- Kenneth Harkness
Kenneth Harkness (byname of Stanley Edgar [Chess Life, March 5, 1955, page 4] [Shady Side: The Life and Crimes of Norman Tweed Whitaker, Chess Master, page 232, ISBN 0939433575] ;
November 12 ,1896 -October 4 ,1972 ) was achess organizer.He was born in
Glasgow ,Scotland . He was Business Manager of theUnited States Chess Federation from 1952 to 1959. He was also the editor of "Chess Review ", which merged into "Chess Life ".He had lived in
Boca Raton ,Florida . He became anInternational Arbiter in 1972. He was a member of theFIDE Permanent Rules Commission.Harkness was responsible for bringing
Swiss system tournament s to the United States, and also introduced the Harkness rating system, which was a precursor to theElo rating system. One method of tiebreaks in Swiss systems, where players tied on points are ranked by the sum of the opponents scores minus the top score and the bottom score, is named after him. For his services, Harkness is in the U.S. ChessHall of Fame .Harkness co-authored a book, "An Invitation to Chess" with
Irving Chernev , as well as being responsible for a number of the first American chess rulebooks.Kenneth Harkness died on a train in Yugoslavia, where he was on his way to
Skopje to be an arbiter at theChess Olympiad .Books
* Citation
surname1=Harkness|given1=Kenneth
title=The Official Blue Book and Encyclopedia of Chess
year=1956
* Citation
surname1=Harkness|given1=Kenneth
title=Official Chess Handbook
year=1967
publisher=McKay
* Citation
surname1=Harkness|given1=Kenneth
title=An Invitation to Chess
year=1945
publisher=McKay
* Citation
surname1=Harkness|given1=Kenneth
title=Official Chess Rulebook
year=1970
publisher=McKay
* Citation
surname1=Harkness|given1=Kenneth
title=Invitation to Bridge
year=1950
publisher=McKayReferences
External links
* [http://www.excaliburelectronics.com/bio_harkness.html bio]
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