839 and was a member of the Berlin chess school, the Pleiades, during this time.

The term "Horwitz bishop" stands for two bishops standing on neighbouring diagonals, both aiming for the opponent's king position. Aaron Nimzowitsch used this term in his book "My System".

Chess player
In 1839, Horwitz moved to Hamburg, then to England in 1845 to further his education in his artistic profession. There he became a British citizen and became actively involved in chess. He played competitions with the best players there, including Howard Staunton (1846, 7:14 with 3 draws), Lionel Kieseritzky (1846, 4:7 with 1 draw), Daniel Harrwitz (1846, 4:6 with 1 draw and 1849, 6:7 with 2 draws), Henry E. Bird (1851, 7:3 with 4 draws),Johann Jacob Löwenthal (1852, 1:4), Ignaz von Kolisch (1860, 1:3).

In 1851 he took part in the first international tournament in London, where he came 7th. He defeated Bird 2.5:1.5 in the first round, but then lost to Staunton 2.5:4.5.

Horwitzen's best historical Elo rating was 2579, which he achieved in October 1846. At times he was ranked third in the world.

Chess composer
However, his main merit in chess lies far more in his analytical work as a composer of exercises and studies. He won the first study composition tournament in history, which was organised by Löwenthal.

In 1851, together with Josef Kling, he published a collection of 208 endgames, Chess Studies: These are mainly joint works. This work, published in 1884 after Kling's death by Horwitz as Chess Studies and End-Games, became the basis of modern endgame theory. Both authors are also regarded as the founders of modern endgame studies.

Horwitz composed over 200 studies under his own name from 1855 onwards, which he published in journals such as Westminster Papers, The City of London Chess Magazine and The Chess Monthly.

Works
Kling, Horwitz: Chess studies; or endings of games. London 1851
Literature
Jan van Reek: Bernhard Horwitz. Stichting Eindspel, Margraten 1996. ISBN 90-74827-19-5.
Mario Ziegler: The London 1851 chess tournament, St. Ingbert 2013, ISBN 978-3-944158-00-6, pp. 68-72.
Weblinks
Literature about Bernhard Horwitz in the Landesbibliographie MV
Compositions by Bernhard Horwitz on the Schwalbe PDB server
Individual references
 Aaron Nimzowitsch: My system. Hardback edition, Hamburg 1965, p. 226 (first edition Berlin 1925)

Source: Germain Wikipedia