George Koltanowski, 1942

Back to Home Index

---

1942

Estimated 1942, George Koltanowski, Military Registration Card

---

George Koltanowski, 1960

Back to Home Index

---

1960

George Koltanowski, estimated 1960

---

George Koltanowski, 1938

Back to Home Index

---

September 17 1938

September 17, 1938, George Koltanowski, Canadian Border Pass

---

Georges Gustave Koltanowski, Blindfold Chess Champion and syndicated Chess Columnist

Celine Esther Koltanowski, wife of Georges Gustave Koltanowski

---

George Koltanowski, 1932

Back to Home Index

---

1932

The Daily Telegraph, London, Greater London, England

Koltanowski plays blindfold against 10 opponents at Whiteley's department store, in 1932.

---

George Koltanowski, 2005

Back to Home Index

---

April 13 2005

The Reporter, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Madame Liane C. Kuony (First wife of George Koltanowski)
Madame Liane C. Kuony, of Fond du Lac, Wis., passed away on Thursday, April 7, 2005.
Madame Kuony was the proprietor of the Postilion Restaurant, School of Culinary Arts and Studio of Interior Design. She was renowned for her unwavering high standards, sense of style and her ever-present hat. Madame Kuony's energetic spirit and passion for life, coupled with heartfelt appreciation for family, friends, students, artisans, nature and animals are how she will be most remembered. The pioneer of organic cooking, her commitment to educate all on the necessity of using only organic unadulterated foods was her life-long mission. Madame Kuony's dedication to assist the disadvantaged was evident through her contributions to the Broken Bread program, Salvation Army and the Fond du Lac Humane Society. A cherished mother, grandmother, teacher and friend to the community, this Wisconsin icon's sense of purpose will live on in the many lives she has touched.
Madame Kuony was born in Antwerp, Belgium. Having completed her schooling in Switzerland, where she majored in interior decorating and the culinary arts, she made her way to the United States in 1937. A merchandising position brought her to Milwaukee, where she met and married her late husband, John H. Kuony, Jr.
Appropriately, Madame Kuony fell in love with Fond du Lac, as it was reminiscent of the French countryside of her youth. She and her husband moved to the area in 1947 and opened an antique shop on Merrill Avenue, bringing a European flavor to the community.
Upon the purchase of the Darling home at South Park Avenue in 1949, Madame Kuony set her sights on and was successful in bringing unique dining experiences to the people of the community through the opening of the Postilion Restaurant. Other business ventures over the years included the Postilion line of gourmet prepared foods, condiments and compotes, in addition to the Four Winds Restaurant in Greenbush, Wis. Between 1980 and 1984, the Postilion expanded to include the Postilion II School of Culinary Art and supply shop along with the Great House Restaurant in Milwaukee, Wis.
Madame Kuony is survived by her two children, a daughter, Suzanne (Hilton) Smack of Santa Ana, Calif.; and a son, John (Jeanine) Kuony of Pleasanton, Calif. She was a grandmother to Jennifer (Jonathan) Senften of Santa Ana, Calif., and Stephen Casey of Tustin, Calif.; and a sister-in-law to Frank (Mary Jane) Kuony of Pleasanton, Calif.
She was preceded in death by her husband, John H. Kuony, Jr. Services: A private family service is being planned.
In lieu of flowers, memorials in Madame Kuony's name may be directed to: The Fond du Lac Humane Society, 173 W. Pioneer Road, Fond du Lac, Wis., 54935,
The Historic Third Ward Association, Milwaukee Public Market, The Madame Kuony Demonstration Kitchen, 219 N. Milwaukee St., Seventh Floor, Milwaukee, Wis. 53202, or
The Fond du Lac Area Foundation, 384 N. Main St, Fond du Lac, Wis. 54935.

---

George Koltanowski, 1947

Back to Home Index

---

September 26 1947

The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California, Friday, September 26, 1947

World Chess Ace Feature Here Today

CHESS, MEMORY CHAMP IN DESPAIR—George Koltanowski, recognized world's champion blindfold chess player and memory wizard, had difficulty concentrating on the game when attractive Misses Bora Laken (left) and Barbara Brown, Santa Rosa's own queen, helped with moves. Koltanowski will demonstrate his unique ability this evening at 8 o'clock in Native Sons' hall, Mendocino avenue. He will play eight games of chess simultaneously while blindfolded, aided only by an assistant calling competitive moves. (Staff Photo).

World Chess Champ Feature Here Today
More Neighboring Communities to Be Feted As Open House Goes Into Sixth Day
A man who has baffled psychologists with his memory and concentration wizardry will be featured here today as Santa Rosa's weeklong Open House program goes into its sixth day.
He is George Koltanowski, world's champion blindfold chess champion and memory expert, who will play eight chess games simultaneously against crack teams from Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Vallejo, Petaluma and San Rafael while blindfolded.
The unique demonstration will be staged tonight at 7:30 o'clock in Native Sons' Hall, Mendocino avenue, and will be open to the public free of charge.
Especially invited to today's festivities will be delegates from Sonoma, Sebastopol, Guerneville, Jenner and Bodega—city and community officials and their beauty queens, who will be honored at a noon program in the courthouse plaza.

Shows Continue
Also in progress will be the weeklong exhibits the art show in Native Sons' Hall, the major appliance exhibit at 507 Fourth street, where visitors are interviewed before a wire recorder and hear their own words played back to them immediately, the industrial exhibit at 524 Fourth street, where scores of articles from gloves to fine wines, made in Santa Rosa, are interestingly displayed.
Throngs of visitors from throughout the northbay streamed into this city yesterday as guests of Santa Rosa.

Open House Lauded
Biggest crowd of the week filled the courthouse plaza for noonday ceremonies, KSRO broadcast and the open-air show. They heard William Deiss, city councilman of Petaluma, who represented that city's Mayor Jasper S. Woodson, declare:
“This Open House Week is a fine gesture of community friendship which should be repeated, in other cities. We are all dependent upon one another and should know one another better. I should like to see events like this all over the country.”
Deiss escorted Miss Jacque Rupe, 18-year-old senior at Petaluma High School, who is “Miss Petaluma.” Mayor Obert Pedersen and Barbara Brown, “Miss Santa Rosa,” greeted them at the courthouse steps. “Queen Barbara” arrived in her victoria, with the color guard of the Sonoma County Driving and Riding Club as escort, and wearing her scarlet Spanish gown and mantilla.
The noonday ceremonies took place in the midst of the Farm Machinery Exhibit which lined the courthouse plaza with bright banners flying over approximately $200,000 worth of newest type tractors, cultivators, spray machines, deep-well and surface pumps, milkers and other agricultural equipment.

Chess Demonstration
In his chess demonstration tonight, Koltanowski will listen to each move of his opponents as announced by an official teller, and will order his own corresponding moves on each board all this while blindfolded.
He also will perform his sensational “Knight's Tour,” a seemingly impossible memory feat.
Playing against Koltanowski tonight on the Santa Rosa teams will be Judge B. C. Jenkins, Thomas Shoemaker, Walter Sherman, Glen Watson, John Boschen; Frank Schneider, Alan Kelly, Mrs. Barbara Summerville and John Vanderkwast.
Other teams playing tonight will be: Ukiah—Irving Brazier, Lloyd Bittenberger, Bill Bittenberger, Charles Bradford, V. Andrews; Petaluma—Harold Jaroske, Gus Wollman, Brand Johnson, Lionel Wolfson, A. Eisenstein; San Rafael—Bob Upham, Bob Allison, Allen Atkins, Bill Knowlton, Frank Sutherland, Wagner de Alessi, William Howe. Vallejo also will send a team.

---

George Koltanowski, 2000

Back to Home Index

---

February 08 2000

Thousand Oaks Star, Thousand Oaks, California, Tuesday, February 08, 2000

Chess Grandmaster, Columnist, Dies at 96
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Chess grandmaster George Koltanowski who wrote more than 19,000 columns on the game for the San Francisco Chronicle is dead. He was 96.
Koltanowski died Saturday in a San Francisco hospital after a brief illness.
Koltanowski's column ran every day without a break for 52 years, a feat the newspaper said makes it the longest-running daily chess column in newspaper history.
“Chess is an international language,” he once said. “Everyone in the world can understand it, appreciate it and enjoy it.”
In a career that spanned 10 decades Koltanowski was an international grandmaster, one of only 200 in the world and the former chess champion of his native Belgium.
Koltanowski learned the game while watching his father play his older brother taking up the game in earnest at the age of 14. Three years later he was Belgium's champion.
He served a short stint in the Belgian army. He immigrated to the United States after a chess-playing consul in Cuba enjoyed one of his demonstrations.
He met his wife, Leah, in New York City in 1944. The couple moved to the San Francisco Bay area in 1947.
Koltanowski was former president of the US Chess Federation.
Koltanowski is survived by his wife, four nieces and two nephews.
Plans for a memorial service in San Francisco are pending.

---

February 09 2000

The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, Wednesday, February 09, 2000

George Koltanowski; Chess Columnist
George Koltanowski, 96, San Francisco chess grandmaster who wrote the longest-running daily chess column in newspaper history. Known as “Kolti,” Koltanowski began his column in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1948 and continued it daily for more than 50 years, a total of more than 19,000 columns. “Chess is an international language,” he once said. “Everyone in the world can understand it, appreciate it and enjoy it.” The Belgian-born writer learned chess at an early age and took up the game in earnest at the age of 14. By 17, he was champion of his country. Koltanowski even credited chess for saving his life-explaining that when the Nazis invaded Belgium, he was on a chess tour in Central America. He came to the United States after an American consul in Cuba enjoyed one of his demonstrations. In 1960, the Chronicle sponsored an exhibition in which Koltanowski set a world's record by playing 56 opponents consecutively while blindfolded. Merely relying on his memory of the moves, he did not lose any of the games. His wife, Leah, however, once joked that he couldn't remember her requests to bring home so much as a loaf of bread from the supermarket. A national chess tournament was named for Koltanowski, and in 1994, players at the National Open in Las Vegas dubbed him a “National Chess Treasure.” He earned his title as international master in 1950 and honorary grandmaster in 1988. On Saturday in San Francisco.

---

February 13 2000

Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz, California, Sunday, February 13, 2000

George Koltanowksi, 96, wrote Chronicle chess column
The New York Times
George Koltanowski, an international chess master and author who excelled at beating opponents without looking at the board, died Feb. 5 in a hospital in San Francisco. He was 96.
Koltanowski, known as Kolti, won several chess titles in Europe in the 1920s and 30s but was best known for his skill at blindfold chess, in which a player never looks at the board but makes his moves after being told of his opponent's.
He sometimes used a blindfold for stage effect and often played against more than one nonblindfolded opponent at the same time. In 1937 he defeated 34 players simultaneously without looking at any of the boards, setting a world record. In 1960 he set another world record by defeating 56 opponents simultaneously while blindfolded.
Koltanowski attributed his skill at blindfold chess to memory games he played as a boy and to what he called “the gramophone” in his head. “I record everything I hear,” he told The San Francisco Chronicle, where he was chess columnist for the last 52 years. “I repeat the moves to myself, and they come back to me, like in football an instant replay.”
Koltanowski is survived by his wife, Leah, who never learned to play chess.

---

February 18 2000

The Daily Telegraph, London, Greater London, England, Friday, February 18, 2000

George Koltanowski
Chess Phenomenon who played 34 opponents at once blindfold without losing a game
Caption: Koltanowski plays blindfold against 10 opponents at Whiteley's department store, in 1932.
GEORGE “KOLTY” KOLTANOWSKI, the Grandmaster who has died aged 96, was famed for feats of blindfold chess.
Koltanowski was a phenomenon, more of a showman in the world of chess than a tournament player. On September 20, 1937, in Edinburgh he broke the world record for a blindfold simultaneous display. His feat stands to this day in The Guinness Book of Records. Over a period of nearly 14 hours he played 34 games winning 24 and drawing 10 without sight of the board.
The Guinness Book of Records later rejected rival claims by the Argentine Grandmaster Miguel Najdorf and the Hungarian Grandmaster Janos Flesch because they were not strictly monitored.
Koltanowski broke another world record in San Francisco in 1960 when he was already 57, by playing 56 opponents consecutively while blindfolded without defeat. It took nine and three quarter hours at a rate of only 10 seconds a move.
One of his celebrated memory feats was the “Knight's Tour.” In this astonishing trick information such as names and telephone numbers would be supplied by the audience and written in the 64 squares of a giant chessboard. In seconds Koltanowski would commit them all to memory.
While blindfolded he would then call out the intricate path required for a chess knight to make a series of L shaped hops around the board without revisiting the same square while recalling the scraps of information in order.
His wife was known to complain that although he could perform the Knight's Tour he could not be sent to the corner shop without forgetting what he was supposed to buy.
George Koltanowski was born in Antwerp on September 17 1903. His parents were Jews from Eastern Europe. In his book Chessnicdotes he says that he learned Flemish and French at school, implying that these languages were not spoken at home.
He learned to play chess at 14 by watching his father play his elder brother. Three years later, in 1923, he was champion of Belgium, a title he was to win again in 1927, 1930, and 1936.
He served briefly in the Belgian Army and while dutifully peeling potatoes would stave off boredom by solving chess problems in his head at the same time “Soldiers were going hungry” he recalled “as I peeled potatoes into smaller and smaller cubes.”
His international career started at the age of 21 in the international tournament at Meran in Italy where he drew against the great chess thinker Siegbert Tarrasch. His best performances in tournament play came in the 1930s. At Barcelona he tied in 1934 with Andor Lilienthal and Savielly Tartakower and in 1935 with Salo Flohr. He also drew with world champion Alexander Alekhine at Hastings 1936-7 and defeated Akiba Rubinstein at Antwerp in 1931.
Like many Jewish players, Koltanowski found himself stranded by the Nazi invasion. He emigrated to the United States while on a chess tour in Central America and later said that chess saved his life. He was admitted to the country only because a chess-playing consul in Cuba was amazed by his feats.
In the 1960s after a successful radio series, Koltanowski presented the first chess television programmes. Koltanowski on Chess was broadcast across America.
He had become an American citizen and served as President of the US Chess Federation during the boom that followed Bobby Fischer's victory over Boris Spassky in 1972. He was given the title “Dean of American Chess” and was one of first three to be inducted into the US Chess Federation Hall of Fame. In 1988 Fide the world chess federation made him an honorary Grandmaster on the basis of his pre-war results.
He was active in the chess world up to his death occasionally appearing at tournaments and writing a column in the San Francisco Chronicle. His work appeared there every day without interruption for 50 years in a total of 19,980 columns. It was the longest-running daily chess column in history. He wrote 18 books on chess in four languages.
He is survived by his wife Leah.

---

Jonathan Berry, 1974

Back to Home Index

---

June 29 1974

The Vancouver Sun, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Saturday, June 29, 1974

Jonathan Berry… regaining chess form. Original b/w photo, Brian Kent

Former chess master 'coming back' at 20
By Roger Smith
Two years Berry was ranked internationally as a chess master.
Under a complex system set up by the World Chess Federation, Berry had accumulated the 2,200 points necessary for that ranking. But then things began to slide.
“My last published rating wasn't at a master's level,” he said. “I had a period of regression when I played poorly.
“But now I'm coming back up to that level.”
At age 20, Berry has played chess for 12 years and was recently elected president of the B.C. Chess Federation, the youngest person ever to hold that position.
But he does not think it extraordinary that someone his age should hold the position, explaining that the majority of the federation's members are under 28 or over 50.
“Chess is both a young man's game and an old man's game — a young man's because he has the energy to play and an old man's because he has the time.”
Berry takes over the federation, a group of 250 to 300 tournament chess players, at a time when worldwide interest in chess is on the upswing, mainly due to the publicity surrounding the 1972 world championship match between Bobby Fischer of the U.S. and Boris Spassky of Russia.
“Publicity of any type will help,” he said, “and Fischer, even though he gave what I consider bad publicity to chess, made people want to play.” [Overly ambitious news reporters out for a quick buck from a sensational headline, spun via collaborations with Soviet machinery, really didn't need any help from Fischer to twist the narrative! Americans were pleased knowing Soviet arrogance was taken down a notch. Still are.]
The membership of the United States Chess Federation has increased sevenfold to 70,000 in the last six years, but Berry said a Harris poll revealed that more than 30 million Americans know how to play chess.
“In Russia, it's even bigger. There are probably over one million hard-core chess players, as well as two million school children who go to tournaments.”
A “hard-core” player, he explained, is one who plays regularly and competes in tournaments.
The Canadian federation has 1,200 members.
Berry, who has completed three years of a mathematics program at the University of B.C., took the past year off to compete in tournaments. He took an eight-week hitchhiking trip to Mexico, during which he captured the Mexican Open Championship and competed in a tournament for masters in California.
He is also one of the three players left in the Vancouver Closed Championship. The winner of the 24-match tourney will travel to the Canadian Open to be held in Montreal in July.
Berry refers to chess as a “sport,” describing the physical fitness and stamina needed to endure the pressure of a tournament. It has been estimated, he said, that a grandmaster, during a five-hour match, expends as much energy as a boxer during a fight.
Admitting many people don't enjoy the competitive, element in chess, Berry pointed out several other aspects of the game.
He spoke of people who do nothing but create and work on chess problems.
“They are the real artists. Once you understand the parameters of chess, you can understand the beauty in it.”
He said an Argentinean once played 45 games simultaneously while sitting on a stage, blindfolded, listening to announcements of his opponents' moves.
He said computers are poor chess players because they lack imagination.
“When you hear of someone beating a computer, he's probably only an average player.”
Berry plans to return to school in September, and says this will adversely affect his game.
“Doing any other intellectual pursuit hurts your chess because you drain intellectual energy and imagination.”
The B.C. federation hopes to sponsor a tournament next spring with up to 1,000 players from around the world. It will also sponsor 10 smaller tournaments and step up its campaign to promote chess in schools and clubs.

---

Jonathan Berry, 1990

Back to Home Index

---

October 04 1990

The Times, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada · Thursday, October 04, 1990

Checkmate!
Writer Proves King of the Board
By Christi Lapi
You'll never make a living playing chess.
That was the advice given Jonathan Berry by his father, as Berry was pondering such a future when he was a University of B. C. student.
Maybe his dad underestimated Berry's passion for the game.
“It's thoughtful. Imaginative. Precise. Beautiful,” says the Nanaimo resident. Beautiful, he says, like the movement and progression of music and mathematics.
“It's an art that requires a lot of technique. There are points where you can't just figure out what's going to happen. you have to use your intuition. There's an element of creativity.”
Berry, 37, hasn't made a living playing chess—exactly. He's made a living writing about chess, managing chess organizations, and building computer programs.
Since 1978 Berry has written a chess column for The Globe and Mail, which runs in the Saturday edition with a Nanaimo, B.C. placeline.
He also spent about nine years, until 1984, as business manager of Chess Federation of Canada. He was also chief editor of Canada's national chess magazine En Passant during most of that time.
But don't figure Berry as a fellow perpetually buried in books and computer programs. He's also a spokesperson for the Ladysmith Nanaimo Greens, a newly-formed chapter of the Green Party.
“The earth is a big pie, and you can only cut it so many ways,” says Berry.
He says the mainstream parties all support unlimited growth. “We can't afford it,” he says. “But the other parties are acting as though we can.”
Perhaps like eyeing a chess board, Berry tends to look at the larger picture. Take, for example, the inner route—and the Greens' call for an environmental assessment.
Can the environment, he asks, sustain more use of the automobile? Supplies of gasoline are finite and demand is increasing. Consider acid rain, toxic emissions, and greenhouse gases caused by automobile use. While public transport is a less expensive alternative, current renewable energy vehicles don't travel at highway speeds.
Has the automobile reached its peak? Check. Do we need a new highway? Checkmate.
And his lifestyle reflects his views. “I've always been a frugal person,” says Berry. “I don't drive a car and never have.”
But his chess work has taken him traveling. He won the 1974 Mexican Open, and the 1990 Paul Keres Memorial in Vancouver and B. C. Open in Victoria. In 1988 he was chief arbiter at world championship events in New Brunswick and Mexico.
But his main kudos come from correspondence chess, where players send their moves by mail. He's twice been Canadian champion and once North American champion.
Born in Chilliwack, Berry, the son of an army officer, was raised in Winnipeg, Ottawa and Vancouver.
When he was about eight years old his brother taught him chess. “We played a little bit, one a month,” says Berry. “I really got interested once I was in high school.”
One advantage of the game: “It was dry,” he said with a chuckle. “I'd been playing touch football, and it started to rain.
“I wandered into the chess club. It was all downhill from there.”
He continued his interest in chess while at UBC, taking a year off to play in chess tournaments in the Pacific Northwest.
“I broke even monetarily,” says Berry. “But it didn't seem to offer a lot of potential as a player.”
He graduated from UBC in 1975 with a degree in mathematics, and plenty of courses in creative writing, Russian and physics. He decided to teach English to Spanish-speaking people in Honduras, but changed his mind when he was offered a position as business manager of the chess federation.
In his nine years there, he built up the organization until it was secure and saw its membership grow.
But in 1984 the urge to travel hit again, and Berry headed off to visit his parents in Mexico, where they now live, and play in various chess tournaments.
He later became office manager for a small computer software company in Vancouver. It specialized in programs for monitoring the stock markets.
In 1987 he escorted a chess tour to the Soviet Union.
Also in 1987 Berry began to look for a home in an area less urban than Vancouver. He settled on Nanaimo, which he'd visited before at chess tournaments.
“I'd always liked Nanaimo,” he says. “And I could afford it. There's a bit too much traffic—but you never get anything that is perfect.”
Now he lives with an artist Lorraine Joyal, who enjoys pottery and bonsai. He continues his chess columns; contributes regularly to En Passant; and serves on the editorial board of Inside Chess, a magazine published in Seattle.
His passion for chess continues—and he's a patient man. A grandmaster of correspondence chess, he's competing in the finals of the XIII World Correspondence Championship. Even after nine months of play, it's too early to pick a winner out of the 17 hopefuls. Competition, he says, take about four years.

---

Jonathan Berry, 2006

Back to Home Index

---

April 22 2006

Harbour City Star, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, Saturday, April 22, 2006

Chess Master Plays 12 Games at Once
by Mark Corbett/The Star
Imagine the skill it would take to play 12 games of chess simultaneously. Sounds pretty tough, right? Now imagine doing it blindfolded.
Not only has Nanaimo chess grand master, Jonathan Berry, done just that, but he won 10 of those games to boot. Now before you ask “how can that be?” keep in mind the Master of Ceremonies called out his opponents' moves. Still, it would take an incredible amount of cognitive thinking to keep track of 384 chess pieces without the aid of sight.
Berry, who has won the Mexican Open, the B. C. Chess Championships and the North American Correspondents Championships, says his feat actually tied a world record for anyone 50 years or older.
“To become good at chess, you need to be able to recognize and recall patterns, as well as have patience, perseverance and logical thinking,” said Berry. “And when you play 12 games at once you have to think 12 times as fast as your opponents.”
Berry, who has been playing chess since he was eight years old and writing about it for the last 26 years for the Globe and Mail, won't get blindfolded for his upcoming Chess Fest at Port Place Shopping Centre on the weekend of April 28, but he is planning to take on all challengers and will play up to 12 games simultaneously on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
With an average of 40 per game, he'll have to make nearly 500 moves in total.
Besides playing chess against a dozen opponents at the same time, Berry will be giving a lecture to elementary students on chess strategy on Friday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to noon in the food court area of the mall. Following the lecture, Berry will then supervise the kids and provide feedback as they play some chess on their own.
Invented more than 1,400 years ago, most likely in Central Asia, chess is still popular as ever with children, says Berry. So far, 30 students have signed up for his Chess Fest.
Pre-registration and more information is available at the Port Place administration office, and a $5 donation, to be given to Literacy Nanaimo, will be accepted from each of Berry's challengers and then matched by the mall.

---