Cassel, Hartwig

Journalist and chess editor; born Nov. 2, 1850, at Konitz, West Prussia, where his father, Dr. Aaron Cassel, was rabbi. He was educated at the Real-Gymnasium in Landsberg on-the-Warta, and in 1879 went to England, where he began his journalistic career as the chess editor of the "Observer-Budget," Bradford, Yorkshire. He wrote chess articles for the metropolitan and provincial English papers, organized the Yorkshire County Chess Club, arranged the Blackburne-Günsberg match at Bradford (1887) and the InternationalChess Masters' Tournament in 1888 at the same city. Cassel left England in 1889, and went to Havana for an English and New York newspaper syndicate to report the Tchigorin-Günsberg match. In 1890 he became chess editor of the New York papers, "The Sun" and the "Staats-Zeitung" (which appointments, he still holds), and since then has contributed chess articles to most of the metropolitan journals. He was instrumental in establishing the "Staats-Zeitung" and Rice trophies, and arranged, among other important contests, the first cable chess match between the Manhattan and British chess clubs. He is the inventor of a chess cable code.

S. A. P.