TV Chess George Koltanowski

This is a booklet prepared in connection with a TV chess series by chess grandmaster George Koltanowski. The show appeared on KQED, virtual channel 9 (UHF digital channel 30), a Public Broadcasting Service member television station licensed to San Francisco, California, and serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned by Northern California Public Broadcasting, through subsidiary, Inc., alongside fellow PBS station KQEH (channel 54) and NPR member radio station KQED-FM (88.5). George Koltanowski was the greatest chess promoter the world has ever known. He made his living constantly touring, principally giving blindfold chess exhibitions. He also self-published books which he sold at these chess exhibitions. He organized the Chess Friends of Northern California which held chess tournaments and league matches. He introduced the Swiss System for holding chess tournaments in the United States which is now universally accepted. He directed every US Open Chess Championship starting in 1946 in Corpus Christi, Texas and continuing until the late 1970s. He got into America during the war years when he was giving simultaneous blindfold chess exhibitions in Guatemala and Cuba. The United States Consulate saw him giving one of these chess exhibitions and decided to give him a visa to come to the United States, which was otherwise difficult to get as the famous movie "Casablanca" demonstrates. He met his wife Leah on a blind date in 1949, an ironic fact since he was famous for his blindfold chess exhibitions. Regarding his blindfold chess, she said, "I do not know how he does it. He cannot even remember to buy a loaf of bread at the supermarket." He wrote a book on the Colle System that he had learned from his mentor, Edgar Colle, who had died in 1932. He also wrote "Adventures of a Chess Master" ISBN 4871878864 and "Checkmate The Patterns of Winning Mating Attacks and How to Achieve Them"; ISBN 4871871703. Both of these books were co-authored by Dr Milton Finkelstein, director of the New York city public school system.