Jewish Chess Players

JINFO.ORG

GM = Grandmaster (same as the former title IGM: International Grandmaster)
WGM = Women's Grandmaster

SHORT LIST
Semyon Alapin Yuri Averbakh Alexander Belyavsky Ossip Bernstein Arthur Bisguier Isaak Boleslavsky Mikhail Botvinnik David Bronstein Rudolph Charousek Reuben Fine Robert (Bobby) Fischer⁷ Salo Flohr Semyon Furman Boris Gelfand Efim Geller Isidor Gunsberg David Janowski Garry Kasparov ⁹ Ignatz von Kolisch George Koltanowski Viktor Korchnoi¹⁰	Emanuel Lasker Andrei Lilienthal Miguel Najdorf Ian Nepomniachtchi Aron Nimzowitsch Judit Polgar Lev Polugaevsky Samuel Reshevsky Richard Réti Akiba Rubinstein Vasily Smyslov ¹² Rudolf Spielmann Leonid Stein Wilhelm Steinitz Peter Svidler László Szabó Mark Taimanov Mikhail Tal Siegbert Tarrasch Saviely Tartakover Simon Winawer Johannes Zukertort
LONG LIST
Gerald Abrahams¹ Yochanan Afek¹⁷ [GM/Composition] Semyon Alapin^{1, 5, 6} Lev Alburt^{2, 3} [GM] Aaron (Albert) Alexandre^{1, 5} Boris Alterman¹⁷ [GM] Levon Aronian²² [GM] Lev Aronin^{2, 4} Yuri Averbakh^{1, 2, 4} [GM] Boris Avrukh¹⁷ [GM] Valery Beim¹⁷ [GM] Alexander Belyavsky² [GM] Joel Benjamin^{3, 13} [GM] Hans Berliner¹³ Ossip Bernstein^{1, 2, 4, 6} [GM] Arthur Bisguier^{3, 4} [GM] Benjamin Blumenfeld² Mark Bluvshtein¹⁷ [GM] Jacobo Bolbochan⁴ Julio Bolbochan⁴ [GM] Isaak Boleslavsky^{2, 4, 6} [GM] Mikhail Botvinnik^{1, 2, 4, 6} [GM] Julius (Gyula) Breyer¹ Vladimir Bron^{1, 2, 4} David Bronstein^{1, 2, 4} [GM] Victor Buerger¹ Avigdor Bykhovsky² [GM] Horatio Caro²³ Rudolph Charousek^{1, 4, 5} Vitali Chekhover² Irving Chernev³ Erich Cohn¹ Wilhelm Cohn⁵ Moshe Czerniak^{1, 4} Arnold Denker^{1, 4, 6} [GM] Nathan Divinsky⁶ Maxim Dlugy^{2, 3} [GM] Iosif Dorfman² [GM] Arthur Dunkelblum^{1, 4} Semyon Dvoiris² [GM] Mark Dvoretsky² Roman Dzindzichashvili² [GM] Vereslav Eingorn² [GM] Berthold Englisch^{1, 4, 5} Esther Epstein² Sergey Erenburg¹⁷ [GM] Yakov Estrin² [GM] Larry Evans^{3, 4} [GM] Ernst Falkbeer^{1, 5} Stephan Fazekas^{1, 4} Reuben Fine^{1, 3, 4, 6} [GM] Alexander Finkel¹⁷ [GM] Robert (Bobby) Fischer^{7, 1, 3, 4, 6} [GM] Salo Flohr^{1, 2, 4, 6} [GM] Paulino Frydman^{1, 4} Semyon Furman^{2, 4} [GM] Boris Gelfand² [GM] Efim Geller^{1, 2, 4, 6} [GM] Erno Gereben¹ Alik Gershon¹⁷ [GM] Leonid Gofshtein¹⁷ [GM] Alexander Goldin² [GM] Vitali Golod¹⁷ [GM] Harry Golombek¹ Alon Greenfeld¹⁷ [GM] Gisela Gresser⁴ Yehuda Gruenfeld¹⁷ [GM] Eduard Gufeld^{2, 4} [GM] Boris Gulko^{2, 3} [GM] Isidor Gunsberg^{1, 4, 6} Dmitry Gurevich² [GM] Ilya Gurevich² [GM] Mikhail Gurevich² [GM] Abram Gurvich¹ Lev Gutman² [GM] Vitaly Halberstadt² Daniel Harrwitz^{1, 4, 5} William Hartston⁴ Ronen Har-Zvi¹⁷ [GM] Leopold Hoffer^{1, 5} Israel (I. A.) Horowitz^{1, 4} Bernhard Horwitz^{1, 5} Alexander Huzman¹⁷ [GM] David Janowski^{1, 4, 5, 6} Max Judd⁸ Gregory Kaidanov² [GM] Ilya Kan^{1, 2, 4} Boris Kantsler¹⁷ [GM] Julio Kaplan^{1, 4} [GM] Isaac Kashdan^{1, 3, 4, 6} [GM] Garry Kasparov^{9, 2, 3, 6} [GM] Alexander Khalifman² [GM] Ernest Klein¹ Gyula Kluger⁴ Artur Kogan¹⁷ [GM] Ignatz von Kolisch^{1, 4, 5, 6} George Koltanowski^{1, 4} [GM] Imre König^{1, 4} Viktor Korchnoi^{10, 1, 2, 4, 6} [GM] Yona Kosashvili¹⁷ [GM] Boris Kostić¹ [GM] Yair Kraidman¹⁷[GM] Michal Krasenkow²⁴ [GM] Sergey Kudrin² [GM]	Abraham Kupchik^{1, 6} Alla Kushnir^{2, 4, 6} [WGM] Salo Landau^{1, 6} Edward Lasker^{1, 4} Emanuel Lasker^{1, 3, 4, 5, 6} [GM] Anatoly Lein^{2, 4} [GM] Konstantin Lerner² [GM] Ronen Lev¹⁷ [GM] Grigory Levenfish^{1, 2, 4, 6} [GM] Irina Levitina^{2, 4, 6} [WGM] Vladimir Liberzon^{2, 4} [GM] Andrei Lilienthal^{1, 2, 4} [GM] Samuel Lipschütz⁵ Eran Liss¹⁷ [GM] Johann Löwenthal^{1, 4, 5} Moshe Lowtzky⁶ Ilan Manor¹⁷ [GM] Jonathan Mestel¹⁴ [GM] Victor Michalevski¹⁷ [GM] Jacques Mieses^{1, 4, 5} [GM] Vadim Milov¹⁸ [GM] Jacob Murey¹⁷ [GM] Miguel Najdorf^{1, 4, 6} [GM] Ian Nepomniachtchi ²⁵ [GM] Aron Nimzowitsch^{1, 2, 4, 6} Michael Oratovsky¹⁷ [GM] Sam (Semion) Palatnik² [GM] Julius Perlis Nikita Plaksin² Ernest Pogosyants² Judit Polgar⁶ [GM] Sofia Polgar⁶ [WGM] Susan Polgar⁶ [GM] Lev Polugaevsky^{2, 4, 5, 6} [GM] Moritz Porges⁵ Evgeny Postny¹⁷ [GM] David Przepiórka⁶ Lev Psakhis^{2, 17} [GM] Abram Rabinovich² Ilya Rabinovich² Teimour Radjabov²⁰ [GM] Naum (Nukhim) Rashkovsky² [GM] Gad Rechlis¹⁷ [GM] Fred Reinfeld^{1, 3} Samuel Reshevsky^{1, 2, 3, 4, 6} [GM] Richard Réti^{1, 4, 6} Isaac Rice^{1, 5, 11} Maxim Rodshtein¹⁷ [GM] Kenneth Rogoff [GM] Michael Rohde³ [GM] Michael Roiz¹⁷ [GM] Samuel Rosenthal⁵ Georg (Gersh) Rotlewi² Eduardus Rozentalis² [GM] Akiba Rubinstein^{1, 2, 4, 6} [GM] Efim Rukhlis² Georg Salwe^{2, 6} Emanuel Schiffers⁵ Gabriel Schwartzman [GM] Samuel Schweber^{1, 4} Grigory Serper² [GM] Tal Shaked [GM] Leonid Shamkovich² [GM] Miron Sher² [GM] Alexandr Shneider² [GM] Eliahu Shvidler¹⁷ Jeremy Silman Ilya Smirin^{2, 17} [GM] Vasily Smyslov^{12, 1, 4, 6} [GM] Ram Soffer¹⁷ [GM] Gennady Sosonko² [GM] Jonathan Speelman¹⁴ [GM] Rudolf Spielmann^{1, 4} Michael Stean¹⁴ [GM] Leonid Stein^{1, 2, 4, 6} [GM] Endre Steiner¹⁵ Herman Steiner^{1, 4} Lajos Steiner^{1, 4} Wilhelm Steinitz^{1, 3, 4, 5, 6} Emil Sutovsky¹⁷ [GM] Peter Svidler ² [GM] László Szabó^{1, 19} [GM] Mark Taimanov^{1, 2, 4, 6} [GM] Mikhail Tal^{1, 2, 4, 6} [GM] James Tarjan²¹ [GM] Siegbert Tarrasch^{1, 4, 5, 6} [GM] Saviely Tartakover^{1, 2, 4, 5, 6} [GM] Mark Tseitlin¹⁷ [GM] Mikhail Tseitlin² [GM] Anatoly Vaisser² [GM] Boris Verlinsky² Vladimir Vuković^{1, 4} Max Weiss^{1, 5} Michael Wilder³ [GM] Simon Winawer^{1, 2, 4, 5, 6} Heinrich Wolf⁶ Daniel Yanofsky^{1, 4} [GM] Leonid Yudasin^{2, 17} [GM] Mikhail Yudovich^{1, 2, 4} Gennady Zaichik² [GM] Dov Zifroni¹⁷ [GM] Yaacov Zilberman¹⁷ [GM] Dan Zoler¹⁷ Johannes Zukertort^{16, 1, 4, 5, 6}
NOTES 1. *See Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 5 (Keter, Jerusalem, 1972, pp. 401-410).* 2. See http://www.jewishgen.org/Belarus/rje_a.htm. 3. See Jewish-American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia, edited by Jack Fischel and Sanford Pinsker (Garland, New York, NY, 1992, pp. 83-85). 4. *See The Jewish Lists, by Martin Greenberg (Schocken, New York, 1979, pp. 210-214).* 5. See The Jewish Encyclopedia (Funk and Wagnalls, New York and London, 1903, pp. 16-21). 6. See Jewish Chess Masters on Stamps, by Felix Berkovich (McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2000). 7. According to recently unsealed FBI files and other independent archival sources, Bobby Fischer's biological father was not the German physicist Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, as previously supposed, but rather the Hungarian-Jewish fluid dynamicist Paul Nemenyi, making both of his parents Jewish. See "Life is not a Board Game," by Peter Nicholas and Clea Benson, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 8 February, 2003. Additional information can be found in Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Exraordinary Chess Match of All Time, by David Edmonds and John Eidinow (HarperCollins, New York, 2004, pp. 313-321). This reference, incidentally, states (p. 39) that Boris Spassky told its authors that there is "no truth" to the widely reported claim that his mother was Jewish. 8. See The Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography: Volume One, edited by Jacob Rader Marcus and Judith M. Daniels (Carlson Publishing, Brooklyn, NY, 1994, p. 304). 9. Jewish father, non-Jewish mother. 10. "Of mainly Jewish descent"; see The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, edited by Gershon David Hundert (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2008, Vol. 1, p. 316). 11. See The Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography: Volume Two, edited by Jacob Rader Marcus and Judith M. Daniels (Carlson Publishing, Brooklyn, NY, 1994, p. 513). 12. Jewish mother, non-Jewish father. It should be noted that there is considerable controversy over this claim. It should also be noted that in the late 1970s, when Viktor Korchnoi defected from the USSR and leveled charges of rampant anti-Semitism in the Soviet chess establishment, Soviet government newspapers, in an apparent effort to counter those charges, published lists of Soviet Jewish chess luminaries whose successful careers, it was claimed, proved the absence of any such bias. Those lists of Jewish, or partly Jewish, players included Vasily Smyslov. (They did not include Boris Spassky.) 13. JEWHOO.com. 14. Jewish Chronicle (London, 16 August 1985, p.1). 15. Brother of Lajos Steiner. 16. There are many conflicting stories in circulation concerning Johannes Zukertort's background. A Polish language biography, Arcymistrz z Lublina (Grandmaster from Lublin: Truth and Legend about Johannes Hermann Zukertort), by Cezary Domanski and Tomasz Lissowski (Wydawnictwo Szachowe "Penelopa," Warsaw, 2002), makes it clear, however, that Zukertort was the product of an apostate Polish-Jewish family. Zukertort’s father, Jakub (or Yankel) Ezechil Cukertordt (or Cukiertort), was a missionary in the employ of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, according to William Thomas Gidney's history of the Society. Domanski and Lissowski report on p. 16 of their book that Jakub Cukiertort converted from Judaism to Christianity on August 28, 1831. JRI-Poland (Jewish Records Indexing – Poland) contains a record of the 1833 divorce of Jakub Ezechil Cukertordt and his first wife, Etla (or Etty) Cukertordt (née Margules or Margulis). Etla has been mistakenly identified as the mother of Johannes, who was born nearly a decade after her divorce from Zukertort's father. Domanski and Lissowski report on pp. 19-20 that shortly after the divorce, Jakub married another convert, Pauline Heilbronn, who would become Johannes’ mother. The Baroness Krzyzanowska as Zukertort's supposed mother is pure fantasy. 17. Israeli. 18. Former Israeli GM, presently Swiss. 19. See Ismerjük''oket?: zsidó származású nevezetes magyarok arcképcsarnoka, by István Reményi Gyenes (Ex Libris, Budapest, 1997, p. 192). 20. Jewish father (Boris Sheinin), non-Jewish mother. 21. Son of Dr. George Tarjan, 112th President of the American Psychiatric Association, who "was raised in an intellectual, liberal Jewish family" in Hungary, where his parents and younger brother Endre perished in the Holocaust; see obituary in the American Journal of Psychiatry (150:5, May 1993, pp. 691-694). 22. Jewish father (Grigory Aronov), non-Jewish mother. 23. Buried in East Ham Jewish Cemetery; see http://www.theus.org.uk/gravesearch. *24. See Learn from Michal Krasenkow, by Michal Krasenkow (Thinkers Publishing, Belgium, 2019, pp. 9, 12).* *25. See 2021 article in the Guardian: "Nepomniachtchi sets up World Chess Championship date with Carlsen."*