Isador (Isaac) Samuel Turover (July 1892 - October 1978) was a Belgian-American chess master.
Born in Belgium, he moved to the United States. He was a champion of Baltimore from 1918 to 1921, won the Washington D.C. championship in 1918 ahead of F.B. Walker and took 2nd, behind Vladimir Sournin, in the D.C. championship in 1920,[1] tied for 8-9th at Atlantic City 1921 (the Eighth American Chess Congress, Dawid Janowski won), tied for 4-5th at Bradley Beach 1928 (Abraham Kupchik won),[2] tied for 3rd-4th at Bradley Beach 1929 (Alexander Alekhine won),[3] took 8th at New York 1931 (José Raúl Capablanca won),[4] and took 10th at Ventnor City 1944 (Jacob Levin won).[5]
Turover settled in the Washington area and had a very successful lumber business. He married Bessie Levin and had three daughters: Sylvia, Naomi and Ruth. Turover became a director of the American Chess Foundation.[6] He is also known as a chess patron and philanthropist. He sponsored Bobby Fischer's attendance in the 1962 Stockholm Interzonal.[7] Throughout his life he offered cash prizes for brilliancies in chess games. For instance in 1930 Turover gave 500 lire brilliancy prize at the tournament in San Remo.[8] In 1974 he established the annual World Brilliancy Prize, the first winner was Michael Stean who received $1,000 for his win against Walter Browne at the 21st Chess Olympiad in Nice.[9]