Moshe Czerniak

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moshe Czerniak (3 February 1910 at Warsaw, Poland – 31 August 1984 at Tel Aviv, Israel) was an Israeli chess master.

[edit] Biography

In 1930 Moshe Czerniak took 9th at Warsaw. The event was won by Paulino Frydman. In 1934 Czerniak emigrated from Poland to Palestine. He was Palestinian Champion in 1936 and 1938. In June 1939, he became the champion of Jerusalem. Czerniak played for his adopted country at first reserve board in the 6th Chess Olympiad at Warsaw 1935 (+6 =2 −5), and at first board in the 8th Olympiad at Buenos Aires 1939 (+4 =2 −10).

In September 1939, when WW II was broke out, Czerniak, along with many other participants of the 8th Chess Olympiad (Najdorf, Stahlberg, Frydman, Eliskases, Michel, Engels, Becker, Reinhardt, Pelikan, Skalička, Luckis, Feigins, Raud, Rauch, Winz, Gromer, Sulik, Seitz, de Ronde, Kleinstein, Sonja Graf, etc.) had decided to stay permanently in Argentina. Immediately after the 8th Olympiad, in September 1939, he tied for 3rd–4th with Gideon Stahlberg, behind Miguel Najdorf and Paul Keres at Buenos Aires (Circulo). In 1941, he won at Kilmes. In 1941, he took 2nd, behind Paulino Frydman at Buenos Aires. In 1941, he tied for 6th–8th at Mar del Plata. In 1943, he took 2nd, behind Najdorf, at Rosario. In 1943, he took 3rd at Buenos Aires. In 1944, he won at Buenos Aires. In 1948, he won at Buenos Aires. In 1949, he took 4th at Mar del Plata. In 1950, he tied for 9th–11th at Mar del Plata.

In 1950 Czerniak settled in Israel. In 1951, he won at Vienna (4th Schlechter Memorial). In 1951, he won at Reggio Emilia. In 1955, he won Israeli Championship. In 1958, he took 2nd, behind Jan Hein Donner, at Beverwijk. In 1961, he tied for 1st–3rd with Milan Matulović and Petar Trifunović at Netanya. In 1962, he tied for 1st–2nd with Tan at Amsterdam (2nd IBM Tournament). In 1963, he tied for 2nd–3rd with Donner, behind Lajos Portisch, at Amsterdam (3rd IBM). In 1963, he took 2nd, behind Padevsky, at Polanica Zdrój (Rubinstein Memorial). In 1964, he tied for 4th–9th at Polanica Zdrój. In 1965, he won at Netanya. In 1966, he tied for 7th–8th at Tel Aviv. In 1968, he tied for 2nd–3rd with Yanofsky, behind Robert Fischer, at Netanya.

He played for Israel in nine Chess Olympiads: 1952, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1966, 1968, and 1974. Czerniak won the championship of Israel in 1974 at the age of 64.

Awarded the IM title in 1952.

Wrote many chess books in three languages. In 1956 he founded the first Israeli chess magazine "64 squares" . For more then 30 years he was the editor of the Israeli daily "Haaretz".

In 1976 he got a special award from the Israeli education ministry for his life long contribution to the education of chess.

The yearly chess festival in Tel-Aviv is named on him